Xenia's Case

Pharma / TRT Testosterone Replacement
1

Question: I recently asked my family doc to run IGF-1 and IGF-BP3 on me just to get a baseline in case I wanted to increase my GH though the use of GHRP or secretropin. When I recieved my results today my IGF-1 was high at 234 with a range of 81-225 ng/mL and my IGF-BP3 was low at 2.7 with a range of 3.4 to 6.9 mg/L. Does nayone have an opinion on these results? I thought they should track together. History is below.

Hello everyone. Have spent a lot ot time reading and lurking here. Appreciate everyone that takes time to research and present information that helps us all in our quest to be more youthful and healthy. I have been on TRT for about a year and am generally doing very well. Current protocol is 46mg. Test Enan every 56 hours subcu (three time per week) AI .33mg three time per week, HCG 300 iu Mon, Wed. Sat., This is down from 50 mg. test and .5 mg Ai as last results (10/7/11) listed below were 1154 for TT and 5 for E2. after discontinuing AI for eighteen days. E2 was back up to 31.1 and i restarted AI at low dose.

-age - 57
-height - 6’0"
-waist - 35
-weight - 205
-describe body and facial hair - light beard, full head hair, full chest and back hair
-describe where you carry fat and how changed - middle first - Gastric RNY 2.5 years ago went from 290 to 195 settled at 205
-health conditions, symptoms [history] Diabetic - controlled -
-Rx and OTC drugs, any hair loss drugs or prostate drugs ever no prostate or hair drugs
Fish oil 6mg,krill oil 1 mg,dheas 75mg, iodine 1mg, pregnenolone 10mg, Vitamin D3 10,000 iu, Coq10, Metformin 850mg3, NA-R-ALA 250mg3, primerose oil 500mg.*3,lisinopril 10mg, asprin 87mg,Multiviatmin Lef two a day, niacin, B12 1000 mcg, K2 1000 mcg, and Pomegranit.
-describe diet [some create substantial damage with starvation diets] balanced diabetic diet during day, too many carbs in evening.
-describe training [some ruin there hormones by over training] training is sporadic lean toward crossfit workouts when working out
-testes ache, ever, with a fever? no
-how have morning wood and nocturnal erections changed - none for several years - returned somewhat once TRT started - seems to be dependent of E2 levels
-lab results with ranges
Test-Test-Normal range-units-4/8/11-10/7/11-10/25/11
GLU-Glucose-70 - 110-mg/dL-96-98-
HBA1c-HBA1c-<6.0-mg/dL-6.2-6.3-
BUN- - -mg/dL-14-14-
CREAT -.5-1.4-mg/dL-0.9-1.2-
BUN/CREAT Ratio-6.0-20.0-ratio-16-12-
NA-I-Sodium-135-145-mEq/L-141-143-
K-I-Potassium-3.5-5.5-mEq/L-4.5-4.5-
CL-I-Chloride-99-110-mEq/L-102-102-
CO2-Carbon Dioxide-22-33-mmo1/L-29-29-
Ca-Calcium-8.4-10.2mg/dL-10-10.5-
–Globulin,Calc-2.3-3.5-gm/dl-3.1-3-
TP-Total Protein-6.1-7.9-g/dl-7.1-7.6
ALB-Albumin-3.4-4.8-g/dL-4-4.6-
A/G-Albumin/Globulin ratio-1.0-2.0-ratio-1.3-1.5-
ALT-Alanine aminotransferase-19-60-IU/L-21-24-
AST-Aspartate aminotransferase-13-37-IU/L-25-26-
ALP-Alkaline phospatase-38-126-IU/L-73-77-
Pre-Albumin-18-38-mg/dL-25-29-
CHOL-Cholesterol-120-200-mg/dL-133-148-
TRIG-Triglicerides-35-160-mg/dL-68-104-
HDL-High Density Lipoprotein-45-99-mg/dL-43-44-
LDL-Low Density Lipoprotein-20-130-mg/dL-76-83-
VLDL-Very Low Density Lipoprotein-4-38-mg/dl-14-21-
Iron-40-190-ug/dL-62-65-
TIBC-Total iron binding capacity-200-450-ug/dL-288-267-
TransSat-12-57%-%-22-24-
Ferritin-18-350ng/ML-70-96-
B12-200-1100-pg/mL-1590-1887-
Folate-4.2-19.9-ng/mL-13.5-17.3-
Free-T4-0.8-1.8ng/Dl-1.26
TSH-0.35-5.50-mIU/mL-1.2-0.6-
WBC-White blood cells-3.8-10.8-K/CMM-8.1-9.3-
RBC-Red blood cells-4.0-5.50-M/uL-4.46-4.89-
HGB-Hemoglobin-13.8-17.2-g/dL-13-13.7
HCT-Hematocrit-41.0-50.0-%-39-41.1-
Cortisol,AM-4.3-22.4-mcg/dl-17-16-
Vitamin A-Serum-30-90-ug/dL-78
Vitamin D,25 hydroxy-total-32-100-pg/mL-49-105
Copper-70-175-mcg/dl–101-
Magnesium-1.4-2.5-mg/dl-1.9-1.9-
Zinc-Serum-70-159-ug/dL–72-
PSA–<4–1.1
Estradiol-E2-7.6-42.6-pg/ml42.4-19-5-31.1-(5 was E2 ultrasensitive at labcorm range 3-70)
Total Testoterone-250-1100-ng/ml-562-1154-(original was 253)
FreeT-35-155-or-46-224-pg/ml-84.8(range46-224)-204.3(range35-155)-
Bio T-110-575-ng/dl-155.9--
DHT-25-75-ng/dl–44-
prolactin-2-18-ng/dl-11--
DHEA-S-61-1636-ng/dl-180-346-
SHBG-18-47nmol/l-31--
Pregnenolone-13-208-ng/dl-44-91-
Cardio CRP-<1-8.6-3.6-0.5
IGF-1-81-225-ng/ml—234
IGF-BP3-3.4-6.9-mg/l—2.7

2

sorry no idea about IGF…

but you are diabetic or pre-diabetic? those H1Ac levels look horrible.

CHOL is way too low, almost dangerously low (I believe). low CHOL = low pregnenolone = low hormones.

Cortisol looks good assuming an 8am blood draw.
TSH is fluctuating. Thyroid antibody tests might help as well as free T3 which is the most important marker.

were you taking all of those supplements prior to your first blood draw?

3

PureChance,

Thanks for the reply. I have been a diabetic for over twenty years. March 2009 I had gastric bypass surgery (RNY) and lost about 90 pounds. Pre-surgery I took, metformin, avandia, Januvia, and Lantus insulin and with all that my A1c’s still ran 8-10. Since surgery I only take metformin and my A1c’s run 5.9 to 6.3. I recently added a supplement call alphabetic wich is cinnamon, biotin and chromium and that has helped and my goal is to get to the 5.5 to 5.9 level on A1c’s.

I agree on the cholesterol, at my blood draw in the spring, total chol was 133 and I told my doctor it was to low. He disagreed, and I suggested he look into it and Chol relationship to building hormones and that I wanted it to be between 150 to 160. This last test he mentioned that my number were moving in the direct that I wanted but to be careful of the LDL. I advised him that I was going to add Slo-Niacin to my supplement regiment to improve the LDL/HDL ratio.

Cortisol was at 8:00 am. Do not know what to make of TSH it has flucuated from .6 to 1.2 but coritsol has been good last two draws and FT4 was ok. Come Spring when LEF runs their sale I might spring for a full thyroid panel on my own.

I have been taking most of my supplements since my surgery over two years ago including 6gm fish oil daily and 15,000 iu of Vitamin D3 daily. I have backed off the Vitamin D to 10,000 unit and may drop to 5,000. It was interesting to watch my hsCRP drop from 8.6 to 3.6 to .05 over the last twelve months. Over the past year since starting and researching TRT, I have added iodine, DHEA, Melatonin, and after this last test 10mg pregnenolone to back fill the hormone pathways.

Thanks again for your input!

4

ok, so those are important details… unfortunately, I have no idea about diabetes, insulin, cortisol except that they all play off one another.

HRT by itself is too complicated then you add in…
diabetes
IGF concerns
impact of gastric bypass
low CHOL (on the first reading)
plus multiple medications, vitamins, and other variables

… and you get a complicated convoluted mess.

not sure what help I can provide except to advise you to go slow and make measured simple changes one at a time so that you know what is helping and what is hurting. It took me years to figure out the DHEA and Pregnenolone supplements caused major swings in my whole system, but I could never tie it to them because I was always changing multiple inputs at the same time trying to find the one magic combination that would ‘heal’ me completely.