Maximizing sex drive while on TRT

[one way step]

Right now I am on 200mg test and .25mg arimidex per week. I take the 200mg test on Tuesday evenings and the arimidex on either Thursday evening or Friday evening.

Everything is going well except for my sex drive. Good energy, good appetite, no brain fog. I get morning wood but I am finding that it is taking me longer than usual to get aroused otherwise, and I don't maintain my erection as long as I want to, and they are not as strong. Cialis and viagra don't seem to do the trick anymore for some reason.

When I was on HCG, that gave a great kick to my sex drive when dosed properly. Tons of random boners, always aroused, loved it. I had to stop HCG because it began causing bad side effects, mainly bad face & chest swelling and a complete loss of energy. I have tried to incorporate it back it but these side effects come back.

So, using test & arimidex, how can I dose it the best to maximize my sex drive?

 

[Megatron28]

We need to see your peak and trough blood work.

And pinning twice a week instead of once may help.

 

[one way step]

I don't have any recent bloodwork due to traveling for work, next endo appointment is in December. So I guess that sort of limits the type of help I can receive here.

Maybe I can rephrase the question; are there optimal times to dose the arimidex in relation to testosterone cypionate shots? Being as cyp is long lasting and arimidex is shorter lasting, is there an ideal time period for taking both?

Or, since I was taking 500iu HCG per week, and also had problems when I tried 250iu HCG per week, would it be worth trying 125iu HCG per week? When should arimidex be dosed to counteract estrogen increase?

 

[Megatron28]

I don't have any recent bloodwork due to traveling for work, next endo appointment is in December. So I guess that sort of limits the type of help I can receive here.

Maybe I can rephrase the question; are there optimal times to dose the arimidex in relation to testosterone cypionate shots? Being as cyp is long lasting and arimidex is shorter lasting, is there an ideal time period for taking both?

Or, since I was taking 500iu HCG per week, and also had problems when I tried 250iu HCG per week, would it be worth trying 125iu HCG per week? When should arimidex be dosed to counteract estrogen increase?

See my signature below for info on how to get blood work without going through your doc.

Optimal times? Probably. I personally keep it simple and just take my AI at the same time I take my test and hCG. But I pin twice a week.

I would really encourage your to try pinning twice a week.

 

[Alpin]

No one can or should advise u effectively here without labs.
Even u guessing that adex is doing anything at that dosing schedule is highly questionable...
From my understanding...u are dosing adex once a week....
Adex half life is 48 hrs..
It's most effectively dosed at 48-72 hrs respectively!!!
And 0.25 mg is NOT the lowest dose.
U can compound lower doses at a compounding pharmacy..
I.e. 0.125 mg cap's...

 

[trtbaldguy]

It's entirely possible that your T was skyrocketing to a level that made your energy levels dwindle and caused the other side effects. Most people discount HCG as having any effect whatsoever on your T numbers but i can tell you it has a big effect. It effects your Luteinizing hormone which is what handles how testosterone is used iirc.

From my personal experience. I used to be on a 2 months on 1 month off cycle of HCG because my doc told me i didn't want to get used to it. Well, i followed this for over a year and every time i dropped off HCG my energy levels were terrible, erections were weak, had very little sex drive (going from 5-7 times a week to 2 or 3 maybe, off HCG). I told my doc about this drop off and he said it's not normal and he wanted me to do a blood test. So i did and my numbers when off HCG dropped from 950 to 425 total T in the months i was off it. It would take me nearly 3 weeks to build it back up and then 5 weeks later i would be back off HCG again. So he told me he was putting me on continuous.

My question is (don't do this without labs, we need to see those first!) that if you're taking 200 mg a week of T, what would it hurt to put HCG back in, and drop your test cyp dose to 2 doses of 50 mg with 2 doses of 250 ui HCG and see if it works. If it's an allergic reaction to HCG then ignore this but i really think at 200 mg a week of test cyp and 500 ui a week of HCG you are skyrocketing your TT numbers to a level that causes issues for you. Everyone has their sweet spot, i really believe this. Some are great at 600, i'm great at 900+, others want to be 1100+ because of a body builder regimen, etc. Just have to find that sweet spot for you. I'm DINK (double income no kids) so my wife and i have nothing but time at night, i want to be that horny ass dude lol.

I used to do 1 dose 80mg test cyp IM a week, 24 hrs later a .5mg anastrozole and then i was doing 500ui HCG on Monday and Friday. That kept my TT at around 950 to 1000 consistently. I recently split my cyp dosage in 2 parts and AI in 2 parts to get more consistency in my T throughout the week. Doing a blood test next week to see what it tells me but the only problem is night sweats so an E2 or high T problem I'm thinking. Everything else is good, erections strong, sex drive through the roof, energy levels normal, etc.

 

[Megatron28]

It's entirely possible that your T was skyrocketing to a level that made your energy levels dwindle and caused the other side effects. Most people discount HCG as having any effect whatsoever on your T numbers but i can tell you it has a big effect. It effects your Luteinizing hormone which is what handles how testosterone is used iirc.

Can you elaborate please? What effect does hCG have on LH while one is also taking exogenous Testosterone? Or when one is not taking exogenous Testosterone?

And how does LH "handle how testosterone is used"? Please expand on this thought.

 

[trtbaldguy]

Can you elaborate please? What effect does hCG have on LH while one is also taking exogenous Testosterone? Or when one is not taking exogenous Testosterone?

And how does LH "handle how testosterone is used"? Please expand on this thought.

HCG and LH are very similar, so consider hCG a boost in the signal to tell your testes to produce testosterone. People think that when you're injecting testosterone your body doesn't produce it, and this is true if not also taking hCG. Testosterone injections lower your LH and basically cut off the signal from the pituitary to the testes, injecting hCG increases the signal to the testes, obviously from a different source and counters that loss of signal, therefore appearing to, or actually increasing your LH. That's why doctors use it to drop testicles in young men who've not had both of them drop yet. It's also why hCG is used in conjunction with testosterone injections, to keep the size and function of your testicles, otherwise they shrink considerably. hCG is also used by many who wish to get off of testosterone all together, but they need the boost to their LH signal to jump start T production in the testicles again while their body realizes it's not going to get a testosterone dump once or twice a week. The proper wording would have been handles the signal to produce testosterone, so i apologize for "handles how testosterone is used". It's been a couple years since i read up on this stuff. hCG does a lot of stuff. I researched getting off of it, then said, nope, i'll keep it.

 

[Megatron28]

HCG and LH are very similar, so consider hCG a boost in the signal to tell your testes to produce testosterone. People think that when you're injecting testosterone your body doesn't produce it, and this is true if not also taking hCG. Testosterone injections lower your LH and basically cut off the signal from the pituitary to the testes, injecting hCG increases the signal to the testes, obviously from a different source and counters that loss of signal, therefore appearing to, or actually increasing your LH. That's why doctors use it to drop testicles in young men who've not had both of them drop yet. It's also why hCG is used in conjunction with testosterone injections, to keep the size and function of your testicles, otherwise they shrink considerably. hCG is also used by many who wish to get off of testosterone all together, but they need the boost to their LH signal to jump start T production in the testicles again while their body realizes it's not going to get a testosterone dump once or twice a week. The proper wording would have been handles the signal to produce testosterone, so i apologize for "handles how testosterone is used". It's been a couple years since i read up on this stuff. hCG does a lot of stuff. I researched getting off of it, then said, nope, i'll keep it.

hCG actually suppresses LH. It does not increase one's nautral LH production. Just as when one takes exogenous testosterone, natural testosterone is shut down. Think of hCG as exogenous LH -- it mimics LH.

I agree that hCG is a great drug and has many uses for hypogandal men. But some of the mechanisms you are describing are off a bit in the way hCG works.

 

[trtbaldguy]

I'm not a scientist so i'm obviously explaining it poorly, but hCG is a new source of the signal (replacing LH) to produce testosterone in your testicles. That much i made perfectly clear in my post.

If hCG suppresses LH then why do they test your LH numbers in a standard TRT blood panel? I think the correct answer is test cyp suppresses LH, otherwise they couldn't use hCG to help you boost T production while your LH signal reestablishes itself after ceasing test cyp.

Regardless, my initial post was the say that hCG has a big role beside test cyp in the proper dose.

 

[one way step]

Okay, so just an update.

I got bloodwork this past wednesday, one day after I took 200mg test cyp and no hcg or ai. Bloodwork was;

Test: 960
E2: 45

E2 is way too high. I definitely need to get this under control to get my sex drive back. When my E2 was a 6, it was perfect.

How and when should I dose arimidex to try to control this?

 

[Alpin]

Okay, so just an update.

I got bloodwork this past wednesday, one day after I took 200mg test cyp and no hcg or ai. Bloodwork was;

Test: 960
E2: 45

E2 is way too high. I definitely need to get this under control to get my sex drive back. When my E2 was a 6, it was perfect.

How and when should I dose arimidex to try to control this?

You dose adex once a week, what did you expect?
That's probably the rebound of Estradiol after adex is out of your system in 3 days..
Why not use 0.125 mg EOD- E3D ?
And run labs to see where u are at before adjusting dose

 

[one way step]

EOD .125mg might be a good idea. Thanks man.

 

[Megatron28]

Okay, so just an update.

I got bloodwork this past wednesday, one day after I took 200mg test cyp and no hcg or ai. Bloodwork was;

Test: 960
E2: 45

E2 is way too high. I definitely need to get this under control to get my sex drive back. When my E2 was a 6, it was perfect.

How and when should I dose arimidex to try to control this?

45pg/ml is not "way too high"

 

[one way step]

It's high for me. I need that number lower in order to get my sex drive back. I remember having a minimal sex drive when my e2 was 28 and 32.

When it was 6? Hard-ons nonstop.

 

[Lenex]

Hard ons doesnt equal sex drive. Estro at 6 is too low, its not healthy. If you like it low go for 15-25 range, but 15s too low if u ask me. But it depends if its sensitive test or not