Messages

1

Testosterone, Hormones and General Men's Health / Re: how was your sleep pre-trt?

« on: February 22, 2019, 07:25:19 pm »

.... I wonder if injecting everyday would render  the half-life moot. ?

In a way: daily injections of longer esters, say enanthate and longer, would yield relatively little variation in serum testosterone. Nonetheless, when switching between esters you would still see fluctuations unless there were temporary adjustments in the dosing. Shorter testosterone esters, such as propionate and acetate, would have different patterns of daily variability, even in steady-state.

2

Testosterone, Hormones and General Men's Health / Re: KETO DIET to Eliminate & Prevent ALL?? types of CANCER

« on: February 22, 2019, 07:14:05 pm »

Cancer doesn't need only sugar. But also hormones that promotes cells growth like: insulin and IGF1 that are promotes by carbs. not by fat. ...

You might think, but:

We observed that serum levels of IGF-1 are positively associated with consumption of redmeats, fats, and oils. In addition, serum levels of IGF-1 are independently and positively associated with energy intake from lipids and negatively associated with energy intake from carbohydrates. ...

http://ascopubs.org/doi/abs/10.1200/jco.1999.17.10.3291

Best advice I've seen about keto dieting:

A ketogenic diet could be an interesting alternative to treat certain conditions, and may accelerate weight loss. But it is hard to follow and it can be heavy on red meat and other fatty, processed, and salty foods that are notoriously unhealthy. We also do not know much about its long-term effects, probably because it’s so hard to stick with that people can’t eat this way for a long time. It is also important to remember that “yo-yo diets” that lead to rapid weight loss fluctuation are associated with increased mortality. Instead of engaging in the next popular diet that would last only a few weeks to months (for most people that includes a ketogenic diet), try to embrace change that is sustainable over the long term. A balanced, unprocessed diet, rich in very colorful fruits and vegetables, lean meats, fish, whole grains, nuts, seeds, olive oil, and lots of water seems to have the best evidence for a long, healthier, vibrant life.

https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/ketogenic-diet-is-the-ultimate-low-carb-diet-good-for-you-2017072712089

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Testosterone, Hormones and General Men's Health / Re: The quest to become a sex machine

« on: February 22, 2019, 06:48:53 pm »

Welcome, MrDan. That "sex machine" protocol is inadvisable, at best. Clomid is almost always ineffective when combined with testosterone, so it's simply adding an estrogen mimic to the mix. Bromocriptine should be taken only if indicated, e.g. high prolactin, and even then it's said to have a worse side-effect profile than cabergoline. As starting doses, 100 mg/week of T cypionate/enanthate and 250 IU hCG TIW are fairly typical.

Regarding your protocol, if your normal prolactin is 6.2 ng/mL then I suspect cabergoline is not a good idea. That's a pretty hefty dose of tamoxifen, I believe into the realm of liver toxicity. Admittedly with such low SHBG estradiol is more likely to be a problem. Anastrozole might be safer for the long haul. What else would I do? Split the testosterone dose into as many small injections as you can stand. Ideally something like daily injections of 10 mg. This gives guys with low SHBG the best chance of success.

To be a "sex machine" you must already be in good health, and then dial in your protocol, adding things as needed. For example, supplements and/or PDE5 inhibitors can help with EQ if nothing else is helping.

4

Testosterone, Hormones and General Men's Health / Re: New Labs -- Thoughts?

« on: February 22, 2019, 02:18:37 pm »

Calculated free testosterone is around 30 ng/dL, which is up there. On the other hand, calculated free estradiol is about 0.9 pg/mL, which I believe is around mid-range for this parameter. No need for an AI at this level. But it seems kind of inconsistent that estradiol didn't increase...

I'd cut back the DHEA if I were you. When you get so far into supraphysiological territory you're experimenting on yourself without knowing if the outcome will be good or bad. Of course with most things too little or too much is bad.

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Testosterone, Hormones and General Men's Health / Re: KETO DIET to Eliminate & Prevent ALL?? types of CANCER

« on: February 22, 2019, 02:02:18 pm »

It's not a totally black-and-white issue. The article cited by DanMac says the technique has promise for many cancer types, but notes that some particular types appear to be stimulated, rather than suppressed, by ketosis.

I personally have no interest in this diet as a purported preventative. I find complex carbohydrates are the best fuel for my sport. I eat a diet based heavily on whole foods, including grains, legumes, fruits and vegetables.

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Testosterone, Hormones and General Men's Health / Re: Has any one tried micro dosing an AI with a tincture

« on: February 22, 2019, 01:45:15 pm »

I use exactly this technique and have noticed no problems with efficacy.

I presume that you have blood tests showing that your E2 has remained in a similar range as you would have expected?

Yes, the test results have been consistent, with 50-70 mcg EOD reducing my estradiol by about 20 pg/mL.

Each batch with a single one-milligram tablet lasts me about a month.

7

Testosterone, Hormones and General Men's Health / Re: how was your sleep pre-trt?

« on: February 22, 2019, 01:36:35 pm »

...
Now my question is why is the half life longer sith subQ?  If using the same carrier oil.  Does it just take longer for blood flow through fat than muscle?
...

This would be my guess as well. There's probably more vasculature in the muscles than in the subcutaneous fat. Of course we could also speculate about a kinematic contribution: muscles move, after all, and maybe a continuing disturbance of the injected depot contributes to absorption.

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Testosterone, Hormones and General Men's Health / Re: Has any one tried micro dosing an AI with a tincture

« on: February 22, 2019, 06:38:05 am »

I use exactly this technique and have noticed no problems with efficacy.

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Testosterone, Hormones and General Men's Health / Re: What is your pregnenolone level?

« on: February 22, 2019, 06:35:01 am »

The argument is that other important uses of DHEA/PREG will suffer when/if concentrations are suppressed by TRT. It's plausible, but unproven as far as I know.

Do we even know what those other uses might be?
...

Its behavior as a neurosteroid seems potentially important:

Pregnenolone is an allosteric endocannabinoid, as it is a negative allosteric modulator of the CB1 receptor. ...

Pregnenolone has been found to bind with high, nanomolar affinity to microtubule-associated protein 2 (MAP2) in the brain. ... Pregnenolone was found to induce tubule polymerization in neuronal cultures and to increase neurite growth in PC12 cells treated with nerve growth factor.[7][8] As such, pregnenolone may control formation and stabilization of microtubules in neurons and may affect both neural development during prenatal development and neural plasticity during aging.

Although pregnenolone itself does not possess these activities, its metabolite pregnenolone sulfate is a negative allosteric modulator of the GABAA receptor[9] as well as a positive allosteric modulator of the NMDA receptor.[10][11] In addition, pregnenolone sulfate has been shown to activate the transient receptor potential M3 (TRPM3) ion channel in hepatocytes and pancreatic islets causing calcium entry and subsequent insulin release.
...
Pregnenolone has been found to act as an agonist of the pregnane X receptor.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pregnenolone#Biological_activity

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Testosterone, Hormones and General Men's Health / Re: What is your pregnenolone level?

« on: February 21, 2019, 12:58:00 pm »

My theory is since your body is no longer making testosterone or DHEA to make testosterone and estrogen that it’s perfectly normal for the parent hormone to be low. I’ve never met or talked to an individual that benefited from raising pregnenolone. My thoughts are why wouldn’t it be low? It’s like adding an electric motor to your gasoline powered car, you’re obviously going to require less gasoline to make it move. The whole backfilling theory makes absolutely no sense at all.

I wouldn't go that far. The argument is that other important uses of DHEA/PREG will suffer when/if concentrations are suppressed by TRT. It's plausible, but unproven as far as I know.

11

Testosterone, Hormones and General Men's Health / Re: how was your sleep pre-trt?

« on: February 21, 2019, 12:52:44 pm »

The is purely anecdotal, but I've seen a lot of people on Reddit lately say that their e2 rose when switching to SubQ. Have any of you noticed this? I thought that was initially a concern quite a few years ago but turned out not to be true, but I'm reading a lot of people say it really is. Or maybe it's variable according to the individual?

I have not seen any reason for this to be the case with respect to average levels. However, if guys are measuring trough hormone levels then estradiol usually will appear higher with subQ than with IM. Peak levels should be lower; subQ is just smoothing things out.

Edit: The Antares study I referenced above did measure estradiol and found no difference in average levels between IM and subQ.

12

Testosterone, Hormones and General Men's Health / Re: What is your pregnenolone level?

« on: February 21, 2019, 06:56:47 am »

is Pregnenolone essential for anything Cataceous since yours in been Lower range for Years, on T.R.T do you find if don't supplement it your T.R.T is off or anything?
...

It appears that not enough is known about the significance of serum pregnenolone levels to say where in the range is optimal for any individual.

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Testosterone, Hormones and General Men's Health / Re: Started Restandol Testocaps (new Andriol formulation) - great gains

« on: February 21, 2019, 06:51:34 am »

Were your doctors concerned about your done density when your testosterone was low for so long?

For those who are wondering, Restandol is testosterone undecanoate for oral use. It's not yet approved for use in the U.S., but it seems as though the process is underway.

Liver toxicity is a concern with some oral anabolic steroids, but not testosterone undecanoate:

Instead, Andriol is an esterified form of Testosterone (Testosterone Undecanoate), whereby it is affixed to an extremely long fatty acid chain ester. Research has demonstrated that when Andriol is consumed (especially in the presence of dietary fats), the high lipophilic nature of it allows at least partial absorption via the body’s lymphatic system through the gastrointestinal tract. Although Andriol is not liver toxic at all, there are some disadvantages to its nature. Because it relies on fat solubility to be absorbed in the body, research has shown that Androl’s oral bioavailability is around 7%.

https://www.steroidal.com/steroid-profiles/andriol/

It may be analogous to transdermal testosterone, in that absorption and efficacy may be good for some, but not others.

14

Testosterone, Hormones and General Men's Health / Re: What is your pregnenolone level?

« on: February 21, 2019, 05:54:05 am »

I have two measurements: 33 ng/dL when I'd just started TRT with Androgel, and 36 ng/dL after a couple years with injections. I've tried supplementing with relatively small amounts, 10-15 mg/d or less. But I never liked the long-term results, which usually included excess anxiety, so I'm not taking it at the moment.

15

Testosterone, Hormones and General Men's Health / Re: how was your sleep pre-trt?

« on: February 20, 2019, 08:11:58 am »

...
I think I've mentioned before that switching from IM to subQ will result in a temporary dip in hormones if other parameters are unchanged—dose, ester, injection frequency.

Why does the dip in levels occur?

Because you're switching to a method that has a longer half life (there's pretty good evidence that subQ has a longer half life than IM). The same thing would happen when switching from T cypionate to T undecanaote. The new method has a slower release rate of testosterone, so it takes time to build back up to match the average release rate you were at previously. The effect works the opposite when reversed: you get a surge in testosterone when switching to a form with a shorter half life/faster release. In either situation, after steady state is reached average hormone levels will be the same as before the change, so long as the amount of testosterone being administered is equal.