Hi all, thank you very much for the warm welcome, and thank you for being here with all your experience so generously shared. It's greatly appreciated, and a real pleasure to have stumbled into this community.
About me: I'm 50, and diving deep down the rabbit hole of TRT, because I need it, and have no choice in my small town but to go DIY, at least to start. I wish I could say I have anything to do with body building, but honestly I don't, it's an alien world to me. But it's also very clearly the one place where people truly understand and embrace exploring the limits of what humans CAN be, instead of just being mediocre. And that is inspiring, because it opens up possibilities, instead of dulling our vision and aspirations. I may never get into lifting, my "athletics" may always be connected to physical work like tree maintenance, but the knowledge you all bring to the table is invaluable.
I also think there is a huge problem in general in the TRT world, driven by too many doctors being badly misinformed, out of date, hands tied by the medical system, and ultimately cowardly. I know there are good exceptions, but many of us need to take primary responsibility for knowing and taking charge of doing the BEST, the OPTIMUM treatment, whether that is through guiding/forcing our doctors to facilitate us doing it right for ourselves, or else through DIY with UGL gear if absolutely necessary because we can't get official support. Unfortunately there are few comprehensive sources of information here, and that is at least in part because some of the most critical knowledge is very new, insights we've been learning even within the last few years and are still struggling to articulate, stuff that hasn't filtered through formal medical academia yet (if it ever will). Moreover, even if knowledge does get formal proof and recognition, it is too often watered down and treated in a cowardly fashion, rather than being taken up enthusiastically to advance people's lives. It's a paradigm of treating sickness to return to mediocrity, rather than exploring a path of increasing and/or optimizing health and power.
So, here's my best strategy and understanding so far, of basic "old guy" TRT where there's no worry about keeping the nuts working: SubQ micro dosing with long esters, longest interval twice weekly, with every 2 days or even daily a necessary consideration. Typical dose is 150mg/week (divided to dosage schedule), with the typical range being 100-250 depending on the individual, in order to hit optimum "normal" levels (as opposed to super human levels). The word on the street is that the vast majority of men can thrive on optimum levels of T with no significant / unacceptable side effects, when the delivery is consistent enough (no peaks and troughs). My best theory so far is that with very stable levels, the body is able to balance how it deals with the T, including how much it aromatises into estrogen, and all the other things that happen. If levels are not stable, the body is constantly chasing a yo-yo cycle it can't keep up with, alternately over and under responding, all of which cause sides.
My detailed strategy so far: using UGL T400 (test E + C + D mix), subQ using 0.3ml insulin pins 29gx1/2". Will start at 150mg/week, dosed every 3 days. I have labs every 3 months ordered through letsgetchecked, waiting for the first kit and results, because if I'm not actually low-T (a very slim chance), then it's time for a serious and deep head-to-toe with the doctor. I also want pre-T results I can hand the doctor at a later date, so I have ammo to show I started for legit reasons, when I ask to go legit.
I'm going to start collecting best published articles and advice, and try to piece together a quality, up-to-date simple guide, so that guys have the ammo they need to take charge of their own treatment, including enough info to whip their doctors up to speed, and to ground their own DIY if that's their only option. Finally, given that DIY using UGL is necessary and/or common, I want guys to have access to a resource that doesn't chicken shit around the topic for fear of encouraging. Sorry, it's too late for that, and there's no excuse for censoring the best information we can compile.
Anyways, that's all I have time for just now. I'll start asking polite questions soon enough in the appropriate places. Any feedback and criticism is EAGERLY welcome, I'm trying to learn here enough I can maybe contribute something, not push an agenda.
