Lab results help

[Valdosta]

at this point too many to count. LIbido issues/energy issues/low motivation, emotionally blunted, nothing changes my mood, no excitement/happiness. Irritability/annoyed/Overheating/sweating at night for no reason. and just a general lack of wanting to do anything, if im not working all i want to do is be horizontal. I still force myself to workout 4 days a week, but its just a drag each time that just feels like im going through the motions.

sounds about right then. treatment should be pretty life changing

 

[Glycomann]

Women can get estrogen like it is candy with little testing. Yet testosterone is treated like it is an additive drug and needs close scrutiny.

Who needs them. We have a million sponsors around and we can do our own blood work, get a PCP to do some cardio checks and there you have it. Many of us know more about the human body and hormones than 99.99% of MDs.

 

[ruffus]

Who needs them. We have a million sponsors around and we can do our own blood work, get a PCP to do some cardio checks and there you have it. Many of us know more about the human body and hormones than 99.99% of MDs.I

Each to there own. I prefer having my insurance pay for everything and not have a concern in the world about legal matters.

 

[Dr. Doofus]

Our medical system is totally out of control. That's part of it combined with toxins, inactivity, fucked up social reconstruction.

You have no idea how right you are! I'm a physician and I've watched it decline from the inside for the last 20 years. It's so depressing I think about quitting every single day. Unbearable government oversight, insurance companies up your ass nitpicking everything you do trying to catch you checking the wrong box so they can deny your claim. Most docs are just trying to figure out how to get through the day without angering the overlords. Luckily my specialty is far removed from any of the touchy areas, but occasionally I find myself referring a patient out for something I could easily handle just because I know someone with no medical knowledge will eventually ask "why did you do this?". And sadly, "Because I'm a fucking doctor" isn't a valid reason anymore.

 

[Glycomann]

You have no idea how right you are! I'm a physician and I've watched it decline from the inside for the last 20 years. It's so depressing I think about quitting every single day. Unbearable government oversight, insurance companies up your ass nitpicking everything you do trying to catch you checking the wrong box so they can deny your claim. Most docs are just trying to figure out how to get through the day without angering the overlords. Luckily my specialty is far removed from any of the touchy areas, but occasionally I find myself referring a patient out for something I could easily handle just because I know someone with no medical knowledge will eventually ask "why did you do this?". And sadly, "Because I'm a fucking doctor" isn't a valid reason anymore.

I've been in science for 30 years. Longer than that if you count my time working in the clinical labs. I saw it evolve myself going back to 1986. Sorry you all have to go through this devolution/evolution. I have been a funded scientist since 2000 when I received my first grant. That system has also changed massively. I have also been involved in the regulatory side of drugs and drug development. Similar issues there. I wish I could say things have improved somewhere. Things have accelerated. These last 5 years have been a horror show.

BTW: Welcome on board. I look forward to our interactions.

 

[Glycomann]

Each to there own. I prefer having my insurance pay for everything and not have a concern in the world about legal matters.

If you find a good doctor it's like finding 2 pockets full of gold.

 

[ruffus]

If you find a good doctor it's like finding 2 pockets full of gold.

True. I sometimes tell Dr.s what will get me what i want. Just part of the game. I don't get bent out of shape as that does me no good. The Dr. i have now thinks outside the box and is more anti-aging/health oriented then most is going to a concierge service which will still work OK for me. I have also had Dr get up and storm out of a room saying they can't work with me......go figure.

 

[Martinriggz]

@Matt88 Hey Man,

Back again. I ended up finding a urologist that was on board with T/HCG. However, i am not in a bind, as the test I took when i was younger were below 300, the test i took in 2021 was below 300 and the test i took in 2024 was below 250. The doc gave me a test and it came back 315, but I recently purchased my own blood work through quest twice and i ended up with numbers i had never gotten on the other tests. First reading was 500 Total, 110 free e2 at 19 and shbg at 15, prolactin at 19. The next test was 440 total, E2 was 16 and prolactin was 9 and now the Doc is slightly reneging on starting T and wants to do HCG monotherapy. I haven't started anything different, havent changed diet, workout, etc.. so now I cant figure out why all of a sudden I am getting normalish numbers.

I am wondering if there is anything left to check that would be beneficial bloodwork wise, or if maybe the two new readings were flukes, i'm not sure, I am kind of at a loss right now.

 

[Matt88]

@Matt88 Hey Man,

Back again. I ended up finding a urologist that was on board with T/HCG. However, i am not in a bind, as the test I took when i was younger were below 300, the test i took in 2021 was below 300 and the test i took in 2024 was below 250. The doc gave me a test and it came back 315, but I recently purchased my own blood work through quest twice and i ended up with numbers i had never gotten on the other tests. First reading was 500 Total, 110 free e2 at 19 and shbg at 15, prolactin at 19. The next test was 440 total, E2 was 16 and prolactin was 9 and now the Doc is slightly reneging on starting T and wants to do HCG monotherapy. I haven't started anything different, havent changed diet, workout, etc.. so now I cant figure out why all of a sudden I am getting normalish numbers.

I am wondering if there is anything left to check that would be beneficial bloodwork wise, or if maybe the two new readings were flukes, i'm not sure, I am kind of at a loss right now.

A lot of things can influence natural testosterone levels as you know. Diet is a big one and I know you mentioned it hasn't changed but has your fat intake varied at all? You need dietary fat in order for your body to produce testosterone naturally.

Where all or any of these lab tests you had done LC/MS? The LC/MS testing method is more accurate than the normal method. For future reference the lc/ms is all normally uncapped so if you're taking exogenous testosterone and your level is over 1500ng/dl then a normal test may cap at 1500 so you won't know what it really is opposed to the lc/ms which will give you a number. That is out of the scope of your situation in regards to the upper cap obviously but just an FYI for the future.

In regards to further testing. You could check DHEA and DHEA-s. This is a precursor to many hormones and dhea is legally unregulated and can be purchased from Amazon or a multitude of supplement vendors.

There is another important precursor hormone called pregnanolone but I don't think it's necessary in your situation to check it bc it doesn't have very much influence on testosterone levels accept for the dhea pathway as pregnanolone is a precursor to dhea. You now might be thinking well why don't I just check pregnanolone and skip dhea. That isn't advisable because pregnanolone converts into so many different things. Dhea can be low and pregnanolone values be perfectly normal.

Sleep, stress level, physical activity and a lot of other things can influence natural testosterone. Since it's fluctuating you may get to a good le el just by using hcg solo if you want to exhaust your options. I'm going to guess that isn't the case and that you just want to feel better though which is how I'd feel about it too.

 

[Martinriggz]

Yeah I believe I am getting enough fat, I usually go high protein, moderate fat and not exactly low carb, but usually just get them from white rice, sweet potatoes, bananas, fruit. For the tests the doctor was using the inaccurate methods(go figure), but I have always used LC/MS and thats what returned my other low numbers and also these random higher numbers. Part of me just wants to do trt/hcg see how it goes and then get off it nothing improves, but am apprehensive about it taking a while to dial it in, and sides that i may get just for it to not be the thing that helps.

It has been floating around in my head that most forums i check/subreddits, everyone argues that someone may feel great at 900, but feel like shit at 1100, or someone might feel great at 1100 but shit at 900. But for some reason whenever someone comes in with a 350/400/450 level, everyone gangs up and says their fine and their symptoms must be from something else. Cant someone feel great at 400, but then someone else may feel like shit at that number as its specific to the individual.


My apprehension to HCG solo is that, i would assume it would also just really increase my fertility and we aren't wanting a kid for at least a few more years. However, trt/hcg combo i would assume would lower my fertility but not completely. I don't want an even higher chance of having a kid just because i did HCG by itself.