Hey there. New here to t nation. Currently 26 , 5”9 210 lbs. I have been lifting for about 7 years now. Off and on since i served 4 years in the navy. My first trip to the doctor for blood levels has had me disappointed. I got my entire lab done, and my levels seem pretty low. But I’m currently not sure. Anyone can give me some insight on these numbers ?
|HgB A1c| 4.9
|WBC|5.7
|MCV|88.2
|MCH|29.0
|MCHC|32.8
|RDW-CV|12.8
|PLT|181
|MONOS %|8.3
|BASO %|0.5
|EOSINO %|2.8
|HCT|47.8
RBC 5.42
LYMPHS % 24.6
SEGS % 63.6
HGB 15.7
MPV 10.5
NRBC# 0.0
SEG # 3.6
LYMPH # 1.4
MONO # 0.5
EOSINO # 0.2
BASO # 0.0
IG % 0.2
IG # 0.0
RDW-SD 41.1
Vit D 25.6 LOW
|GLUCOSE|87 |mg/dL
|—|—|—|—|—|
|CREATININE|0.84 |mg/dL
|SODIUM|140 |mMol/L
|POTASSIUM|3.8 |mMol/L|
|UREA NITROGEN|9 |mg/dL|
|EGFR (RENAL)|111 ||
|ALANINE AMINOTRANSFERASE|29 |IU/L|
|ASPARTATE AMINOTRANSFERASE|25 |IU/L|
|ALKALINE PHOSPHATASE|62 |IU/L
|ALBUMIN|5.1 High|g/dL
|TOTAL BILIRUBIN|0.8 |mg/dL
|—|—|—|—|—|
|CHOLESTEROL|134 Low|mg/dL
|TRIGLYCERIDE|78 |mg/dL|
|HDL|41 |mg/dL
|CALCULATED LDL|77 |mg/dl
|VITAMIN B-12 W/REFLEX TO MMA|400 |pg/mL|
|FOLATE|15.1 |ng/mL|
|IRON|107 |ug/dl|
|TIBC|379 |ug/dL|
|TRANSFERRIN|271 |mg/dL
|IRON SATURATION (%)|28 |%|
|—|—|—|—|—|
|PROLACTIN|4.7 |ng/mL|
|TSH HS|1.84 |mIU/L|
TOTAL TESTOSTERONE 305
Right, 305 ng/dL is low. You’ll need more tests. See if you can get:
FSH
LH
free T3
free T4
SHBG
free testosterone
estradiol
DHEA-S
IGF-1
VitD
You’re really missing a lot of the important tests, a full thyroid panel checking Free T3, Free T4, Reverse T3, antibodies, Total T, Free T, E2 Sensitive, SHBG, IGF-1, DHEA-S, FSH, LH at a minimum.
You should know most doctors struggle with understanding anything related to male hormones, most won’t even understand the proper testing and what all these tests mean. In other words you will need to hold your doctors hand and educate him/her, I know this sounds crazy but the doctors worldwide have been ignoring hormone therapy for decades and is playing catch up.
TRT has been a part of sports medicine for several decades, not insurance based healthcare until now. It will seem as if you doctor doesn’t know anything related to male hormones. Most of the success stories you hear are those who have seeked private care outside of the broken healthcare system.
If you’re currently working with a GP, this path leads to suffering. GP’s have no business prescribing testosterone.
Thanks for responding. I currently have a GP, and a psychiatrist. Should i ask my provider to forward me to an endocrinologist ?
You have a very small chance of success with an endo for reasons mentioned above, most are TRT ignorant and have no clue how to replace a man’s hormones. It will be a mistake, most don’t listen to my warning and just have to find out for themselves.
Insurance based healthcare and TRT don’t go together well, doctors must fight with insurance companies to run the necessary tests in order to balance out your hormones, so corners are cut and the patients wonders why he’s not feeling any better on TRT, then quits thinking TRT isn’t working.
So what would you have me do? I’m literally doing everything possible at this moment to raise my levels. Strict sleep schedule, avoiding estrogen promoting foods, exercising good. Taking magnesium, zinc, and vitamin D. Not sure what else to do at this point.
You might be able to raise it a little bit, but not by enough to matter. Your 26 years old and you should be at the top of the ranges and instead you’re at the levels seen on elderly people.
This environment is toxic and it’s messing with our endocrine system, so unless you can escape a world of chemicals, processed foods, pesticides and C02 emitting vehicles then you don’t stand a chance recovering naturally. You can’t fight genetics.
Defy Medical is an option, they offer telemedicine and staff some of the best hormone specialists. I’m with Defy Medical and it’s the best decision I’ve made.
Interesting, how would one get with Defy Medical ?
I did, just did the free consult. It says someone will get in touch with me.
Btw I think you should see the Endocrinologist as well. You are young. Need to cover your bases. Even if they may not be an expert on trt they know alot about hormones and can detect/investigated things others do not know about.
ok I will try to get with one, thank you.
Thing I’m curious about is what the average testosterone level will be in 50 years… Will men lose all body hair? Will the average be like 200ng/DL? If the scientific community saw a dramatic rise in ischemic heart disease (which has happened), strategies would be deployed to lessen the incidence of ischemic heart disease, however it seems a trend of dramatically lowering testosterone production is being ignored, which doesn’t make sense to me given that low testosterone over prolonged periods of time is linked to various comorbidities and can easily cause premature mortality
Couldn’t have said it better myself honestly. With the way society is nowadays. Men will no longer have any testosterone in the next 50-100 years D:
So i have been put on HCG monotherapy, with arimidex. I was offered phentermine to help with weight loss, but i turned it down. Not very good with stimulants, especially cns uppers lol