I haven't really posted, well, at all since my first post. Been quite busy with studying for college.

But, since I last posted I received my prescription for T. Quite excited.

My doctor was a few hours behind so she was quite the fast talker this time around.
She said she wanted to start me on one injection once a month. She then gave me paper work, said she would come back but she never did. She was with another patient, so the nurse helped me out.

Anyway, after thinking about it on the drive home, I was wondering how wise once a month injections would be.
So, I was thinking about splitting the dose in half and injecting every two weeks to keep the "ups and downs" a little less...extreme, I guess.
It would be the exact same dose, just split up. Then when I see her in a few months, I'd talk to her about it.
As long as it is the same dose, does anyone else see a problem with this?

It depends on the type of T. I think (could be wrong) nebido is done once every three months. My shot is once a week, but originally was every other week.

Oh, it's Testosterone Cypionate.

I have a friend who is on his once a month, testosterone cypionate too. It works for him but he's also been on T for a couple years now and his levels are stable on the male side so I don't know if that would be why it works for him.

Is there any way to leave a message with your concern to your doctor asking if it would be okay to split up the dose and explaining the worry of trough? Has she treated trans people before? While yes, your idea sounds like it would be okay it's just always better to get an okay from the doctor first.



disclaimer: I'm not a medical professional.

well, that's good.

I tried leaving a couple messages but didn't hear back. They were never really good at returning messages. She is a good doctor face to face, unless she is backed up really badly like last time, poor with the messages.

She does treat trans people. She is one of the very few LGBT friendly doctors in this small town.
She was going to put me on every other week, double the dose, until I said I wanted to try and stay on as low a dose as possible that is healthy, then she cut the dose in half and put me on once a month.

I probably will start out with what she wanted me to and see if I have any adverse effects before I actually think too hard on it. Maybe I will just end up pestering them until I get a call back if I do. Haha.
This was really just bouncing an idea around.

Just out of curiosity, why did you want a smaller dose?

Is it possible that your doc, experienced though she is, does not realize that quite a number of us have mood problems when we trough between doses? I found immense relief when I went from biweekly to weekly. I mean, I still have problems with depression, but at least the hormones are helping me rather than actually causing some of the depression.

Maybe you could write out your question(s) on paper (preferably yes-or-no questions), go to her office one day, and give the paper to the receptionist and politely request an answer TODAY because you have called and left messages without getting any response.

P.S. Congrats on the prescription! That's awesome!

I would just prefer to take the least amount possible as I am not big on taking more medication than necessary.
Such as a person I know, their T level was on the highest end of the normal male range, their doctor said they could definitely lower it without problems, but it was still "technically within the range" so they weren't going to bother.
In a case such as that, I would rather lower it if I could.

But on the other hand, I also don't want to be in a weird, in between hormone wise were there is no dominant hormone.
I want T to be the dominate hormone, which is why I said lowest dose that is healthy, since I have read not really having a clear dominate hormone can make things screwy.
If a dose I would consider "low" just wouldn't be healthy, I'm not going to be upset. Rather be healthy.

Not sure if what I said made sense, but yeah. Haha.

She might not know about the effect such a gap can have. The letter is a good idea.

And thanks.

Hmm. When you say you want the lowest dose possible that is still healthy, I'm kind of skeptical. For one thing, I hope your doctor didn't understand your meaning. For another, different doses work well for different guys. I don't think I know anyone who injects cypionate once a month, regardless of the dose. That doesn't mean it won't work for you, but now I'm wondering how experienced your doctor really is about these things. Maybe I'm just an alarmist; I certainly don't have an MD degree myself.

I know guys who are on a low-ish maintenance dose of T because they started transition years ago. I've known a number of guys who started out on a low dose--some for medical reasons and some because they didn't want to transition too fast. A common complaint is that the bleeding took a long time to stop because the dose wasn't very high. At least one guy said that he felt terrible on the low dose--cranky and unenergetic--and went to a higher dose ("standard" dose or just below standard) and felt much better.

I know another guy who is on a high dose--it seems abnormally high to me, but his blood levels are fine and he doesn't feel as well on the standard dose. Then again, I think he is a bit too opinionated and aggressive. He could have been like that before T (I didn't know him then), and I'm not so sure that X+50 milligrams of T will actually make a guy more aggressive than X milligrams. I figure that as long as he feels his best and his blood checks out, he can do what he wants.

Chart your moods and your progress, for sure. And I assume that your doc will check your blood every once in a while. You can always adjust up or down, or inject more or less frequently if what you're doing doesn't work.

Oh yeah. That is why I am willing to take higher dose than what I would personally like, since everyone's body does take it differently.

She was the doctor recommended to be by the support group here, but I don't really know her level of experience. I just know many in the support group go to her.
I had never heard of monthly injections either, just weekly or biweekly, so that is what got me thinking.

Definitely have my notebook so I can write what I am experiencing down.
I see her in 3 months for more bloodwork. Then every 6 months after that.   

Well, if you can get a response from her about injecting biweekly, that would sure help! But if you go back in three months, that's good. You can adjust then, unless things get so weird that you have to adjust sooner.