I’ve been on TRT since October 2019. My clinic is a bit liberal, and so I was having some fun running 120 mg deca/wk and 50 mg ananvar/day on top of my regular 200 mg test cyp/wk and 0.5 mg anastrozole x3/wk. Since starting TRT, I hadn’t had my thyroid levels checked until just recently. Some of the thyroid levels came back low, and also my lipids are wrecked (I’m also on keto/low carb). I decided to drop the anavar and deca for now, and come up with a plan to taper down my test. I’ve tried big drops in lowering my test before, and always end up feeling horrible. I also have an appointment with my PCP this week to rule out anything potentially dangerous with the thyroid.
Looking at the lab results I posted below, is anyone able to make sense of this? I’m also on Accutane (which I am also dropping for now just in case). My SHBG is usually around 13, so the anavar clearly crushed this way into the ground. Free test is sky high due to very low SHBG.
ESTRADIOL,ULTRASENSITIVE, LC/MS 21 NORMAL < OR = 29 pg/mL
SEX HORMONE BINDING GLOBULIN 4 LOW 10-50 nmol/L
TESTOSTERONE, TOTAL, MS 1302 HIGH 250-1100 ng/dL
TESTOSTERONE, FREE 438.8 HIGH 35.0-155.0 pg/mL
T3 UPTAKE 42 HIGH 22-35 % 01
T4 (THYROXINE), TOTAL 3.1 LOW 4.9-10.5 mcg/dL
FREE T4 INDEX (T7) 1.3 LOW 1.4-3.8
TSH 2.27 NORMAL 0.40-4.50 mIU/L
CHOLESTEROL, TOTAL 283 HIGH <200 mg/dL
HDL CHOLESTEROL 35 LOW > OR = 40 mg/dL
TRIGLYCERIDES 92 NORMAL <150 mg/dL
LDL-CHOLESTEROL 227 HIGH mg/dL (calc)
This is what synthetic anabolic steroids do. This is also why testosterone, an anabolic steroid, although a natural one, is considered bad for your heart. It is lumped into the “anabolic steroids are bad for your heart” category.
That’s interesting. I would have thought that keeping insulin low and letting the adrenals repair themselves would help the thyroid. Do you have any good sources of info around this that I can check out?
Well 30 years of data has shown TRT benefits the heart in heart failure patients, TRT improves heart function in these patients and then along come one study showing otherwise and then serious calculation errors are noticed and that study losses all credibility.
TRT not only improves heart function, it increased muscle mass and lowers fat mass all of which benefits the heart. The problem is a lot of doctors can’t interpret lab data, so they read the headline and parrot what is said and it spreads like a disease.
Low testosterone results in decreased muscle mass, increased visceral fat (your typical skinny fat guy), decreased insulin sensitivity, pre diabetes, diabetes and dyslipidemia, resulting in cardiac disease. Almost happens in that order.
Improve testosterone and you gain muscle, lose fat, decrease visceral fat (is there anything worse for your health than that hard belly fat?), improve insulin sensitivity, lower blood sugar, improve lipid profiles resulting in better heart health.
It’s because testosterone is an anabolic steroid. Synthetic AAS are bad for your heart, but testosterone is guilty because it is also an anabolic steroid when in fact the reverse is true because testosterone in not a synthetic anabolic steroid.
The reasoning is that synthetic anabolics are bad, therefore all anabolics are bad. It’s just not true.
So, I guess it matches my “rookie” assumptions. Testosterone falls in a different league. Thanks for the explanation.
I mean, why should someone with good physiological T levels be creating heart stress and risks? If that person was natural with the same levels would he be feeding those risks too ? I am assuming the replacement is “targeted” for symptom resolution and setting the serum levels well within the very normal range.
Yes, it seems medicine doesn´t clearly have a common understanding about TRT. And I believe one of the reasons is associated with the interpretation of what TRT really is and what some patients do which sets it a little above the physiolocal range.
Dose matters as well - even with testosterone. At higher doses, it can have adrenergic effects, increasing blood pressure and heart rate, which over time can lead to left ventricular hypertrophy. Testosterone’s anabolic effects can compound this impact on our heart muscles too.
I think it’s important that we spell out clearly that we’re truly talking about TRT doses. There’s become a grey area now, with clinics prescribing 200+ mg of test/week and adding in deca and anavar and calling it HRT/TRT.
The effect you mention regarding cortisol should only exist during the initial phases of starting keto. I’ve been on it for about 6 months now, so cortisol levels should be back to normal. It’s something I could throw into my next bloodwork. What I am trying to figure out is why my thyroid hormones are low. This could also be related to keto, but it’s hard to say if it’s necessarily a bad thing, since the “reference range” of thyroid hormones on labs is based on people who are mostly on high carb diets.
I actually inject every day due to the low SHBG. 28 mg daily gets me to around a constant 1300 ng/dl, but my free test goes way high due to that low SHBG. The blood work I posted here was after using Anavar, which crushed my SHBG down to single digits. Normally I am around 12-13 SHBG, so my free test normally sits around 350ish.
My waist circumference is 33", height is 6’ 0", weight 193 lbs.
As for inflammation I did have C reactive protein tested on this lab work, and it came back at a good level:
HS CRP 0.7 NORMAL mg/L
Reference Range
Optimal <1.0
Jellinger PS et al. Endocr Pract.2017;23(Suppl 2):1-87.
For ages >17 Years:
hs-CRP mg/L Risk According to AHA/CDC Guidelines
<1.0 Lower relative cardiovascular risk.
1.0-3.0 Average relative cardiovascular risk.
3.1-10.0 Higher relative cardiovascular risk.
I agree. I went into it knowing that adding deca and anavar would have consequences to bloodwork/longevity, so at least I’m not fooling myself. I expected trashed lipids, but I did not expect to see these thyroid results. That’s what I’m trying to sort out now. Will see what the PCP says tomorrow, not sure I want to just jump right on thyroid replacement yet.