Question For The Long Term TRT'ers

[Shol'va]

Hey guys I'm asking for an older friend from my gym who has been on TRT for about a year now. Self injections at 150mg per week. He got his blood work back and it has higher than normal red blood count I believe and his blood is getting real thick so his doc told him to take a baby aspirin once a day and go donate a pint of his blood. Well he did that and went six months later to get his blood drawn from Quest Diagnostics and they had a hard time drawing his blood at all. He sees his Doc in about a week but is freaking out on them freaking out on how thick his blood has become. Any words of wisdom I can tell him? He is now wanting to stop TRT all together thinking that is the problem. I told him to make an earlier appointment and go see the doc asap to ease his mind and even double his aspirin dosage. Does this thing happen to any of you where your blood gets real thick on TRT Test? Anyhow if any of you have any good ideas I'll pass them along He is 56 or around that age..Thanks

[JimmySidewalk]

Maybe his TRT dose is too high. I thought blood thickening was not an issue when on a proper TRT dose of test.

[JohnnyVegas]

The aspirin helps reduce platelets. Donating blood will help with RBC and platelets, but doing it once isn't going to make a huge difference. My understanding is that some guys have this problem more than others.

I am surprised they are really concerned but not doing anything about it for a week. His problem (if accurate) can cause stroke. Hopefully there are some misunderstandings in his story.

[kelkel]

Agree with JohnnyV. He should be giving blood as often as allowed. He may consider donating Double Red Blood Cells as it will remove far more that a normal draw. If the blood bank won't accept him due to high numbers his doc can write a script for a hospital draw for medical reasons.

[bass]

to answer Sholva's question yes this is normal while on TRT, that why donating blood every two months is a must especially at that dose. your friend is at risk of heart attack or stroke as mentioned by JV. if i were him I'd get a script from his doctor to get his blood drawn ASAP and tell him to drink lots of water.

[HRTstudent]

high RBC is to be expected. donating once every 6 months is not that frequent and you can do more.

the doc can also do things like therapeutic phlebotomy if need be. thick blood is a real danger, and not to be downplayed or ignored.

[warchild]

i have a hi rbc on 200mgs weekly so i dropped it to 100mgs. ive heard of donating blood, baby asprin and going to the patch or gel to reduce hi rbc. only way to tell is blood work

[EZ E]

Every time I have my RBC tested (150mgs/week test c) I am usually just below the upper threshold. I donate every 2 months (max allowed) and the only time they said anything to me (they check your blood before donation) was when I was dehydrated. So tell you friend to donate every 2 months and stay hydrated, less water in your body means thicker blood.

[Shol'va]

Thanks for the responses guys and I'll pass them along to him as he is kind of freaked out right now over it all. I was just wondering if maybe he had this issue even before starting TRT but probably not since the docs do blood work in advance of starting any therapy and would have seen the blood count then. But then again some docs are scary and don't do squat. Yeah I was freaking out at him when he told me that his blood was clotting in the tubes while they drew the blood from him at the lab and couldn't get a very good draw so they switched arms and it happened again over there. I didn't want to down play it to him and I hadn't really read on here much about this issue but I know you guys are lifers on this so you'd know what was the norm and what wasn't. But I'm also thinking that 150mg a week dose doesn't sound like that much of a dose to send his blood over the edge either. But I don't know since I'm not on this for life ...yet. But I also realize that anytime we add foreign substances to our system they can cause unwanted side affects which is why you always get blood work done frequently while on trt to spot any changes like this one. Anyhow thanks again. I'm trying to get him to sign up here but he has this notion that it's an illegal steroid site and the feds will come knocking at his door...lol Senior citizens are funny when they are set in their ways...lol

[bass]

well good thing he has you! i inject about 115-120 mgs ew, donate every two months and my levels are always at the top range, so 150 mgs can do a Little more. clotting! he is a ticking bomb my friend. i got into a situation like this but took the matter into my hands, i drew my own blood 3 times until i found a place to donate. thats how serious this is.

[sirupate]

Yeah...my hemoglobin was too high, so my endo sent me to a hematologist to see why. Hematologist said guys on TRT tend to have high RBC/hemoglobin counts and the solution is to donate blood if the Red Cross will take you. As others above have said, your doctor can order a theraputic draw too, if the Red Cross isn't an option.

I'm donating tomorrow afternoon, but am a bit overdue, having gone 4-5 months since my last donation.

[zaggahamma]

do you guys find that blood pressure is significantly higher when you need to donate/let out some of the blood....wondering if it goes hand and hand...and i guess could be easier to monitor than checking rbc count, etc.

[Vettester]

Agree with the others ... Your friend just needs more frequent visits to the blood bank. If he will go at least every 60 days, he will notice significant changes by the 3rd time he goes.

Also, to comment on jpk ... I actually notice my BP is a little better after donating. Not sure why one guy might be higher and the other lower ... I did follow GD's idea on the doxazosin, which is some strong stuff even at 1mg. I'm more tuned into that for another run with Anavar , which in the past has been halted because of increased BP.

[bass]

me too regarding high blood pressure, mine goes down as well after donating. it makes sense, thicker blood need more pressure to push through the veins.