Hey guys, I’m new to these forums and it looks like you would be able to help me interpret my bloodwork. I am a 19 year old male, 6 foot 185 pounds, powerlift 4 days a week, and fairly active. For about the past year or so I haven’t felt like I used to. I still feel ok and my energy is fine, but my libido is definitely down and my erections are not optimal. I told my doctor about these symptoms at my last visit and he had some blood work done. I felt like he chose odd tests, but I’ll post anything that could possibly be helpful:
Testosterone Total: 542.05 ng/dl (300-950)
Estradiol: 10.0 pg/ml (27.1-52.2)
TSH: 2.42 (.52-4.13)
Free T4: .97 (.78-1.34)
Unfortunately he didn’t do any tests for Total t4, free or total t3, or free testosterone. I’ve read some of the stickies and I feel my thyroid definitely isn’t functioning correctly. My average morning temp over the last week has been 96.8 and average afternoon temp has been 97.5. I never added salt to my food until about 2 months ago, but I’m still only eating about a tablespoon of iodized salt a day. One thing to note is that I have drank a gallon of tap water each day or more for the whole time I’ve had these troubles. I’ve read that fluoride can inhibit Iodine absorption, but that could just be misinformation.
Overall, I am wondering if anyone can help to interpret my blood tests, and specifically why my estradiol is really low. Also, do you think taking iodine supplements will benefit me. Lastly, why would I be experiencing thyroid issues at only 19? Thank you in advance.
-Store fat mostly around my hips/waste
-slight gyno, doctor said pseudo but idk
-no past steroid/ drug use, don’t drink alcohol
-fairly high stress levels at times due to maintaining my college grades
-testes never really ache or any fever
-no morning wood since I’ve started experiencing lower libido
You may need an iodine supplement and also need selenium. Get a multi-vit that lists iodine+selenium and take that as well as higher strength iodine supplement as per the sticky.
Feel cold easier?
Outer eyebrows sparse?
Why no salt in the past?
Everyone in your home that way? Other also deficient?
Excessive thirst can be a sign of diabetes?
Any tingling or numbness in your hands or feet?
fasting glucose
fasting cholesterol - can be too low
Training with low T and low thyroid function stresses the adrenals and may set you up for adrenal fatigue.
Should test LH and FSH as LH changes a lot.
Test TT and FT.
With low E2, suspect that SHBG is elevated and FT low. T+SHBG inflates TT and then TT is misleading.
Iodine deficiency know no age limitations. Thyroid problems may damage your other hormones. We see many with this combo here at your age. Cause and effect? A new syndrome?
Ok thank you, I do get cold easily and my eyebrows appear fairly normal. Glucose tested last time was 90 (can’t recall the range but was in the middle). Haven’t had cholesterol tested. Toes and hands don’t seem to tingle. Dad uses a lot of salt but mom doesn’t. Mom was diagnosed with hypothyroidism and given medication for it. I have ordered iodine and I will check if my current multivitamin has selenium. If not I will pick up. And one thing to mention is that I lost a lot of weight about a year before all these problems occurred. Went from 180 to 155 in four months. Gained the weight back, felt fine for a year, then got these poor symptoms. Thank you so much for the help this far. I will keep researching and learning.
Others in home affected by your mom’s salt preferences?
With hypothyroidism, there is no need to avoid salt or iodine.
Iodine deficiency leads to hypo, but the stress of high TSH can lead to thyroid nodules that make thyroid hormones outside of the normal control loop and then one is hyper. The stress of elevated TSH can lead to thyroid autoimmune diseases and a lack of selenium facilitates that. Normal thyroid activity make free radicals that should be cleaned up by enzymes that require selenium. Many enzymes have a metal atoms as part of catalytic reaction sites. Thus the need for selenium. When you read that supplemental iodine can lead to hypo, that is probably from developing preexisting progression or from a lack of selenium. Without this enzyme activity, tissue becomes damaged and inflamed and the immune system can then interpret the mess as foreign and you have an autoimmune disease. Thyroid nodules can progress to thyroid cancer. So you can see there is a large playing field for things to play out.
Thinning eyebrows is a result of severity of low thyroid function plus time. In short term, probably nothing happens. Watch people you see and observe eyebrows, tricky with women…
Your mom’s thyroid problems are connected to her not using much salt. If she used iodized salt cooking food, that would be half of the battle. Perhaps her issues portrays a vulnerability to low iodine that you share.
Is the salt in your home iodized? Ask if it has been sea salt or non-iodized in the past.
Doctors will put people on low sodium diets and cause thyroid problems.
I have never seen where a doctor has asked about iodine intake. But the same docs will Rx thyroid meds.
She didn’t ever really encourage me to not eat salt, moreso I just didn’t really consume it because I didn’t enjoy overly salty food and had heard of the claims of extra salt and poor health. I believe that the salt in my home is iodized, but being in college I ate food from the school for one year and made my own this year. Didn’t start using iodized salt until about 2 months ago. Looking at foods with selenium it’s certainly possible I could be deficient. Used a multivitamin for a long time, then stopped using them and first symptoms showed up probably 3-4 months after I stopped using it. How much selenium would you suggest supplementing? Would 200 mcg be sufficient each day? Thanks again for the help.
Also should mention I have a resting heart rate of about 52-54. Not sure if relevant or not but seems a bit slow and could be related to hypothyroidism?
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Conditions that can slow electrical impulses through the heart. Examples include having a low thyroid level (hypothyroidism) or an electrolyte imbalance, such as too much potassium in the blood.
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We have some other young guys here with low pulse rates.
Note seen a pattern of that with other young guys with low thyroid function. So no 1:1 correlation.
200mcg selenium is probably more than enough. Some vitamins have less than that.
Salt does not cause high blood pressure. But when someone has high blood pressure, less sodium lowers blood volume and pressure goes down. But that does not address the cause or problem as the arteries are still restrictive. But because less salt helps with high BP, doctors think that it is a cause. Lots of salt does not cause BP problems. BP gets high when arteries are less elastic and unable to ‘swallow’ a pulse of blood. This can be from degenerate tissues or loss of muscle tone. TRT helps with that. Low magnesium can affect this and also, low magnesium can show up as leg cramps.
Ahhh ok, it’s kind of maddening to find out about all the fear of salt when it’s really not bad at all, should of done more research when I was younger.
Regardless, I will begin IR as soon as my iodine arrives. Hoping to get my body temps up and feel better in general. Will be sure to supplement selenium as well, and will try to add more salt here and there. I’ll hopefully report back on my experiences after some time.
One last question: I read some stuff about boron reducing SHBG, is this credible or just overkill? Should I consider taking some?
Thank you for all your help KSman, I really appreciate it
Never seen anything re boron. It is included as a trace element in good multi-vits with other trace elements. And a reminder to not do IR without selenium, very important.