Thread: Ramping down to meet TRT doctor's expectations

Thought I'd share a resource I found to help those like me who have access to Rx testosterone, but who want to cycle at higher dosages between visits to the doctor.

My TRT doc prescribed 100 mg of Test-C once a week. I prefer, shall we say, more.

Using the calculator at steroidcalc.com, I determined about what amount of testosterone he would expect to see if I were keeping to his protocol (blood draw is scheduled for the day of my weekly injection, prior to the injection, to see the lowest number possible).

The first graph shows the amount of testosterone released by the cypionate ester after several weeks of consistent shots, according to the 100 mg once a week schedule. I'm hovering my mouse over the corresponding data point, showing 6.24 mg expected to be released that day.

Screen Shot 2018-07-10 at 3.38.46 PM.png

The second graph shows the amount of testosterone released by the cypionate ester after 10 weeks of shooting 250 mg every 3.5 days. I'm hovering my mouse over the data point closest to that 6.24 mg expected to be released under the doctor's protocol (on day 83, releasing 6.3 mg). By hovering over the right-most peak, I can see the last injection was on day 66.5 (.5 showing a PM shot, rather than an AM one). So, by skipping two and half weeks worth of shots (83-66.5 = 16.5 days), or five shots, I'd get my daily release from the cypionate ester back to what the doc expects to see.

Screen Shot 2018-07-10 at 3.39.05 PM.png

Of course, the amount released in the days prior to day 83 would have been higher, so for a safety margin, I'd skip an extra shot (six shots) to get my levels on the lower side (maybe he'll up the Rx, lol).

This worked pretty well when I first got my scrip, but ran 125 mg/twice weekly instead of the prescribed 100 mg/weekly. Using the above technique to calculate when to ramp back down for my first bloodwork, the number came back from the TRT clinic's bloodwork at ~700 ng/dL, which made the doc happy.

Maybe everyone here already knows this trick, but hopefully sharing it will help another newbie like myself.

Good post, DH.

The only variable to consider is using two different types of product - Pharma vs. Sponsor. The only way this test would be consistent would be if you ran bloods, on your own, to see where your level was with the brand you were running. Once you had that as a baseline then you could play with the dose/duration to meet your needs.

I see that you only bumped it up a little, but most on this board will want to supplement with a larger sponsor dose (500mg a week).

Great post dan halen! From my understanding this tool works only for you to first stop abruptly. I have been lowering the dose over a four week period. This calculator could not work for this situation of lowering the dose. Still a useful tool!

Originally Posted by Sting

This calculator could not work for this situation of lowering the dose.

Although it is inconvenient to do so, it is possible to track a changing dose by using the "Add another compound" button and then adding the same compound with a different dosing schedule.

For example, the first pic shows ramping from 250 test-c twice a week for the first 10 weeks, 200 twice in week 11, 150 twice in week 12, and 100 twice a week from there on.
Screen Shot 2018-07-13 at 3.08.16 PM.png

If you need even more granularity, you can use the days of the week setting, to specify dosages that change more frequently than a week basis, as in the second pic, where 250 mg twice weekly for the first 8 weeks gives way to 200 mg on monday of week 9, 150 mg on thursday of week 9, and 100 mg twice weekly from week 10 forward:

Screen Shot 2018-07-13 at 3.11.14 PM.png

There are some bugs in the tool that make the display inaccurate if you try to change a plot after rendering it--you have to refresh the page and start over if you want to make changes, but otherwise it's still better than trying to calculate all the half-lives in Excel.

Originally Posted by SunBorne

Good post, DH.

The only variable to consider is using two different types of product - Pharma vs. Sponsor. The only way this test would be consistent would be if you ran bloods, on your own, to see where your level was with the brand you were running. Once you had that as a baseline then you could play with the dose/duration to meet your needs.

I see that you only bumped it up a little, but most on this board will want to supplement with a larger sponsor dose (500mg a week).

Hadn't thought of the difference in dosing strength between pharma and sponsor, you're right of course. Pharmacom Labs test-c was what I was using, which I remember seeing measured by anaboliclab.com as pretty accurately dosed, so maybe that's why it worked well when I did this the first time (ramping down from 250 mg/week). This week I got bloods drawn after ramping down from 500 mg/week using this estimate (still using Pharmacom), so I'll know soon enough how accurate it was for a larger ramp!

Originally Posted by dan_halen

Hadn't thought of the difference in dosing strength between pharma and sponsor, you're right of course. Pharmacom Labs test-c was what I was using, which I remember seeing measured by anaboliclab.com as pretty accurately dosed, so maybe that's why it worked well when I did this the first time (ramping down from 250 mg/week). This week I got bloods drawn after ramping down from 500 mg/week using this estimate (still using Pharmacom), so I'll know soon enough how accurate it was for a larger ramp!

Post your results here when ready.

Great post man! Thanks for the site!

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Originally Posted by dan_halen

Whoops, I guess I didn't need to skip the extra shot, after all. Bloods came back at <200 ng/dl total test. Probably going to need to fess up to missing the last shot before the bloodwork to explain a discrepancy that large. Then they'll probably want to test again, which is going to require some delay again. This is getting a bit messier than I had hoped.

These steroid calculators are just a *very* rough guide. Everyone will process compounds at a different rate. I think the best thing to do to be safe is to fiddle around with the calculator so that it says your blood levels would be where you want them to be for at least two weeks before you test. That way any variations will have enough time to get ironed out.

Thanks for sharing. Even if it is a rough guide, it gives a starting place