I was going to say, I'm actually beginning to be a bigger fan of Less is more for an AI for HRT doses (say, ~300mg Test E/mo) unless you're blasting with something notorious for prolactin sides (who wants to lactate and rage at just about everything, remember, prolactin and dopamine are antagonistic in the brain - so one very much does affect the other, when it comes to mood) or something that aromatizes readily along with test, say, oral winny (I think? I've never touched an oral. Makes no sense to me).
But I still do the few grains of Asin a day protocol just to make sure I'm not retaining any water. I work 10-11 hrs a day on my feet, that would be a professional death sentence for me. In a hot environment, I'll readily drink 6-8L of water, retaining that is a real PITA.
As for the study, in the methodology, it states that they used test Cyp "quick injector pens" similar to the "new" insulin pens people have. I'm assuming, due to supply-chain/demand issues, no E was available in this administration vector.
I just can't imagine writing a thesis (as I'll be doing shortly on a HRT related subject) and not standardizing your test group's medication... TBH, I know the ester weights are nearly identical, but I'm not well versed on how the body cleaves the ester off, to release free T, and where. Those can have a huge impact on how a drug affects someone, even if dosing is consistent. Imagine, a different enzyme, or tissue location. Ibuprofen is all the same, until it's not, afterall, and you wouldn't run a study using ibuprofen with different' ROA's. And that's flipping advil.