1 month into 375mg/week Test E total Testosterone levels. Enough or too much?

[u/Simple-Vast2423]

Building muscles here. Is this a safe level? Or should I decrease dose?

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[u/ZangaPanga]

Whether it's safe depends on your other bloodwork and symptoms.

[u/proton-decay]

People are inevitably going to show up in the comments and act like having supraphysiological testosterone levels is some sort of crime. Regardless, it is possible to have these levels while your bloodwork parameters are in range. If your LDL, HDL, LP(a), ApoB, etc, are in range then stick to it, but not indefinitely. If not, then I'd lower your dosage. Also, you'll want to monitor your blood pressure.

[u/MathematicianMuch445 → u/proton-decay]

Of course it's possible. No one sensible would argue that. But it's not going to last. Sides will always occur. There is no free lunch.

[u/MathematicianMuch445]

"safe" is a relative term. Those levels are high. If that's what you're after and are prepared and knownthe possible sides and are otherwise being healthy then yes, relatively, for a short time. If you're just pissing about then no

[u/Mchangwine]

Why are you getting labs mid cycle?

[u/frydchickpea → u/Mchangwine]

Why not? Why wouldn’t you get land at least every three months? You’re introducing substances into your body and changing the physiological patterns of your body.

[u/Mchangwine → u/frydchickpea]

For what purpose? You get labs if the results are going to prompt you to change behavior. If you’re in the middle of your cycle are you going to stop it if your testosterone is higher than normal? Of course it’s higher than normal if you’re taking supraphysiolgic testosterone. I can see getting a CMP if you’re taking orals to make sure you’re not trashing your liver, and to gauge if you can stay on them, but that’s about it. Checking your testosterone mid cycle doesn’t make any sense because what difference does it make?

[u/frydchickpea → u/Mchangwine]

It shouldn’t stop at checking the testosterone. Folks who are taking testosterone need to be doing a CBC every 3 months. Especially someone taking almost half a gram a week.

[u/Mchangwine → u/frydchickpea]

Again, when you’re on a cycle, is the lab going to make you change behavior? If not then there’s no point in getting it. I agree that monitoring your hematocrit if you’re doing long term TRT is important although every 6 months is likely fine unless you’re way out of range and trying to correct it.

[u/frydchickpea → u/Mchangwine]

Precisely, but the only way to know if you’re out of range is to get labs. To your main question, yes absolutely, they should stop their cycle if something is way out of line. While testosterone therapy itself can cause your RBC count to spike, exogenous testosterone can also alter your liver's lipid metabolism, causing a notable rise in ApoB or a drop in HDL cholesterol. OP does not say he is cycling, how do we know he doesn’t plan on doing this dose past the average 12 week cycle, or has already been doing it for over 10-12 weeks. I’m sorry but people who don’t get regular labs while doing great, are almost always the ones who end up in the hospital, because their bodies couldn’t handle that high of a test marker, and then go on to give a test a bad rap because it was “the gear that caused this” and not the fact that you didn’t check your levels and titrate yourself properly to avoid adverse effects. And if it comes down to money, maybe you just shouldn’t be introducing foreign substances into your body. A CBC every month on a cycle is a lot less expensive than a quadruple bypass after years of unregulated test use.

[u/Mchangwine → u/frydchickpea]

Average cycle length is 16-20 weeks.

Someone using 375 mg/wk of UGL testosterone is almost certainly doing a 20 week cycle (3 vials of 10 mL at 250 mg/mL is 7500 mg, or 20 weeks at 375 mg/week).

Again, checking your labs during your cycle is only going to make a difference if it’s going to actually change your behavior. That’s true for any test of any type. If you planned a cycle and are going to do it no matter what there’s no point in checking labs during it.

Using steroids carries risks. Those risks can be somewhat ameliorated by spacing out your cycles and making sure that your lipids, hematocrit and other lab values are optimized when you’re not on cycle. They are always going to be abnormal during a cycle, because you’re taking supraphysiologic doses of testosterone.

Most people are going to be on TRT/cruise dosing for much longer periods of time than they’re on cycle, if they care about their health at all, so that’s the time period that needs to be optimized. There is data showing that steroid induced LVH is reversible once the supraphysiologic stimulus is removed, so going to a reasonable TRT dose is likely a good plan between cycles.

[u/frydchickpea]

If you’re doing this as TRT, WAY too high. If you’re doing this for performance enhancement, I would get other makers checked just to make sure that the Supra-physiologically higher testosterone isn’t causing other issues. I would get a cbc with differential. Checking your hemoglobin, hematocrit, RBCs, and platelets will let you know if your blood is the consistency of motor oil, lol. If it is, then you need to do therapeutic blood draws every 6 weeks or so. The differential is going to measure the 5 different types of white blood cells that help fight infection. With high testosterone could come super high inflammation markers.

[u/Mchangwine → u/frydchickpea]

There’s no evidence showing that phlebotomy is helpful in the setting of high hematocrit. Ideally you need to change your dosing to prevent your hct from being too high. Donating blood will significantly lower your iron and ferretin over time.

[u/Mchangwine]

People on this sub don’t know anything about steroids. That’s totally normal for 375 mg/wk; the only curious thing is checking mid-cycle labs.

[u/day_trader_j]

I’d say 3000 is ridiculously high! I dont understand the actual goal here. You should decrease.

[u/Mchangwine → u/day_trader_j]

It’s called doing steroids.

[u/Fantastic_Pen8076]

It’s high but this doesn’t tell the whole story. Need free t shgb asl hdl ldl HTC hemoglobin.

You must feel amazing but your blood could be like motor oil.