Please read the stickies found here: About the T Replacement Category - #2 by KSman
- advice for new guys
- things that damage your hormones
- protocol for injections
- finding a TRT doc
You need these labs:
TT
FT
E2
**LH/FSH - DO NOT START TRT before this
prolactin!!!
CBC
hematocrit
fasting cholesterol
fasting glucose
TSH
fT3
fT4 - please not T3, T4
AM cortisol
Please post all labs with ranges.
There may well be more problems than low-T. At your age, low-T is a symptom, not the disease. Most doctors will not do proper diagnostics unless pressed to do that and may chicken out and send you to an endocrinologist - often a bad move.
Weight gain can also be from low thyroid function and that can be from something as simple as not using iodized salt. See if cafeteria food at school is prepared with iodized salt. Most of the time, restaurants do not and prepared foods not. So its up to you and your salt shaker and you are not cooking. Iodized salt at home?
The problems with male hormone care is not unknowns about labs and treatments, its all about doctors who are idiots. You need to understand the things in the stickies and not be passive. It is typically a struggle.
We can guide you with labs and what should be done.
Your time-line suggests that this has been going on for a long time.
???
age
weight
waist/jeans size
gyno?
where do you carry fat
do you get cold easily? when changed?
outer eye brows sparse?
dry skin, general hair thinning, brittle nails
thin facial hair?
width of peripheral vision - should be near 180 degrees
energy level and initiative
mood
Do not start TRT before suggested labs. Diagnostics needed.
Where are you located? This affects your diagnostic and treatment options.
What are you studying?
You can eval overall thyroid function by checking oral body temperatures as suggested in the thyroid basics sticky. Thyroid hormone fT3 regulates mitochondrial production of ATP, the universal currency of cellular energy. This has a huge effect on energy balance and weight gain/loss. Something that you can do on your own. Note that the ranges for thyroid hormones are rather useless and that makes almost all doctors useless as they have no concept of optimal and only understand disease states. Many here have thyroid and low-T issues. Even when on TRT with optimal levels, one can suffer if thyroid function is low, with lab numbers that docs thing are really good.