hi, i am allan
i have been on a trt for months now. the dr who started me on this did not do any blood test other than total test and mine was 198 and i am 34. he put me on the test cyp depot shot and that has helped but i went to another dr since my dr was only watching total test. the new dr had me do a ton of labs and i just dont understand what all of it is. i will list some of what i have concern with. the lab was lab corp.
age 34
height 5 11
weight 205
total test 864
% free test 42.2
testos F W bound 364.6 (norm levels are 40-250)
insulin like growth factor 1 280 (norm levels 71-240)
tsh 1.5
free t4 0.91
cortisol 6.98 did test at 9 am
estradiol (enhanced eE2)32.03
vit D 25-hydroxy 37.3
free t3 3.5
DHEA-S 149.4 (norm levels 160-449)
Brother I wish I had some encouraging words for you but it sounds like we’re in the same boat. As far as the labs go I understand about 10 percent of the tests that they test for, so I am no help there. I am only in my 5th week of 75 mg test cyp injections (one per week). I do feel better but I noticed it, after he put me on phentermine, letrozole, b12, and hcg (without test).
Since then ive taken 5 shots of the test and I dont feel like I received any additional energy, right now all I have to show for it is a sack about the size of a 5 year old. My libido is still in the toilet. I dont know whether to stop while I am ahead or wait and see what changes as my dosing and T levels go up. I go back for labs in two weeks and will have those results 10 days later. Good luck to ya. Oh yea one thing I can tell you is (according to other members) when you need help and info on labs you have to put your numbers as well as the corresponding ranges for every line.
I pin 150 mg a week of cyp and he put me on mic-b injections as well. I have the same issue I can’t tell any difference with how I feel. I do need the hcg shot to keep from shrinking anymore lol. Ranges I didn’t put are because those are in normal ranges according to lab corp. Let me know how your doing. I can tell you that I went off it for a month and it was horrible coming off the test. I got acne everywhere and my temperament was terrible. I don’t know if you would have the same issues but be prepared if you stop.
[quote]allanr618 wrote:
hi, i am allan
i have been on a trt for months now. the dr who started me on this did not do any blood test other than total test and mine was 198 and i am 34. he put me on the test cyp depot shot and that has helped but i went to another dr since my dr was only watching total test. the new dr had me do a ton of labs and i just dont understand what all of it is. i will list some of what i have concern with. the lab was lab corp.
age 34
height 5 11
weight 205
total test 864
% free test 42.2
testos F W bound 364.6 (norm levels are 40-250)
insulin like growth factor 1 280 (norm levels 71-240)
tsh 1.5
free t4 0.91
cortisol 6.98 did test at 9 am
estradiol (enhanced eE2)32.03
vit D 25-hydroxy 37.3
free t3 3.5
DHEA-S 149.4 (norm levels 160-449)
any help on what most are and mean would be great[/quote]
Hay buddy! Saw you posted in another section and thought I’d take a look. First off, I am no expert so don’t take what I say as the gospel truth. Has you doctor said anything about using an AI? Can you post the ranges for your e2, they may be elevated.
It says here that normal male ranges are 5.37-65.9. What is AI? My Dr is not saying much at all. Says lose some weight and I will be fine but at the end of the day I feel way to bad for my age. I workout an hour a day every day and I eat clean. Don’t know what my next step is.
[quote]allanr618 wrote:
It says here that normal male ranges are 5.37-65.9. What is AI? My Dr is not saying much at all. Says lose some weight and I will be fine but at the end of the day I feel way to bad for my age. I workout an hour a day every day and I eat clean. Don’t know what my next step is. [/quote]
“Says lose some weight and I will be fine” Ow if that isn’t the take 2 aspirin and call me in the morning approach!
What’s an AI? I was there a year ago and someone helped me out so I will pay it forward. IA stands for Aromatase Inhibitors. I use the 1 ml of Anastrozole a week with 200 mg of test cyp. It is different from person to person but that is as close to a rule of thumb as it gets.
Your next step is determining if you need an AI and then how to get it if you do. Hit up Dr. GOOGLE and do your homework.
Your labs look really solid. I would add 12.5mg of Aromasin a day to get your E2 down a little and that’s it. TSH looks fine as does Free T3. IGF 1 looks good so your growth hormone is decent. DHEA can be addressed but if you aren’t on HCG as part of your protocol that will bring up DHEA. What’s your TRT protocol?
Your labs look pretty decent. There is no reason I can see why you should not feel good based on those numbers.
You shouldn’t really need an AI (aromatase inhibitor, which brings down estrogen) since your estradiol (E2, a kind of estrogen) is about that of the average 20-something guy. There are people here who think that an ideal E2 level should be significantly lower than that of the average 20-something, for no good reason I can see.
You seem in good shape - I don’t know what that doctor was on when he suggested you weren’t. If that is a current picture, your weight should not be an obstacle to feeling good.
The benefits of TRT take between 3 months and a year to kick in fully, so you may want to be a little patient. As long as the slope of improvement is positive (in other words, you gradually feel better) just keep at it.
However, if you do have lingering symptoms that are not improving even gradually, you may want to see some specialists to rule out other causes (e.g., chronic infections, inflammatory or autoimmune conditions, etc.). Everything is not hormones, and there are many, many medical conditions that will mimic the general symptoms (fatigue, depression, lack of energy, sleeping too little or too much, low libido, etc., etc.) of low T. In fact, in the vast majority of cases those kinds of symptoms are the result of an underlying condition unrelated to low T. Even your low T may be a consequence of some other underlying medical condition (for example, low T occurs in many inflammatory and autoimmune conditions, as well as in cases of pituitary tumors), so it may be a good idea to try to get to the bottom of why you had low T in the first place.
I have not seen a difference in how I feel since starting trt. That pic is recent the Dr is going off of my body weight alone. I weigh 220 at 5 10. I understand that bmi is important to a lot of drs but it is flawed.
By the way, your doctors should hopefully have tested your prolactin levels - those can cause low T and if elevated may indicate a (usually benign) pituitary tumor. If it is elevated, it can be treated with medication. It would also have been nice if they had tested LH (lutenizing hormone) and FSH (follicle stimulating hormone) before starting TRT, since their values might have thrown further light on the reason for the low T.
Also, you should have had a thorough testicular examination as well top rule out problems there that might have to be treated, and so on.
When they started me they only checked total test and PSA levels. I didn’t know anything about all of this stuff so I just went with it. Now I am months into pinning every week and I feel as I am doing it all for nothing. I mean my numbers look great compaired to what they used to be but what good are the numbers if they don’t help you feel better.
The problem I now have is I tried to stop taking the test and my body threw the brakes on fast. I got horrible acne and mood went to shit. After 3 weeks off I had to get back on just so my mood would level out. Now the acne is worse my mood is better I eat all the time and still feel like blah. I do workout 4 days a week to try to stay in shape. Just don’t know what I should do at this point.
The dr won’t listen and just blames my weight. I am going to see an age management Dr in a few weeks to see if maybe he can help but I am doubtful of any drs at this point. It seems that they don’t know a lot about this stuff. We will see
As far as other health issues I had to have a 4lb fatty tumor removed from the right side of my chest 6 months ago. When testing that tumor for cancer they found a 1cm tumor in the upper part of my left lung. It has so far been scanned and non Cancer. I have to have follow up ct scans every 6 months to a year from what I understand to be for the rest of my life to make sure it never grows. That’s why the igf1 scares me since growth hormone feeds cancer allowing it to grow very rapidly.