Okay, I’ll take the dose as prescribed, and I’ll make sure to be vigilant regarding any negative symptoms.
Yeah, on Nolvadex, I saw no improvement in LH (my FSH was normal to begin with), but I expected that it was due to the fact that my estradiol was so low anyway. I just had labs drawn yesterday, after two weeks of HCG, 250iu EOD, so when I get the results in a few days, I’ll know if my testes can at least do the job of manufacturing T.
I’ll look into time-release T3 too, because that sounds much better than what I’m taking now!
I can cut the pills up, but how would you advise I spread the dose out if I do that? Currently I’m taking 37.5 mcg in the morning at about 9:30, and then in the afternoon at around 3 or 4.
Yes, with my morning coffee routine. Have toyed with two in the AM and one in the afternoon and making observations. Trying to find out where the limits are.
Maybe you are getting confused with caffeine and cortisol with effects on cortisol lab work.
If you like coffee and adjust thyroid meds to suit your needs, everything would resolve. But I think that it is a non-issue.
No, I read somewhere a while back that it did, but if it doesn’t, I’m going to start having my thyroid first thing in the morning (usually I wait till around 9:30 am so that the caffeinated tea I drink before working out at 5 has worn off).
Ksman, I’m tapering off Clomid, and for a little over a week now, I’ve been taking T cream (50mg per day).
Just before I started the cream though, I had labs drawn that showed my total T to be at 419 (250-1150) ng/dl, though my LH was only 1.6 (1.5-9.1) mIU/mL.
My bioavailable T was really low though, as was my free T. My SHBG was 131 nmol/L !
I want to know two things:
#1. Since my level of 419 was a huge improvement (my old total T level was in the 200s), could it be that my HPTA is starting to come back on line on it’s own? Or do my low bioavailable and free T levels indicate that it’s just the Clomid causing the total T to rise?
#2. I’ve been on the T-cream for 10 days now, is that too long for me to stop it and not have to do the restart ALL over again? I want to see if my levels continue to rise on their own, once I’m off the Clomid entirely (today was my last dose).
You did not take time to see what your HPTA might do. You can do that, perhaps on SERM first again. If SERM dose was too high, high T–>E2 inside the testes would drive up E2 levels that drive up SHBG. My sticky on HPTA restart describes how anastrozole should be used.
If bio-T was really low, that suggests that FT was low and/or SHBG was elevated. SERM would increase TT and FT. Stopping SERM can allow FT to drop and TT might be residual.
We did advise that 50mg clomid ED was too much and would likely have these effects.
Well interestingly, my labs from a week ago came back yesterday, and my total T has skyrocketed to 756 ng/dl. However, my free T is still below the minimum of normal.
My LH is at 4.7, up from 3.0 a week ago, AND this is after I tapered off of the clomid (I haven’t taken it for about two weeks now).
My SHBG is 180 nmol/ml, which is WAY too high, just as you say. I think in a way I ended up doing the full restart protocol- two weeks of HCG and then just a little longer than a month on Clomid, with the brief stint of taking the T cream.
Also, I think you were right all along about this being a thyroid problem; Since getting up to a good dose of cytomel, my HPTA seems to be able to start functioning again (after I gave it the kick that it needed with the Clomid).
Its the reverse. SHBG inflates your total T in the blood for the test results. You show a lot of total T because of your SHBG but you body has minimal for use.
My last level of SHBG was 135, now it’s 180. My last level of total T was 138, now it’s 756. You’re telling me that-
A: SHBG actually artificially inflates the amount of T measurable in your blood, and that
B: a jump of 50 nmol/ml is enough to cause an artificial increase of over 600 ng/dl of total T?
Seeing as I can’t find anything online to support what you’ve said, and as I’ve never heard of this before despite spending over a year constantly researching the HPTA and hormonal signaling in a quest to try and fix my until now broken system, I’m gonna wait for KSman to chime in on this. @KSman? Thoughts? Also, how can I lower my SHBG? Will I see good levels of free T if I lower my SHBG considerably?
My SHBG was 70, TRT reduced my SHBG to 35 in 1 month or so. And the same dose of T resulted in lower TT than pre TRT, yet a good FT.
Anyway, believe what you believe, end result is the same. SHBG can’t be manipulated directly and it does not eat up T. If your TT was low despite high SHBG, you were creating even lower T.
Those are the mechanics involved. You can temper the message with whatever lab data you want to introduce. The message of problems with high dose SERMs is important. Keep in mind the effects of SERMs on your labs.
You lower SHBG by lowering estrogens and increasing bio-available T; then you wait.
SHBG is an odd beast, sometimes the levels are just odd, can be high or low without knowing why. And thyroid can be a factor.
The reason that you have not seen these things discussed before is that you were not on this forum sooner.
@KSman okay, so I think my thyroid dose may be too high, since I’ve been getting jittery in the morning at the gym, right after my first dose of the day. That would explain my increasing SHBG in the presence of lower estradiol levels (mine have dropped).
I take 50 mcg BID… is that an unusually high dose in your experience?
Jamesond, did you ever take a long-term break from exercise after being diagnosed with anorexia athletica? Perhaps all your body ever needed was a long period of rest, I’m talking many months, perhaps even a year? I’m saying this because I’m going through a similar experience, and every time that I begin to rest and indulge in copious amounts of food, I start to see signs of my testosterone increasing. There isn’t much literature on male anorexia, but from what female anorexia literature I have found, recovery is only fully achieved after long periods of rest and refeeding.
I did dude, but it was only like 3 months. My hormones are all back on
line except for my LH now. Like, I can produce sperm just fine, but I have
no desire, and my T is still low.
How long were you restricting calories and exercising? And what kind of symptoms did you experiences outside of low T that made you want to begin recovery?