TRT+ Journey to....?

[247JL]

Hey all. I'm a 36yo male who's suffered with just about every symptom of low T over the past 2 years. After getting the shaft from my Dr I finally decided started my own self guided regimen. I was sick of feeling like a shell of the man I used to be.
Currently 1 week in at 50mg of Test E eod. I'm going to draw labs at 4-6(?) weeks and then decided on upping it to 75. Then? Not sure how high to take it but I suppose labs and sides will help me decide. Already feel better though. Maybe placebo effect being so early on? Not sure. I feel like energy and sleep are a little better though.
The low T left me up in weight and fat and down in muscle and strength. Not super high but 5"10, 195lb 23% bf. Normally I hang out at 180-185 and 18%. This is the highest weight I've been when not bulking. Strength is down almost 40%. Gyno, low motivation, memory issues, anxiety, zero sex drive, injuries. About the only symptom I don't have is hair loss but I'm genetically resistant to that.
Diet right now is weight loss based. 1800 cal, 180g protein, 180g carbs, 40g fat. Hitting the gym as much as possible but it's going to be difficult this month d/t work schedule. Currently 36hrs on, 36hrs off, and sleep at work is hit or miss. Might get 7 hours, might get 2-3. No doubt that's not been helping my natural T levels, but it is what it is. Not ideal conditions by any means but I'm controlling what I can.
Looking forward to the journey and already looking ahead at what I might add the next go round.

 

[247JL]

Today marks the official end of the first week. Days 5 and 6 I was having some PIP in my left delt. Being new to this I was pretty worried. Was it a sub Q leak? Was it the start of an infection? Normal questions a noobie might have. Yesterday I started using 1" needles. The pain has subsided. I attribute it to the fact that I initially only had 5/8” needles for the first 3 injections. After more research I've found that Test E has a higher propensity for PIP, and that oil based injections aren't great for sub q administration. The 5/8 needle likely was only at the outer edge of my muscle.

All's well that ends well though. Diet has been on point. Training has been great. According to the scale I'm essentially unchanged, but I definitely feel better. Sleeping good, energy is great. I'll give it another week and then take a look at my diet. Still looking ahead to week 4 labs before I increase the T.

 

[HUGE McBIGLARGE]

A good starting point is to have your free T at the upper end of the range (maybe a tad over if you fancy it), your e2 mid range, and everything else in range.

Keep your dosages stable for a few months unless you feel a serious need to change them, and go hard on improving your diet, sleep, and exercise in that time.

After a few months, titrate your dosage if you want and see how you feel.

And keep a diary of what you’re taking and how you’re feeling.

As for the PIP, try more frequent injections of lower volumes. I also found the PIP to be quite tolerable with high volumes if I do shallow IM injections with a half inch needle in my quads and glutes

Best of luck on the symptom resolution. Keep us updated

 

[247JL]

Appreciate it. Thanks.
Week 2.5, feeling good. Tons of stamina in the gym. I've increased my cardio a good bit. Still no side effects.

 

[Grey Spartan]

I'm curious, what were your labs before you started?

 

[247JL]

Total T +/- 380. Free T 8.2

 

[Grey Spartan]

Week 2.5, feeling good. Tons of stamina in the gym. I've increased my cardio a good bit. Still no side effects.

Nice.

I'm going to draw labs at 4-6(?) weeks and then decided on upping it to 75. Then? Not sure how high to take it but I suppose labs and sides will help me decide. Already feel better though. Maybe placebo effect being so early on?

I would do labs at 8 weeks, check the estrogen, then up it to 75 like you planned. Everyone is different but I will use myself as a example. If I do 220mg a week my Total T is 1400 and estrogen is 24. I do not need an AI unless I use HCG or go above 350-400mg a week. If you feel good, which you said was the reason you started, then the only reason to do more is to get jacked or see how your body responds. As a example, if I do 350mg a week, my wife, friends, even strangers will start to comment on how jacked I look.

 

[247JL]

Week 4 complete. Having mild-moderate ED issues. Mostly with maintaining an erection. I read about that being a temporary issue when starting T. I'll give it a couple weeks and see if it passes. Otherwise I'll have to look into starting Cialis or something similar.

 

[247JL]

7 weeks. Still having ED so I'm going to try to get on Cialis.

I had my labs drawn. This is at 200/wk, pinning EOD. Labs were 24hr after last pin. Test is higher than I was anticipating. Normally I'm a hyporesponder to medications so I figured this would be the same.

 

[FunkOdyssey]

7 weeks. Still having ED so I'm going to try to get on Cialis.

I had my labs drawn. This is at 200/wk, pinning EOD. Labs were 24hr after last pin. Test is higher than I was anticipating. Normally I'm a hyporesponder to medications so I figured this would be the same.

You are most likely having ED issues due to the 62 pg/mL E2, or if you had ED to begin with and were hoping TRT would help, E2 at that level will most likely be counterproductive.

 

[HUGE McBIGLARGE]

7 weeks. Still having ED so I'm going to try to get on Cialis.

I had my labs drawn. This is at 200/wk, pinning EOD. Labs were 24hr after last pin. Test is higher than I was anticipating. Normally I'm a hyporesponder to medications so I figured this would be the same.

I echo FunkOdyssey.

Try getting that e2 down.

Take tadalafil anyway. I take 20mg a day every day.

If that doesn’t work, consider pt141. Pt141 at a low dose gives me erections ten times better than the ones I get on 100mg tadalafil.

If you’re still having difficulty, consider caber or prami.

 

[PaintDrinker]

Starting pics?

 

[247JL]

Thanks, I appreciate the advice.

 

[247JL]

Starting pics?

Not the greatest.
5' 10, 195lb, 20% BF. Was steadily replacing muscle with fat due to the low T symptoms.

 

[PaintDrinker]

Great base don’t sell yourself short. Put in some work dude, I’m following. Dm me if you need any protocols or tips. Let’s transform my guy

 

[247JL]

I'm going to start 1mg Arimidex per week to bring the e2 down. I'll leave the T at the current dose until I get that controlled. How long should I wait before another blood draw to see how that's working?

 

[HUGE McBIGLARGE]

I'm going to start 1mg Arimidex per week to bring the e2 down. I'll leave the T at the current dose until I get that controlled. How long should I wait before another blood draw to see how that's working?

A week should be enough. Anastrozole works fast. Try to dose the anastrozole 4x per week if you can.

 

[247JL]

Thanks

 

[FunkOdyssey]

I'm going to start 1mg Arimidex per week to bring the e2 down. I'll leave the T at the current dose until I get that controlled. How long should I wait before another blood draw to see how that's working?

This is an aggressively high dose given your E2. Much better to start conservatively with AI - you can always take more, but you can't untake it after your E2 is crashed.

Good advice to split up the dose and increase frequency on the AI as much as possible to smooth out your levels, but I wouldn't start any higher than 0.5 mg weekly, maybe less.

 

[247JL]

This is an aggressively high dose given your E2. Much better to start conservatively with AI - you can always take more, but you can't untake it after your E2 is crashed.

Good advice to split up the dose and increase frequency on the AI as much as possible to smooth out your levels, but I wouldn't start any higher than 0.5 mg weekly, maybe less.

Will do, thanks.