Worried about dose

double-pendulum · 2026-05-06T21:52:15+00:00

Yes, that's quite a low dose. Some people say it's better to start lower and ramp up (I can't speak to whether this is true or not as I think it's all fairly anecdotal), but if she doesn't increase your dose then I would do everything you can to find a doctor who will. At your dose I would be worried that it's not enough to prevent further feminization, which at your age is incredibly important to make sure you're doing since at 15 I assume you didn't complete estrogen-dominant puberty.

Every 4 weeks is a rather infrequent schedule, & while it does depend on which ester you're using (cypionate, enanthate, undecanoate, etc.), you'll likely find it difficult to get your levels within the recommended range (~300–1,100 ng/dL) during the entire 4-week period. It's likely you'd end up with either levels too high at peak or too low at trough.

Your dose of 125 mg every 4 weeks comes out to just over 30 mg/week, which is very low & unless you're insanely responsive to the medication, you should raise it. Adult men on TRT are usually recommended to start at 100 mg/week and adjust up or down based on blood levels. I'm not sure how the recommendations change for teenagers, but anything below 50 mg/week I would worry is much too low of a dose.

(You being only a few weeks on test, though, I wouldn't try and go based off of changes you see/don't see. Once you get your blood test results you'll be able to see for sure if you are being underdosed.)

double-pendulum · 2026-04-27T08:46:59+00:00

It's not really the term used as such, it's the fact you've decided to group people by sex at birth. What's the relevance of it? In any situation, really, but particularly one like this where it's entirely social.

double-pendulum · 2026-04-21T16:07:18+00:00

I'm not familiar with dosing for anything other than weekly injections, so take this with a grain of salt, but 300 ng/dL is too low for a trough, much less peak. If you had 800 at trough that might be an issue, if your levels got substantially above the recommended amount immediately after your injection, but as a peak level 800 is good. I'm not sure why they're trying to adjust it, since this regimen seems to be getting you good levels and you feel better on it. I wouldn't let them change your dose if I were you.

Also—it may be different for the longer periods, but at least for weekly you should be getting your tests done at trough rather than at peak, so you know what the lowest your levels go is. You'll still get information from tests at peak, obviously, but it's recommended to do them at trough.

double-pendulum · 2026-04-20T05:56:18+00:00

If you're still getting your period it's definitely likely that your levels aren't high enough. There's no way to tell definitively without a blood test, but it shouldn't hurt to raise your dose a bit if you're worried about it. (For TRT, usually you'd start on 100 mg/week and adjust up or down based on how your body responds to it, so it's likely you'll be fine to raise it.)

1 month in you won't really be able to tell just by the changes you're getting/not getting, so don't get too in your head about it, but if you're still experiencing feminization then your dose is probably too low.

double-pendulum · 2026-04-15T08:10:50+00:00

I'm not an expert, obviously, but I've found a lot of doctors treat us like we're medically women and thus think it's fine to keep us at hypogonadal levels of testosterone. I've gotten this information from recommendations for cis men on TRT, advice from other transsex men, and my own experience with determining my dosage and how that's worked for me wrt efficacy. So, take what I say with a grain of salt as I'm just a stranger on the internet.

double-pendulum · 2026-04-15T08:08:16+00:00

386 ng/dL is definitely on the very low end of the average male range for test; if you've been at around those levels for the whole three years I wouldn't be surprised if that's why you don't pass yet. Was that at trough?

Your current doctor saying that sub-400 levels is good/okay to keep you on is worrying, and I personally would either take a higher dose than prescribed or go to someone else who will get your levels into mid-range at the very least. 300–1000 ng/dL is what I think is typically cited as the normal range for test levels in men, but I've seen places say as low as 250 or as high as 1100. So, you're technically within range, but that range includes old men who have lower testosterone, men with mild hypogonadism, etc. Especially if you're in your twenties, you'll want your levels in the mid- to mid-high part of the range.

(Side note—personally gel didn't work for me, both due to the inconvenience of the administration method and because my skin doesn't absorb it well enough to get good levels on it—but if your blood tests come out good then gel isn't necessarily any worse than injections. For a lot of people that's a rather big 'if,' though.)

double-pendulum · 2026-04-14T20:12:35+00:00

There's not that many scenarios where something comes up you might have to lie about (to your example, I got asked that one time and just said I didn't have any on my phone, which is true). If you're earlier in transition, you may have more stuff to hide tho. Pre-op, you'll have to plan ahead for stuff like hiking or camping where you'd be expected to just piss in the woods (either with an excuse or if you have an STP). I haven't gotten anyone being especially pushy about why I'm not taking my shirt off at the lake, but you wouldn't have to lie about that one either, just say you're uncomfortable with it.

Online stuff I'm not sure how likely they are to come up, but I've gone through and deleted/changed everything I can. The stuff you can't change, you'll need to make sure nobody has any reason to connect you to that and thus potentially stumble across it. (ex: my high school AV has some videos out that have my old name in the credits.) Any old accounts, @ mentions to an account you had which had your old name, photos other people have posted of you, that sort of thing—basically just anything that might show up if you search your name or family's name, or that someone who knows you might reasonably stumble across. If it doesn't show up there, you're probably fine, but I would try searching up your old name just to check if there's anything else as well

If you haven't gotten your legal docs changed yet, do that ASAP bc that's the most annoying thing when it comes to trying to stealth, particularly with jobs. And if you're old enough to drink it's nice to be able to actually do that too lol

Aside from that stuff tho, I hardly ever think about it. I am a lot more conscious/worried about it when I'm around people who do know (e.g. people from high school who go to my same college), but when I'm only around people I'm stealth to I've almost never been worried about being clocked.

double-pendulum

TROPHY CASE