u/EnvironmentThen9311

Hey everyone,

I posted a while ago about crazy numbers. See this thread:
https://www.reddit.com/r/AusTRT/comments/1rxi59y/crazy_numbers/

Note: Through to May 29, 125mg primoteston split twice a week.

I've finally worked it out... dehydration. Whether that's alcohol the night before, poor fluid intake, or heavy cardiovascular exercise before your draw, it concentrates your blood and your numbers go completely out of whack. In my last test in the table below, the night before (for science) I had a bottle of wine. Morning of the test I put salt into a 1 litre bottle of water and drank it slowly over the course of an hour, finishing it an hour before my blood test that morning. I kept on drinking water right up until the test but the amount post the 1 litre bottle was unmeasured.

Here are all my results (all in troughs). The two outliers are 3 Mar and 25 May. On 3 Mar I was dehydrated, you can see it in the haematocrit jumping to 0.50 from 0.484 the week before. On 25 May I had a big night the night before, same fingerprint, haematocrit 0.51, haemoglobin 176. Days later, well hydrated, those numbers collapsed back to normal.

Marker	4 Nov 25	23 Feb 26	3 Mar 26	25 May 26	29 May 26	Range
Total T (nmol/L)	31.1	36.3	54.1	58.3	38.8	8.5–35
Free T (pmol/L)	659	782	1139	1349	704	200–600*
SHBG (nmol/L)	42	41	—	44	54	10–70
E2 (pmol/L)	<85	123	151	142	142	<150
Haematocrit	0.47	0.484	0.50	0.51	0.49	0.40–0.55
Haemoglobin (g/L)	159	165	173	176	164	130–175

*Free T range differs by lab, ACL uses 200–600, Clinipath uses 260–750

Moral of the story, alcohol the night before (or heavy exercise) is going to mess with your results. Don't test when you're dehydrated. Sober, hydrated, consistent injection interval. Everything else is noise.

I started TRT about 9 months ago with EMC. My mental health issues were so bad the idea of stabbing myself in the arse or leg with a 25g 25mm needle seemed like a fair trade. And it worked, a bit of pain for huge relief.

Fast forward 9 months later now with Aus TRT completely symptom free and injection anxiety had become a reality. I’d dragged my feet on switching to smaller bore shallow depth needles.

Today I finally switched to 27g 13mm injections to the delt and my god I wish I’d have done it sooner. Completely pain / anxiety free injections.

Sharing this for anyone else who is yet to change.

I’ll share my bloods once I have them done in a few weeks to highlight any absorption changes.