Doctor is sending me for an MRI. Checking pituitary. Lab results are not too hot. Any ideas on where my test should fall on ANDROGEL? He says I should take 8 bottles and go back for blood work. 4 pumps a day.
FSH 2.4
LH 0.5
ACTH 4.3
PROLACTIN 5.9
CORTISOL RANDOM 215
ESTRADIOL 57
TEST 4.1 nmol/l
FREE TEST 99 pmol/l
IRON 2 (yes anemic) on iron powder last 3 months
####More Lab####
PSA 1.0
WBC 8.5
RBC 5.16
Hemo 1.33
Hematocrit 0.421
MCV 82
MCH 25.8
TSH 1.16
Free T4 is 12
Free T3 is 3.1
eGFR 80
###DIGESTION###
Stomach issues, gluten issues, bloated, gassy, never feel full, can eat until I get sick, heartburn often…used antacid and GAPI meds for years.
Gaining weight again as well. No drive for anything. Foggy. Emotional yet don’t give a shit at the same time.
May just use some dmso to get better results with gel, but doc did not give AI or anything else to go with it.
You need to understand that most doctors have very poor knowledge when it comes to TRT, with that said Androgel is the least effective way to get blood levels to youthful levels and the majority see very poor results, yet is the most profitable for your doctor.
So his comment about needing 8 bottles to wait for blood work makes him sounds like a snake oil salesman. Serum testosterone levels reach a steady-state in the first 24 hours of application and remain in the normal range for the duration of the application. So you see your working with an incompetent doctor.
You won’t find anyone here on Androgel and those that are on it will be forced to switch to injections at some point in the future, our bodies build up a resistance to absorbing Gels through the skin. It’s a short term solution. Injections is the most effective way to get testosterone levels to high normal and yet your doctor is choosing the least effective method that is purely profit driven.
The level of care your receiving I seriously doubt that’s even the correct estrogen labs, most doctors get that wrong as well.
I suspect you’re in the UK and under the NHS, you need to go private dude.
I have access to anything I want if I go out of pocket. Trying to stay within the realm of insurance if possible. I’ll go back and ask for injectables and see what he does.
Trust me that won’t work out, you’ll see. Your labs are inadequate, a red flag in my book.
I’m with Kaiser over here in the USA and only have to fork out $10 every 12 weeks for labs and medication and have decided to give all that up and have already spent over $600+ dollars on labs and will be paying $1500-2000 yearly in order to have access to doctors who know what their doing.
This is the current situation worldwide, male hormones is only in its infancy and only a few doctors know how the TRT game is played. There are a lot of guys out there suffering at the hands of doctors who have no clue, you need a doctor who knows what questions to ask and just doesn’t chase labs numbers.
To do TRT well you have to be an artist and unfortunately not all artists are good. A year ago I was saying the same thing, I wanted to continue seeking TRT through insurance. After a year what everyone was telling me has now come to pass, insurance is useless for TRT.
Eventually you’ll get tired of suffering and seek better care.
I’m a newbie but absolutely second SystemLord’s comments. Only been on T injections a month and have excellent insurance yet I’m moving to DefyMedical this coming week and paying out of pocket for one key reason: I have full confidence in Dr Saya and the staff there that they’ll monitor all my lab results on a regular basis and they’re up on the lastest methodology/treatments for TRT and anti-aging.
Evaluate your overall thyroid function by checking oral body temperatures as per the thyroid basics sticky. Thyroid hormone fT3 is what gets the job done and it regulates mitochondrial activity, the source of ATP which is the universal currency of cellular energy. This is part of the body’s temperature control loop. This can get messed up if you are iodine deficient. In many countries, you need to be using iodized salt. Other countries add iodine to dairy or bread.
KSman is simply a regular member on this site. Nothing more other than highly active.
I can be a bit abrupt in my replies and recommendations. I have a lot of ground to cover as this forum has become much more active in the last two years. I can’t follow threads that go deep over time. You need to respond to all of my points and requests as soon as possible before you fall off of my radar. The worse problems are guys who ignore issues re thyroid, body temperatures, history of iodized salt. Please do not piss people off saying that lab results are normal, we need lab number and ranges.
The value that you get out of this process and forum depends on your effort and performance. The bulk of your learning is reading/studying the suggested stickies.
Please directly edit, find pencil icon, your post with labs and add the lab ranges in-line. Also post CBC, complete blood work: hematocrit, RBC, hemoglobin etc.
Serum iron is not actionable by itself. Need the CBC above.
Serum iron can be high or low depending on recent meals, it moves too much.
Men do not need any supplemental iron unless there is a blood loss, typically a GI bleed. What digestive issues do you have?
@systemlord@KSman No. I am in relatively good health otherwise. This morning was 36 and afternoon is 36.9. Any suggestions? More tests to do? Trying to find another good doc here in Ontario is nearly impossible.
I have also read that low T and low iron can go hand in hand. Increase T and iron numbers rise. However, that is secondary to my wanting to just feel like a human again.
Occult test for GI bleed are negative as well. We looked at that as well.
Low iron is bad for thyroid hormones, iron deficiency and hypothyroidism go hand in hand. Doctors that believe in TSH only testing could completely miss Hashimoto’s Disease, I speak from personal experience.
I only found out yesterday, I have great Free T3, Free T4, terrible Reverse T3 which negates those great Free T3 levels and also had high antibodies. Thyroid is under immune system attack that TSH only testing would never show. I showed all the signs of hypothyroidism, puffy neck, overweight, ice cold feet blamed on diabetes and if they are poorly trained then things like this go unnoticed.
Had I not paid for these tests myself I would never had known, doctors resisted running these tests. Now I get to give them a piece of my mind, a bunch of slackers. You can forget your state healthcare running a full thyroid panel, isn’t going to happen.
There’s one instance where the thyroid is producing hormones and also leaking additional hormones into the body which might cause excess thyroid hormones making one hyperthyroid.
Several types of thyroiditis can cause hyperthyroidism. Thyroiditis does not cause the thyroid to produce excess hormone. Instead, it causes stored thyroid hormone to leak out of the inflamed gland and raise hormone levels in the blood.