Does High Hematocrit Lead to Complications for Men on TRT?

[readalot]

@dbossa

@readalot I got another reply for you. Physician who prefers to remain anonymous for now:

So this is actually a really good thread and the poster makes good points. I actually thought Justin Saya had the best post.

My issues are with the presuppositions of higher HCT = “thicker blood” in the sense they are saying.

They are not directly measuring viscosity in these studies but using surrogates. There could be many contributing factors to flow mediated dilation.

This is where real
Science would have to come in. Might be hard to have HCT as an independent variable but it’s needed.

The Andean study isn’t necessarily relevant. It’s one group with specific issues.

We need studies on men on TRT.

I get people being cautious. I do. There is no black and white for this HCT thing.

I’ll try and dig deeper into the studies he posted and read the full papers, and dig in to these measures of “viscosity” and shear stress, etc, before making any real comments.

I simply see a LOT of assumptions and confounders with these papers and those things need teasing out.

I’ll dig further.

I’m still on the fence on this issue. I just want accurate measures and to know if they’re even relevant. We can assume a lot from these measurements that may have zero clinical significance.

Hi Danny, thanks for taking the time to provide this feedback. Let’s keep the correspondence anonymous (reviewer and reviewee) that way we can all focus on the science without any concerns of ego/reputation, etc.

Point on Hct vs viscosity is well taken that’s why I went to the trouble of doing this whole analysis:

Benefits of Estrogen for TRT Patients

Respectfully, you aren’t getting it. I am differentiating the two. With your logic, you call erythrocytosis harmless, therefore it must be harmless. What’s scary is you don’t seem to understand that. Go read my posts. I outline all of this. Here’s one verbatim from ExcelMale: THE DETERMINATION OF BLOOD VISCOSITY IN MAN BY A METHOD BASED ON POISEUILLE’S LAW [image] THE APPARENT VISCOSITY OF BLOOD FLOWING IN THE ISOLATED HINDLIMB OF THE DOG, AND ITS VARIATION WITH CORPUSCULAR CONCENTRATI…

All Hct is not created equal when it comes to blood viscosity. Completely agree it’s not black or white hence trying to increase the understanding and dialogue about high Hct, especially for men with autoimmune, high cRP, other inflammation issues where their plasma viscosity is elevated and whole blood viscosity is a strong f(Hct+plasma viscosity).

Look forward to any in depth review/discussion you get from others. All of this would make a great video with the right folks who understand the math/physics and biology. And this Doctor is correct, we need studies on men doing TRT.

Curious if any of the providers in your network have ever utilitized this test or one like it:

Blood Viscosity Testing | The Complete Blood Viscosity Profile