Test DHEA-S not DHEA. DHEA levels change rapidly and one measurement says very little about your status.
How old are you?
Where are you located?
There are no restrictions on hCG other than what your doctor does or what insurance will pay for.
fT in non-TRT guys changes a lot and really does not tell us as much as you might think, unless really high or low.
With low-T, you need to do these as a follow up:
LH and FSH -both
prolactin if <35
PSA if >40
Nothing else tested? Need more info other than those hormones.
Please post: or obtain
fasting glucose
fasting cholesterol
RBC
HTC
hemoglobin
AST/ALT
TSH, T3, T4, fT3 fT4 as available
Are you iodine deficient from not using iodized salt?
Thyroid labs should be TSH, fT3, fT4
Please resist substitutes.
Please eval overall thyroid function via oral body temps, see below.
Your symptoms can be from low-T, low thyroid function or commonly both. Both share the same symptoms. What is low T? Lab ranges are from a normal curve analysis of a sample group and “normal” does not in any way mean health, fit or optimal. Most doctors have this wrong. Guys react differently to lower T levels and diagnosis that ignores symptoms is absolutely wrong.
Stress can mess up thyroid function from elevated reverse T3, rT3, interfering with fT3, the only active thyroid hormone.
Diet suggests possible lack of some B vitamins, Vit-D3 and magnesium. See this site’s Biotest store re “ZMA”. Most are magnesium deficient. You should be able to tolerate mineral supplements as well as sublingual B-12. Most need 5000iu Vit-D3. You can test Vit-D25 levels. Look for tiny oil based 5000iu Vit-D3 gel caps. Vit-D25 is made from Vit-D3 and is an essential hormone, more than a vitamin. You may be lacking essential fatty acids, EFAs that most would get as fish oil, flax seed oil or meal as well as nuts. Selenium is essential for proper thyroid function and a deficiency sets up processes that lead to thyroid autoimmune disease. One or two brazil nuts per day would be good if not seeing 100-200mcg selenium in a mineral tablet.
Please read the stickies found here: About the T Replacement Category - #2 by KSman
- advice for new guys - need more info about you
- things that damage your hormones
- protocol for injections
- finding a TRT doc
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.