Self-experiment: A supraphysiological dosage of testosterone.

post by shapeshifter · 2023-06-26T10:26:50.951Z · LW · GW · 3 comments

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Unfortunately, I haven't found a good way to conduct a long-term self-experiment in which I observe the effect a supraphysiological weekly dosage of testosterone has on me. However, I think I found a decent alternative.

Firstly, some stats:

21y/o male, sub-saharan descent. 173cm at 61kg of bodyweight. I have used steroids before, in a bodybuilding context but that was quite some time ago. I don't bodybuild as of now.

Experimental preparations are as follows: I have sort-of double blinded myself. I have prefilled one syringes with testosterone enanthate at a concentration of 200mg/ml. 300 mg/ml. Another syringe I prefilled with ordinary bacteriostatic water. I have - 20 minutes ago - injected my left buttcheek with the content (1ml) of one of the two syringes, I don't know which one though. I will wait at least 3 weeks (time it takes for this version of testosterone until it has cleared my body) before stabbing myself with the other syringe. In both cases, I will record any subjective effects here.

I will measure my cognitive abilities every three days using:

  1. Zetamac (mental math website for processing speed)
  2. Dual n-back (for working memory)
  3. No. of uni slides I can work through in an arbitrary hour (for measuring productivity, I study urban planning).

How does that sound? Can you suggest any improvements (preferrably improvements which I can implement without letting others know of my plans)? 

Edit: Corrected the concentration (300mg/ml) and added the amount of testosterone I injected (1ml).

3 comments

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comment by omegastick (isaac-poulton) · 2023-06-26T11:44:04.088Z · LW(p) · GW(p)

Please don't do this, this is dangerous.

How much Test E did you take? 200mg/ml, but how many ml?

Usually, one dose of testosterone isn't enough for a noticeable difference in mental state, and by the time it is enough you'll need a plan for managing mental side effects from your increased estrogen.

I'm usually a pretty big fan of bioengineering, self-experimentation, etc. but this strikes me as particularly reckless.

Replies from: shapeshifter
↑ comment by shapeshifter · 2023-06-26T17:40:33.162Z · LW(p) · GW(p)

Hey Isaac, I appreciate your concerns but, quite frankly, I don't care that much about potential risks.

If you are curious as to what effects can be measurably observed after a single injection, I highly reccomend reading this study: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4330791/ . It's sort of a meta analysis and includes various examples of experiments involving single testosterone shots.

I corrected the concentration and amount. It is 300mg/ml and 1ml of testosterone. I am not too worried about any of the classic side effects (estrogenic/LH/FSH/spermatogenesis related) as I am not intending to take testosterone for any longer then 3 weeks - which should also leave me minimally suppressed.

comment by [deleted] · 2023-06-26T19:27:44.895Z · LW(p) · GW(p)

You would need the syringes to both have the same oil the drug is dissolved in, and to control for the likely color difference. Even then the real thing may cause more pain around the injection site than the control dose.

It is also unsafe to give yourself injections blind as you need to see the surface of the liquid in the syringe to check for air.

Does the meta analysis you looked at show measurable cognition changes? You would assume the biggest delta would show up in your workouts. Also you're not injecting a very large dose so quite possibly nothing will seem to happen. Bodybuilders do 600-1000mg weekly for months to get a substantial effect. (And as I have read online, the really serious ones use far more powerful steroids like trenbolone to essentially leave the chart for documented human physiology at presumably fairly significant risk of death)