Hi everyone,
Was wondering if anyone could possibly help me understand my blood results? Did a Medichecks blood test to see if I had low testosterone and now know I have low free testosterone. I pretty much suffer from all the symptoms of low t, low libido, extremely low fatigue (fall asleep at random times during the day), hair loss, anxiety, depression etc. I have gyno and have had it from when I was a teenager (I’m 27 now) and went to the GP about 7 years ago asking for a testosterone check but was refused. I live in the UK and the NHS aren’t very helpful unless you have a cold or a broken bone.
I try to be active and go to the gym but I’m not consistent at all. I’m tired almost all the time but I still try to push through. I’m 5 ft 10 and weight 86kg (weighed 98kg last year).
Here are my results -
D.H.E.A. SULPHATE 10.100 umol/L 0.44 - 13.40
FOLLICLE STIM. HORMONE 2.22 IU/L 1.50 - 12.40
LUTEINISING HORMONE 3.93 IU/L 1.70 - 8.60
TESTOSTERONE 14.8 nmol/L 7.60 - 31.40
FREE-TESTOSTERONE(CALCULATED) *0.263 nmol/L 0.30 - 1.00
SEX HORMONE BINDING GLOB 39.3 nmol/L 16.00 - 55.00
FREE ANDROGEN INDEX 37.66 Ratio 24.00 - 104.00
17-BETA OESTRADIOL 47.5 pmol/L 0.00 - 191.99
I read online that someone at my age should have 21.0 nmol and that 14 nmol is for a man in there 80s but I’m really new to all this stuff and don’t really know. Was wondering if anyone could give me some advice as to what to do.
Sorry for the long post.
Testosterone is low, might not be as bad if SHBG was under 20. While your preliminary testosterone panel hitting all the important hormone tests, you have zero thyroid labs. We get a lot of guys coming here with both low testosterone and low thyroid function, one way to evaluate thyroid function is measuring oral body temperatures, you need to hit 97.7 upon waking and 98.6 by 2pm consistently.
Free T3 is the only active thyroid hormones and will correlate directly with your body temperatures, sometimes Free T3 can be quite good, but sometimes Reverse T3 can be elevated which blocks Free T3 from soaking into your cells. Starvation diets, overtraining and stress can elevate Reverse T3.
You aren’t getting any of these tests through the NHS, might as well be convincing a brick wall it needs to move. You may need to go private.
Cortisol levels play roll in thyroid hormones and going to the gym and working out in a low testosterone state can damage the adrenals glands, increasing Reverse T3 which means you are running on pure adrenaline! Bad.
NHS is useless for diagnosing a hormone deficiency and treatment, I’ve heard some pretty outrageous comments from NHS doctors. Similar to our VA who can’t get anything right, hormone therapy is too complicated for most state healthcare systems doctors.
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Thank you so much for all the information. I’ll definitely research all the things you said to try and get a better understanding of everything. What do you think my next move should be? I have a doctors appointment tomorrow with a new doctor (old one told me I was wasting her time) and was going to show him my Medichecks results and ask if I could get a full blood test and a testosterone check under the NHS. I didn’t even think know my thyroid could play a factor in how I was feeling. All I was reading about is low testosterone and TRT boosters. Just really confused at the moment to be honest and quite frustrated with my last doctor.
I’ll try and look for a private doctor this week but I’m just worried its going to be very expensive.