Been on TRT off and on for a few years, with very limited success, a few E crashes and HCT normally high.
Started really delving into Thyroid after reading about temps (Normally (96.2-97.4)and RT3. In 2007 I was treated for Hyperthyroidism with Methimazole for about 2 years and ever since have felt like crap. Labs always come back OK, but I am guessing not optimal. Looking for maybe some guidance since I have Dr’s that will listen and go against the grain if I spoon feed them.
Here are recent labs (on Clomid only) and a Dec '18 lab that had Rt3 at the end.
Your SHBG is too high. Is Clomid really considered TRT? I can’t say that I think it is. It just doesn’t work. TT levels go up, but guys don’t feel better.
I am only temp on Clomid to restore natural levels while E straightens out and HCT drops for a bit. I’ll have to see if SHBG is always in the upper range from past labs. What is optimal?
I don’t know if there really is an exact optimal, it would be fine if your TT was 3x as high. But since your TT is kind of low, its all getting bound to that SHBG.
This is very common on Clomid so it is not surprising. That is one of the reasons you don’t feel good. Another is that clomid can work as a estrogen and a anti-estrogen depending on the tissue that it is in. So maybe you feel emotional, or just generally blah. Thats what most users report. No one should ever take clomid unless they are coming off T permanently otherwise it is a waste of time and money. You would be better off with HCG mono therapy.
I think that is why your estrone is so high, it is picking up some of that clomid as estrone.
Test is definitely in the crapper after stopping T-Cyp and moving to Clomid to kick start my system. Catch 22 is high SHBG needs a decent T shot (once week I think) which has been skyrocketed my HCT. Never really felt good on T after the honeymoon phase.
I mean 52 is not really all that bad. If you live in the mountains the range goes all the way up to 54. I bet, cause you kept crashing your E, and your free t was probably too high, that pushed your HCT up.
54 is kind of high. But you can donate blood, as long as you don’t donate too often.
People have to understand your HCT is supposed to go up, thats why you have more endurance on TRT. No different than sleeping in a hyperbaric chamber. If it didn’t go up, you would not have more endurance.
People freak out so much on TRT it kills it. It is not your fault, it is the stigma, the falsehoods.
No reason you can’t dial in your TRT protocol with injections, just gotta start without the anastrozole and only add it if you really need it.
We are starting to learn that a lot of the negative symptoms we thought were associated with low T, are actually due to low E2. So if you bring your T up, but bottom out your E, you’r not going to feel any different.
And on top of that, it is what probably made your HCT go up so much. Because SHBG goes up and down with E2. So if you bottom out your E2, then you also bottom out your SHBG.
So the testosterone floods your system, because there is nothing in the blood stream to bind it to save it for later.
To put this in context, your body felt a higher dose of T because more of it was available to attach to the receptors. When T is bound to SHBG it cannot activate the androgen receptor. So you basically overstimulated everything, which in turn probably made your body kill off androgen receptors.
There are many men who have found injecting very frequently lowers HCT, I saw a 4% decrease within Total T of 50 ng/dL on daily dosing versus EOD dosing.
While I’m not saying to inject daily, you need to
experiment a little. I know you’ll probably say high SHBG men need one big shot, this is not always true.
I will probably start eod sticks and see were that leads HCT, but I still after years of farting around with T never felt remotely good/great. Really looking to see if anyone on the board just felt like crap, had ok thyroid levels but high RT3 and took Liothyronine and felt great. I’m sure my issue is a combo of both, but after testing WP Thyroid and my FT3 and FT4 not budging I bet my RT3 went up.
I felt like crap 6 months after starting TRT, things were good and then everything went down the toilet, it took 2.5 years to learn I was iron, potassium, vitamin C and vitamin D deficient because I was working with inept doctors.
The last deficiency discovered was the vitamin C deficiency and that one alone cause a lot of mental and physical symptoms, imagine all four together. I lost the metabolism boosting properties of thyroid hormones when iron dropped below range.
You need to cross your T’s and dot your I’s.
Your thyroid labs don’t match up with your symptoms, Free T3 is good and Reverse T3 not too bad and could easily be reduced is mental stress is reduced. I bet your cortisol levels are sky high.
Most doctors struggle with this hormone stuff and are barely adequate for the job, if you’re working with someone who is inept, no wonder you are struggling.
We don’t ever attempt to lower SHBG. Ever. To increase free T, we increase dose. You can raise a man’s T on Clomid or HCG monotherapy but he will never feel as good as he will using exogenous testosterone. Still so many of you worrying about E2 for no reason whatsoever. We no longer measure it. Optimize free T. It’s that simple. Your high hematocrit is erythrocytosis which is normal and to be expected on TRT. No need to donate blood whatsoever. There is no need to use anastrazole. What you believe to be E2 issues, requiring anastrozole, are not E2 issues.
