I was hoping to gain some insight/help over this way from a few of you vets. I’ve got a female friend that has had all sorts of issues with weight, as well as some health issues like very brittle nails, feeling like crap all the time, and large amounts of weight gain. Most of her doctors say nothing is wrong and that she is in the “optimal” range for hormones. If anyone could help me decipher these test results and let me know of what may be an issue it’d be greatly appreciated:
free T3 level of 310 (optimal 400-500)
estrogen 0 (normal 130-140)
testosterone 2 (normal 8)
progesterone .2 (normal 5)
total 41
free 2
This is for a 25 year old female with no previous health issues. They took her off birth control to see if things level out any but other than that nothing has been done. She eats mainly paleo, lifts, runs but has seen her weight shoot up almost 35 lbs in the last 6 months with no major caloric intake.
[quote]dean3238 wrote:
What in god’s name does the doc think is “normal” about a 25-yo woman with an estrogen read of “0” ???[/quote]
This
I don’t know much about female hormones, but I would be surprised if this was normal.
Where did you get those “optimal” ranges from? The lab she had her blood tested at should have given her their established ranges, which are just statistically representative of the normal distribution at their lab (the 95%'ers). I would be weary of the “optimal” readings you find on the internet–everyone seems to have an agenda nowadays. The established ranges would be more helpful since not many of us are familiar with dealing with female hormones.
SHe has to have misread it, since E2 = 11.8, then Total E’s cant be 0. I’m completely confused here. I’ve never seen a lab that actually lists optimal results. I would be surprised if that was the case. Either she is getting the optimal results from some other place on the internet, or is confusing the “normal” ranges for “optimal”…but even still that doesn’t make sense cause the normal ranges should be a lot wider.
Have you seen any of this bloodwork or just going by what she told you?
Free t3 is low and TSH is normal. Have her get RT3 checked… That was(is) my issue and I was tossed around with Dr’s telling me I was fine. All they go by is TSH. Idiots.
Her cortisol is low too. Especially in the morning cortisol should be highest. Given the range, her cortisol should be MUCH closer to the upper end of normal.
She could get a diurnal cortisol kit but I think it’s pretty safe to say she has low cortisol.