Low T... and Then It's Ok

Hello,

I’m 24 years old… been working out for years with no big results…
Anyways… i have suspected that i have low T, went to take a test and the result for total T was about 370 nmol/L (13 ng/dL)… done the test few weeks later with total T being 360. 360 is (i think) pretty low for my age.

I then made an appointment for an endo. This is where it got complicated. Few weeks prior to blood test i went on loc carb-high fat diet, started supplementing with vit D3 and taking ginger extract (the natural stuff i read is supposed to work). The T results are back… and my T is at 16 ng/dL. Which is according to my endo a normal T level and i have no problems.

The problems I’m experiencing are

  • extremely easy fat gain,
  • little to no muscle gain when working out (believe me… tried everything… all possible diets- PT’s etc)
  • once i stop working out the little muscle that is visible just goes away
  • when trying to lose fat i basically lose muscle only
  • i mainly got fat on my hips, chest and got lady-like legs
  • i seem to be suffering from anxiety
  • not much facial hair
  • morning wood wasn’t there anymore (its popin up again though!)
  • i constantly feel kinda exhausted and really tired/sleepy in the afternoon

The doctor gave me a questioner for low T - counting the points from that it shows i got symptoms of low t…

I guess i screwed up with diet change and supplements…pretty sure he would investigate further with my previous levels? Any recommendations on what to do in this case?

Thanks

Did your symptoms improve with the diet change and supplements? If they have, then you may be on the right track and TRT may not be necessary. Othwerise, if there is no improvement in your symptoms, press that point with the doc or find a new doc who is willing to listen.

Some get better…but is one to rely on supps and eating high fat just to have ok T levels (460 still isn’t anything to be proud of - it seems)?.

I seriously dislike my body fat allocation - all hips (theyr just haning out!) and chest (lots of soft tissue there). I seem to lose some fat when ditching carbs though, they really make me fat. Don’t know why carbs would have such an effect on me. I couldn’t get my waist below 93cm no matter what when on carbs. For 2 years i was addicted to running - 20km a day - 5 times a week - got to 70kg with height 189cm - still had 93cm waist - just basically no muscle.
On LCHF i got it to 87cm, where it stopped. I’m really unable to lose the fat down from there, simply does not happen.
I still remember kids making fun of me when i was in elementary school… cause of my hips & boobs. I’ve had weight problems my entire life… I’m watching what i eat since i can remember and exercise regularly - just to Not get fat.
I tried everything, from compound exersises to stronglifts (where i got stuck at same weight really fast - while my friend who i helped wioth training just flew past my 2 years of hard work in all aspects in just 2 months)
As a test I didn’t watch what i ate for a month - i gained 5kg - pure fat.
This is really really getting frustrating - I’m sick of always watching my diet and everything. I hate having skinny cafs, fat thighs, skinny arms, fatass hips and boobs.
I got to the point where I’m simply burned out and just feel like giving up and get fat. dont know…

Do you have labs and data? It sounds like you need to get your cortisol and thyroid checked.

Low T is a symptom. Need to find out why and not mask the real issue.

Please read these stickies:

  • advice for new guys, need more info about you
  • thyroid basics
    – thyroid problems can cause your issues
    – report history of iodine intake from iodized salt and any vitamins that list iodine
    – report oral body temperature for when you wake up in the morning and mid-afternoon [C&F please]
    – any dry skin, brittle hair or nails, get cold easily?

Do you get much sun exposure? Concern is vitamin D. With a darker skin complexion, you need more sun exposure than someone who has light skin.

You need to post all of your labs with ranges, in a list format.

TT
FT
E2 - not total estrogens
LH/FSH - very important
prolactin
fasting cholesterol - might be too low
fasting glucose
TSH
fT3 not T3
fT4 not T4
DHEA-S
CBC
ALT, AST [liver markers, do not to training for two days prior to lab]
IGF-1 [indicates growth hormone status]
AM serum cortisol [do lab work at 8AM!]

Had a chat with my endo today… told me that my T levels (16 ng/dL) are great and that there can’t be anything wrong. Saying that the bad results from questioner are because of my mental state. Its same as my GP said… he sent me to a psychologist, who found out I’m basically ok, not counting the symptoms i told the GP.

He said he would investigate further if i had T levels below 12ng/dL.

Blood tests will be sent to me in a few days and I will post them then.

Regarding iodine intake… never took any supplements with it or ate any iodine enriched salts (just regular).
Body temperature…this morning i measured it right after i woke up (though i slept really bad like an hour before) and my body temp was 96.44F… some moments later i measured again (seemed really low) and it shown 96.95F…
Just measured this afternoon and the temperature is 97.7 (measured a few times).
Also regarding body temperature… i remember i always had high body temperature when i was in elementary school (around 99F)… i frequently used it as an excuse not to go to school. I went to the doctor back then, but never found out why the higher tempertature. It sorted out by itself soon though. Could it be anyhow related?

My skin tone is EXTREMELY light… they often joke i should do yoghurt commercials. Sun just burns me… makes my skin red and then im all white again.

FORGOT: i had my TSH tested twice…first time, when my T was 13 ng/dL - TSH was 2.05…second time, a month later it was 1,54… which seems OK (kind of big difference though?).
Thanks

Just measured my temperature at night (11pm) and it is 97F. Tried different thermometers and max was this.
Seems my temp is really low in the morning, gets up during the day and drops at night.

But considering my FSH levels (posted above) i shouldn’t have iodine deficiency… if i understood things correctly.
Getting my blood test results in a few days… cant wait =).

Thanks

Been measuring my temperature these past few days…

Averages were about this:

  • morning: 96,65F
  • afternoon (always between 5-7:30pm) : 97,85F

Seems kind of low compared to “should be” temps in thyroid basics.

Thinking I’ll try taking iodine as a supplement then. Is liquid iodine good? Been looking at Lugol’s Iodine, supposed to be 8mg per drop. So i’d take 40mg per day for 19 days to get about 750mg. Sounds good?

Thanks!

Lugol’s isn’t 8mg per drop. See their website here: Calculating Number of MG's of Iodine per Drop of Lugol's Solution

LUGOL’S 5%: Each VERTICAL drop is about 6.25 mg’s of iodine/potassium iodide (2.5 mg iodine, 3.75 mg potassium iodide) and 2 drops is about 12.50 mg’s of iodine/potassium iodide (5.0 mg iodine, 7.50 mg potassium iodide).

LUGOL’S 2%: Slightly less than 1/2 half the above measurements.

“iodine enriched salts”

Most salt in your stores should be iodized. Read the packages.

http://www.tulane.edu/~internut/Countries/Brazil/braziliodine.html

oh didn’t realize anyone could see where I’m from…unfortunately the info is wrong. Im actually from Slovenia.

I’ve done some research and salt here has to be iodised so it contains 19mg iodine per KG or salt. However, it is not mandatory for sea salt to be iodised. My usage of salt is approx 50/50 between table salt and sea salt. I tend to use salt quite a bit though… more then others in my family.

Low vitamin D levels, high insulin levels (especially if you have hip fat) and high E levels/aromatization.
Ksman is pretty good at reading blood results. You would need to answer his questions before proceeding for proper help. If we don’t know where you are, we cant tell you where to go.

Ok got the blood test results here…i got no reference values or anything…=s

Here are the results:

  • K- leukocytes = 5.48
  • K- erythrocytes = 5.10
  • K - hemoglobin = 163
  • hematocrit = 0.462
  • MVC = 90.6
  • MCH = 32.0
  • MCHC = 353
  • K - Thrombocytes = 208
  • S Albumin = 47
  • S-glucose = 4.8
  • S - bilirubin (total) = 9
  • S - bilirubin (direct) = 3
  • S-AST(GOT) = 0.33
  • S-ALT(GPT) = 0.36
  • Estimate GF => 60
  • S-GGT = 0.45
  • S-Creatinine-E = 91
  • S-Cholesterol = 5.4
  • S-Tryglicerides = 0.5
  • S-HDL cholesterol = 1.64
  • S-LDL cholesterol = 3.3
  • S-Natrium (Na) = 135
  • S-potassium = 3.99
  • S-chloride(c1) = 101
  • S-calcium (ca) = 2.36
  • S-prolactin = 13.3
  • S-prolactin 2 = 15.7
  • S-prolactin 3 = 14.4
  • S-Testosterone = 16.8
  • S-LH = 1.9
  • S-FSH = 2.7
  • SHBG = 33.6
  • TSH = 1.44
  • Cortisol before ACHT = 763
  • Cortisol 30 min after ACHT = 886

I don’t nkow most of these heh, but I’ll look them up…
Thanks for any comments!

I’ve done some research myself… Kind of hard with no ref-values or units but i think i found out the following:

  • LH seems to be on the low side
  • FSH = lowish = not so good
  • SHBG = kind of high but ok’ish
  • prolactin = High
  • other seem ok
    … all this translatse to lower testosterone.

Not sure whats with this :

  • Cortisol before ACHT = 763
  • Cortisol 30 min after ACHT = 886
    Its unclear on the paper i got… basically just says “Kort. before ACHT = 763” and “Kort. 30min after ACHT = 886”
    I assumed Kort. = Cort. = Cortisol … no idea.

Went to my GP today… tried to get some more blood tests done (E2 etc).

The endo where i got first blood tests (posted above) said everything is just fine, so i got no business there anymore…

GP wouldn’t budge - if endo said everything is fine, then it is so! This is really frustrating.

I’ll really need to study up on everything and go to my GP better armed. Problem is, he doesn’t really know anything about this.

Still reading my temperatures…
morning averages 96.7F
afternoon average us 97.7

Seems kind of low, but from what i gathered my TSH should be high to consider iodine deficiency.
Still, my temps are low, don’t know what can be the problem really.

I just remembered something.
About 5 years ago I trained for 2 months only and managed to get further then what i done in last
2 years! I even had visible abs a bit…no chance in hell for that now. Dont get me wrong…fat etc acumulation was still around hips etc… Just seems like i progressed way better in fat loss and muscle gain.
I had to stop working out after 2 months due to wrist injury and then took up jogging… Where i lost all gained muscle and like no fat…in total i lost like 8kg.

what im wondering is…what could have changed in that small amount of time??

To add:
I read Clomid might help people with low LH/FSH/T…could it be worth a try for 4-6 weeks and repeat tests?
From what I have read Clomid does not present much danger or does it?

Thanks

SERMs [clomid, nolvadex and others] increase serum E2 while stopping some tissues from seeing E2. If you stop a SERM suddenly, the hypothalamus now sees E2 and you can get HPTA shutdown. You must always taper off of a SERM slowly, better using 0.5mg anastrozole per week in divided doses and cruise on that. SERM doses should not be high. You do not want LH levels that are high as your testes will see the drop and that is not good. And high LH can lead to very high T–>E2 inside the testes and anastrozole cannot deal with that.

Try more iodine and see if temps improve or you feel better. Mental clarity seems to be most often reported.

I am not able to read much into those labs.

Thank you for the response.

Ok I managed to get the actual blood test results from the lab… not what the doc just gave me…

Here they go:

  • K- leukocytes = 5.48 - 10e9/L (4-10)

  • K- erythrocytes = 5.10 - 10e12/L (4.2 - 6.3)

  • K - hemoglobin = 163 g/L (120 - 180)

  • hematocrit = 0.462 (0,37 - 0,54)

  • MCV = 90.6 fL (81 - 94)

  • MCH = 32.0 pg (26 - 32)

  • MCHC = 353 g/L (310 - 350)

  • K - Thrombocytes = 208 - 10e9/L (140 - 340)

  • S Albumin = 47 g/L (32 - 55)

  • S-glucose = 4.8 mmol/L (3,6 - 6,1)

  • S - bilirubin (total) = 9 umol/L (0 - 17)

  • S - bilirubin (direct) = 3 umol/L (0 - 5)

  • S-AST(GOT) = 0.33 ukat/L (max 0,58)

  • S-ALT(GPT) = 0.36 ukat/L (max 0,74)

  • Estimate GF => 60 mL/min

  • S-GGT = 0.45 ukat/L (max 0,92)

  • S-Creatinine-E = 91 umol/L (44 - 97)

  • S-Cholesterol = 5.4 mmol/L (4 - 5,7)

  • S-Tryglicerides = 0.5 mmol/L (0,6 - 1,7)

  • S-HDL cholesterol = 1.64 mmol/L (0,9 - 1,67)

  • S-LDL cholesterol = 3.3 mmol/L (max 4,9)

  • S-Natrium (Na) = 135 mmol/L (135 - 145)

  • S-potassium = 3.99 mmol/L (3,8 - 5,5)

  • S-chloride(c1) = 101 mmol/L (97 - 110)

  • S-calcium (ca) = 2.36 mmol/L (2,1 - 2,6)

  • S-prolactin = 13.3 ug/L (no ref values)

  • S-prolactin 2 = 15.7 ug/L (no ref values)

  • S-prolactin 3 = 14.4 ug/L (no ref values)

  • S-Testosterone = 16.8 nmol/L (5,4 - 30,4)

  • S-LH = 1.9 mUI/L (no ref values)

  • S-FSH = 2.7 mUI/L (no ref values)

  • SHBG = 33.6 nmol/L (no ref values)

  • TSH = 1.44 uU/ml (0,27 - 4,2)

  • ACTH stimulation test:

    • before : 763 nmol/l
    • 30 min after : 889 nmol/l

This is it…MCHC and Tryglicerides are “out of bounds”. Close are MCH, Creatinine, HDL…

Thanks for any comments!

Cortisol is high ! Before the stim test is was whooping 736… and after 889. Also ACTH doesn’t seem to stimulate cortisol much alt all. Maybe cause its already high?

Done lots of reading today… seems like I could have secondary hypogonadism due to low LH/FSH and high prolactin. However… from literature I managed to see, T levels were lots lower then mine, usually way below reference value… though mine are still low for my age.

What I still don’t know is how cortisol would fit into this equation. I’m sure it isn’t stress related, cause I always had same fat distribution. Besides I don’t have anything very stressful in my life.