49 year old male.
No prescription meds.
Great blood panels.
Total T = 170.
Free T = 37.
My urologist refuses to even discuss trt despite the usual symptoms and a gain of 20 pounds over the last year.
Thoughts?
TSH? Vitamin D? Sleep? Stress? Exercise?
Hi there.
All thyroid levels are normal.
Lipids are good. Cholesterol is 201. HDL is 61. Triglycerides are 85.
Supplementing with vitamin D daily.
Sleep is 8 hours on average during the week and 9 on weekends.
4 days per week lifting with 3 easy cardio days.
I’m 215 pounds.
I’m also using 5000 mcg Biotin. I wasn’t aware that it could impact test levels on a test.
Post your blood results
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like dextermorgan said, post your bloods. And just because you supplement D doesn’t mean its optimized or even normalized.
Ranges?
If FT testing is direct immunoassay, FT levels are overestimated and inaccurate. I don’t see how FT levels could be considered great with TT at 170.
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You should change the title, it says FT is high when it is actually closer to the bottom of the ranges.
So your doctor is range hugging robot, symptoms be damned. This is how our health care works, it’s cold and calculating and the only way to get get fair treatment is outside of sick care.
Private doctors can prescribe TRT if they feel you’ll benefit from it even if levels are good. Our medical system doesn’t want us healthy, that want us needing expensive treatments, drugs and surgeries down the road and that will not happen if you are a healthier version of yourself.
TRT treats and prevents disease, don’t become a victim of western medicine, seek private care for TRT and for your health.
Testosterone Threshold for Increased Cardiovascular Risk in Middle-Aged and Elderly Men:
The locally weighted regression showed that total testosterone levels of 440 and 480 ng/dL were associated with increased Framingham CVD risk and an increased probability of increased hsCRP, respectively. Men with sexual dysfunction (poor sexual performance, decreased morning erection, and loss of libido) had significantly greater CVD risk.
Your seeking TRT from a doctor that doesn’t typically specialize in sex hormones. He never considered androgen receptor sensitivity when looking at your levels and the clinical picture of the patient symptoms.
TRT is one of those areas of medicine where in range is not always normal, this is why there are so many bad experiences and why these forums are so full of men saying the same things like, "my doctor told me my “levels are normal” and “within range”.
Nobody really knows what normal is for you, your doctor is just comparing you to and elderly man with diabetes.
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Thank you for the comments. I really appreciate it.
@EFShadow
If you are in the US and need a TRT doc I can put you in touch with mine. It’s out of pocket $150/month. It’s all over the phone and they ship the Testosterone & syringes. There’s a ton of docs that do the same thing so if you can’t find one on your own email me (email in bio) and I’ll put you in touch with mine.
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They quoted the 37 number as being too high to treat specifically.
Um. That’s not your Free T. That’s the PERCENT of Total that is free and weakly bound (to albumin). It’s not a bad percentage, it’s just of a very low number.
The 64 is your free and weakly bound, but this also goes by the name of “bioavailable T,” which is as good a measure as Free T is. And, 64 is very low. Those lab ranges for both total and bioavialable T are pretty low. Other ranges can be from 90-500 for bioavailable, with a normal being 100-350 for healthy 20-40 year olds not on T replacement.
Go elsewhere.
If you would be on trt, you’d shoot for 400-600 bioavailable, which will usually get you to ~20-30 for those who think only in terms of free T.
These reference ranges were never supposed to be the ultimate deciding factor in whether or not somebody should get treatment, it’s a guide nothing more, good judgement is key to getting a good diagnosis.
The guidelines even state TRT can be prescribed to someone with a TT of 345 ng/dL, but doctors that are ignorant will decide based solely on the numbers.
If your doctor feels you would benefit from TRT, he can prescribe it. The problem is most insurance companies deny TRT 300> which doesn’t factor is things like SHBG or FT.
So.
Quick update. I was referred to another trt clinic. @dextermorgan - thank you for that.
It’s pretty amazing how much better I feel after 5 weeks.
Brain fog is so much better. Energy is thru the roof and the workouts have been getting better and better.
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Congrats my man!
They have been great.
Doing 154 mg per week with daily IM via a 30 guage and no AI.