Hey there I recently took some tests as I suspected I have low testosterone and just got the tests back.
My symptoms are low libido, fatigue, brain fog.
I work 4 times a week and dont drink, smoke or do any type of drugs.
I also sleep 8 hours a day.
Blood was taken 10 am fasted.
I think this hospital has some weird normal ranges because apparently 1.75 ng/mL - 7.81 ng/mL is the normal range of total testosterone that they provided.
My total testosterone is 5.47 ng/mL (547 ng/dl)
My free testosteorne is 10.66 pg/mL (1.066 ng/dl)
Would testosterone improve my symptoms which I suspect are from low Free T?
Would love some advice on what you think about my numbers and what I should do as I feel a littlebit lost.
How hard are you working out? Low T can result from training past your recovery limits. I would retest after you take a couple days off, to see what your baseline without training is.
For me, I did the retest after taking two training days off, and I saw an increase of Testosterone, but it was still low normal. I made the decision to do TRT at around age 30. I didn’t want to train like a wimp, and my training was within the range of what people often can do without issues (I should have been able to have good test levels).
How much muscle are you carrying? Your kidney values are border line. This can happen if one has a lot of muscle / eats lots of protein. If you are not carrying a lot of muscle, or eating a lot of protein, you will want to keep an eye on those labs.
Funny you mention it because this was actually taken a couple days after my last workout so I was rested. I thought that would be a good idea before taking bloods. Carrying a fair bit of muscle but not eating extreme amounts of protein. Ill be sure to monitor my kidney values with my doc, thanks for that.
If you are muscular or eating a lot of protein, you should test kidney function with the Cystatin C test, not the standard Bun / Creatinine eGFR test. I have a border line eGFR (that is the number that matters the most), using the Bun / Creatinine method, but with Cystatin C, I am looking much better for kidneys.
If you were rested, I still recommend doing another test. You are still young, and you should confirm you really need TRT. TRT isn’t the end of the world or anything, but it is generally for life. Make sure you are good with that.
Thanks alot man. I will be sure to talk to doctor about those when I visit him next week. Is there anything I can do in the meantime to improve my symptoms?
Bad kidneys run in my family, I was a little dehydrated the day of the test as well, that might have played a part. Would you do TRT if my levels were the same on my next test as well? I dont mind being on forever if that means a better life. I just wanna stop feeling like I do atm.
I started with a Free T (the measurement that matters) at almost exactly where your are (IIRC, mine was 10.4 range was 10-25 or something). I was about 30 at the time, so a bit older, but not much.
As far as energy / focus goes, it didn’t help much. Libido improved a bit, but wasn’t low to begin with (now it is what I would consider high). The big difference is my body is leaner, and has more muscle. I can cut without losing much muscle much easier. I went from pudgy and muscular to lean and muscular. The improvements to the body were pretty large IMO.
Yeah, I guess id have to come to terms with the fact that if I chose to do TRT it wont be some sort of magical solution for all my problems.
Did you feel any improvement in terms of mental well being?
I appreciate the help bro, thank you.
Many expect to feel like superman on TRT. It just doesn’t work like that. Many with very low T levels (your levels divided by 4) get huge improvements, but those guys are the exception IMO.
Slight improvements. My confidence went up more than anything. Some of that is probably the Test, and some of it is looking better improves confidence.
The wellbeing and confidence occurred more quickly, (few weeks), energy and muscle improvements weren’t far behind. How fast improvements occur will vary person to person.
