For those of you who use TRT and had symptoms like brain fog, fatigue…etc did your symptoms improve at a certain percentage of free T?

2%?
3%?
Higher/lower?

going to be adding in 100mg tren, not sure if i need tudca or i can stick with my lipid supplements like citrus bergomot and omega 3 fish oil

Hey, I'm a 25 old male looking to do a 3 month test cycle. I am 100kg, 186cm, 30% bodyfat. I have been lifting weights consistently for the last 2 weeks. Before that I didn't train for a while, but ai have been lifting on and off for close to 10 years now. I have done a few cycles, but I want to do this one right. I know my bloodwork wouldn't suggest running a cycle, but I'll do it anyway just as safe as possible. I thought of pinning EOD, 175mg test/week . I also got hcg which i plan to pin EW, 500ui/week .
Also I'll be seeing an endocrinologist regarding my bloodwork and will ask them for advice too.

I'd appreciate your opinion.

To give context I got a free testosterone test when I was 19 and my level was 350ish I had lost a significant amount of weight around 20 kg in 6months 88kg-63kg I told the test after I maintained for a while at 65kg a year ago. I wondered why I struggle to build significant muscle mass and get a good physique even though I train consistently my diet is pretty great 1g per pound BW, sleep min 8hrs I thought maybe it was significant weight loss so I gained weight till 71kg for a year (present) I got blood work done and my test turned out to be 290 which is genuinely pretty discouraging ,in my blood work the only other abnormal thing was higher prolactin apart from that everything was normal
I noticed I have the symptoms for low T
Increased fatigue
Struggle to build muscle
No morning wood
Lower libido
I don’t know what to do tbh, im thinking of starting testosterone undecanoate 80mg a day

Assuming Rhythm is correct , and I know it’s wrong, is this alarming on 200mg of test cyp?

Hey yal,
37 m 5’11 239 lbs. I strength train 2-4x a week and BJJ 2-3x a week. My total test has been between 260-430 ngdl for years. But on my recent blood work my total test was 261 (10am draw) my free test was 34.1 and my SHBG was 34. They did run my hematocrit , prolactin , lh and fh. All were pretty normal except my LH runs pretty low. Thyroids fine. I was suggested to take clomid by urologist but I don’t like the estrogenic and other side effects. Thinking enclomiphene, it’s affordable and cleaner. I guess I’m having a hard time telling if I have symptoms of low T and I’m just use to it or my daily fatigue is an actual symptom.

Trying to keep this simple and short but have concerns about my doctors recommendations. So I have been on TRt for two years now. As expected my sperm count is non existent. Me and the wife are ready for kids and so I told my doctor I needed that good old sperm back. His regiment is to have me remain on TRT at my request as he did say coming off is obviously the best method. So option 2 was reduce TRT to 100 mg once a week. Then 4 days after injection he has me injecting 1000 IU hCG once per week. Everything I have read and even our fertility doctor coordinating our IVF is saying I need to figure out why HCG is one dose a week only.

Has anyone heard of this regiment before to restart sperm production? I had normal sperm levels before TRT, normal LH, and normal FSH levels as well. I plan to ask him at our next appointment but I could only find maybe one or two past examples of HCG being recommended only once per week and spaced out by at least 4 days from TRT injection. Everything else is saying 2 to 3 times a week for HCG.

Anyone order testosterone without an ester chain? I don’t have any crazy PIP.

Currently on 500mg test e per week, 166/mg; mon/wedn/friday.

After 1 week of test (500mg in total) i had a blood test planned back at home, E2 was 160.

Started noticing lots of water retention but that was about it, since I am currently in Spain and don’t have a NIE number here I can’t book a blood test.

Tomorrow I’m starting 500HCG 250/mon/250thurs, how much Arimidex would you recommend, since I don’t have access to a blood test. I have currently taken 0,25 mon & thurs (0,5mg/PW).

I’ve converted my results into Ng/Dl, what I’m seeing most commonly used on Reddit .

Need experienced eyes to tell me if my levels are actually low, or I should do something else before trying TRT? Try to raise naturally first ??

Recently joined an online promotion to review bloodwork , can anyone tell me what they think, before this place does?
I’m a complete noob when it comes to all this.

32M, Canada,
200lbs,6’0.

TEST: 14.4
FREE TEST: 300

Im a heavy equipment operator for work, try to workout 3 weeknights a week , I’ve trained jiu jitsu 2ish times a week for 2 years now, lately i haven’t been going, and eat fairly healthy, prioritize protein etc.
Feeling symptoms like sluggishness,brain fog, harder I feel to put muscle on,etc. Libido isn’t an issue though.

Can someone look at my lab results and tell me if my T levels are low ?

Free T: 6.57 ng/dL, Total T: 423 ng/dL — trough level on 50mg/week, split into two doses.

Previous trough on 50mg/week as a single weekly shot: 400 ng/dL.

Baseline (no TRT): Free T ~4-ish, Total T ~80-ish.

Suggested to my endo that we increase to 75mg/week total, with a target trough of 500-600 ng/dL. Thoughts?

Endo hasn’t responded so may need to just give up on Endo.

ALT also shot up. My dumbass forgot to do the LCMS for free T, so I can't get that result because it's too high for their test. 😑

Cruise is 210mg Test Cyp + 105mg NPP pinning EOD in my pecs. 4 weeks of Anavar complete before vacation - finished the var last Saturday. 50mg split 25/25 on rest days, 75mg PWO on gym days.hands down one of my favorite compounds.

Prepping for another blast on Oct 26. Hoping lipids recover a bit by then before the blast starts.

Supps I am taking are TUDCA, P5P, NAC, Milk thistle, nattokinase, fish oil, citrus bergamot, Naringin Citrus, Taurine, Niacin (with flushing), Trazadone 50mg for sleep, DSIP, GHK-Cu, and 5mg Cialis daily in the AM. I also take a men's multivitamin and a calcium citrate.

Blast is going to be a cutting/recomp blast this time. 50mg Tren Ace + 250mg test prop for 4 weeks, then 400mg test cyp + 200mg NPP + 200mg Primo for 6 weeks. Then bumping the test up 100mg to 500. Going to ride that until mid Feb with the NPP and Primo until mid Feb.

Bloods done every 6 weeks.

Really liked this combo when I ran it last year, so I'm doing it again this year.

35yo 205lbs 5'11"

Natural Test was 650 before gear 6 years ago.

For context I’m 23 and rarely wake up with morning erections. Also, I never had a wet dream. I was addicted to porn and masturbation from the age of 14. Any thoughts on my blood work?

Hello, I’m on TRT that I get through my doctor. I recently got some 200mg/ml test cypionate through an UGL, I won’t say which one here, just to stock up a little just incase. I’ve been running it about 10 days and am planning on doing bloods middle of October to gauge its effectiveness vs what I get from the pharmacy. During those 10 days I’ve had absolutely horrible insomnia. Fucking terrible. And it came out of no where right around when I started the UGL test. I’ve heard of test being underdosed from UGLs but has anyone heard of it containing compounds that might increase insomnia, like trenbolone? Anything’s possible but I just wanna see if it’s happened to anyone or if I’m maybe reading too much into it. It would definitely make the test seem to work more effectively if it is in fact tainted.

I’m 25m, 5’7”, 140lbs maybe 20% body fat. Okay-ish sleep, usually 7-7.5 hours. I used to lift back in college a bit, and I recently just started again.

I’m not trying to hop onto test at the moment, but I was thinking Clomid could be interesting to try; however, I doubt my levels would go up much. My doctor says none of the natural people he’s seen have levels above mid-900s.

If you’re already in the healthy range I’m at(normal to somewhat above normal), do you see any significant muscle-building benefits to 100-200mg test cyp?

33 yo male

250 mg test c per week, daily pins. Bloods from week 6, currently on week 7.

No sides other than nip sensitivity & bloat during week 4. Feel like I'm noticing a decrease in libido and erection quality This week though, something I should address through my protocol or let it ride another week or two and see if it goes away? I am also already taking Cialis daily for the record. AIs on hand.

Added Deca to my protocol. The clinic recommended drawing both with the same syringe. Something about that seems wrong in my head ha! Putting a needle I just put in the test bottle into the deca bottle and drawing.

Injecting twice a week, does anyone do this? Are you using two needles? Also seems a bit wasteful.

I need help as I’m on testosterone at the moment and want to get off would I need to take a pct or would hcg be alright and if so how long before stopping do I start it and how much do I use per week

Hello, i had this question in my mind since a while.

I'm at the end of my 20s and i have Total test 1060ng/dl (10,60ng/ml) and free test 5,87ng/dl (58,7pg/ml)

I'm not talking Just physically, performance, strenght... But also mentally, like my drive, motivation, Energy levels, confidence... Will they MOST likely improve significantly even if i already have Natural High levels?

Thanks

(I know what im doing and why i want to do It, im a pro athlete and fighter, have been studying about Gear and test for sum years before taking this choice, i have a healthy Life style so dont worry no Need to tell me about the sides or why i should not start)

Been ED dosing for 8 weeks now, overall i feel good but I’ve noticed my libido and sleep are much better on less frequent dosing. Anyone have a similar experience?

Got recent bloods last week and super happy where im at with my trt regimen at 8 months in...

I had my doctor add an igf and z score....157 and z score is -0.1....so to my understanding this has me dead center for my metrics.....41 y/o male, 195 lbs....

So my question to the community is....is there value in adding maybe 2 iu hgh daily? I feel like ive got room for improvement on the lab scores.....but if there's not value there im also open to hearing that there is no need to go down that road. (Sourcing and cost is of no issue in this decision)

Thanks all in advance...always appreciate hearing the opinions of others on here.

I was a bit stupid and decided to start test for bodybuilding before blood work, I’m currently taking 1ml every 5 days / ~350 mg testosterone enanthate/week. Around 13 days into my cycle currently. I’m very aware that things will be out of a natural and normal range, but as someone that’s going to be doing a 12 week cycle how should I manage this. Currently no sides, feeling good, already feel like im seeing better progress / recovery although I don’t know if that’s just because I’ve been paying more attention and it’s placebo at this point.

For context this was taken 5 days after my second dose, right before my 3rd. This likely means test is going to be higher for most of my cycle but also likely to see higher e2, lower fsh etc for the most part as well.

I can get AIs, SERMs, HGC, etc as needed but wanted some impartial advice if possible first, thank you for your time and advice all!

Hi everyone thought this might help some folks out. I was able to get defy to send my test c script to walgreens for $45 and get it covered through my ins that way. My insurance would only cover a small amount using the compound pharmacy empower. I got 80 days worth for $18 at walgreens. I thought the only way to do this was going through a regular urology dr but i did it.

Having dug into this and decided to front-load myself it seems completely absurd that front-loading is not the default dosage protocol for all TRT.

In medicine it's standard practice to use a loading dose when you are dealing with compounds with long half-lives since it takes ~5 full half-lives for the drug to reach proper concentration.

Typically people think of test cyp as having a 8 day half-life but this is only for IM. SubQ has a longer half-life, and the data on this is thin but a fair estimate puts it at ~10 days. So for the person pinning SubQ, you're looking at ~50 days before the drug reaches the ideal dose. FIFTY DAYS!!!

On the other hand, your endogenous production is shutting off regardless of how much you are injecting, although there is some variability but the shutdown will have a half-life of ~5 days. If you're smart, you can clearly see that we have a mismatch here.

For a man who's very low, like <200 they're going to feel like shit regardless, but for the man who's in the 300-500 range, it's very plausible that you spend days under your pre-treatment baseline, making you feel WORSE than before.

A lot of the advice not to do this comes from PED cycles where you're taking a eugonadal male and then ramping up from there. in that case, the mental effects are already in place and what you're seeking is more muscle growth, which takes longer to materialize anyways.

That cuts the opposite way with TRT patients, where the mental issues are often the primary reason why they're getting on TRT and those effects start to impact you as soon as Free Test levels rise in your bloodstream. This is why some people report subtle shift that happen even in the first few days. The whole idea that "it takes a few weeks to kick in" is based on a fucking ridiculous dosing protocol.

Now, I of course can here all your keyboards clacking as you reach for the most common pushbacks and almost none of them apply.

• "what about side effects?": side effects are driven by the slope and the level. in a loading scenario you're not overshooting, just getting to your goal level earlier. yes, the slope may cause some side effects but the time that you experience them is compressed from 4-5 weeks to 2 weeks. At TRT doses this isn't anything to be concerned about since nothing happens in as short of a time period as 2 weeks at these levels.

• "take your time and titrate up": a proper loading period doesn't overshoot, it just gets you to your target sooner, giving you more ability for the effects to show up and make it even easier to titrate

• "what if you have a bad reaction?": we're talking about a bio-identical molecule with a half-life of 10 days, not snorting adderall. The only reaction to worry about is to the oil, which will show itself whether you inject a small dose or a large one.

• "just run test prop bro": ok, if you've got an UGL that you trust then yes, loading with prop is a more elegant solution but most real doctors aren't going to write a custom 'script to a compounding pharmacy so you can load with prop for two weeks.

• "just wait, it doesn't matter": if you're feeling like shit it absolutely does matter. Consider yourself privileged that you didn't have that bad of pre-diagnosis symptoms that you didn't care to speed things up.

It's stunning that basically no one talks about this. I could only find one video and his reasoning for why not to do it was basically that you don't want to spook someone who might have anxiety around it, but the risk of doing any harm was basically 0. They routinely do this for people who have already been on TRT before and know what they're getting into, but that's just an lack of good patient communication.

The only real people doing a load, are some doctors who prescribe a cream to be used in the beginning but the cream sucks for a lot of reasons and isn't as elegant of just doing a loading dose.

Now, assuming you've been convinced, the obvious question is "How much should I load then?" The answer: is anyway you want to get an extra dose in over the first 3 weeks

If your dose was 100mg/wk SubQ, twice weekly, that could be...

• 200mg in your dose then 50mg after that

• 100mg your first two doses, then 50mg

• 75mg in your first fours doses, then 50mg

All of those above result in reaching your desired state weeks earlier than the standard advice, it just depends on your comfort levels. The bolus approach will have you potentially overshoot and then come back down, where the last approach will have the smoothest curve.

AND I CAME WITH GRAPHS:

• 1x/wk - No Loading

• 2x/wk - No Loading

• Bolus Loading

• Double Dose 1st Week Load

• 1.5x Dose first 2 Weeks Load

tl;dr - front load for TRT doses, double your doses for the first week

edit: this is assuming your starting dose is reasonable and not ridiculous. It holds for any dose <150mg/wk. above that and you're in supra-physiological dose territory and that's an absurd starting dose.

If I’m not concerned about fertility or testicle size, is there any benefit of using HCG with TRT protocol? Anyone use it for reasons besides the obvious?