I started TRT on 12/13/2011. My blood work on 12/8/2011 indicated an SHBG level of 48nmol/L (range 11-80). My blood work on 3/15/2012 indicated a level of 21nmol/L (same range). Is this something to worry about? I’m a few weeks away from being 29, and will post any information you guys need to help me figure this out. I called my doc and left a message and will post whatever he says when (if) he gets back to me.
Thanks.
Decrease in SHBG is a good thing
I thought that the lower the SHBG the less your body can use testosterone. I guess I have to do some more reading up on it. There’s a lot of vague info out there, and some of it is contradictory. But thanks for the reply! I feel a lot less anxious now.
As I understand it SHBG traps free testosterone making it bound up and not available for all the good things it does. So an ideal would be high free T, low SHBG.
[quote]ikeholtz wrote:
As I understand it SHBG traps free testosterone making it bound up and not available for all the good things it does. So an ideal would be high free T, low SHBG. [/quote]
This…lower SHBG results in higher Free T as there is less binding it. Think of SHBG as a testosterone "sponge’ that soaks up your circulating T. once it is sponged up, it can’t be used by the body and is excreted unused.
Awesome. Thanks guys! When I saw a drop like that it kinda scared the shit out of me. I’ve read some posts on another forum where guys were talking about how to raise their low SHBG, and I was freaking out that I may have done some permanent damage or something. We recently went up to 100mg twice a week, but have since gone back down to 75mg twice a week, as at the 100mgX2 made it so I couldn’t sleep.
(And I was basically a walking boner.) After things settle back down I’m getting my E2 checked because I think I’ll need an AI. Taking an AI now would probably help me sleep (I’ve been getting hot-flashes at night), but I saw my doctor’s P.A. and she wasn’t comfortable with my mid-week TT being 1117, and my FT being 299, LOL. If I had seen my doctor he probably would have asked me if I wanted to stay that high because he cares more about how I feel than the number, but I think going down is the right thing to do as being over 1000ng/dL seems excessive to me.
I was gaining muscle really quickly for doing basically nothing though, which was pretty awesome. (I haven’t had this amount of muscle since High School when I was competitively swimming and teaching Martial Arts, before a car accident and a series of shoulder operations and cancer withered my musculature.)
I just don’t think levels those high are sustainable and/or healthy. So in a couple of weeks, when things get back to “normal”, we’ll have to figure out why being on 150mg a week wasn’t quite cutting it, and I have suspicion that it’s an E2 issue.
I wouldn’t sweat too much being just over 1,000. Always keep in mind those ranges are likely skewed to the low end due to the fact that most high T, healthy people aren’t getting their T levels checked. Therefore the sample is automatically representative of a borderline unhealthy population.
I personally see nothing wrong with higher than range T levels. If you and your doc are comfortable there, then I see no reason to change. Dose on how you feel and as long as other markers are in check, you are probably fine.
If insurance starts to question the need for that dose, there are tricks you can use before blood tests to keep your levels from appearing so high.