Testosterone Replacement Therapy for those who don’t do cycles very often
If you are on TRT or planning to hop on it in the future, you will love this post. We all know what Testosterone Replacement Therapy (TRT) is, but today I want to introduce a concept I like to call TRT+.
TRT+ is for those who don’t do cycles (blasts) very often, but who want to take their TRT protocol to the next level in a sustainable way.
Now, before I delve into it I want to make it clear that this is NOT medical advice, and I would not encourage you to do TRT+ if your TRT protocol is being closely monitored by a medical specialist.
The goal of TRT+ is to be on a mini-blast for extended periods of time, so that one can make slow but steady progress over time with minimal impact on health markers as opposed to blasting & cruising and ruining one’s health. This can be achieved in many different ways, so I will be covering the most common strategies in this and part 2 of this series…
High dose TRT
The first TRT+ option is to increase your weekly Testosterone dose. TRT aims to put one’s Testosterone levels towards the upper end of the reference range (around 800-1100ng/dl). Well, TRT+ consists in surpassing the upper limit and putting ones levels somewhere between 1200 and 1500ng/dl.
This tends to be achievable with 200 to 250mg of Testosterone per week, but every user metabolizes exogenous Testosterone differently so some men will need more than that, while others may need less.
The key here is to start at 200mg/week and get tested 4 weeks later to see where your levels are at, and then adjusting the dose as needed.
Once you’ve found a dose that puts your levels somewhere between 1200 and 1500ng/dl, you will start to notice better performance, more muscle fullness and weight gain, as well as better libido and sexual performance.
However, there is a small but significant possibility that you will need an AI. Most men don’t need an AI with doses of Testosterone below 300mg/week because their estradiol levels tend to stay within range, but if you are the exception and you feel estrogenic symptoms (moodiness, sexual dysfunction, nipple sensitivity, excess water retention) you can either start taking a low dose of Arimidex (0.25mg twice a week) or you can lower your Testosterone dose by 10-20% to bring your estradiol levels down.
AIs like Arimidex are very effective and they allow you to lower your estradiol levels without having to lower your Testosterone levels, but they are not healthy for ones lipid panel so they are not very suitable for long term TRT+.
High dose TRT can be done for many months and even a few years at a time without suffering serious side-effects but being on it indefinitely would increase the chances of cardiac hypertrophy and prostate enlargement.
These side-effects can be mitigated by using ARBs (such as Losartan or Telmisartan) to prevent cardiac hypertrophy, and Tadalafil or a 5-alpha-reducatase inhibitor (such as Finasteride) to prevent prostate enlargement.
TRT + Proviron
A different startegy altogether is to use a low dose (25-50mg/day) of Proviron alongside your normal TRT dose. Proviron binds to SHBG and increases Free Testosterone, so by adding it you can get more bang for your back from your TRT and essentially replicate the effects of increasing the Testosterone dose without actually having to.
Proviron also improves sex drive and sexual function SIGNIFICANTLY while maximizing vascularity and muscle hardness. It’s a very safe oral steroid that will not cause significant liver or kidney toxicity, but it will mess with your lipid panel and it will cause hair loss if you are prone.
It will also act as an AI, which can be a good thing for those who tends to suffer from excess aromatization.
Given that it will still cause dyslipidemia (low HDL, high LDL), Proviron is usually added to TRT sparingly (two to three times a week) and strategically to improve sexual performance and physical appearance as needed.
In the next post, I will be covering low dose Deca and low dose Primobolan as TRT+ strategies.
