Hey all, just got my labs back after being on ~105mg a week for the last 9 weeks. My free-t is still hovering around 45pg/ml. I’ve gone from 140 to 120 to 105 and they’ve all resulted in the same free t level. My shgb has always been around 18. Funny enough my estrogen had actually gone up from 23pg/ml to 34pg/ml when I went down to 105 from 120… I felt like actual garbage for the past 6 weeks on 105 so I don’t know what gives(very low confidence, low mood, libido was the same). I have scheduled an appointment to talk to my doc at defy but wanted to gauge what other people’s thoughts were. I’m also looking at symptoms as to whether I should go up or down in dose.
This is very low, and really odd, given your low SHBG. What is your total T? You can use that to calculate your FT
My total T is 713 as of right now, the range for free t on my blood test is 9.3-26.5. I did a calculation on Free & Bioavailable Testosterone calculator and it told me that my free t was 19.7 ng/dL = 2.77 %. So I’m not sure if the Free-T blood test is reliable or I’m just out of whack.
I think the calculator is more accurate. It’s also the correct units. I’d go with that.
That being said, 19ng isn’t horrible but you have room to go up if you still don’t feel great
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I was looking for ranges and saw one that states 5-20ng/dl is the correct range for that unit. So weird that I would feel that bad even though I’m near the top end and I felt better when I was at 120mg than 105mg. Don’t ever remember feeling that terrible pre-trt where my levels were way lower than that. A lot of people on this board say that guys with low shgb feel better on a much lower dose but maybe I don’t fall into that group.
Also found this on labcorp’s website, 144980: Testosterone, Free, Direct | Labcorp, concerning the Free Testosterone(Direct) blood test:
…suggested that the analogue-free testosterone results might be misleading in men with low SHBG concentration.
So I’m wondering if this is telling me to not rely on labcorps test since I have low shgb.
Honestly I would stop following the lab ranges and take a dose where you feel well.
How long after your dose did you take the lab ? Also how often are you taking it. Cypionate right?
Also how long between doses have you given it time to work? If you drop the dose do you give it a month or two
I agree, I took labs 9 weeks after making the change, and I take cyp EOD. I noticed I started to feel worse after around 3-4 weeks and then it got progressively worse so I knew it just wasn’t wise to go down at that point.
Why are you going down and not up if you feel better with more?
The reason I wanted to go down was to control estrogen(high estrogen sides) without an AI. I just went down too much this time. And there’s always that nagging feeling of “could it be better” of course.
How long where you at the higher dose and what estrogen sides did you experience
For about 3 months, oily skin and libido/ED issues