Hi all,
To make a long story short I’m deficient in T and GH since birth due to a bad/lazy pituitary. I needed GH injections to get to my height of 5’8 and androgel to finish puberty. I stopped all hormones back in 2008. I tried weight lifting for 6 months with a trainer back in 07 and had I gained little muscle for my work.
While part of the reason could of been diet(not enough carbs, and possibly not enough calories overall since I believe I was right around maintainence) I’m thinking it was my low GH that was the problem because I wasn’t on any GH during lifting just androgel.
I’m posting because I need advice on what I should do…I want to gain strength and muscle. I decided 3 months or so ago to get back into lifting (I know a lot more about nutrition/macro counting now), but before bulking I started cutting because my body fat was way too high. I’ve lost 30 pounds and my weight is 146 at Probably around 17-19% BF. Maybe a lil less.
I Mostly have abdominal fat/love handles with a lil chest (not gyno). My limbs, neck, face are very skinny.I basically have no muscle. I began lifting soon after I started my cut but I’ve taken a month break because of my joints and gonna start again. I’m actually happy with the strength gains for being on an aggressive caloric deficit. As an example my bench (don’t laugh lol :p) went from 55 to 90 and curling 10 pound dumbbells to 30 pounds in just over a month. Took a toll on my joints though… I do low reps (6) so those numbers are heavy for me.
Is there anything natural that I can take to help out my low T and low GH? At least something I can do for my low igf-1? I’m thinking my igf-1 is my “bottle neck” even over the low T. What are my other options that aren’t natural? Taking igf-1 shots? Also does anybody know of a very good endo (my endo is agaisnt putting me back on anything) who understands my issues in NYC?
Lastly if I choose to not take any shots and given my current hormonal profile can I at least expect to be 145-150 (Low goals i know, I’d prefer to be 180lb…) at 9-12% body fat if its possible to even tell? My last blood test taken a year ago is below. I’m sure it’s still the same roughly… This is “my normal”.
FSH 3.5 range 1.6-8.0 mIU/mL
LH 2.1. Range 1.5-9.3 mIU/mL
TSH 1.230. Range 0.470-4.680
T4, Total 6.14 range 5.53-11.00 ug/dL
Total testosterone 321 range 250-1100 ng/DL (test was sort of late in the morning, I’ve had 375 before natural)
Free T 42.1 range 35-155 pg/ml (I’ve had 47 before)
Igf-1, ECL 73 range 63-373 ng/ml
That’s all I have hormonal wise…He didn’t do anything else like estrogen, SHGB etc. I’m also borderline anemic due to the hormones, not because of iron.
Edit: I’m 28 years old
Edit 2: 33 inch waist just above belly button and 36 below going around the love handles.
-describe body and facial hair: I’m pretty hairy and have just gotten hairier with time. My facial hair is patchy at my cheeks the rest full. Mustache is full but never grows long, I don’t really have to trim it like I do my beard. Although with time it has gotten a little longer where I may trim it slightly to keep it looking clean. My chin/behind chin hair is very full and kind of long. I have not shaved my chin just to see how long it gets the last 4 months, it’s two inches long.
- health conditions, symptoms [history: other than what’s already been said, last year a month before this blood test my right ear became highly sensitive to sound suddenly. Tv was on and had to turn it off and had ringing in my ear. It hurt quite a bit. Never had ear problems…so for the last year (was worse last year) I may get some ringing every now and then, or a feeling of fullness/pressure it fluctuates. Sometimes it may go to my left ear the fullness/pressure, left one rarely rings. My hearing in my right ear has gone down, but only noticeable if on the phone. Voices sound a bit distorted in my right and people tend to sound sick as if they have a cold. My left ear is normal. I won’t notice any difference by simply being in conversation in person or watching tv, I have to hear you only with my right ear on the phone to notice my hearing loss/dmg. I went to the emergency room and they found nothing in my ear. While i have not gotten it properly checked out by an ear doc I self diagnosed myself with endolymphatic hydrops as the cause since symptoms matched. I was having a lot of sodium at the time and I blame that plus smoking. Also in early 2008 I got a case of terrible acne while on T and GH. The rarest form of acne called acne conglobata…scarred up my chest pretty good. That’s when I stopped GH on my own. Before that for a lil over year-year and a half I was on Androgel. I had normal acne but when GH was introduced in combination forget about it…
-describe where you carry fat and how changed: abdominal fat mostly/love handles. Has been that way since around 10 years old. Always carried fat there.
-Rx and OTC drugs, any hair loss drugs or prostate drugs ever : don’t take anything other than supplements such as whey, half serving a day of animal pak, fish oil, animal flex, bromaline, vit D, CLA, BCAA. I don’t have male pattern baldness. No prostate drugs or any drugs of any kind.
-describe diet [some create substantial damage with starvation diets: my hormonal problems are not diet related. I’ll just say that I ate anything when I took this blood test not starving. I am on a starvation diet now though for last two months. I’m about 45-50% below maintainence at 1000 cals. My macros are usually 60% protein, 25% fat, 15% carbs. I don’t do cardio (ever) and I have not lifted in a month as I said above because I wanted to let my joints heal up. Also when I was lifting I wasnt eating enough for the intensity (heavy weight for me) that I was doing. I live a sedimentary life.
-describe training [some ruin there hormones by over training] : it’s not training related either.
-testes ache, ever, with a fever? : the top part of my right testicle ached for 2 days when moving into certain positions a few months ago, no fever though. That same feeling has happened maybe twice before. One last year and maybe 2-3 years ago…They usually give me no problems.
-how have morning wood and nocturnal erections changed : I’d get it pretty often when on hormones. Usually now I may go over a week without morning wood. I believe it happened a bit more often before I started on my extreme cut, like one to three times a week.
Here are the rest of my labs:
Albumin 4.6 range 3.5-5.0 g/dl
Bilirubin total: 0.7 range 0.2-1.3 mg/dL
Alkaline phosphate 79 range 38-126 U/L
Protein, Total 7.0 range 6.3-8.2 g/dL
ALT 50 range 21-72 U/L
AST 31 range 17-59 U/L
Calcium 9.4 range 8.4-10.2 mg/dL
Sodium 143 range 137-145 mmol/L
Potassium 4.5 range 3.5-5.1 mmol/L
Chloride 104 range 98-107 mmol/L
Co2 29 range 22-30 mmol/L
Anion gap 9.0 range 7.0 16.0 mmol/L
Glucose 60 range 74-110 mg/dL (low) I fasted for this lab work.
Blood urea nitrogen 14 range 9-20 mg/dL
Creatinine 0.8 range 0.7-1.3 mg/dL
WBC 9.2 range 3.8-11.0 K/uL
RGC 4.43 range 4.20-5.80 M/uL
HGB 12.1 range 13.5-17.5 g/dL (low)
Hematocrit 38.2 range 38.0-52.0 %
Mean corpuscular volume 86.2 range 80.0-100.0 FL
Mean corpuscular hemoglobin 27.2 range 25.4-34.6 pg
Mean corpuscular conc 31.5 range 31.0-37.0 g/dL
Red cell distribution width 13.5 range 11.5-14.5 %
Mean platelet volume 9.4 range 6.9-10.8 fL
Platelets 285 range 130-400 K/uL
Neutrophils auto 61.4 range 45.0-80.0 %
Lymphocytes auto 32.3 range 16.0-41.0%
Monocytes auto 4.6 range 0.0-12.0%
Eosinophils auto 0.9 range 0.0-5.0%
Basophils Auto 0.8 range 0.0-2.0%
Neutrophils absolute 5.6 range 2.0-6.0 K/uL
Lymphocytes absolute 3.0 range 1.1-2.8 K/uL (high)
Monocytes absolute 0.4 range 0.0-1.0 K/uL
Eosinophils Absolute 0.1 range 0.0-0.5 K/uL
Basophils absolute 0.1 range 0.0-0.1 K/uL
good luck and I hope you feel better