Id honestly prefer to just come off TRT rather than have to inject more things, more often. I'm basically at the point where if I can't find a T only dose that improves libido/ED, l'll just come off all together. I just lowered from 120 to 90mg/wk, divided twice weekly. My last blood work at 120mg had free T, e2, and DHT, way over range at trough.
How long have you been on? I’m the same age and am curious about coming off at some point. It seems like such an overwhelming endeavour
Just give it some time, recheck your bloods in a couple months. Your body likely needs to balance out.
Some have luck using DHEA and/or pregnenolone to get their bodies to produce the other hormones missing from TRT. Have you looked into those? They're taken orally too.
Almost 3 years. Was taking HCG throughout most of that time though (about 2 years consecutive of T + HCG, with 4ish months on each end of T solo).
Do you plan to stay off trt for the foreseen future?
If I recover fine yeah. I have no problem going back on if I don't recover, but I'd rather not be on TRT so thought I'd give it a shot coming off. If I don't recover, at least I know that I need TRT and the idea of coming off won't be on my mind anymore.
These bloods look like someone who was taking 750mg/wk test E/C then dropped to 120mg/wk 4wks ago.
Definitely following. I have a script for hcg, and libido has been terribly unreliable/non-existent for the past year. I've recently decided to do a single shot of test once/week as I found it very hard to effectively use AI on twice weekly injections. I don't want to go above 125mg/wk, and would prefer to remain closer to 100mg. I know several guys who respond similarly the same as myself and they are doing well on once per week. That said, my shbg is in the mid-40s, and 4 days after a shot of 70mg I'm still above the top end limits to satisfy my endo. Recently tried 52e3.5 and I couldn't get it to work for me, which is odd b/c I was on that same dose for about 6 months. Failing this I have read of guys having success (for a period of time) using lower doses of test + HCG, but I read many accounts that the benefit is temporary.
Thanks for the info, esp the data on dht. I should get mine tested.
Yes I'm certain the libido boost was due to getting my e2 down. I'm going to sit at 90mg and 0.5mg adex (divided twice weekly) for a while and check bloods again after 6 weeks or so. If love to not take any AI so maybe that means I drop even lower, like 75mg or so. Time will tell.
I would be very very careful taking an ai on such a low dose. You might have needed it this time, but you won't be aromatizing much if at all at 90mg. Previously, my cap on e3.5d was 52mg. I went up to 55 for a few weeks and sure as shit needed some aromasin. 6 fucking mgs is all it took to tip that scale. Now, as I'm trying once per week I suspect I will be able to run closer to 110e7 without ai, as by day 5-6 my trough should be pretty within, but maybe not as I metabolize test very slowly. On 70e4 I was way out of range at trough, however, you need to factor in compounding half lives. This entire effort is very taxing at times.
Dude, I've trying to dial in for 7 years lol. Although I was throwing in a mild cycle a couple times a year for a while so I wasn't super focused on getting properly dialed. Now I am. I have the feeling I may need to go even lower if I don't want to be taking any AI. I'll only been at 90mg for a little over 2 weeks though. Ill give it another month and do bloods
If you've been struggling to dial in for so long, why not just come off?
@Nixter Are you able to come off? I have primary hypogonadism, so I'm stuck trying shit until something works. Been on for nearly 8 years and it worked well for the first year.
The most important symptom for a primary diagnosis is being symptomatic, which would be resolved using TRT. If you've played around with doses for 8 years without finding a good protocol, then you likely aren't primary. There's more to androgen signalling than serum concentration. It's possible you have more AR activity/density and are supposed to have lower serum levels, and this possibility becomes much more likely when 8 years of trial and error doesn't give symptom relief.
