What T-Levels Worked Best for You and Your Dr. for your TRT Protocol?

[Harot]

I'm curious to see where your TRT places you in the range for T levels. Is this where you want to be, or where the Dr. placed you and said this is where you should be. Do you feel better at 800 vs 1200?

Just curious, and I am sure others might be as well...

Right now, 120 mg of T-cyp (inject 60 twice a week) seems to produce about levels of 1100 for me. That feels much better than being in the 300's.

 

[Megatron28]

100mg every 3.5 days used to put me at about 1180. But for some reason, that now puts me at about 1500. I am working on finding the new dose to bring me back down to the upper 1100's. Here are some past dosages I have tried (going off memory)

- 100mg every 7 days gave me a range of about 1100 peak and 330 trough
- 50mg every 3.5 days was about 650
- 60mg every 3.5 days was about 850
- 80mg every 3.5 days was about 930

I figure if I am going to all this trouble that comes with TRT that I may as well get myself into the upper end of the normal range. But that does mean I have to use and AI. At 50mg every 3.5 days I did not need to use an AI. Anything higher though and I needed one.

 

[Harot]

Megatron, thank you for your feedback. I was curious to your protocol, since you are so knowledgable here.

For an AI, what is the "trigger" for you. At what threshold do you consider E2 to be a problem? When it is above 25? or above 40? Or is it a combination of that, sides, and how you feel?

Interesting how your T-levels changed with the same dose.

What organ processes T out of the body? Liver? Would that mean your liver is not disposing of T as quickly as it used to? Would that be a sign of anything?

I figure if I am going to all this trouble that comes with TRT that I may as well get myself into the upper end of the normal range. But that does mean I have to use and AI. At 50mg every 3.5 days I did not need to use an AI. Anything higher though and I needed one.

Agreed

 

[Megatron28]

The trigger for using an AI is when my estradiol gets too high. Blood work is the only true way to know. 50mg of test every 3.5 days had my E2 at 27. 60mg of test every 3.5 days had my E2 at 97. It was a pretty easy call that I need an AI if I wanted to go about 50mg every 3.5 days.

Using the Regular Estradiol assay I like my E2 to be in the upper 30's to lower 40's. If I start going below that I get joint pain. Everyone is different though.

Here is how Testosterone is processed in the body according to Drugs.com:

About 90 percent of a dose of testosterone is excreted in the urine as glucuronic and sulfuric acid conjugates of testosterone and its metabolites; about 6 percent of a dose is excreted in the feces, mostly in the unconjugated form. Inactivation of testosterone occurs primarily in the liver. Testosterone is metabolized to various 17-keto steroids through two different pathways.

My liver values are fine according to my blood work. I have a post on this whole phenomena here in the TRT section if you want to read it. I would love more input.

 

[Harot]

The trigger for using an AI is when my estradiol gets too high. Blood work is the only true way to know. 50mg of test every 3.5 days had my E2 at 27. 60mg of test every 3.5 days had my E2 at 97. It was a pretty easy call that I need an AI if I wanted to go about 50mg every 3.5 days.

Using the Regular Estradiol assay I like my E2 to be in the upper 30's to lower 40's. If I start going below that I get joint pain. Everyone is different though.

Here is how Testosterone is processed in the body according to Drugs.com:

About 90 percent of a dose of testosterone is excreted in the urine as glucuronic and sulfuric acid conjugates of testosterone and its metabolites; about 6 percent of a dose is excreted in the feces, mostly in the unconjugated form. Inactivation of testosterone occurs primarily in the liver. Testosterone is metabolized to various 17-keto steroids through two different pathways.

My liver values are fine according to my blood work. I have a post on this whole phenomena here in the TRT section if you want to read it. I would love more input.

Great info...so thank you. I assume you have not found any "significant" long term usage risks of using an AI as part of your TRT protocol. I have not seen much, but of course, studies on men for an AI seem to be quite rare...so information and being data driven on this is rather elusive to me.

Very interesting regarding how your body is processing T differently. It would be interesting to dig into the variables involved...possible diet changes, liver functionality, activity levels, etc. The body is so complex, but clearly something changed.

 

[IMT staff]

It would be great to dig up stuff like that on all fronts, the sad truth is most people will not put the time in to work on those factors.

This is why it is much better to alleviate symptoms, then get a baseline lab draw, instead of doing it backwards and shooting for a specific number. Your post actually proves that point since our bodies are so "complex" how on earth could we use one generalized scale for everyone?

I know companies and their physicians that do it that way, after their unsuccessful attempts at correcting the patients symptoms, they usually end up here

 

[jomamma007]

Depends on the panel as well.
The standard panels put me 40-55
the sensitive panels put my estrogen around 18-25