I have tried it so many ways for so.many years TRT. I have really low SHBG (doesnt matter how in inject I have done it weekly, daily twice a week) and my free t at trough on 140 was 30. I also could not keep my BP under 130. I have done 30mg per day, 200mg per week, 20mg per day, 80mg e3.5 day, 70mg e3.5d, every combo of HCG and adex you can think of. I have been doing this for over half a decade. What I have seen in the TRT space for men who more interested in replacement vs how much they can get away with as "optimization" is that the first camp truly wants to go as low as possible and still retaining the benefits. I dropped to 100mg per week.months ago and am just fine. My BP went down to sub 130, I stopped getting shoulder acne here and there and my libido is even better. My HDL went up double digits. I also am holding steady in gym at 5'8 200. Using TRT (not cycling) to build muscle for me is impossible anyways at this point. I have too much muscle that even 30mg per day (210 per week) won't do anything other than maintain what I have. If I want to build muscle I will take anabolics. I also just had BPH surgery so I definitely want to keep.my DHT and e2 out of higher range.
30mg per day 210 per week put me at 2000 total t, 45 free t, e2 60s. My HDL was 40 instead of now 60 on 100mg. My LDL was climbing (aI am on a statin and repatha now). Those numbers are way way way way too high to run long term and anyone who thinks otherwise is kidding themselves.
I am in a very similar boat and have the same "true TRT" philosophy. I'm not looking to "optimize" and have also settled at just over 100mgs/wk administered subq daily, which puts me at right around 1,000 total, SHBG 35, free test between 150-200. I've also put a lot of thought into this question.
The conclusion I've come to is that we don't have any perfect options. There's no magic to this. If we want juicer results, we'll just have to juice and deal with the side effects and consequences. Or not.
I've upped my T dose as high as 250, but I feel strangely "hot" on that dose, my libido gets out of control, and it screws up my sleep. No noticeable effect to bloods or BP, but I just generally feel amped and unhealthy. It's not something I can do for more than 6 weeks at a time or so.
I experimented with masteron and it trashed my sleep. Totally unsustainable and didn't really do much anyway.
I've added up to 150mg/wk of nandrolone (tried both deca and NPP, there was no difference). Didn't get any of the rumored joint benefits and it was only in retrospect that I realized how bad it made my temper. I would fly off the handle for no reason occasionally, but it didn't register as abnormal behavior at the time. It also cranked my hematocrit up to 54 and E2 over 100 in very short order. In general, I hate this substance and won't use it again.
The only thing that's been tolerable and effective is low dose Anavar at 5 - 10mgs/day, especially in a defecit. Definitely helps to retain muscle and gives a noticeably harder look. But it hits my HDL for about a point per mg. Fortunately, my triglycerides (which is a more significant marker than LDL) are down in the 30s, so it's not a huge deal, but it's not something I want to do for extended periods of time.
I may experiment with very low dose tren at 20-ish mg/wk and see how that goes. Obviously, there will be some negative sides with probably minimal returns at that dose and it may not turn out to be worthwhile, but we will see.
