TRT 2 weeks on 4 weeks off

[Andrew Androgen]

From my experience and from the experience of many other guys, the libido effects from TRT only last for the first 2-3 weeks. As Bill Roberts pointed out in his 2 on 4 off steroid cycles, there is minimal suppression up to 2 weeks and recovery of the HPTA is very rapid.
Based on this, I decided to try 40mg testosterone enanthate every 3rd day for 10 days (4 injections in total).
If I had testosterone gel/cream I would have used it for 14 days.
As expected, my libido increased a lot for 2 weeks and wasn't too bad during the 3rd week when I wasn't taking testosterone. During the 4th and 5th weeks, I felt just the same as I did before this experiment. I did not feel any worse in any way.
I just had a blood test done to check my various hormone levels. This was exactly 4 weeks after my last injection. I should have the results early next week and plan to do another of these cycles if my T levels have returned to their usual "low normal" level.
Next time I will be getting a blood test done 2 weeks after my last injection, when I would expect my T levels to be at their lowest.

 

[Tyler81]

It's honestly not a bad idea.
When I came off TRT using serms and then re-added gel my libido was INSANE for a few weeks. Then it tappered off. And now I have flatline libido again. So if one does cycle say Serms and TRT one month on one month off it could sustain stronger libido im not sure.

Problem is as the body gets older it might be harder for the body to bounce back constantly so I dont know if this would work longterm.

 

[Andrew Androgen]

I know a guy who is doing well cycling testosterone for 2 weeks, then nolva for 2 weeks, then nothing for 2 weeks, apart from tongkat ali extract, butea superba extract and safed musli. I didn't have such a good experience with nolva and found that when I've used tongkat ali in the past, it would only work for 5 days at the most, then it made my libido worse. I may experiment with safed musli, which he said works great and butea superba, which can only be taken for a few days because it's somewhat suppressive, but can increase libido significantly.
Tyler, how much gel made you feel best?
My doc has just written me a prescription for a compounded testosterone gel which has a concentration of 100mg/ml and instructed me to apply just 0.5ml per day.
In your experience, will this be enough, or do you think 1ml would be better?

 

[Tyler81]

I would start low with the gel and see how it goes.
I did well on just 5g Testim for almost two years before I had to increase the dose.

 

[Andrew Androgen]

My testosterone actually came back a little higher after the 4 weeks off testosterone (10.5nmol/L compared with 9.5nmol/L before).
I just completed 2 weeks using testosterone cream this time instead of shots at a dose of 50mg every day. I'm waiting on the blood test results taken on the 14th day. I didn't feel as good as I did on the shots. I think the dose was too low, so I may increase it to 100mg/day based on blood test results.

 

[Tyler81]

Hey dude,
I am going to take your advice and do the serms / T thing.
Except I am going to do serms and then only boost with T gel for libido as needed (like for sex only) so maybe twice a week.

 

[Andrew Androgen]

That should work well. I'd also suggest buying a good quality tongkat ali extract, like the one from tongkatali.org or indonesianherbals.com. I've been using the one from Indonesian herbals and my libido is stronger than it was on the test cream. It works in a very similar way to HCG so is perfect to use when not using test. Butea superba extract is also great for increasing DHT & libido. You could do something like Monday - gel & butea superba, Tues - AM 10mg nolva & tongkat ali, Wed - gel, Thursday - tongkat ali, Friday - PM 10mg nolva & tongkat ali, Sat- tongkat ali, Sun - tongkat ali.

 

[Tyler81]

Ya tongkat works well for sure.

 

[Tyler81]

It takes time to build up tho
So I think optimally you want to do like
Gel two weeks
Serms one month with tongkat etc

 

[Andrew Androgen]

It takes time to build up tho
So I think optimally you want to do like
Gel two weeks
Serms one month with tongkat etc

After 2 weeks on 50mg/day of cream, my TT was at 13.5 nmol/L. You say it takes time to build up, so if I were to have continued for another 2 weeks on the same dose, what do you think my level would have come back at? I would guess possibly even lower because by that stage I'd be almost completely shut down so wouldn't have any of my natty test to boost the level.

 

[Tyler81]

I meant serm takes time to build up not gel.

 

[Andrew Androgen]

I meant serm takes time to build up not gel.

I thought that's what you must have meant lol.
What was your TT on 50mg/gel per day and what was it when you increased it to 100mg/day?

 

[Andrew Androgen]

I'm feeling really good on my current protocol, which so far I've done 2 "rounds" of.
It is 100mg test cream per day for 10 days, 12.5mg/day clomid for 10 days, then 12.5mg clomid eod for another 10 days, then 10 days of nothing and repeat. I haven't had any bad side effects from the clomid for this short period at this low dose. I've tried all the different TRT protocols with and without HCG at all kinds of different doses and nothing has elevated my libido as much as this protocol.

 

[jay89]

Glad to hear your getting good results. Are you using compounded test cream?

 

[Dale338]

I'm feeling really good on my current protocol, which so far I've done 2 "rounds" of.
It is 100mg test cream per day for 10 days, 12.5mg/day clomid for 10 days, then 12.5mg clomid eod for another 10 days, then 10 days of nothing and repeat. I haven't had any bad side effects from the clomid for this short period at this low dose. I've tried all the different TRT protocols with and without HCG at all kinds of different doses and nothing has elevated my libido as much as this protocol.

Am I reading this correct? You take 100mg of T every day for ten straight days? That must push your T to like 4000 or more?

 

[Andrew Androgen]

Am I reading this correct? You take 100mg of T every day for ten straight days? That must push your T to like 4000 or more?

No I'm taking 100mg of test cream. That's 2g per day of a 50mg/g compounded T cream. That gets me to 770 ng/dL. After 10 days on 12.5mg/day clomid I was at 634 ng/dl which is more than double what I normally am. After another 10 days of 12.5mg clomid eod I was at 750 ng/dL. I'm just waiting to get my blood test results which were taken 10 days after I finished the clomid.
I've felt really good throughout the duration of this experiment. Much better than when I was on TRT continuously. The clomid dose is low enough and the duration is short enough to avoid nasty side effects.

 

[Andrew Androgen]

I just got my blood test result from 10 days off clomid. I had fallen down to 440 in just 10 days. SHBG was 40, whereas before I started clomid, it was 30.
I'm surprised TT dropped so fast given clomid's long half life. I suspect that the enclomiphene isomer is largely responsible for clomid's testosterone boosting effects. Enclomiphene has only a 10 hour half life, whereas zuclomiphene has a 7 day half life. 440 is still way above what I was originally, but I think next time I will have just 5 days off clomid before going back on testosterone. I'm also considering buying enclomiphene, which has no possibility of emotional side effects.

 

[roastdawg]

I just got my blood test result from 10 days off clomid. I had fallen down to 440 in just 10 days. SHBG was 40, whereas before I started clomid, it was 30.
I'm surprised TT dropped so fast given clomid's long half life. I suspect that the enclomiphene isomer is largely responsible for clomid's testosterone boosting effects. Enclomiphene has only a 10 hour half life, whereas zuclomiphene has a 7 day half life. 440 is still way above what I was originally, but I think next time I will have just 5 days off clomid before going back on testosterone. I'm also considering buying enclomiphene, which has no possibility of emotional side effects.

Probably because the test is just clearing your system... Switch to prop and try it again.