HRT/Testosterone replacement therapy (TRT) Best Practices

[BigNotch44]

HRT/TRT Best Practices

I'd like to seek advice from those who are experienced with Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT) routines. Please share your routine, compounds/dosages and proven record of success. Total hormone counts before and after would be great. I'm sure this will be good info for anyone considering an HRT/TRT regimen.

A little background on me and my short experience thus far with HRT:

I'm 28 years old and have been body building for about 10 years now. I weigh 215lbs at 5'9'' with about 10% BF. I've ran a handful of cycles in my time with my last one ending in July. After a host of PCT regimens, I have found my baseline test only recovers to a total count of 400 ng/dl. After a two week Human Chorionic Gonadotropin (HCG) experimental run, my test went up to 900 ng/dl--a marked improvement. After discontinuing, for the sake of experimentation, my test dropped back to the 400 ng/dl baseline. My doc, obviously so, wants me to use Human Chorionic Gonadotropin (HCG) as an Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT) and possibly add in some bio-identical 10% testosterone cream. Of course I feel that just using cypionate with some Human Chorionic Gonadotropin (HCG) would be the best route, but my doc warned me of this due to my young age. He said it would be best, and most conservative to try and boost my levels up endogeneously since the Human Chorionic Gonadotropin (HCG) proved to have worked. With lack of experience I'm not sure what's best and hence the seeking of best practices from experienced folk.

Thanks for the shared experience in advance!

 

[cjw2021]

Just use the Human Chorionic Gonadotropin (HCG) your doc gave you then. That's what I would do if my nuts worked. Obviously you did this to yourself from the steroid use so your pituitary isn't signalling your nuts. You are secondary at the moment. Most doctors seeing as your levels are sufficient with Human Chorionic Gonadotropin (HCG) alone will not prescribe more on top of that. There is no point. I prefer the instant release mechanism in the body anyway over synthetic long estered testosterone.

 

[Teutonic]

Agreed.

At your age I too ran gear and competred...my test was 110 2 yr s ago. I do 150 mg every 5-7 days..keeps me at 8-1100..hcg and mild Aromatase inhibitor (AI) .

 

[BigNotch44]

My last dose was 2500 IU every 4 days to get me to 900 after 2 weeks of use. As an Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT) I suspect this is too much and more of a PCT.

What would be the dosage recommendation? Should I start off lower and monitor my blood work until I get it to the right level?

 

[BigNotch44]

To be clear, it was 2500 IU of Human Chorionic Gonadotropin (HCG) every 4 days.

 

[TR2838]

HCG seemed to work for you.. If I were you. I would try 250 ius every 3-4 days.. Go from there.. Don't use that cream.. Your doctor doesn't understand that testosterone cream will shut you down just as much as test shots will.. Keep us posted.. This will be interesting to follow

Just to be clear.. That is two hundred and fifty ius.. Keep up w/ your blood work and make sure you test for estradiol as well.. Good Luck

 

[gmann]

when you say "shut you down" what do you mean?

 

[Motiv8ed]

He means that your body will quit making testosterone. So the only test you have in your system comes from the cream.

 

[gmann]

how does that take place?

 

[BigNotch44]

I believe what he means by "shut down" is that the cream testosterone will "trick" my HPTA negative feedback by introducing a larger amount of exogenous (from outside the body) testosterone. This will essentially signal to my pituitary to stop sending LH and FSH to my boys and then stop natural testosterone production. Below is a good article about this feedback mechanism.

testosteronewisdom.com/excerpt.html

With me it seems like my LH and FSH levels are not high enough to get me to the total T I want (around 1000 ng/dL). Human Chorionic Gonadotropin (HCG) takes on the role of LH and FSH by stimulating production of endogenous (from inside the body) testosterone. This is common with secondary hypogonadism--which I seem to be experiencing.

My plan will be to start at 250 IU and monitor blood work every 2 weeks. I'm also going to supplement DHEA and Pregnenolone at 100mg ED. Estradiol will be good to monitor because I've seen aromatizing side effects on previous cycles.

Has anyone implemented an Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT) routine such as mine and seen successful results?

 

[babyface58]

BigNotch44 I'm about to start an Human Chorionic Gonadotropin (HCG) protocol myself, I'll let you know how mine goes when I begin.

I'm going to start it on Nov. 30th after I get the prescription from my doctor.

I hope you're going to take an Aromatase inhibitor (AI) with that because Human Chorionic Gonadotropin (HCG) tends to aromitize like crazy and your estrogen levels will more that likely shoot up if you're not taking an AI.

 

[BigNotch44]

Thanks Babyface58. What's your dosage going to be starting off?

Yeah, I'm planing on having an Aromatase inhibitor (AI) on hand. An interesting one I've been looking into is aromasin bc of it's estrogen reducing properties while also showing an increase in total testosterone. Seems like a good fit for HRT.