Self-administered TRT, how can we make it safer?

Matthersby

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We don’t need any hate, please. We know it’s always safer under a doctors care. I have, in the past, paid good money to 1 Urologist, 1 Endo, and oddly enough 1 Urgent Care PA, to be on HRT. 2 didn’t check clot factors, 1 didn’t check estrogen regularly, and 1 thought they could “taper up my natural levels” and take me off one day.

I made the decision to check these things on my own regularly through labs every 90 days, and spend a fraction of the money on good UGL Test. Actually annual cost for test and labs were around 2 months of Physician-monitored care.

I know there are dozens of guys on here that do the same thing. We don’t need any comments about how irresponsible we are. My labs are more scrutinized and analyzed now more than they ever have been. I’ve been an ER nurse, Combat Medic, Paramedic, and Dialysis Nurse, taken Pharmacology and Lab Analysis classes, can draw my own blood for labs and can even self donate to lower RBC’s when necessary.

I plan to get with our board sponsor, Entourage Medical at some point after I compete at 40, so I’m free to blast and cruise until then.

So, what do you guys look for when practicing “responsible” self administered TRT?

I currently check:

Hematocrit/hemoglobin RBCs
Platelets
LDL/HDL
Liver enzymes
Estrogen panel

Even A1C and Thyroid
Kidney function-which is always slightly off for most athletes-not to be concerned with if GFR is straight.

Not looking at labs right now but I think I’m covering the important long term stuff.
 
kenpoengineer

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Add SHBG to this:
IMG_3953.JPG


And another
IMG_5155.JPG
 
Matthersby

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SHBG, yes totally forgot that one, comes with comprehensive hormone panel.
 
Toren

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....and 1 thought they could “taper up my natural levels” and take me off one day.
Oh ya, that seems reasonable to me. I once heard a rumor that if you frontload with all the grams you can fit in the needle, it should stay in your system for life....

I don't have much to add on the topic at hand other than to say I hope you get to a place, and it seems you are heading in that direction, where you have acces to clean, inexpensive Rx Testosterone.

Carry on.
 
Renew1

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Great Thread.
 
AnabolicGuru

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You’ve mentioned plenty of ways to keep it safe already, so some of the ones I’m about to mention might just echo those. I personally get comprehensive bloodwork (hematocrit, hemaglobin, cholesterol, liver, kidney, prostate, test, estro, dht, etc) donate blood, order from trusted labs, and whatnot. There’s also plenty of supplements worth investing in for health; fueledpassion just listed a ton of them in another thread. I also work with my primary care doctor to get my bloodwork done, analyze bloodwork, and just help make sure things are going fine in general.
 
fueledpassion

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If people took more proactive care in their overall health like this, it would help pave the way for legislative drug reform in the coming years and have major positive impact on the cost of healthcare.
 
Godstrength

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Just wanted to add to this thread that I'm self-prescribing trt and recently started adding DHEA and pregnenolone and it makes a huge difference to overall well-being. Crazy I was aware of trt possibly leading to reduce levels of both of these hormones but I had no idea how beneficial they could be when supplementing. Just FYI to anyone who's been using trt for a while and feels like it's lagging in the kick it should have.
 
kenpoengineer

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Just wanted to add to this thread that I'm self-prescribing trt and recently started adding DHEA and pregnenolone and it makes a huge difference to overall well-being. Crazy I was aware of trt possibly leading to reduce levels of both of these hormones but I had no idea how beneficial they could be when supplementing. Just FYI to anyone who's been using trt for a while and feels like it's lagging in the kick it should have.
Absolutely agree. Adding DHEA and pregnenolone is necessary with TRT. Here are my levels while on TRT
IMG_4283.JPG
IMG_4346.JPG
 
AnabolicGuru

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Just wanted to add to this thread that I'm self-prescribing trt and recently started adding DHEA and pregnenolone and it makes a huge difference to overall well-being. Crazy I was aware of trt possibly leading to reduce levels of both of these hormones but I had no idea how beneficial they could be when supplementing. Just FYI to anyone who's been using trt for a while and feels like it's lagging in the kick it should have.
What doses do you take of dhea and prenenolone? What benefits does it give you? I’m interested in it now that you guys mention it.
 
Godstrength

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What doses do you take of dhea and prenenolone? What benefits does it give you? I’m interested in it now that you guys mention it.
So I'm using dermacrine which just says 3 pumps for my weight.... But it has dhea and pregnenolone both in it. It looks like that is 72mg dhea and 18mg pregnenolone. Then I'm using the p5 @.25 ml which I believe is 25mg... I'm not exactly sure because the actual dose isn't on the bottle. Maybe delsolrob or thebigt can chime in on the doses as per what I'm using.

So thats like 72 mg dhea and 40-50 mg preg. I will say I first started using just the P5 at 50 mg a day and I saw a huge difference. When I added the dermacrine it got even better.

I initially started taking it (pregnenolone) for lowering stimulant sensitivity and I noticed it did work. But I also immediately felt more energy like a natural energy that I was lacking. Using the self-administer trt I really felt like it stopped working if that makes sense the energy and drive you get initially from the test. Also man libido is way up I've also filled out more muscles look fuller and more pumped. Just an increased overall sense of well being. I am thoroughly convinced that my levels were low due to the testosterone supplementation. From what I understand this is pretty common and I knew that however I didn't think it was affecting me that much. I won't use trt without this stuff anymore seeing how much of a difference it's making. I'm not blowing smoke either bro this is making a huge difference with how I felt this whole week.
 
AnabolicGuru

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So I'm using dermacrine which just says 3 pumps for my weight.... But it has dhea and pregnenolone both in it. It looks like that is 72mg dhea and 18mg pregnenolone. Then I'm using the p5 @.25 ml which I believe is 25mg... I'm not exactly sure because the actual dose isn't on the bottle. Maybe delsolrob or thebigt can chime in on the doses as per what I'm using.

So thats like 72 mg dhea and 40-50 mg preg. I will say I first started using just the P5 at 50 mg a day and I saw a huge difference. When I added the dermacrine it got even better.

I initially started taking it (pregnenolone) for lowering stimulant sensitivity and I noticed it did work. But I also immediately felt more energy like a natural energy that I was lacking. Using the self-administer trt I really felt like it stopped working if that makes sense the energy and drive you get initially from the test. Also man libido is way up I've also filled out more muscles look fuller and more pumped. Just an increased overall sense of well being. I am thoroughly convinced that my levels were low due to the testosterone supplementation. From what I understand this is pretty common and I knew that however I didn't think it was affecting me that much. I won't use trt without this stuff anymore seeing how much of a difference it's making. I'm not blowing smoke either bro this is making a huge difference with how I felt this whole week.
Awesome. I’ll have to incorporate it soon with my trt/cruise man.
 
delsolrob

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all this information is on the sites. But, P5 is 25mg/ml...so .25ml would be roughly 6.25mg

Dermacrine is 72mg DHEA + 18mg pregnenolone, based on 5pumps

at 3 pumps, you're getting roughly 43mg DHEA + 11mg pregnenolone from the dermacrine.

based on what you've outlined, you're likely getting a total of around 17mg pregnenolone...doesn't take a lot to be effective with TD pregnenolone :thumbsup:
 
DaeshDontSurf

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My doc allows me to use the discountedlabs "trt follow up panel" with added dhea-s and psa (not every time for the last 2 - with a 0.5 psa, the next one will be in 1-2 years iirc). Dhea-s is the same, once dialed in, it won't crash in a year. It's a a pretty comprehensive test. Fully agree that with that, or like tests and some knowledge, you are possibly ahead of many gp's who don't specialize. You being in the medical field is a bonus.

The only area that can be iffy, is ugl...you just never know.
 
Godstrength

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all this information is on the sites. But, P5 is 25mg/ml...so .25ml would be roughly 6.25mg

Dermacrine is 72mg DHEA + 18mg pregnenolone, based on 5pumps

at 3 pumps, you're getting roughly 43mg DHEA + 11mg pregnenolone from the dermacrine.

based on what you've outlined, you're likely getting a total of around 17mg pregnenolone...doesn't take a lot to be effective with TD pregnenolone
Yeah I think that is about right for what I'm trying to do.... I'm just trying to supplement so just trying to dial in the right amount to feel my best... Tried upping the p5 this morning to .5 ml and felt irritable. So I think. .25 ml in the am with 3 pumps dermacrine in the afternoon is my sweet spot. I feel great on that....
 
thebigt

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Yeah I think that is about right for what I'm trying to do.... I'm just trying to supplement so just trying to dial in the right amount to feel my best... Tried upping the p5 this morning to .5 ml and felt irritable. So I think. .25 ml in the am with 3 pumps dermacrine in the afternoon is my sweet spot. I feel great on that....
I think that is the key to ALL supplementation--finding your personal sweet spot...

hey, Godstrength really glad to hear how well it has been working for you!!!
 
Renew1

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YamahaC76

You might want to check out this thread (if you haven't already).
 

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I definitely considered this. It's a lot of extra work but if your life is just better as a result, it's not that much of an issue. I mean, the reason I bring this up is I hated where my natural levels had me. They weren't even that "low" about 530. I know a lot of people say that's fine, but in my late 20's now, I made more progress in life mentally in these last 5 months than I ever did prior. If you think that's easy to live with, well ill say it was a hell of a lot easier when "on" to keep my **** together.
 
YoungThor

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I definitely considered this. It's a lot of extra work but if your life is just better as a result, it's not that much of an issue. I mean, the reason I bring this up is I hated where my natural levels had me. They weren't even that "low" about 530. I know a lot of people say that's fine, but in my late 20's now, I made more progress in life mentally in these last 5 months than I ever did prior. If you think that's easy to live with, well ill say it was a hell of a lot easier when "on" to keep my **** together.
I’m curious to see if you stay on for good now. It is a bit of a dilemma I’m sure, considering it’s a lifetime commitment, but if having high test makes you a better, more productive, and more fulfilled version of yourself, I could see it being extremely hard to go back to your old natural levels.
 

YamahaC76

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I’m curious to see if you stay on for good now. It is a bit of a dilemma I’m sure, considering it’s a lifetime commitment, but if having high test makes you a better, more productive, and more fulfilled version of yourself, I could see it being extremely hard to go back to your old natural levels.
This is exactly the case my friend. In every way you could imagine. Theres a chance I will hop back on until all my major events and bookings are done end of October and then attempt a real PCT. I stopped now in the middle of life events and the difference is really starting to bleed out.

I really appreciate the understanding YoungThor.
 

Newth

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I definitely considered this. It's a lot of extra work but if your life is just better as a result, it's not that much of an issue. I mean, the reason I bring this up is I hated where my natural levels had me. They weren't even that "low" about 530. I know a lot of people say that's fine, but in my late 20's now, I made more progress in life mentally in these last 5 months than I ever did prior. If you think that's easy to live with, well ill say it was a hell of a lot easier when "on" to keep my **** together.
Everyone's differen't but hormones can change a lot. I've seen a mid 50s lady get testosterone therapy and go from bitch to pretty cool.
 

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