Why does it seem cis men on TRT need a higher dose than trans men on HRT?

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Whenever I see trans men talk about their dose and levels, the average dose seems to be 60-100mg ~~of~~ weekly to get to 500-1000ng/dL. But when I see cis men (with low testosterone) talking about it, their average dose seems to be 100-200mg weekly to get to 500-1000ng/dL. What’s the difference?

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4 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

Interesting question and I don’t have an answer, but a “maybe because” response that I welcome being corrected. I wonder if trans men might also be on estrogen blockers in addition to the test so they have less of a “hill” to overcome whereas cis men are simply upping their test and not adjusting for anything else.

Of course, this is for people that aren’t using test (or tren or diabol or…) to get bigger. Those will vary wildly and be much higher.

Anonymous 0 Comments

The testosterone given to trans men is called “testosterone undecanoate”. It slowly breaks down in the body over 3-4 weeks. The testosterone often given for TRT is “testosterone cypionate” which breaks down over 3-4 days. If you create a decay curve, you’ll see the average blood serum levels of testosterone is about the same for both.

Anonymous 0 Comments

For trans guys, the end goal is to basically go through a testosterone-mediated puberty and then maintain those effects for the rest of your life. Getting into the 500-1000 ng/dL range is part of that, but ultimately the numbers aren’t as important of an indicator as whether the testosterone is having the desired effects. Once you’re taking enough to suppress your estrogen levels, taking *more* just for the sake of getting into the high end of the male range isn’t necessarily going to do any good.

I *suspect* that cis men who are on testosterone are more likely to want the highest levels they can safely achieve for the sake of building muscle, etc. But I’m not a cis man so I don’t know.

Edit: also, ovaries produce testosterone – not very much, but it’s an amount that your body is producing on its own. A cis guy who’s had testicular cancer or some other health issue may not be producing any endogenous testosterone at all, and so that may be why they need more.

I’m really curious as to what the actual reason for this is, but I’d be surprised if there was any actual data on this.

Anonymous 0 Comments

highly dependent on a number of factors, but there is an enzyme Aromatase that converts testosterone to estrogen, which is found in higher levels in biological women. I would assume depending on the transition, the dosage is higher to account and overcome the conversion that would come with that enzyme being more prevalent.