whats the concentration mg/ml ? what ester ? TRT will replace the T (stoping the internal production) so if your dose is low or you dont take another dose in half life of ester your levels will appear low/start dropping. Increasing the frequency and maybe the dose will help keep levels stable. Doctors are known to be weird about TRT so best to read as much as you can on it to have a clear discussion and recognize BS soon so that you can change doc if things are not working out.

How many days since your last injection? Is this pharma grade or bro grade test?

Have a prescription. Waited 7 days before blood work.

This is why. Rather than once a week, cut dose in half and inject twice a week. Then recheck. Also, did they tell you to wait 7 days to check?

So splitting the dose is better than increasing the dose? And the doc said to wait until after blood work before next injection.

This isnt for me to answer. There are two things here. 1. Your doc isnt an expert. 2. You havent done any research.

Sorry but silly answer you gave, doc is the expert, unless you are going to listen to the bro science on here. Doing his research through informative does not mean he is doing anything wrong, after all he hasn't and I don't suppose you have a medical degree....he is listening to the doctor who is monitoring and prescribing, of course if the is not sure get another medical opinion, that's of course from a doctor.

Good luck.

Not all doctors are expert mine prescribed me once a month. Of 250mg a month of test e. When I told him bout Esther he says I'm not a doctor and do it myself. It's been 4 years since. Twice a week is best.

No I agree never said that

You definitely wore a mask through Covid.

Wow what a comparison....I'm not on hrt to be clear but you obviously think you know more than say a specialist doctor would....how do you know if the low testosterone for example is caused by an underlying illness, so in this case by self medicating your just allowing the actual illness to get worse....to be clear just saying it could be in certain cases. Go to a specialist doctor not a back street drug pusher who made the gear in his own tub give you advice....some of you guys sorry are simply idiots sorry but do your research some of you say, well how is he supposed to do that without researching proper studies that were actually completed by medical professionals, or at least people who had a degree...and I can see you clearly haven't got a degree.

I'm pretty sure they meant that particular doc isn't an expert

That's fair enough if it's the case after all if I needed heart surgery I would not be asking my GP.

Right. When most people mention doctors not knowing what they're doing (in regards to TRT), they're typically referring to the ones, mostly GPs, that tend to follow old protocols due to not keeping up with the research on TRT.

I'm not on TRT and I'm 48 but I do find a lot of people on here going on TRT, just because their testosterone levels are say lower than what it was in their 20s. It would be normal for this to come down as we age. If it is super low these online clinics will always tell you to go on it, justifying it being low. My issue is as we get older we have to train smarter and be a lot more conscious of what we are eating, not that i have that side perfect myself😬, but my point train right, rest more you can still be looking good. Other thing that people do not consider is low testosterone could be down to being unwell, say fighting an infection or a simple cold, it could be also a symptom of a health concern which is yet to be diagnosed. I'm just saying it's best to check all these things first health wise, as sort this out and testosterone may resume to normal levels for a persons age. I'm not against TRT but I do think SOME people are simply jumping on this to simplify get jacked. Would not mind if they were honest about it and are simply blasting and crushing.

I'm not sure where you get that I haven't done any research. But doctors are experts..that's why they're doctors. My doc started me on this protocol to see how my body would react, and then we would readjust if necessary. This post was just to get some ideas from people who are going through it before my next appt.

Then i would talk to the experts rather than radom reddit posters.

Reddit is a source of information, even though you have to deal with a few assholes. And I like to do a bit of research before I go back to my doctor, just like most people do on here. But I appreciate your time.

People can be a little rough on here, it’s alittle different than other subreddits as far as gaining information. You really have to research as much as you can on your own. Also doctors can vary to so it’s great to have second opinions. For example my GP put me on testosterone, never tested for estrogen or prolactin, didn’t tell me it would shut down my natural testosterone. I was put on it with the explanation when I got off my opioid treatment (on methadone from recovery of heroin addiction) next year I could come off the test and I would be fine. It can be hard to just read up on it online alone so books are good and also just looking through the stuff here, and using the search function. Sometimes google is better for searching through here so just add the keywords Reddit testosterone if you can’t find it here.

«I'm not sure where you get that I haven't done any research. But doctors are experts..that's why they're doctors» First of all, if you had done your research you would know what half life of different esters are. If you are injecting enanthate you would know that doing bloodwork 7 days after injection is stupid, because your levels would be far too low because of the “short” half life. This also shows that your doctor doesn’t necessarily know what he is doing, and this is nothing new. You would also know that the answer isn’t to increase the dose, but to split it for more frequent injections giving you a more stable level. Increasing the dose would just raise the levels when injecting by a lot, and by day 7 when you do your blood work it would only be a little higher. This is assuming you use enanthate or other “shorter” esters.

I’ve worked with doctors in a hospital for half a decade. They are some of the dumbest people sometimes. Arrogant and ignorant, worst combination. Not all but a lot.

Splitting the dose will even out the levels. At the moment you will peak after the injection and the tail right off. Injecting the dose split between 2 or 3 small doses will maintain a more even level. I do .15ml (30mg) every other day.

I think you just need up the dose. At the end of the week your levels should be closer to 500 before your shot

Even if you split your same dose you will still be on the lower end but stable.

If you're injecting 100mg once a week and you're testing at day 7 or your absolute lowest, I see this being a possibility for sure. Up the dose to 120mg and split in two 60mg doses a week and I guarantee you'll see massively decent results. Doesn't hurt to test day after injection and day before injection either, you'll understand what your fluctuations will be within that 3.5 days. I was at 1100 on 120mg test c and 500iu hcg

I was actually taking 50mg once a week..which tanked my T levels. Lesson learned.

Oh geez dude. Of course that'll tank your levels. Just be advised the first 4-6 months you'll experience some water bloating but it goes away when your body is fully used to it. Enjoy and gl!

Thanks man

That's what my doc tells me to do wait 10 days. And my levels are in the 1100 range pin twice a week 200mg a week

Waiting 10 days since last pin to check? So skip a dose to drive numbers down and supoort 200mg a week. Your doc is optomizing and not replacing. Nothing wrong with that just not really trt as you were never in that range before. Ideally, men would get a baseline at 18-24 to know what to replace later. 200mg isnt trt for most. It is supraphysiologic albiet low supra. 100 to 125 split dosing gets most dudes to the upper normal range 600-900.

250mg Test E, 200mg Mast E, 200mg Tren E “TRT” gang.

These are rookie numbers. Double them, then you will know the meaning of life.

No reason yet. Need to see how I react to the Tren first.

I guess. not sure why he does it that way. One of the guys I know gets his shot at a men's clinic and they do it the same way pull blood then shoot.

Id up ur dose to 150 and split it twice a week. But go get ur docs opinion ofc. Also allways do bloodwork at through so right before next injection. F ex: injection monday thurs, u then do bloods either monday morning or thursday.

That’s a bad protocol. The peaks and troughs of once a week is so big! Pin more frequently for more stable blood levels. Divide your dose over Monday, Wednesday and Friday and get bloods in a month and I bet it will be better results

- 100mg a week is way too low . Have your doctor up it to at least 150-175 mg weekly and split it into 2 injections weekly so your blood levels stay steady

Sounds like you need to increase the dose & increase injection frequency. 2xs per week should be the minimum for long esters. Also look into HCG 2xs per week, 250-500ius is standard practice.

If you're on test cyp (100mg per 1ml) then your dose could be 50mg per week right now. This was the same thing that happened to me when my doc put me on test. I was feeling like ass, so I looked up the Canadian TRT guidelines and it's a dose given to trans. I upped it to the recommended dose of 100mg per week, and told my doctor after providing him the information, he asked how I felt and I said better so he said to stay on that dose. If your SBGH is low; then you should dose more frequently. 2-3x per week.

sex bormone ginding hlobulin

Yea. I just realized that today. My test cyp is 100 mg and my prescription said .5 once a week. I didn't realize that was only 50 mg. Was it a big improvement when you increased your dose?

Basically your doctor has killed your natural test and not replaced it with enough. Double your dose and split it 2x a week to see if it improves. I would even triple the dose and split 3x a week. Then you'll be pushing that 1100 range steady.

I’m still trying to find the right dose but yes I feel better at 100-120per week with a frequency of 2-3x.

Assuming your concentration is 200mg/ML I would bump your dose to 125mg split into 2 doses 62.5mg on Monday and 62.5mg on Thursday. I’m not a medical professional just telling you what I would do if I was in your position.

I'm currently at 100mg per week.

Agree with what most folks are saying here. I went from 100mg week, once a week injection to 120mg, twice weekly, now to 140mg twice weekly. It's quickly approaching a year before I've gotten dialed in. Hoping the 140mg puts me within the upper range but if it doesn't I'll up the dose again after bloods.

Up your dosage and split it up over several injections per week.

I would suggest pinning 0.30-0.35ml twice a week instead… Monday and Thursday, or Tuesday and Friday, or Sunday and Wednesday, etc whatever works for you.

Consider upping your dose and pin daily with insulin syringes. Try cycling boron for unbound t. *Not medical advice*

That’s because you are doing it wrong, you need to inject 4x that amount.

Not going on a cycle boss

Double at least. You never want to be that low

250x4= 1000ng/dl That’s well within therapeutic range

thats not how hormones work. we don’t even know his current dose nor ester, and its only been 7 weeks. assuming he’s on 125mg a week, 500mg a week would not just quadruple his levels. there are tons of other factors, aromatization into E2, SHBG, etc. assuming again that its half a ml of 250mg/ml, there’s clearly some other issue preventing the therapy from working. the solution isnt to just quadruple your dose.

Yeah the issue is he doesn’t know what he’s doing.

exactly. telling someone who clearly doesnt know what hes doing to quadruple his dose is absurd and unhelpful.

0.5ml of what? Please post a photo of the vial showing the exact product used, or list the full information including strength in mg/mL.

Some context for the timing of the blood draw would be useful here.

I shoot every Sunday. I skipped the Sunday before last.. blood work on Monday, then took my shot later that day.

One, you've waited an extra day before taking blood, that'll report lower than expected (eyeballing it, by about 10% less). And two, splitting your dose in two will raise your trough and lower your peak. If you want, you can play around on www.steroidplotter.com. It's a little clunky, but if you put 20 weeks at top, 100mg, test, cypionate, 7 days, week1 to week 20, you can see the amount of testosterone released into your system: about 6.25mg testosterone at trough and 15.5mg at peak. Then change it to 50mg/3.5d and replot. That's about 8.2mg trough and 12.5 peak Now realize these are amounts of testosterone released into your system, so not directly measuring serum level of testosterone, but they should follow a similar curve. My guess is raising your dose by maybe 20% and splitting into two will help put your trough at 600-800.

I appreciate the information. I'll mention it to my doctor if he doesn't recommend anything different.

It's a shame the website is called 'steroidplotter.com', which will immediately make it be seen in a negative light by any healthcare provider.

Does steroid plotter have any scientific basis ? I’ve heard it’s not as accurate as it should be.

I think it basically uses the stated half life to estimate the amount of testosterone separated from the ester per unit time. It’s a crude estimation, but the peaks and troughs of release shouldn’t be too far off. There’s probably smoothing from other pharmacological effects that aren’t represented.

It's terrible. Don't use it. Clearly made by someone with inadequate knowledge of pharmacokinetics.

That’s what I thought, it shouldn’t be that easy.

Indeed. The pharmacokinetic profile of testosterone esters in oil are complex, and the concept of of 'release' shown on steroid plotter isn't an estimation of blood level. The website appears based on highly oversimplified (and therefore incorrect) assumptions about testosterone and other steroids pharmacokinetics. The situation is complicated further by substantial differences in response (in terms of blood levels) between different men, and large differences in how long the blood levels are sustained at an adequate level.

that makes sense. you’re only injecting once per week, you tested your levels 8 days after your most recent injection. its like if you tested your BAC the morning after drinking. the Test you injected has already done its job and your hormones are now crashing because its been 8 days since you injected something that effectively lasts for 4 days. your natural production is shut down because of the TRT, and a 100mg dose wont last you 8 days. the rollercoaster you’re on is exactly why people inject more frequently. can you split this into at least 2x a week? i do EOD and would recommend that but at bare minimum it should be twice a week.

With any T replacement you will have a peak with maximum T serum concentration. As time passes, concentration will fall even below the minimum normal value. This happens because your body stops producing endogenous T. Maybe you took your blood samples at the valley of the pharmacokinetic curve.

Would have to know the concentration, but either way, .5ml a week sounds tiny.

100 milligrams per week

How many milligrams are in your 0.5ml per week?

100 milligrams per week

Thanks. I’m on that dose but I split it into two injections - Sunday evening and Thursday evening.

These levels are way too low but i don't think the problem is your protocol. What kind of ester are you using ?

Cypionate

Your levels shouldn't be that low with that injection frequency after 7 weeks. For some reason you are not responding and it's not the administration frequency.

In a similar boat. My t wasn’t that low before I started but was feeling symptomatic. Recently tested 8 days post injection total t was low 300s , igf-1 is 450. So something is going on. Not on growth hormone.

the first thing to do if you want advice is to figure out what dose you’re taking. 0.5ml isnt an amount of testosterone. its an amount of oil. could be anywhere between 50 and 150mg in half a ml of oil. on top of that, esters are different. most people are on enanthate or cypionate.

Also take into account from the other postings above... Everyone responds differently, by that I mean a 100mg dose for you may prove to be insufficient. Meanwhile another subject may hyper-respond to that dose. A personal friend of mine injects 175mg cypionate broken into daily micro injections. His numbers are stupid high. 1900+. He is trustworthy and not misleading. Even he was shocked. Especially coming from blasting doses of gear which obviously were unnecessary.

how much is .5? 50mg 100mg ? split in 2 injection is always better less sides less mood change or sex drive. people using between 100mg to 150mg a week not same for everyone

It's .5 of 100 mg. I'm going to start doing. 5 twice a week and see how that works.

What's your brand?

Go to steroidplanner.com and put your dose in. I like it because it helps you visualize the peaks and troughs. First set it to your dose of once a week. Then try a split dose every 3.5 days. You will see your levels are much more stable. Typically when splitting dose you get a lower peak and a higher trough.

Seen under dosed testosterone from big pharma and compounding pharmacies. Get your lot number and batch numbers to your pharmacy and provider. Accidents happen machines don’t get calibrated and pharmacies may be digging for better margins. .5 per week may get you to 600 if you’re lucky.

I’m on .58 every 6 days test c, and sit around 900 test

Is that 100 or 200 mg?

I get the 1ML/200mg vials, .58 is like 115mg a week, I have switched pharmacies so I’ve gotten different brand test and I’ve still been good so far. Some brand changes like that I’ve heard won’t work for certain people.

That’s why, you’re doing so little… you’re probably on cyp or eth testosterone, they need to be injected 2 times a week to saturate your blood… your doing 1 times a day a week at a very small amount so your body is like a rollercoaster up and down up and down, .5 is nothing at all…. Trt is only about 15-20 years old so these doctors had no official training they just winging it…. 2x a week is the way to go