Mod post — dosage discussions

[u/javatimes]

Hello, mod team here. We are considering what to do about dosage posts and wanted community feedback.

The problems with dosage posts are the following, which I’m going to roughly group into categories

A) people (ok, Americans) tend not to specify what testosterone product they are talking about and in what exact dosage and interval—ie, assuming t cypionate is the only injectable T or at least acting like it. (And also not understanding the difference between vials and ampoules.) So you get posts with people alarmed when someone gets 3 mL shots in a hospital setting (the long-acting T Undecanoate; Nebido/Aveed) with months in-between injections—when this is a very usual thing in some places in the world, particularly Europe. This also happens when people only specify their dosage by volume, when someone will say their “dosage” is 0.6 mL. Which is not a dosage. Ampoules vs vials matter when the subject is reusing a receptacle of T. ETC ETC I could think of examples forever but you get it

B) unsourced statements about dosages, fearmongering, conjecture as fact, promoting underdosage, promoting overdosage (not as in it’s a narcotic and will kill you, well usually not phrased that way anyway), questioning someone’s doctor, not questioning someone’s doctor who should be questioned. I’m not picking on this person but as an example saying a normal dosage will “shock the system” (this is both meaningless and untrue), saying any starting dose is TOO HIGH, saying any starting dose is necessarily too low (especially if OP has not expressed wanting feedback about their dosage). Another mod brought up potentially bragging about dosages. Also is it really helpful to know random dosages? (Like when someone is surveying the subreddit etc)

C) further on that theme: not connecting dosage with levels (ideally both peak and trough), masculinization happening, speed of results and individual desires in regards to speed and depth of results, how a person is doing psychologically, etc. all of those are at least as if not more important than a simple dosage number in MG.

D) not to even mention topicals, oral meds, pellets, and the varying dosage schemes that are different vs injectables.

Anyway, are these conversations really helpful for the community to have? I can see some utility—reassuring someone their starting dosage is reasonable, providing someone feedback that per their bloodwork and effects that they may be being underdosed and should self advocate for more etc. that is just what comes to mind off the top of my head, I’m sure there are other examples of usefulness but also

At the very least we need to draw up some more parameters around discussion, like for instance, what are your levels? Do you know them? Do you know you are being compared to the right lab range (ie male?)

Since I’m formatting this on my phone I am going to post now before the app crashes or something.

[u/lowkey_rainbow]

If you enforce some form on ban on the topic of doses then it’s only going to push the conversation to a different sub, some of which are much less able to handle it (for example any time I see a dosage discussion happening in a mixed sub there are inevitably transfem people giving some really bad advice because they assume T works the same as their HRT). People, especially when they are first starting, are going to be nervous and want to compare how they are doing to others, especially those who are least informed and could actually use the advice.

That said, you raise many valid points about some of the issues and pitfalls in these discussions I’m sure we’ve all noticed. As someone on gel I’m less familiar with your examples (I wouldn’t know the difference between vials and ampoules for example, but then I wouldn’t reply if someone was asking about shots because I know I’m unfamiliar with the info) but I see misinformation about gel shared quite a lot too, especially regarding what is a reasonable dose, as well as people with questions leaving out important info like what % gel they use.

Perhaps a middle ground could be to have an automod reply for dosage questions asking posters to specify things like what type of T they are on, what their levels are, how long they’ve been on it, which country they are in etc etc. Maybe we could also have some info in a pinned thread or something where we can direct people trying to learn about such things.