Transcription
What's the best weekly dose of exogenous testosterone? Is it a dose that gets you to the top of the reference range, or maybe twice out of the reference range? Can you safely run 250 milligrams testosterone weekly indefinitely? What about 500 milligrams? What about 1,000 milligrams? What about 2,000 milligrams testosterone per week? What does the scientific evidence even say about high dose testosterone cycles? Let's find out in this video.
Vigor Steve here. So, I get this question quite frequently. People want to know what the safest dose of exogenous testosterone is and find out the upper tolerable dose of exogenous testosterone so they can find some sort of middle ground and run testosterone for very long periods of time, preferably indefinitely, with minimal side effects and all of the benefits associated with a testosterone replacement therapy, hormone replacement therapy, or full-blown steroid cycle that revolves around testosterone, right? Basically, people want to know they get out of jail for free testosterone dose. Long story short, it highly depends what else you're doing with your body because, let's be honest, you're not just taking exogenous testosterone. You might also be drinking or eating some processed foods over the weekends, maybe smoke a cigar or some cigarettes, or vaping, or smoking weeds, taking some recreational drugs here and there, right? So, whatever pressure you're putting on your body, not that I'm saying that exogenous testosterone from putting tremendous pressure on your body, but as it does escalates, generally speaking, health parameters start to decline. So, if you keep the dose moderate, I would say that testosterone is reasonably safe. But if you start ramping up the dosages to bodybuilder dosages, then, uh, you definitely have to put some practices in place to keep your health intact.
But to simplify it even more, the best dose of testosterone for you as an individual is the dose where you get all of the benefits associated with exogenous testosterone. That's increased mood and well-being, increased libido, but not to the point you have uncontrollable libido where you're functioning 24/7 and you can't get anything done and your penis is completely the cous over, right? That dose is then way too high. You need to reel it back in a little bit. You get a positive aggression, increased motivation, more confidence, and what so many people in the fitness industry are after: increased muscle mass and improved body composition, right? You want all of the good stuff and none of the bad. And the only real way of figuring that out is through self-experimentation. So, you're going to have to get your hands dirty and maybe experience some side effects along the way. Side effects like acne or oily skin, hair loss or hair growth in places you did not expect, like the chest or the back or other places of the body. Maybe you get some symptoms of gynecomastia, as simple as puffy nipples or full-blown gyno. If that's in your genetic makeup and your body fat levels are reasonably high at the start of exogenous testosterone treatments, you might get anger management issues, becoming irritable at the smallest thing, or full-blown roid rage. And in that sense, exogenous testosterone is very similar to alcohol. If you're already a and you start drinking, you become highly intoxicated, you're more of a more of a troublemaker. And exogenous testosterone is very similar to that. Even though most people report that they feel absolutely fantastic, very mellow, very happy-go-lucky when they start supplementing, your blood pressure might go up, you might have impaired sleep quality, blood work parameters might change. All of which, take it from me, with lifestyle changes, over the G supplements, or some ancillaries, many of these side effects, these commonly occurring side effects, can be mitigated or completely removed.
To figure out what the ideal starting dose of exogenous testosterone is going to be for you as an individual, all we have to do is look into the medical field because exogenous testosterone is being used in various treatments, especially revolving around androgen deficiency. You might not be androgen deficient currently, but you still want to have the benefits of exogenous testosterone to improve your overall quality of life. So, let's have a look into the medical field and see what the generally accepted prescription dosages of various exogenous testosterone products actually are. I'll put them on the screen: testosterone undecanoate, testosterone enanthate, testosterone cypionate, testosterone propionate, testosterone suspension, even though I wouldn't recommend suspension in any way, shape, or form because the post-injection pain can be quite brutal. We have compounded ester formulas like Sustanon 250, and there's even alternative testosterone treatment in the form of mucoadhesive oral patches, transdermal films, transdermal solutions, transdermal gels, capsules, nasal sprays, implants. And to summarize, regardless of ester formulation, the general medical consensus is that in the treatment of androgen deficiency, injectable exogenous testosterone will range anywhere between 25 milligrams to 200 milligrams per week. So, I would say that that's a reasonably safe starting point. You can always build up. Just keep in mind that these clinically accepted dosage ranges are regardless of age, diet, lifestyle, activity levels, co-administration of other medications or ancillaries or performance-enhancing drugs, and the amount of GAG repeaters that you have on your androgen receptor because it's the amount of GAG repeaters that determine how tightly the exogenous testosterone is going to bind and potentiate androgen-mediated gene transcription, which is ultimately where all of the beneficial effects from the exogenous testosterone are going to come from.
Now, if you're curious about these androgen receptor GAG repeaters without turning it into a full-blown GAG deep dive. GAG stands for guanine, adenine, guanine. And in most humans, the amount of GAG repeats on the androgen receptor can vary between 18 to 24 repeats. Whereas in some humans, have up to 35 GAG repeats. But it highly depends on the individual genetic polymorphism. Most of the scientific evidence indicates that fewer GAG repeats leads to increased androgen receptor sensitivity and binding to androgens. And whether that's a free circulating testosterone or other exogenous anabolic androgenic steroids, which are testosterone derivatives, fewer GAG repeats results in a tightly bound androgen to the androgen receptor, and thus you get more of an effect on gene transcription. And on the other side, more GAG repeats leads to decreased receptor sensitivity and binding. This is where medical conditions like androgen insensitivity syndrome are stemming from. Now, that being said, it seems that genetic analysis for androgen receptor GAG repeats is not included in most DNA testing services that you can find online. So, let's just forgo these GAG repeats and stick to the things we can actually measure.
So, now that we know the clinical dosage ranges, how can we determine the best response to this dose of exogenous testosterone that we're taking? We can go with blood work as the first line of acquiring some data on what's going on internally. Now, of course, I'll be the first to say that blood work is not going to tell you how tightly the testosterone is binding to the androgen receptor with a certain amount of GAG repeats. We can't figure it out. But blood work can tell you how testosterone is metabolizing into dihydrotestosterone or estradiol, and how it's affecting your overall blood work parameters. Blood work is just a moment in time. When you're going for blood work, you draw blood, all the numbers that you get on your blood work results are just of the blood that was drawn at that exact moment in time. So, even though I'm the first to say that blood work is very important, you should do it frequently, ideally every month, blood work as many times as you can afford, it's just a moment in time. We're not treating the numbers. That's what old-school endocrinologists do. They look at a number, it's off, and now they're bringing your exogenous testosterone dose down, right? We're treating the patient. We're treating you. We need to figure out how you feel, right? So, before you go in for blood work, make a little diary. Write down what your mood is, what your libido is, what your well-being is, what your motivation and confidence, aggression, etc., is, right? Rate that from a one-star to five-star. Make some assumptions, form a hypothesis. Maybe you think that your estradiol levels are high or your dihydrotestosterone levels are high based on the hair loss or symptoms of gynecomastia that you're currently experiencing, right? Whatever side effect you have, try to mix and match that to particular blood work parameters. Write it down. First, bro, please, going for blood work to confirm. Was your hypothesis correct? Or maybe your DHT levels are just slightly elevated and the gyno that you're experiencing is just water retention, right? Your prolactin is in range, your progesterone levels are normal. If you can't figure it out, right, hire a coach or hire somebody who can interpret your blood work results for you. But it's very important as for you as a beginner trying to figure out what the best dose of exogenous testosterone is to write down your assumptions and how you feel before you go in for blood work, and then you put two and two together.
Just keep in mind that not all blood work results are created equally. The results might vary between 10 to 20% among the different testing methods. There's chemiluminescent microparticle immunoassay, abbreviated to CMIA, electrochemiluminescent immunoassay, abbreviated to ECLIA, or liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry, abbreviated to LC-MS. But the most sensitive version of blood work analysis regarding hormone panels is actually liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry, abbreviated to LC-MS/MS. That will give you the most accurate results. Now, do you need to do LC-MS/MS multiple times as you're trying to figure out the ideal testosterone dose? No, but in the beginning, it's very beneficial, very important to figure out what your actual total testosterone, free testosterone, bioavailable testosterone, and all of your relevant blood work parameters actually are until you hit that sweet spot. And then you can continue with conventional testing. And the blood work results are going to be in particular reference ranges, and we have to differentiate between the female reference range and the male reference range. It could be anywhere, a difference of a total testosterone from 830, 890 to 1100 nanograms per deciliter. So, what reference range would you rather go with? The female or the male? Right? We want 1100 nanograms per deciliter, duh. Or maybe even more. 1100 nanograms per deciliter is not where most men feel best. Most men feel better when they're super physiological. Most men feel good from 1500 nanograms per deciliter upwards, right? We're talking about healthy men who are physically active, control their diet, take some over-the-counter health supplements, right? Do everything right. The hardworking, the blue-collar, the intelligent, the masculine men out there do very well with a 1500 to 2000 nanograms per deciliter under total testosterone level, managing all of their blood work parameters, staying very, very healthy for very long periods of time, right? And maybe as you age, the dose needs to come down slightly. But for most men in their prime, 1500 to 2000 nanograms per deciliter is where most men feel best, and most of their blood work parameters are 100% manageable.
Now, don't get me wrong, 100 milligrams testosterone per week is a great starting point, but probably not the endpoint of figuring out the ideal exogenous testosterone for you. Your endocrinologist might say that 300 nanograms per deciliter and your total testosterone is not androgen deficient and thus doesn't prescribe you anything. So, you're going to have to take matters into your own hands and maybe start with 100 milligrams exogenous testosterone to bring your 300 nanograms per deciliter up to 600, right? Most men, based on all the blood work that I've seen, anywhere between 100 to 125 milligrams exogenous testosterone will bring their levels up to, let's say, 600, 700 nanograms per deciliter. 150 depending on individual metabolism. So, when you start like that, you double your serum testosterone levels as a starting point to see how you feel. Get your hands dirty, learn through experimentation. You do your blood work before you get your hands dirty, and maybe four weeks, six weeks into this starting dose, right? See what blood work parameters have changed. But most importantly, you see how your total testosterone, free testosterone, bioavailable testosterone, serum dihydrotestosterone, sex binding globulin, and your lipid parameters have changed over those four to six weeks, right? You can always increase. You can always increase and you can stop at a dose where you feel absolutely great, but your blood work parameters also look great, right? That's the ideal dose of testosterone. But you're still going to have to try. Start low, build your way up, and do blood work in between each increment of the exogenous testosterone dose that you're taking. 100 milligrams, four to six weeks, blood work. 150 milligrams per week for four to six weeks, blood work. 250 milligrams exogenous testosterone per week for four to six weeks, blood work. It sucks, but this is the best way to keep track of everything that's happening in your body at that exact moment in time when you do blood work, right? So, keep that in mind.
And once you get into this comfortable groove of self-experimentation and analyzing your blood work results, you can start messing around with the different testosterone esters, right? There are so many different ones to choose from: testosterone undecanoate, testosterone enanthate, testosterone cypionate, testosterone propionate, many different versions, Sustanon 250, right? Stick to an ester that you prefer in a product with a carrier oil that you can metabolize at a sustained rate, right? Start messing around with the injection frequency. Start messing around with the depth of the administration, whether you go intramuscularly or subcutaneously. Start messing around with all these things. At one point, you find your sweet spot, and it's not solely about the dose of exogenous testosterone. And if that's too complicated and too much work for you, you can always go with the cookie-cutter body weight to weekly dose approach at, let's say, 2 milligrams exogenous testosterone per 1 kilogram of body weight at, let's say, 10, 12% body fat, or 1 milligram per one pound of body weight. So, take me as an example. I'm approximately 10% body fat, weighing approximately 200 pounds. If I were to go on exogenous testosterone now, I would start with, let's say, 150 to 200 milligrams testosterone enanthate per week. All right.
I think that pretty much covers how to get to the entry dose of exogenous testosterone and how to figure out the ideal dose of exogenous testosterone, the sweet spot dose, the get out of jail for free dose, right? The dose where you feel best, but all of your blood work parameters are manageable and you don't get any terrible side effects, which you can mitigate otherwise with over-the-counter supplements or ancillaries, right? Fill out your diary, do your blood work, and keep adjusting until you're perfect. But what is the highest dose of exogenous testosterone that we can take safely? What is the highest dose we can take permanently? Right? I mean, we want to know the highest dose. We want to push the boundaries. Personally, I've gone as high as 2,500 milligrams testosterone enanthate per week, one ampule of test per day and two on Sunday. And I've talked to guys who've gone up as high as 3,500 milligrams, even 5,000 milligrams. But those are IFBB Pros. They compete. They have something to win, right? They're freaky deaky big. I documented all of my blood work results on 2,500 milligrams testosterone enanthate in this video. Give it a watch after we're done with this one. I'll link it at the end. But it doesn't mean that 2,500 milligrams testosterone enanthate is suitable for you.
Let's look into the medical literature. The highest dose of testosterone investigated is up to 600 milligrams testosterone enanthate per week, anywhere between 16 to 20 weeks. And reviewing all of the scientific literature, citations down below as usual, evidence-based with citations. Scientific evidence shows that 600 milligrams testosterone enanthate per week up to 20 weeks is reasonably tolerable, reasonably benign, good blood work parameters, albeit that lipid parameters do change. But during the studies, they don't put preventative measures in place which would otherwise control lipid parameters, right? We can do cardio, we can take some fish oil, we can take some citrus bergamot, we can take some berberine, there's a statin, plenty of methods to control your lipid parameters. But that's not what this video is about. That's what this entire YouTube channel is about, right? All of the scientific evidence shows that exogenous testosterone up to 600 milligrams per week for this long of a period increased muscle mass, reduced fat mass, improved body composition, and increased muscle mass specifically in healthy men who also trained, right? Do you identify as a healthy man who also trains? I certainly do.
Now, there's some dose-dependent response between exogenous testosterone up to 600 milligrams per week and serum IGF-1 levels. So, that looks pretty promising. A lot of diabetes evidence shows that exogenous testosterone can actually improve insulin resistance states by improving insulin sensitivity, albeit that, of course, that is in diabetics, not in healthy adult men, right? But we can extrapolate from the data nonetheless. There is some scientific evidence that exogenous testosterone, as the dose goes higher, might increase aggression. But on the opposite end, there's also dose-dependent response to alleviate depressive symptoms in men, where dosages above 500 milligrams per week seem to offer more of a robust effect. This scientific study actually goes up to 1,000 milligrams testosterone per week, which is certainly where I feel the best. I'll tell you that. 1,000 milligrams exogenous testosterone, epic, epic regarding mood and sense of well-being. Of course, blood work parameters are going to change, but it's a very robust dose, I will tell you that.
Now, keep in mind that anything over 200 milligrams exogenous testosterone per week is considered recreational dosages. Rather, those are fitness enthusiast dosages, or strongman dosages, or CrossFit dosages, or bodybuilder dosages, right? As the dose goes up, um, side effects become more apparent, and you slowly step away more and more and more from the medical field to the point, and no doctor is really going to be able to help you regarding the changes in blood work parameters or organ health and that kind of stuff. So, right, do your due diligence researching. The more you take, the more cumbersome health management becomes. And it's the same, the exact same, the older you get. So, maybe you can run 2,500 milligrams in your late 20s, early 30s. As you get older, that ideal dose that you're taking right now, your sweet spot dose, will get less and less and less as you age because as you age, you get less resilient to dealing with the side effects, right? Of course, the older you get, that also means more time on exogenous testosterone, and you might have done some experiments along the way. And as you're getting older, um, your metabolism slows down, and the side effects of these super physiological dosages that you're taking might do you more harm than good. So, it's very likely with time, with age, that you need to slowly but steadily bring the dose of exogenous testosterone down to what is clinically accepted. It sucks, but that's reality.
Now, I've discussed this, linked in another video that I published a couple months ago. I'll link it at the end of this one, right? The decline of serum testosterone levels, but that's in otherwise, quote-unquote, healthy individuals without exogenous testosterone in the picture. Still, as you age, I would safely say that the dose needs to come down. We can use the clinically recognized reference ranges as a little bit of indication on how serum testosterone levels decline in otherwise healthy adults. That being said, again, that's endogenous production, not exogenous usage. Unfortunately, total testosterone levels are only known up until the age of 19 years old. The reference range is between 240 to 950 nanograms per deciliter. But again, some clinical reference ranges go up to 1100 nanograms per deciliter. So, we know the range is between, uh, zero months old to five months old, or six months old to nine years old, etc., etc. But anything over 19 years old, we don't exactly know the normal level of decline, which we can base our normal level of decline of our exogenous testosterone dose on. We know that the average male testosterone levels, depending on which scientific evidence you read, I'll put the first one on the screen. You see that these levels slowly decline, right? From age 20 to 24 is higher than 25 to 29, etc. This study goes up only to the age of 45. Then another study shows the ages from 50 to 80 years old, um, and there you also see that the average testosterone levels are declining, albeit at the upper, uh, total detectable range of this study is significantly higher compared to the previous study. So, which study reference ranges are we going to cherry-pick of the average testosterone levels of these age brackets, right? I'll leave it entirely up to you. Um, the second one does look a lot more favorable.
But we do have the reference range for free testosterone from age one up until 100 years old. You see that free testosterone levels actually increase up until the age of 20 years old, give or take. From 20 years old, it slowly but steadily starts to decline, ending up at a free testosterone up from 2.3 to 7.9 nanograms per deciliter at, let's say, 100 years old. And it's the same for the reference range for bioavailable testosterone, albeit that that one is not so much in depth as free testosterone, right? We have an age range of about 10 years old, still from the age of 20 to 29. After that, levels slowly but surely decline. So, again, based on these reference ranges, based on your biological makeup, the normal decline of serum testosterone levels, whether those are total, free, or bioavailable in, um, adult men, it's coming down. So, it's very safe to say that your exogenous dose of testosterone needs to come down, albeit that you can still be somewhat super physiological if you mitigate and manage the side effects which will occur as you age, right? But if they become uncontrollable, just lower the dose and leave it there.
Now, let's interject myself a little bit into this picture to to clarify everything that I just mentioned leading up to this point. What would I do, right? Depending on my age, because if the dose is age-dependent and it does need to come down as you age, what would Coach Vigor Steve do in a scenario like this trying to figure out the ideal testosterone dose ranges? I started at the age of 26. So, if I had a time machine, knowing everything that I know now, I would still start exogenous testosterone at the age of 25, 26 at 1 amp per week, 250 testosterone enanthate per week. I got more than enough results. I felt great. Side effects were tolerable and manageable. Blood work changes were also manageable. No real negative effects at that time. Then I went as high as 2,500 milligrams testosterone per week as I became older and more experienced. And of course, I do my blood work frequently to keep track of my health parameters and make the appropriate adjustments as it does escalates. I will say I'm of the firm opinion that if you want to bring the dosages of exogenous testosterone up that high, let's say 2, 2,500 milligrams per week, do that when you're still somewhat young, albeit an adult. So, let's say from the age of 25 to 35 years old. After which I started to notice that I became a little bit intolerant to higher dosages. So, the highest dose I ran was 2,500 milligrams when I was about 35 years old. Now that I'm 40 years old, I don't think I would want to push the dose upwards of 1500 milligrams, right? So, that's 1000 milligrams per week less. And as I age, the dose will be lower and lower and lower, simply because I know that I won't be able to tolerate it from a physical perspective, right? Mentally, I'll surely feel fine. Physically, side effect-wise, 1500 milligrams per week is really the maximum I would be able to take. And even at 1500 milligrams, I think I need to put a significant amount of health management in place to stay healthy. I think at 1000 milligrams exogenous testosterone per week at the age of 40 years old, I would be considered healthy with blood work parameters and health metrics perfectly manageable. So, anywhere between 200 milligrams to 2,500 milligrams weekly between the age of 25 to 34. But after that, dosages will come down. So, right now, at the age of 40 to 49, I would consider 150 milligrams to 1000 milligrams at maximum. But when I'm 70 years old, I expect those dosage ranges to be anywhere between 50 milligrams upwards of 200 milligrams per week, which is basically identical to the clinically recognized dosages for androgen deficiency, which surely I will be by the age of 70 without exogenous testosterone replacement therapy in the picture.
So, what's the real ideal best dose of exogenous testosterone? That's just something you're going to have to figure out for yourself, right? Figure out what your blood work does. Figure out if you can mitigate the side effects with health supplements or ancillaries, right? Figure out what else you can do to make this ideal dose of testosterone work for you. And even then, right, individual response, individual risk tolerance highly determines how high you're willing to get. Because I was willing to go up to 2,500 milligrams exogenous testosterone per week and my blood work parameters were manageable, but maybe that's not a risk tolerance, a risk profile that you're willing to subject yourself to, right? I'm just a dumb bodybuilder sharing his experiences. And if you don't follow within that same category, or you're not competing at the IFBB Pro level or getting your pro cards, then that of a dose is probably not required. And you could be perfectly fine and healthy with a dose of, let's say, 250 to 500 milligrams exogenous testosterone per week for certain periods of time, and then you drop it down to a cruise dose, which is clinically recognized where your serum testosterone levels are, let's say, 1100 nanograms per deciliter. And in the process of figuring all of that out, if you live in the United States and you want the most accurate testosterone readings on your blood work results through liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry, LC-MS/MS, look no further than Marek Health. They have excellent healthcare providers who can help you interpret your blood work results, again, with the most accurate testing that you can find anywhere. So, the results you get on paper are the most accurate, and thus you can make the most informed decisions on how to proceed. And whether that's, uh, to raise your endogenous testosterone levels up, or maybe look into exogenous testosterone use again, under medical care, through the supervision of a doctor, right? Marek Health can help you get everything sorted. If you want to know the best dose of exogenous testosterone for you, subscribe, and all will be revealed. Thank you guys so much for watching. You can find everything that I'm associated with down below in the YouTube description section, all of the citations and links to affiliates right there. Vigorous crew, you guys know to do a friendly b-up for you guys. No exogenous testosterone in the picture right here, but maybe at one point in time, I do decide to go back on hormone replacement therapy, then some. And then let's see what my ideal dose of exogenous testosterone is going to be. 150, 250, 500, 1000. Let's see. I'll document it right here on this YouTube channel. Until then, see you in the next video.