T Nation

The End of My TRT Journey

T Replacement
#1

Well I tried it and gave everything a good shot. I have to say the positive effects I got from any of these methods were not worth the cost or hassle associated with it all.

Symptoms:

Male, 5’11 - 205LBS. I used to lift weights 3-5x a week and was horny all the time. Now my energy levels are barely there to even want to go to the gym and crush a workout. For the last two years or so I’ve had all the symptoms of low T. Stress, moody, no more morning wood, trouble concentrating, brain fog, lower libido, a random bald spot on my scalp, trouble sleeping, tired all the time, fat gain around the belly. I’ve had more anxiety and just haven’t felt like myself for a while.

My diet is semi clean. I’m not a perfect eater but I’m also not going to McDonalds every day. I’d say I average between 2300-2900 cals a day of mixed variety. Alcohol use is non-existent.

Everything else in the labs was in the normal range. So no it wasn’t my thyroid, Vitamin D, or some other issue.

March 2019 (First Labs Prior to any treatments):

E2 - 33
Total T - 575
Free T - 78
Bioavailable - 168
SHBG - 33
Serum - 4.7

June 2019 (On .5MG Anastrozole per week):

E2 - 17
Total T - 769
Free T - 126
Bioavailable - 260
SHBG - 29
Serum - 4.5

November 2019 (Off Anastrozole - Very Similar To March)

E2 - 34
Total T - 560
Free T - 75
Bioavailable - 154
SHBG - 34
Serum - 4.5

March 2020 (350iu x 3 per week HCG + 1MG Anastrozole)

E2 - 6
Total T - 645
Free T - 110
Bioavailable - 231
SHBG - 26
Serum - 4.6

At this point I said well I’m not really getting any symptom relief - lets try TRT and see what happens.

TRT 100MG 2x per week - .5MG anastrozole starting dose.

June 2020 (3 months later)

E2 - 15
Total T - 747
Free T - 128
Bioavailable - 268
SHBG - 27
Serum - 4.6
DHT - 61

At this point I was feeling semi better. Still no morning wood, libido in the tank, my gym workouts I did feel stronger and noticed recovery was faster, but that was about the only positive. We upped my dose.

160MG 2x per week, 600iu 2x HCG per week, and no more AI.

September 2020 (4 Months Later)

E2 - 27
Total T - 793
Free T - 154
Bioavailable - 310.6
SHBG - 26
Serum - 4.4
DHT - 84

After this period I really noticed my hair was thinning on my scalp. My libido still wasn’t great, morning wood wasn’t back, and overall I can only say I felt maybe 20-25% better than I did when this whole journey started.

I decided to stop everything cold turkey. I took 10,000IU of HCG over the course of a month after I stopped TRT with my last injection being November 14th.

January 2021 Post TRT Labs

E2 - 31
Total T - 445
Free T - 82
Bioavailable - 164
SHBG - 22
Serum - 4.4
DHT - 38

I can say I don’t feel that much different than when I was on T. Really the only thing I’ve noticed is my gym performance is slightly down. It was a fun journey but I don’t think taking more T and having higher DHT was a plausible solution. I plan on re-checking my labs after some lifestyle choices (recently broke up with a long term relationship that was stressful) and reporting back.

#2

7.8 pg/mL start
12.6 pg/mL
7.5 pg/mL
11.0 pg/mL
12.8 pg/mL
15.4 pg/mL end of treatment
8.2 pg/mL natural (consistent with start level)

You probably dont want to hear it, and it may not be worth it to you jacking up your DHT and exacerbating your hairloss, but you need more T in your protocol. Some guys need more. Those FT levels are pretty low considering your SHBG is decent. Hypermetabolizer maybe?

You were always pretty much at the bottom of the reference ranges for FT. These are the pg/mL ranges from Labcorp.

Age 30 to 39 --> 8.7 − 25.1
Age 40 to 49 --> 6.8 − 21.5
Age 50 to 59 --> 7.2 − 24.0

1 Like
#3

Isn’t it dangerous long term to have high DHT levels? If it was in the 80’s already I’m sure it would be in the 100’s with more T - long term that can’t be healthy? The other thing that was annoying was my hematocrit and BP ran higher. I was in the mid 140’s / 90’s most of the time. I would guess I would need something like 230-250MG to really get up there - the other kicker is I would like to have a family at some point in the next few years too.

#4

Yeah, excellent points dude. Im just looking at the data you put up and maybe determining why you continued to feel like shit. I’d think a doctor skilled in TRT would be able to figure your puzzle out.

#5

Haven’t heard this one before. We need DHT, and without units or ranges, I have no idea what 80 or 100 DHT means.

But, to your labs, too much AI and not enough test (as said above). I think your best protocol was the 100mg 2x per week, but drop the AI. If you want to run HCG for fertility maybe drop test to 180mg, maybe.

#6

Yep, not enough test. Free T wasn’t much higher than your natural levels. My advice is maybe inject with greater frequency and ditch the AI permanently.

Also HCG can cause issues as well, but TRT, HCG and the AI, too many moving parts.

#7

Isn’t it dangerous? youve got guys running a gram of Test a week for upwards a year or longer who CAN be in better health than most of the general public.

I emphasize can because there’s also alot of things that can go wrong with that and for heart health and longevity I dont advocate anyone stay on 1000mg a week for a year or longer. Not a great idea.

The point is if your a healthy person living a healthy lifestyle and you get labs drawn at first a couple times a year and as you see stability just once annually. The test level your fearful of is harmless.

If all you ate was heavy metal free fish and vegetables and did cardio consistently throughout the week. Moderate heavy weight lifting my intuition says you could live to be 100 if its in your genetics on 200 test a week for a significant portion of your life.

#8

Oh word. I was on hcg mono for 6 months and felt terrible, no matter what the dose was.
Never touching hcg again.

#9

How else am I supposed to maintain fertility for the next 6-8 years without it?

#10
  1. Hcg doesn’t guarantee fertility
  2. There are other drugs that work as well
  3. Fertility restoration would probably be necessary anyway if you’re that far away from wanting kids
  4. You’re getting off trt so it sort of doesn’t matter now