Hi, guys I need help figuring out my Hormone and Thyroid issues. Iâ??ve been doing a ton of research and reading but itâ??s still hard to peel away all the layers as there seems to be a lot of factors at play. I know there is a ton of information in the post so thanks in advance for taking the time to read it and offer your help.
Background:
I am 40 Years Old 5â??11 175 pounds around 10% body fat. Never taken any of the hair loss drugs and I did one haphazard AAS cycle when I was 20. Also when I was around 28 I took â??Prohormonesâ?? for about 4 weeks until I started noticing it was making my hair thin.
Other than that I have felt healthy and I have taken pretty good care of myself always worked out and been active. About 4 years ago I went through some â??stressful timesâ?? I lost my business, my house, got a divorce etc. I mention this because it seems like this is kind of the line where after that my health started to go downhill.
Over the last year things have gotten progressively worse. I started not having any energy, motivation, and my sex drive went way down. November and December were the worst and my brain was in a fog and I was sleeping a lot (and also bouts of insomnia) and still feeling drained. No libido and rare morning woods. Also in the gym things werenâ??t going great and I wasnâ??t really making gains instead the opposite seemed to be happening which was weird because diet and consistency was pretty good. So at the end of December I decided to go get blood tests thinking I must have low Testosterone.
One thing I have to mention is that I am in the Philippines without insurance so it is difficult to get some blood tests or find a doctor that is competent in these areas.
My results came back with low Test and a high TSH. Results below.
1/1
CRP Negative <0.8 ng/dl
Testosterone 4.50 3.0-10 ng/ml
PSA 0.4 0-4 ng/ml
TSH 7.7 0.6 â?? 5.0 uIU/ml
Taken 1/5 wanted to get a retest of the TSH and more comprehensive tests:
Chemistry
FBS (HEXOKINASE) 4.66 mmol/L 3.89~5.49
Lipid Profile
Cholesterol (CHOD-PAP) 3.95 mmol/L 3.88 ~ 6.20
Triglycerides (ENZYMATIC) 0.76 mmol/L 0.11 ~ 2.26
HDL (DIRECT MEASURE- PEG) 0.94 mmol/L > 0.90
LDL 2.66 mmol/L 1.27 ~ 4.47
VLDL 0.35 mmol/L 0.05 ~ 1.04
CHOL/HDL Ratio 4.20 < 4.40
BUN (KINETIC) H 8.48 mmol/L 2.18 ~ 8.33
Creatinine (ENZYMATIC) 104.00 umol/L 59.00 ~ 104.00
Uric Acid (ENZYMATIC) 252.02 umol/L 202.30 ~ 416.50
SGPT / ALT (KINETIC) 21.87 U/L 10.00~41.00
SGOT / AST (KINETIC) 26.07 U/L 10.00 ~ 37.00
ALP (COLORIMETRIC) 57.30 U/L 40.00~129.00
Total Protein/ALB/GLOB
T. Protein (COLORIMETRIC) 76.48 g/L 64.00~87.00
Albumin (COLORIMETRIC) 44.87 g/L 35.00 ~ 50.00
Globulin 31.61 g/L 23 ~ 35
Albumin/Globulin Ratio 1.42
Bilirubin (DIAZO)
Indirect Bilirubin 4.30 umol/L 1.71 ~ 17.10
Direct Bilirubin (DIAZO) 2.44 umol/L 0.00~5.30
Total Bilirubin (DIAZO) 6.74 umol/L 1.71 ~ 20.52
GGT (ENZYMATIC) 14.12 U/L 8.00 ~ 61.00
Sodium (ISE) 138.00 mmol/L 135.00~148.00
Potassium (ISE) 3.96 mmol/L 3.50 ~ 5.30
Chloride (ISE) 96.20 mmol/L 98.00~107.00
T. Calcium (COLORIMETRIC) 2.43 mmol/L 2.10 ~ 2.60
Hematology
ESR ( WESTERGREN ) 5.00 mm/hr
Glycosylated Hb (HPLC) 5.50 %
Complete Blood Count.
White Blood Cells 7.00 X10^9/L 4.23~9.07
Red Blood Cells 5.00 X10^12/L 4.63~6.08
Hemoglobin 154.00 g/L 137.00~175.00
Hematocrit 0.46 Vol.Fract 0.40 ~ 0.51
Mean Corpuscular Volume 91.20 fL 79.00 ~ 92.20
Mean Corpuscular Hb 30.80 pg 25.70 ~ 32.20
Mean Corpuscular Hb Conc. 33.80 % 32.30 ~ 36.50
RBC Distribution Width 13.80 % 11.60 ~ 14.60
Platelet Adequate
Mean Platelet Volume 9.60 fL 6.50~12.00
Differential Count
Neutrophils 42.90 % 34.00~68.00
Lymphocytes 41.90 % 22.00~53.00
Monocyte 6.40 % 5.00~12.00
Eosinophil 8.40 % 1.00~7.00
Basophil 0.40 % 0.00~1.00
IMMUNOLOGY
CEA (ECLIA) 1.13 ng/mL
TSH (ECLIA) 10.720 uIU/mL 0.27 ~ 4.20
So after I saw the various results I started reading and researching and came up with the following things that I thought could be problems. Gut issues, Adrenal fatigue, thyroid, and low test.
So here are the changes I made: Even though I was eating pretty healthy I was eating extremely low fat. I changed my eating habits to a Paleo diet, plenty of fats and proteins all of my carbs from vegetable and some occasional fruit. I havenâ??t had any processed carbs, wheat, grains or alcohol for nearly 45 days. I also quit all stimulants coffee, NO Explode, etc.
Iâ??ve also added the following supplements over the last 45 days.
Vitamin D3 10,000
Selenium 200
3 Multivitamins (split throughout the day with each meal)
3 grams fish oil (1 with each meal)
Vitamin A 15,000
Sublingual B12 twice a day
Zinc, Magnesium, Calcium Complex at night.
Mega Acidophilus
Digestive Enzymes
Also have continued to take glutamine, creatine, and glucosamine w/ MSM.
Herbs to help with (thyroid and adrenals)
Astragalus root
Ashwagandha
Gensing
Bacopa Monnieri Extract
Sea Salt (wasnâ??t eating any salt pre paleo)
Also couldnâ??t find lugols but have been painting on a 2% tincture of iodine I found here in the Phils
1/17 After TSH Came Back High a 2nd time and I researched about the thyroid I got a full thyroid panel (didnâ??t offer rt3)
Thyroid Antibodies(ECLIA)
Thyroglobulin Ab (ECLIA) 644.20 IU/mL 0.00~115.00
Anti Thyroxine Peroxidase 241.80 IU/mL 0.00~34.00
T3 (ECLIA) 1.36 nmol/L 1.30~3.10
T4 (ECLIA) 89.36 nmol/L 66.00~181.00
FT3 (ECLIA) 4.23 pmol/L 2.80~7.10
FT4 (ECLIA) 16.42 pmol/L 12.00~22.00
TSH (ECLIA) 8.550 uIU/mL 0.27~4.20
It appears that I have normal FT4 and FT3 although I have high TSH and I have antibodies present. Iâ??m not sure at what levels of antibodies it is considered that someone has Hashimotos.
The changes in my diet along with making sure I am getting plenty of sleep and the supplements have definitely made a change and I am feeling more energetic each day and have some sex drive, occasional morning wood, but usually I really have to try and work myself up to want sex. And definitely nowhere near what I had say 2-3 years ago.
So I decided to dig into my Hormones since the Total T came back at only 450 on 1/1. I had Hormone Panels pulled yesterday and got back all my results except my SBHG which will take a few weeks. I couldnâ??t find a place that does free T so I got SBHG instead.
2/11 Hormone Tests
Testosterone (ECLIA) 6.12 ng/mL MALE : 2.80 ~ 8.00
Prolactin (ECLIA) 127.40 mIU/L 98.00~456.00
FSH (ECLIA) 3.49 Male : 1.50 ~ 12.40
LuteinizingHormone(ECLIA) 3.05 mIU/mL Male : 1.70 ~ 8.60
Progesterone (ECLIA) 0.59 ng/mL MALE : 0.20 ~ 1.40
Estradiol (ECLIA) 12.29 pg/mL Male : 7.63~42.60
Other thoughts and notes.
Next week Iâ??ll go in for the regular blood tests again as I want to see how my diet has changed those results.
Cortisol
Also could not find a place that does the saliva Cortisol test so I havenâ??t gotten that done but I have been tracking my temperatures. When I started tracking them back at the beginning of January they were pretty low. Waking would be under 97 and they would only get into the low 98â??s throughout the day.
After starting supplementation of the herbs and other changes they went up and I was waking up at mid to high 97â??s and getting to 98.6 or higher during the day. Lately and Iâ??m not sure if this coincided with me waking up earlier or with me starting to supplement the trans dermal iodine they have lowered slightly. Usually waking between 97.16 and 97.52 and getting up to just below 98.6 but never going over. Overall my temps do seem to be pretty stable on a day to day basis and not fluctuate that much between the same time readings each day.
Work Outs:
I do weight training at least 4 times a week and also do sprints or some kind of Metcon once a week. Of course lately itâ??s hard to push myself and in the last year the only way I was able to push hard at the gym was to load up on NO eXplode (stim with caffeine) before workouts.