What can I expect from a low dose?

[Nero]

Hi guys. I am currently on a low T dose. I was wondering if anybody has experience with being on a low dose for a period of time. Will a low dose produce the same changes as a full dose?

Note: I know it's difficult, but please try to describe without mentioning actual doses per the site rules.

Thanks.

[Osiris]

I can't give you personal experience but what I've heard is that T will make the same changes no matter what the dosage. So being on a lower dose just takes longer to get to those effects, but it will reach them all the same eventually.

I could be wrong cause like I said I have no experience.

[J.T.]

i'm still considered "low dose" after a year.  it depends on your dosing schedule, too.  if you're on low dose every other week your valleys will get big.  your peaks won't be as high as a full dose.

anyway, i stayed on a low dosage every 10 days for the first three months.  Then that was changed to the dose i'm on now, but every other week (for 3 months).  That drove me insane so they lowered me back down to lowest dosage every week.  Then i got crabby.  Now i'm on every week at 50% higher than my lowest dosage.  My lowest was at 25% of what is considered the highest at every other week.

So yeah, i got changes.  The horny factor didn't seem to hit until about a month in but my voice started dropping practically immediately.

I think yes, you'll get the changes you would have gotten on a full dose.  It will just be more gradual.  If you're gonna get facial hair you'll get facial hair, eventually.  I think the only issue i've had is my body shape has taken longer than i would like to change.  But i'm also overweight.

What my doc keeps trying to push into me is that its different for everybody and I probably will never get on full dose.  That sucks, but i'd like to keep my liver.

[Christo]

Re: What can I expect from a low dose?

Same stuff just takes longer. did u check this out??

https://www.susans.org/forums/index.php/topic,57599.0.html

[Radar]

How does the endo decide what dose to put you on? Is it automatically started low and built up? Does it depend on the results of your blood tests?

[myles]

Radar it seems to be different based on the endo or Dr you go to. Mine was 1/2 dose for 7 weeks then I just went to a full dose (last week). My Dr did a blood test to make sure my numbers weren't rising (which they did not at all) before going to full dose. But every doc is different.
I had so few changes on low dose so my doc decided she will wait to do T level testing until I have been on full dose for 2 months.
Myles

[Ender]

I pretty much second what Myles said: the dose depends on the endo.  Before she even got the results of my initial blood tests, she intended to prescribe the 'full dose' for me to start with.  The numbers all came back good (cholesterol, liver, etc), so I started on a full dose; not sure what she would've done if my numbers weren't good. 

She didn't check my initial T & E levels before starting HRT; she didn't check them after 3 months, either.  She says she doesn't find such early tests particularly useful and usually waits 6 months before checking hormone levels.  Initially, she is more concerned about patient response (lethargic, unusually irritable?) and how one's heart, liver, and kidneys are doing.

[Mister]

Your period may never go away.  You may have endometrial consequences for this--  i.e. pain, spotting, cramping, etc. 

And, really, the most important one-- you'll be stuck in the ambiguous stage for longer.

[J.T.]

I guess it depends on what you mean by low dosage, mister... but the monthly crap went away for good after 2/3 months.

[Mister]

I guess it depends on what you mean by low dosage, mister... but the monthly crap went away for good after 2/3 months.

depends on your dose, your frequency and your personal constitution.