(Too) Low dose test C (per physician)

[n2ojones]

Hello everyone:

My HRT doctor continues to prescribe me just 1 ml (test c-200) every 2 weeks. At 58yo, that's no longer cutting it so I bought some Test C 250 to boost my levels up a bit. I'm now doing .50 ml twice a week and sub Q. My T level was 500 prior to the boost. I do not know what it is now.

After several weeks I noticed my testicles had shrunken a bit. I'm OK with that, but they seemed to be riding unusually high and ached. I also felt more emotional than usual. This aside, I felt great! No gyno or any of that.

A friend just returned from overseas and brought me back a box of 1 mg Anastrazole.

Can you give me a rough idea on how much of this Anastrazole I should take to check my emotions / reduce testicular ache at my increased dosage?

I see my HRT doc just once per year, so will go back to his preferred dosage before doing blood.

I thank you in advance!

[Sh0tsf1red]

You only see your TRT Doctor once a year?

How often is he doing blood?

500 isn't low for a 58 year old man....

[n2ojones]

Thanks for the reply. I've been on HRT for probably 12 years. In that time I've endured 5 major surgeries, most lifting related, so I probably average bloodwork no less than 3 x per year.

The doctor I see doesn't want to change anything up. He reportedly monitors my bloodwork throughout the year and I assume will contact me if he detects anything amiss. "Everything looks great with normal prostrate" was the report I got a couple months back. I am comfortable with this arrangement.

The 500 level is where I am when doing the prescribed dosage of 1 ml, twice monthly. I prefer to be in the 800-1000 range. When I started the program, I was in that range. I no longer am and he does not want to / wont increase the dose. I feel the fade and will increase the dosage myself. with this thread I'm hoping to find out how much AI would be typical to take given what I've described above.

Thanks again!

[almostgone]

If you're in the States, try privatemdlabs dot com or someone like that to run your labs. If possible, run the full panel that is listed in this sticky:

http://forums.steroid.com/hormone-re...physician.html

You'll need labwork to make proper use of anastrozole, and also know where your free T values are at. Have a talk with your Dr. unless you think it is a lost cause. If it is, start Dr. shopping.
Good luck!

[Sh0tsf1red]

Thanks for the reply. I've been on HRT for probably 12 years. In that time I've endured 5 major surgeries, most lifting related, so I probably average bloodwork no less than 3 x per year.

The doctor I see doesn't want to change anything up. He reportedly monitors my bloodwork throughout the year and I assume will contact me if he detects anything amiss. "Everything looks great with normal prostrate" was the report I got a couple months back. I am comfortable with this arrangement.

The 500 level is where I am when doing the prescribed dosage of 1 ml, twice monthly. I prefer to be in the 800-1000 range. When I started the program, I was in that range. I no longer am and he does not want to / wont increase the dose. I feel the fade and will increase the dosage myself. with this thread I'm hoping to find out how much AI would be typical to take given what I've described above.

Thanks again!

Bro you are 58, no one is naturally at 800-1000 at that age. Sounds like you don't want TRT but a full AAS protocol.

That's fine but call it what it is.

[EDCG19]

Hello everyone:

My HRT doctor continues to prescribe me just 1 ml (test c-200) every 2 weeks. At 58yo, that's no longer cutting it so I bought some Test C 250 to boost my levels up a bit. I'm now doing .50 ml twice a week and sub Q. My T level was 500 prior to the boost. I do not know what it is now.

Sounds like your TRT protocol is all over the charts.. 1ml every 2 weeks is something they try to do but not optimal and your levels will fluctuate. If you want to keep it at 200ml a week try two injections at 100mgs every 4 days. You need more frequent injections and I would say a little more blood work every few months, I don't believe in blood work/doc visits 1-2 a year.

As far as testies, try HCG and AI at .25 eod 1mg a week not 1mg at a time..

I'd say find a new TRT doc, anytime someone says run test every 2-3 weeks is when I check out and find another doc, my doc tried to get me on the same protocol a while back, I ended up doing everything on my own with some "doctor supervision"

The 500 level is where I am when doing the prescribed dosage of 1 ml, twice monthly. I prefer to be in the 800-1000 range. When I started the program, I was in that range. I no longer am and he does not want to / wont increase the dose. !

Your doc doesn't know what he is doing

[Youthful55guy]

Hello everyone:

My HRT doctor continues to prescribe me just 1 ml (test c-200) every 2 weeks. At 58yo, that's no longer cutting it so I bought some Test C 250 to boost my levels up a bit. I'm now doing .50 ml twice a week and sub Q. My T level was 500 prior to the boost. I do not know what it is now.

After several weeks I noticed my testicles had shrunken a bit. I'm OK with that, but they seemed to be riding unusually high and ached. I also felt more emotional than usual. This aside, I felt great! No gyno or any of that.

A friend just returned from overseas and brought me back a box of 1 mg Anastrazole.

Can you give me a rough idea on how much of this Anastrazole I should take to check my emotions / reduce testicular ache at my increased dosage?

I see my HRT doc just once per year, so will go back to his preferred dosage before doing blood.

I thank you in advance!

A few comments:

1) As you probably already know from reading other comments and posts in this forum, the 200 mg every 2 weeks protocol is from the stone age of medicine. It was primarily driven by old school thinking that patients were either too incompetent or unwilling to self inject, so they devised a protocol based on logistics rather than effectiveness concerns. They felt that every 2 weeks was a reasonable amount of time for office visits. There were probably financial concerns too, since they had regularly scheduled office charges every 2 weeks for the life of the patient. Here's what you hormones look like on that protocol. For anyone in the know, it's not pretty. You go into superphysiologic T levels in the early phases of the injection cycle and suboptimal ranges in the latter half of the cycle. It's what "d describe as a hormonal rollercoaster to h$!! I'm surprised you lasted 2 years on this protocol.


2) Rather than adding more T to protocol, you should first consider taking that same dose an breaking it up into smaller and more frequent injections. That will keep you within physiological ranges all the time with no major ups or downs. You also have the benefit of not having to use harpoons for the injections. A 40 mg (0.2 mL) injection can easily be accomplished with a 28G 1/2 inch insulin needle, which is virtually painless. I recommend starting at 0.2 mL (40 mg) every 3 days and after 6 weeks run a full set of labs and see where you are at and how you feel. If necessary, you can consider bumping it up 10 mg (0.25 mL) and repeat the labs in another 6 weeks. I doubt you would need to go above that any further.

3) HCG will help with the testicles. I recommend 500 to 1000 IU per week split up into multiple injections per week. It works well with an E3D T protocol, as you inject on that same schedule.

4) Regarding anastrozole. If you do not know your exact E2 level with labs, you should not be fooling around with the stuff. It is a very powerful drug and overuse of it can crush your E2 levels, making this worse then before. The biggest symptom of which is a nasty case of ED. Yes, it's one of those ironies of mother nature that guys need E2 too for normal erections and orgasms. Without it we go limp and have difficulty achieving orgasm, which can get really frustrating.

5) If you are going to proceed with your plan of using AAS levels of T, you need to very closely monitor your hemoglobin levels and more than likely need to obtain a script for therapeutic phlebotomies. You hemoglobin levels will go sky high within about 6 months, and even the maximum allowable number of blood donations will not be able to keep up with it. Also, these frequent phlebotomies will impact on other systems of the body. Your iron levels will probably go low and with it so will your ferritin levels, which will then begin to impact on you thyroid hormones. it's simply best not to have to go down that road by keeping your T levels within normal physiological ranges at all times.

[n2ojones]

Bro you are 58, no one is naturally at 800-1000 at that age. Sounds like you don't want TRT but a full AAS protocol.

That's fine but call it what it is.

I am very grateful to you all. A couple of you spent significant time replying to me...assisting me, I thank you very much.

I quote this reply in particular because I'm not trying to sugarcoat anything. Perhaps just unable to put my feelings accurately into words (?).


There is zero question I want me levels up. Maybe that's not HRT, but it was when I started the program. My levels were that back then...I just want to regain that. So if I'm calling my motivation something other than it is...that's just borne from my ignorance.

Like the majority of you, I have lifted the majority of my life. Next to my wife, there's nothing in life more important to me than being physically fit. That has all caught up with me now. 2 neck surgeries, 2 back surgeries , shoulder surgery and now the other cuff needs surgery and my sciatica demands a 3rd back surgery. I have lost no less than 40 lbs of muscle..adding about 20 lbs of fat. Yes, I'm growing desperate.

I have finally come to terms with the fact I am not special. I've beaten my body to a pulp but feel like I can train like a 20 year old. No more. I have sold all of my heavy stuff. I am now a cable guy. Super high reps...super light weight. I'm OK with that (I guess) but even this routine is proving difficult under these circumstances.

I wish I was a quitter. But I don't know how to do that. I actually congratulate myself every time I DON'T lift. So am I willing to cheat, go away from my doctor's prescribed doses? Oh hell yes. Desperate times...and all that.

Thanks again everybody. I sincerely hope for your health in fitness.

[n2ojones]

...and because of some sage advice in this thread...I will not increase my dosages just yet. I cant get the HCG, I'm stuck with this AI, so I will not mess with it. Thanks for talking me off the ledge with the stuff.

[TRA]

Hello everyone:

My HRT doctor continues to prescribe me just 1 ml (test c-200) every 2 weeks. At 58yo, that's no longer cutting it so I bought some Test C 250 to boost my levels up a bit. I'm now doing .50 ml twice a week and sub Q. My T level was 500 prior to the boost. I do not know what it is now.

After several weeks I noticed my testicles had shrunken a bit. I'm OK with that, but they seemed to be riding unusually high and ached. I also felt more emotional than usual. This aside, I felt great! No gyno or any of that.

A friend just returned from overseas and brought me back a box of 1 mg Anastrazole.

Can you give me a rough idea on how much of this Anastrazole I should take to check my emotions / reduce testicular ache at my increased dosage?

I see my HRT doc just once per year, so will go back to his preferred dosage before doing blood.

I thank you in advance!

You are going to get information that runs the spectrum on this topic, and reasonably so because we are all slightly unique in terms of what levels we feel good at, how our body handles test, how we aromatize to estrogen, how we respond to AIs, etc.

My recommendation would be to seek out one of the few vets here with "HRT Specialist" under their moniker and pick their brains. There is a solid algorithmic framework to approaching TRT and it can make a big difference in terms of sides, how well you feel, how quickly you get to your normal, expense, etc.

I can share my personal experience with you but it won't really help other than to add more information to the already growing pool of personal information you are getting now. I will tell you, however, that my doc kept me at levels around 1100 because she knew that is where I felt good. That is on pellets. Is 500 normal for my age of 56? Yes. Do I feel good there? Not at all. I can tell within 50-100 points when my levels drop below 750, just like I can tell when my estrogen levels (e2) get too low or too high. I still pull labs, but it's like someone flipped a switch when the levels deviate into the "feel bad" zone.

So again, I would seek out one of the vets, Austinite is one, and the other is kelkel. I am not saying you didn't get some really good information here, though. Whatever you do, educate yourself on testosterone, estrogen, AIs, and HCG and take a step-wise structured approach that includes labs. If you are in the US you can get HCG with little difficulty, as well as everything else you need for your TRT.

Good luck!

[n2ojones]

Thanks so much Trailrun. I am extremely happy for you. Having a doctor that actually cares about how you feel would be a blessing to me. I live in a place where there is just one doctor. Mine admittedly lacks education regarding this topic and I am somewhat grateful that he involves himself with this at all. I will read and re read everything here, continue educating myself, then call upon a forum expert per your excellent advice. Thanks again (to you all).