First-timer's TRT questions: pinning and labs

My two cents on SQ vs IM. TRT began for me as SQ shots around the belly, back when I was at 11% BF. That area was close to ideal for it.

MCT was the carrier oil, at 200gm/mL.

29ga, 1/2" insulin pins are what I use, drawing and injecting with the one syringe/needle. Separate pins were tried, but no real difference in pain, so the simpler slin pins won.

Every injection did leave a small depot lump, though. About a week was how long they stuck around - not painful, just annoying. No PIP. Injecting very slowly was my habit, having read that going fast irritates the tissue more. A vibrating massager got used straight after and again later that day, which barely made the lumps any smaller.

Refrigeration is what the compounding pharmacy behind my test advises, so the vial always goes into warm (not hot) water for a few minutes before I draw.

In the end the lumps wore me down and vastus lateralus got a try. Still 29ga 1/2". My skin is very light, most of all on the thighs, so surface vessels are easy to spot and dodge. The z-track method also lets me close the hole after injecting, so bleeding is basically nil, not even a pinprick. At my BF%, 1/2" reaches the muscle without trouble.

For whatever reason it hurts considerably less than my belly did (and that is with 31g for water based peps).

Giving IM a go is something I would strongly recommend.
 
Age and future plans for kids weigh heavily here. Where fertility is not a concern, get on test and stay on it. Wanting kids makes it messier: plenty of people have run test for years and still brought their natural production back, but the risk that you cannot is always present. Whether you accept that risk is your call.

On IM or Sub-Q: Sub-Q holds levels steadier, provided you tolerate it. .5ml weekly is how I began, with no trouble at all, though lumps happen to some even on lower doses. I know more now than I did then, and at least 2x a week is what I would recommend; EOD is where I ended up recently. Weekly shots spiked my estrogen, and upping the frequency brought it back into line. Sub-Q needs no extra needles either - a 27G or 29G draws and injects, you simply have to be patient while it fills.

The trouble with TRT is its habit of knocking other things out of place. As I said in another post today, it turns into a game of wack-a-mole. Estrogen in line plus simply being on it gets you decent results, but optimising means watching a much longer list. Cholesterol, ferritin, DHEA, hematocrit and several other markers all get disturbed. Getting it properly right therefore takes effort.

Given those levels it is probably worth doing, though there is plenty to weigh up. Unlike a pep you cannot simply give it a shot and see what happens. Real results demand a lot of tuning.
 
Daily IM is my routine, with a 27 gauge 1/2 inch pin. Ventral glute is where I go; going slow means you will feel it. A swift stab and nothing registers at all.

Assuming you lift, keep cardio and nutrition dialled in - it changes your life.

At levels that low, you come out the other side a new man. Should you be in Florida, I can point you at an excellent TRT doc.
 
For those of you on TRT, is Anastrozole part of your protocol too? My DR told me it is basically mandatory to keep estrogen from climbing too high. About 4 years on TRT for me now and it has been great, though getting everything into the right place does take a while.
 
Silver said:

For those of you on TRT, is Anastrozole part of your protocol too? My DR told me it is basically mandatory to keep estrogen from climbing too high. About 4 years on TRT for me now and it has been great, though getting everything into the right place does take a while.
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Not once, ever.
 
Silver said:

For those of you on TRT, is Anastrozole part of your protocol too? My DR told me it is basically mandatory to keep estrogen from climbing too high. About 4 years on TRT for me now and it has been great, though getting everything into the right place does take a while.
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A 1mg pill gets cut into 1/6-1/8ths and I take a piece roughly every 7-10 days. Whether they are needed at all comes down to the protocol and how heavily someone aromatyzes. In my case, running without HCG means I don’t ’need It’, yet libido is distinctly better with it while on HCG.
 
Silver said:

For those of you on TRT, is Anastrozole part of your protocol too? My DR told me it is basically mandatory to keep estrogen from climbing too high. About 4 years on TRT for me now and it has been great, though getting everything into the right place does take a while.
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Nope, it was never needed. Watch your E2 and let that guide you. There is no reason to take any unless levels are high and/or symptoms are present. The last labs I had put my E2 at 36.
 
Silver said:

For those of you on TRT, is Anastrozole part of your protocol too? My DR told me it is basically mandatory to keep estrogen from climbing too high. About 4 years on TRT for me now and it has been great, though getting everything into the right place does take a while.
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Nope. A bottle sits in my drawer unused. For most people, frequent injections, lower BF% and a healthy lifestyle keep e2 levels in check on their own. Others aromatize heavily and will need one.
 
And @Gr33dyOctopus, the long term commitment point everyone is making is right, and getting everything dialled in and running smoothly can take a while. That said, I am fairly sure that feeling so amazing once your T levels are up will make the lifetime commitment irrelevant to you. According to me and everyone I know on it, the quality of life gains are indescribable and worth the hassle. On top of that, test is dirt cheap and easy to get.

On the pinning side, my injections are daily IM with a 30g 1/2" insulin needle, delts and quads. Whenever other oils push the volume up, the ventrogluteal gets used with a 29g 1" needle.
 
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