question from a user
I can’t seem to find the right protocol I want muscle gains but my shgb is really low at 16 currently doing 40mg eod but I feel like it’s not enough for the gym gains I am looking for. I haven’t tried going lower, I started microdosing dhea 10mg ED but I started to have major water retention.
AlphaMD's Answer
As a general rule, higher androgens (ie. Higher TRT doses) will lead to more muscle gains. While we can’t speak to your individual response to that specific dose of 120mg/wk, we can say that dose is not typically enough to expect much in the way of hypertrophy. As a general rule, the average man will convert 1mg of exogenous testosterone into around 6.5 ng/dL of total testosterone. 120mg x 6.5 = 780 ng/dL. This would put you squarely in the middle of the “normal” bell curve, which again, would not be enough to expect to make much in the way of noticeable hypertrophy.
DHEA while on TRT is either sulfonated into DHEA-S (a neurosteroid that helps with cognition) or converts into androstenedione. Since your body already has adequate testosterone, the androstenedione will not convert to testosterone, it will convert to estrone (E1) and then ultimately estradiol (E2). Basically, the bloating you are experiencing with DHEA is likely due to high estrogens.
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