We can help, but need lab ranges and data for thyroid, total cholesterol, HDL, estradiol - everything.
Normal range is not good enough, need numbers.
When do you think that T levels and energy/metabolic-rate started to become an issue for you. Was this a slow progression or something that started to advance rather quickly at some point.
Did you have any blows to your head or auto wrecks prior to that time line?
Are you now taking a statin drug to lower cholesterol?
For how long and do you feel that your energy level was not affected?
Suggest 5,000iu Vit-D3 every day, find tiny oil based gel caps.
Estradiol [E2]: Many feel horrible with normal E2 levels because the statistical normal range includes many who are suffering effects of elevated normal E2. Normal ranges are not ranges of normal health, but most doctors mistakenly think that. Samples are taken from a large number of guys who are considered to be healthy if they do not have a disease or medical condition. A statistical normal curve is the basis for normal and so many standard deviations are considered to be the normal population and if you are there, you are “normal”. But the tails of the bell curve are including those in the population who really are not doing well.
This is another reference: Reference range - Wikipedia
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
Labs:
TT
FT
E2
LH/FSH - must be done before TRT, cannot do after
prolactin - can be why T is low
CBC
hematocrit
AST/ALT
fasting cholesterol
fasting glucose
AM cortisol - at 8AM please
DHEA-S - not DHEA
progesterone
TSH
fT3
fT4
Thyroid lab ranges are misleading. Many have normal lab numbers with thyroid problems.
Do you feel cold easier now?
Are your outer eyebrows sparse?
Do you use iodized salt to support thyroid hormone production?
Thyroid hormone fT3 regulates mitochondrial activity in your cells. Mitochondrial make ATP, the energy that makes your cells work, your metabolic rate. This is all part of your body’s temperature control loop. If you are not 97.7F when you wake up and/or cannot hit 98.6F in the mid-afternoon, something is wrong.
Many who come here with low-T have some thyroid issues. Both problems can really take away your energy and promote fat gain. So that is the focus. Your T is really low and causing many problems. That is the symptom. We need LH/FSH and prolactin to try to find the cause. TRT will make the symptoms and is needed, but diagnostic effort should still be done.
TRT can improve cholesterol. Improving metabolic rate will improve cholesterol. You might not need that drug.
We just had another case of really high DHEA. Did you test DHEA or DHEA-S. Should be DHEA-S, not DHEA.
Please get and retain copies of your lab work.
Note that when T is really low and/or thyroid function is low, driving through hard training when you have low energy can be from adrenalin and that can stress the adrenals and create a major problem. Noting that DHEA was high, an adrenal hormone. In the prior high DHEA case, progesterone was high as well, another adrenal hormone in males. I added that to the lab list.
Please list all medications, some may be causing problems.
Have you ever use an oral hair loss medication? - IMPORTANT
Typically we do not see that doctors are generally good at these things. You will have to read up on the stickies and become your own expert. Passive typically does not work out. It is a big burden.