Symptoms, Endo Visit, and Fresh Bloodwork

Pharma TRT
1

Hello, I’ve been training seriously for about 4 years, with my peak in terms of strength and physique having been about 2 year ago. Since then everything’s gone downhill. I’m a 23 year old 5 foot 8 man weighing a consistent 190 lbs, with prominent love handles, belly fat, and lower back fat. My waist 2 years ago was a 34, now it’s at 36 and getting uncomfortably close to 38.

I was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease at 6 years old and have been on and off long courses of Prednisone through youth and puberty. I have also been obese, the fat kind, all that time until about age 18 when I had a surgery to remove the affected area of small intestine and swore to never neglect my health again. Since then, diet and training have been on point. Well, until all this started and I couldn’t train without the injuries I thought had gone away coming back just as bad as when they began. I currently take immuno-suppressant drugs to hopefully keep the Crohn’s in remission.

During puberty I grew a few inches taller and developed minuscule muscle mass, but did get some gyno.

The only Iodine I ever got as a child must have been by accident, because my parents were those people who think they know about health but know nothing.
I started supplementing last October.

In the last year and a half I’ve experienced lack of libido, joint and muscle pains, strains, and sprains that don’t go away, fat accumulation, strength loss, extreme fatigue, difficulty concentrating, and severe irritability.

My GP heard me out and took some basic tests, then referred me to an Endo.

Original GP tests from January:

Total Test: 742 240-950
Free Test: 20 9-30
Vit D: 51 32-100
TSH: 2.619 0.340 - 5.600

More tests from Endo in February

TSH: 2.7 0.4-4.5
Total Test: 724 250-1100
Free Test: 78.6 46-224
Bioavailable Test: 168.4 110-575
SHBG: 45 10-50
Albumin: 4.7 3.6-5.1
Prolactin: 6.0 2-18
T3 Total 82 76-181
FSH: 2.6 1.6-8.0
LH: 4.1 1.5-9.3
E2: 43 <=39
ACTH: 25 6-50
Cortisol AM: 17.5 mcg/dL No Range
Free T4: 1.2 0.8-1.8
IGF-1: 203 83-456
Z Score: 0 -2.0 +2.0
Thyroglobulin Antibodies: 24 <20 IU/mL
Thyroid Peroxidase Antibodies <10 <35 IU/mL

My endo is slightly concerned about the E2 and Thyroglobulin Antibodies, but I am VERY concerned. When I found out my TT was over 700, my first though was “Wow, someone tell that to my body.” Her opinion on every single level was either “well, it’s in the normal range,” or “well, it’s outside the normal range but not all people function optimally within these ranges so I’m not too worried.”

DUDE, IF I WAS FUNCTIONING OPTIMALLY, I WOULD NOT BE IN YOUR OFFICE WITH LISTS OF SYMPTOMS AND BEGGING FOR HELP.

At this point, I’ll take all the advice and guidance I can get, so please hit me with it. Ask any questions I may have not addressed here, suggest anything.

Thanks, all!

2

Google ‘high thyroglobulin antibodies’, and see for yourself what can that be. Your doctor is an asshole, simply put - unfortunately, most of them are. He will not treat you, find MD who is not dumb.

3

It looks like those are markers for hashimotos and graves. Is there an open and shut test for those or is it up to interpretation?

4

No open and shut. I had one doc tell me I had hashis for sure. Another told me he was crazy. From what I can tell, the testing is not perfect and it could be some general autoimmune issues. I have yet to really sort mine. I’m tackling the easy stuff first. About the only thing you can do for Hashis is take thyroid, and my levels aren’t terrible yet.

You should get E2 down. SHBG will come down and free T should increase by quite a bit. This should make a very noticeable difference and is pretty easy to do. You can get Anastrozel or Aromasin from an international pharmacy. You can also get it in liquid form from research chemical companies. This makes is much easier to dose correctly for men. You could try 6mg Aromasin daily for a couple weeks and retest. If you do anastozel (often call liquidex from research chem companies), maybe 3mg MWF. E2 tests are cheap to get yourself online. If you have a labcorp near by, that’s where you’ll take the order form you get.

Thryroid. I would leave the heavy stuff for after you get E2 down. You can try Iodine replacement. If you really have hashis, it sounds like iodine could make things worse. It didn’t really do anything for me.

5

Thank you. I have been doing one drop of Iodine as a supplement every day already, but not IR doses.

My Endo took bloodwork for some repeat tests during the appointment, if those come back with E2 still high and she doesn’t suggest an AI, should I suggest it?

6

Got a call about the second set of labs. E2 came back at 49. Calcium a little bit high. Doctor ordered some adrenal tests with DHEA-S to determine if I need a CAT scan. Will have them drawn tomorrow.

I asked about prescriptions to lower the E2, but she’s very noncommittal and thinks my functional normal e2 level just happens to be double the healthy level. Anyone on this board a Chicago suburbs endocrinologist willing to look at me?

Anyway, should these next labs prove I don’t have an adrenal tumor then I’ll be having the “let’s try an AI or I’ll find a doctor willing to address my out of range E2 and high-normal SHBG and low FT” conversation.

7

Bringing E2 down should bring SHBG down. Getting E2 down to around 20 should provide significant results for you. If your doc doesn’t want to try low dose AI, just get it yourself. Cheap and easy.

8

I would rather have a doctor prescribe it, so that should it not be the answer we can move on to trying something else together, be it HCG, Clomid, Ralox, Tamox, I just want to feel right.

9

3 out of the 4 Endos I’ve seen were almost completely worthless. You need to take charge of your own health. It makes no sense to start messing with SERMs HCG or Testosterone before first addressing your high E2 at a minimum. You T and free T levels will almost certainly be adequate if you address E2.

10

I understand, and I may have to find another doctor, but the cost of drugs the RC route, combined with out of pocket testing doesn’t make sense for me, considering I have health insurance. Even if it didn’t cover off-label use it would cover testing.

11

I just got one more result back, DHEA-S is at 155 on a range from 110-510 mcg/dL. Does anyone know what a good DHEA-S is for a young man?

12

First thing, why ask for someone’s advice and then when they give it you say you don’t want to do it that way? Next in my opinion you must not really feel that bad or you would be ready to try what ever it took to change it, I know I feel like total shit and would try just about anything to be able to function.

13

Well when the advice is to buy chemicals online through a legal loophole and then put them into my body without a doctor’s supervision I think I get to be more skeptical than I would about taking some omega threes.

14

Fix E2 and supplement some DHEA. Simple and effective and pretty cheap.

15

Thank you. Would you please link me to an amazon page for a DHEA product with more or less of a tnation consensus behind it?