Thread: My blood work came back today

Originally Posted by Glycomann

I'm 48 and on TRT for a year. I take 200 mg of Test C a week with 0.5 mg every other day of letrozole. also I take 250 iu of hCG 2-3 times a week one month on and one month off. My test is a little over the top on this regime. I test at 1300-1400 on a range of 300-1000. My estradiol is 15-20 on a normal range of 10-60. Some things you have to watch out for including cholesterol, triglycerides, liver values and probably most importantly, hematology numbers. RBCs, hematocrit, mean corpuscular volume, hemoglobin etc... Steroids make your blood stem cells pump out a lot of red cells. You don't want to let your get to thick. Also, platelets tend to aggregate more so platelets can test as low and this can predispose you to stroke. I give blood every 2-3 months to ward off hematologic problems. As far as benefits, I no longer have brain fog and I perform better in the gym for sure. Beware though. There is a huge temptation to start adding compounds. The natural tendency is to feel more is better. This is probably OK for short periods but can lead to poor health trends as far as what the blood work is telling you. If you decide to do TRT get regular bloodwork and adjust your treatments accordingly. For myself, i have to watch my hematology and especially platelets.

This post is right on the money. A few years ago, I did a cycle of test and deca that raised my hemoglobin way too high. I was also on HRT and my doc freaked, and the bloodwork was done a good 6 weeks after I ceased the cycle! Took a year of blood tests every 3 months, before he put me back on 200mg/2 wks. Luckily my pharmacy renews my script enough that I can do about 175 mg a week, and no one seems to notice .

But back to the point, test raises your red cell count, and that is good to a point. Too high, means thick blood, which can clog arteries and lead to stroke. Serious shit.

Originally Posted by FMJ

I've seen both 1% and 5% test gels out there but I'm curious of how much that actually is as far as mg per ml?
Anyone know? The gel that I may start doesn't give a percentage, it just states 200mg/ml. So what is that in comparison to the 1 and 5 percent gels?

1% means each 100mg of gel has 1mg of testosterone, usually base if made by a compounding pharmacy but sometimes propionate ester.

1 cc of 1% gel has a mass of roughly 1000 mg, so 1 cc of gel has 10mg of testosterone.

1 cc of 5% gel has 50mg of testosterone.

Published pharmacokinetic data on Androgel suggest 10% of the active makes its way through your skin and into your bloodstream.

So 1 cc of 1% transdermal delivers 1mg systemically, and 1 cc of 5% transdermal should theoretically deliver 5mg systemically.

A transdermal dosed at 200mg per ml has a concentration of 20%. Theoretically this should deliver 20mg to your body every day, but the relationship between concentration and absorption is less than linear extrapolation suggests. Ultimately you will have to check blood levels to titrate dosing.

Oh and for comparison, injected HRT in males usually starts at around 100-125mg per week of enanthate or cypionate, delivering roughly 70-85mg of testosterone weekly or about 10-12mg daily. (You lose some due to the weight of the ester) Low testesterone?

Hope this helps.

Originally Posted by Built

Hope this helps.

Yes, you always help Built. Thank you!

Excellent.

Keep in mind there are ways to enhance uptake - for instance occlusion, or applying to freshly-shaven skin. Also heat - applying it in the sauna when you're warm, sweating and your blood vessels are dilated helps a lot, and some areas have better permeability than others. Thin skin with little sub-q fat is important, especially for gel made from test base since it can interact with aromatase so easily. Most products suggest NOT applying it to scrotal tissue because of the high concentration of 5-alpha-reductase found in genital skin, but this is also an area of enhanced uptake so it's a bit of a double-edged sword. If you are getting your gel made, get half made from test base and half from propionate so you can take advantage of both the immediate hit from the base, and the sustained release from the prop, which can more safely be applied to genital areas where it must first absorb into the blood stream rather than acting locally (think "suspension" vs "ester" - one has a very quick but somewhat local effect, the other is slower, last longer and acts systemically).

If I had both base and prop to play with, I'd apply half the dose once a day to genital skin after the shower, for sustained absorption and systemic uptake, and the other half just before workouts to the delts and neck, areas with thin skin and lots of androgen receptors, for the boost.

Originally Posted by FMJ

I've seen both 1% and 5% test gels out there but I'm curious of how much that actually is as far as mg per ml?
Anyone know? The gel that I may start doesn't give a percentage, it just states 200mg/ml. So what is that in comparison to the 1 and 5 percent gels?

1% is 10 mg/ml. 5% is 50 mg/ml.

Okay guys,
I talked to my TRT guy today and turns out he isn't on board with the test cream. He said my SHBG was too high for me to utilize any additional test so instead he wants to prescribe me the following:

"
Testosterone Cypionate 200mg x 10ml: Take 1ml. per week...(same day of every week) *day 1 of therapy.
HCG 11,000 units: Take 500units of hcg on days 5 & 6 following testosterone inj.
Stanozolol 50mg troche: Take 5 troche per week..(10 weeks will be sufficient to lower shbg levels).
The stanozolol will not be needed to continue after 10 weeks.....Just the testosterone, hcg, and possibly a anti-estrogen (arimidex)."

What do you think about this? I told him I would research it a bit and get back to him.

• Pin 1 cc test now as a frontload, then in three days start pinning half a cc twice a week.
• The stanozolol is to bring down your SHBG and thus make more of your total testosterone available to you.
• The HCG - I'll defer to the fellas who have used it. I am unfamiliar with dosing. I'm not sure when you'd want to pin HCG with pinning the cyp twice a week, but I do know your blood levels will be a lot more stable with two pins a week than it would be on one.

FMJ - you will be a lot happier with the injections than you would have been with the transdermal.

Originally Posted by Built

• Pin 1 cc test now as a frontload, then in three days start pinning half a cc twice a week.
• The stanozolol is to bring down your SHBG and thus make more of your total testosterone available to you.
• The HCG - I'll defer to the fellas who have used it. I am unfamiliar with dosing. I'm not sure when you'd want to pin HCG with pinning the cyp twice a week, but I do know your blood levels will be a lot more stable with two pins a week than it would be on one.

FMJ - you will be a lot happier with the injections than you would have been with the transdermal.

Thanks Built. I'm sure I will be too. Just a little more costly initially. I'll have to work that part out.

Pinning costs MORE? Interesting. Here in Canada it's very cheap.

Originally Posted by Built

Pinning costs MORE? Interesting. Here in Canada it's very cheap.

Well, it's the winstrol sublinguals. They're a fortune.
Thank god it's only 10 weeks.
He told me I would take those first to lower the SHBG. After the 10 weeks, I would start pinning the Test C and HCG.
If thats the case, I could split the cost, get the Winstrol now and the rest in 2 months.

Ah. I thought you meant the cyp was more expensive than transdermal.

Originally Posted by Built

Ah. I thought you meant the cyp was more expensive than transdermal.

Oh no.. thats much cheaper. Almost 50%.