Hi everyone. I am actually natural and have never used any hormones but I have a lot of symptoms of hormonal dysfunction. 24 years old. Very long refractory period(days), decreased morning wood, fatigue, low libido, muscle weakness, salt craving, poor muscle tone, exercise intolerant. Have known poor adrenal function. Any help would be appreciated.
Curious to hear your thoughts on the low FSH, high SHBG, total in relation to free test, low creatinine.
Your low LH/FSH and lower FT with good TT suggests high SHBG and that is what you have. SHBG is made in the liver and higher E2, yours is low, increases SHBG and more T decreases. Some guys simply have unexplained high SHBG. Sometimes high from a liver pathology, your AST/ALT does not suggest any liver issues. LH/FSH can be low as a result of a blow to the head damaging the pituitary or a growth on the pituitary. The most common pituitary adinomas that we see are prolactin secreting and your labs rule that out.
LH is pulsatile with a short half-life, so any one lab report is not very useful. Often FSH is a better indicator of LH status that LH itself.
Your FT is simply inadequate. LH/FSH are low and E2 or prolactin are not causes of that.
E2 is low because there is not much FT for FT–>E2 and your liver is clearing E2 effectively.
TSH is too high, fT4. fT3 are a bit below midrange.
fT3 is the active hormone.
Thyroid lab ranges are mostly useless.
You may have an iodine deficiency from not using iodized salt. See below re oral body temperatures to eval overall thyroid function. This can affect energy, mood and libido.
What time of day for cortisol lab? How many hours awake for that?
Your main focus is thyroid/iodine issues and perhaps a MRI of pituitary. We could use more history such as
height, weight, waist size, when this problem started and what were thinks like before, any obvious events before that. Did problem seem to develop fast or slow.
Hi KSman, thank you so much for the info.
Let me give you my full situation.
5’11" 138lbs
28" waist
Issues began when I was about 18 years old
Had an MRI and everything was completely normal
Mainstream doctors have been essentially no help with my symptoms and chalk it all up to ‘depression’.
I chose to omit some details but you seem like an open minded, intelligent guy, so I will give you the full backstory. I have mercury poisoning which I believe is causing all of these issues.
I have had a history of occasional spiking bilirubin(as high as 1.8) and clinically I have a lot of liver issues.
I do not use iodized salt. I use sea salt only. I will switch over starting today.
I have lots of other blood work, but most of it is outdated. Free test is always toward the bottom and total test is above mid range, usually around 600-750.
Cortisol lab is from 3 pm, but I awoke at 1pm. I stay up late at night. I need to change my sleep schedule asap.
If you want me to go into more details regarding the mercury poisoning, I will do so. I am usually hesitant to post about it since a lot of times you get backlash from people doubting the legitimacy, so I usually omit it. Either way, that is what is causing the pituitary dysfunction.
I urinate excessively. I crave salt to the point of eating it out of my hand and having to salt my water. I have many food intolerances and sensitivities so I eat a limited diet which consists of meat, vegetables and fruit. I have major gut dysbiosis and stool testing showed zero growth of beneficial species of bacteria. I often have poorly formed and poorly digested stool. I had a significant surgery a few years ago on my hand and the antibiotics taken orally and via IV seemed to really do a lot of damage to my already compromised gut.
Clinically my liver has never been that out of whack, aside from high bilirubin a few times.
VItamin D is around 28-30ish. I have a history of low zinc and selenium on RBC mineral testing. I don’t tolerate selenium well at all, but zinc does improve my symptoms somewhat.
I have severely low adrenal function. Saliva testing showed DHEA and testosterone low with cortisol slightly low only at night. I have been messing around with replacement cortisol and glandulars recently and they help me a lot to get through the day without crashing.
On some days something as simple as vacuuming could have me dizzy, feeling dehydrated and in bed asleep within a half hour. Sun exposure and sweating also wipes me out for a day or two.
I often awake feeling like I went through a grueling workout the day before. Muscles are really sore and feel like there is a lot of lactic acid built up, even though I was completely sedentary.
Currently I take vitamin C, Magnesium, calcium, b5, adrenal glandulars and sometimes zinc.
Cortisol clinically was never particularly low but I feel significantly better when I take some. I have been using roughly 3mg 3x per day for the last few weeks. It does help me get out of bed in the morning and get through the day.
Due to my gut issues I tend to avoid carbs. Typically if I carb load I will feel great for a few days, but by the 3rd or 4th day my gut issues will get out of control and I will have to cut them out again. The diet I follow is essentially the Specific Carbohydrate Diet, if you know what that is.
I’ve had to give up weightlifting due to these health issues. It was my passion in life pretty much before I turned 18. It sucks beyond comprehension. I have a lot of stuff going on, ultimately I believe all caused by mercury toxicity.
Thanks again for all the help! I do have a doctor I work with, but she doesn’t know everything and I know the hormonal issues are well understood by steroid using laymen, probably far better than most doctors. Take care.
Well that changes your first post a bit. Mercury poisoning inhibits selenium dependent enzymes. With an inhibition of these enzymes I would avoid any kids of sulfur at at all costs (in many multivitamins) as sulfur and selenium are very similar on a molecular level so many of these selenium dependent enzymes will also use sulfur (though the chemical reaction is different). Have you tried using a straight selenium supplement? It also may prevent further mercury poisoning. Mercury seems to have long half in (brain) tissue 24.5-27.5 years
Hi Grunge,
I actually eat a “low thiol” diet. Thiols are sulfury molecules found in foods like eggs, brocolli, onions, cysteine, etc.
Selenium doesn’t have any thiol groups and is often well tolerated by mercury toxic folk. It does also passivate mercury and make its effects far less toxic on the body. I really wish I could tolerate it. Unfortunately, I am extremely sensitive to many things… both ingested and environmental. There’s TONS of good info on mercury toxicity in the book Amalgam Illness: Diagnosis and Treatment if you are interested. The best source on the topic by far.
Fixing your gut flora and sleep schedule should be your main priority. Everything else here will yield minimal results if you’re not absorbing your nutrients and your ACTH is not in rhythm.
Have you tried probiotic foods such as sauerkraut, kombucha, etc.? Sauerkraut is a pre and pro-biotic superfood that plants good bacteria and specific prebiotic sugars to feed it. You can make it yourself at home cheap. Cabbage is very inexpensive.
Have you tried an infrared sauna to detox mercury from peripheral tissue?
Hi Kakarat, thanks for the reply.
I agree with you. My gut is a complete mess, and has been since the surgery and antibiotics. All of my symptoms got significantly worse after that. I really believe most of my symptoms are gut-based. Especially the anxiety, poor mood, fatigue, etc. I don’t digest my food well at all.
I have not, but I have taken probiotics. I get really sick and feel like I have the flu if I take a lot of them, so I need to work up very slowly.
Sauna would be a great option but for my inability to handle heat and sweating. I get dehydrated very easily, even from being out in the sun for an hour or so and sweating. Thus I do not believe I could handle a sauna without crashing. This corresponds with severe salt craving, to the point where I will drink heavily salted water after sweating and crave it for days afterward.
The problem with probiotics in general is that there is no guarantee that the good bacteria will take to your gut.
If you try sauerkraut make sure it is fermented and from the refrigerated foods section.
You can also look into other pre-biotic foods that you can eat with the sauerkraut to feed the good bacteria, such as garlic, onion, etc.
Update: I’ve been on hydrocortisone for a few weeks now. Things are significantly better regarding fatigue and mood. I am still only on sub 10mg per day total, but I am intending on increasing my dose up to a max of 20mg.
I am also working on my gut with probiotics. I seem to not ‘crash’ nearly as much from anything since getting on the Hydrocortisone. I am using a topical cream to dose it. If I could get a prescription for it I would try that route, but it is going to be difficult to find a local doc who will believe any of this.
I may try DHEA in the near future. It was always low on saliva tests but my labs above seem to be fine.
