I've been on TRT for a couple of years now, and have come to realize a few things. My journey started with 5 grams of androgel and some HCG, and ended up taking me from a total testosterone in the low hundreds to one hovering around 1,500 ng/dL. Now, you can imagine the kind of things this drastic spike did to my body. I was essentially starved of test for quite awhile, and I think that was my doctors reasoning for leaving me up there to cruise so high, at least at first. A few months passed and still no request to lower any of my dosages by my doctor. At this point I sure as hell wasn't going to argue. I had gained 40 lbs in five months, and was feeling like..well the shit.
Fastforward to six months later and I started to notice something was off. That incredible muscle tone I had developed over the past year was slowly fading. Only because I was still looking and feeling good, did I ignore what was happening. As weeks passed, I started to realize I was getting smaller, which was strange because the scales hadn't budged. I weighed the same but looked as though I had lost 15 lbs or so. I go in to see the doc and check how everything's looking lab wise. Test is still up there, 900 ng/dL and E2 is in check. I had heard that for some transdermals eventually stop absorbing correctly, something with the stratum corneum or epidermis thickening, but I never thought anything of it because of the results androgel was giving me.
As time went on I knew something was definitely up. I made the switch to injections, first at 120 mg every two weeks, a shitty protocol for sure. That obviously didn't work so I was bumped up to 200 mg a week and have been there ever since (keep in mind this is two years after starting a gel). Recently I've been searching for answers on why everything shifted.
I thought maybe it was a thyroid issue, despite never really losing any weight, I had lost muscle and hyperthyrodisim could possible account for that. T4 and TSH both came up completely normal..which put an end to that potential theory. I then considered the possibility that after that much time with supraphysiological testosterone levels, I had developed an androgen resistance, or down regulation. After reading into that, I discovered that the scientific verdict on androgen receptor down regulation is that it doesn't occur, rather up regulation seems more fitting for real world results.
So that leaves me to consider that something goes haywire when testosterone levels are left out of that normal window, and into the supraphysiological range for too long. I've had my liver checked out, ALT, AST, all the enzymes and everything in range, nothing going on there. I also read into a few articles that mentioned insulin resistance as a result of supraphysiological testosterone levels. Maybe that has something to do with the muscle loss? But then again I've also had a fasting bs done that came back 90 (70-110) which still shows a normal sensitivity, and along with that I've had random blood sugars done that come back in the 70's and 80's, non-diabetic for sure.
Now I'm left wondering if I should keep throwing gasoline on this fire by staying on 200 mg of cyp a week, or move it down to 100 and see if any of this resolves itself. Any thoughts, comments? I've included pictures of when things were working and currently. I know this is TRT talk, but its more of a cruise with no blast IMO. I guess it'd also be nice to hear from those guys who do blast and cruise, and see how they feel.
thanks
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Originally Posted by Chief N~
