Never Had Bloodwork. What To Look For?

Did not want to start a new thread to ask so, for someone who has never has there testosterone checked what tests should I look for?

I have have Kaiser so, can ask for anything but, need to be specific because the front desk is often lost.

Be prepared for the pushback. IME Kaiser hates TRT and anything to do with it.

Anyway, lipids, CBC, basic hormone panel, SHBG, etc.

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I am not expecting to need TRT but, I am curious what me levels are. Figured I would get other things checked as well.

I do know a few people on TRT through Kaiser, none have had issues. Perhaps it is location dependent. I am in Southern California.

I have Kaiser, and Im switching to Anthem due to work reasons, but just ask your GP for a full hormone panel for baseline purposes. They should comply. If he/she denies you, ask for a referral to Endocrinology and they will order a complete set of labs. Its what I did back in 2016, and its what Ive done ever since, just to keep track. If you’re on any Steroids or Test already, you will pop and they will start to manage your use of T. Its what happened when I tested at 1300TT last year.

Maybe my experience here was a one-off. But I started researching and found tons of guys that hit a wall when it came to TRT thru them.

I was already on TRT trough a clinic when I got new insurance through work with Kaiser. My new GP wanted to do labs until I told her I was already on TRT & she suddenly changed her mind, wanted me to stop my current therapy for 3 months, then get 3 different sets of labs at 1 month intervals to determine I really needed it in the first place. I asked for a referral to an endo and she said that he really didn’t believe in TRT. Their uro wouldn’t see me. So I gave up. Told her i wasn’t going to purposely make myself hypogonadal again just to prove I needed it. Eventually switched to UHC and they cover everything without question. No labs, no specialist.

Yeah they dont believe in TRT. What I meant was, that if you want a baseline for your health records, they will test you. Other than that pay Labcorp and skip the hassle of asking your GP

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This doesn’t read like what I meant. By ‘manage’, I meant they will harp on it, and who knows what. But they will not give you TRT.

This is most likely going to be a problem for you, I have Kaiser and in the years I’ve been with them it continues to amaze me how clueless the endo’s are. They are fine when treating diabetes and thyroid, but TRT is a big blind spot for many doctors worldwide.

A lot of guys have find private doctors locally or use telemedicine do to the poor treatment protocols.

I’m in Socal as well.

Total T isn’t enough, Kaiser doesn’t have the means to test for Free T, they use the Total T and SHBG to calculate the Free T. If you must you can go to Discount Labs and order you own labs if doctors refuse on some of the testing.

To be thorough you need Total T, SHBG, LH, FSH and prolactin.