Hi guys, I have lurked for a little bit here and on reddits r/testosterone. My symptoms include absolute exhaustion and fatigue, hardly any libido, soft erections, constant anxiety, insomnia, absolutely no drive and no energy to the point where my head seems to heavy to hold upright… I don’t know what to do next and would like some help interpreting
You should measure your waking and afternoon oral body temperatures, this will directly reflect thyroid status, you need to reach 98.6 at 2pm and 97.8 upon waking. As far as the low SHBG which is made in the liver, some are just genetically low and there isn’t anything you can do.
LH is slightly better than midrange and Total T is not, which suggests testicles are performing poorly. Free T is also low which is strange considering low SHBG guys has a ton of Free T, you do not.
Most low SHBG men who go on TRT struggle, so any TRT protocol should be one that’s injecting testosterone 5-8mg every day or TRT won’t work for you. If doctor doesn’t understand this find another one or else a hormone roller coaster will ensue.
I have low SHBG as well, at 16 nmol/L unless I’m injecting T EOD I still feel bad because all my T is ending up in the toilet within 2 days. Your super low estrogen is a red flag for low testosterone and estrogen is converted from our testosterone.
Ferritin is needed for thyroid hormone production, chronically high levels of ferritin can indicate an iron storage disorder, such as hemochromatosis, or a chronic disease process. Cortisol is also needed for thyroid function.
Hi mate, thank you for the swift and to the point response!
Regarding the low SHBG, do you think dietary changes can amount to any increase at all? I’ve read up on decreasing fat in the diet, but obviously fat is paramount to T production so i’m wary on that
My lab results in general are pretty poor for my age but I dont know whether TRT is the right option for my self. Due to my low SHBG, TRT would not even help much unless as you said, you would be injecting very frequently. I’ve read that it was something like an injection EOD and I would hate to go down that route. (that’s if I can even go on this route considering im in the UK and I’m so young!)
Do you think anything can help? Would a change in diet and increase in exercise do much at all? I’m really stuck here
Your bones are weak and brittle from low estrogen, low testosterone is devastating on muscles. Low testosterone causes poor sleep, poor sleep causes low testosterone, so you see you can’t fix one with first fixing the other.
Men who are scraping along the bottom of the ranges don’t recover naturally, its too little, too late. It’s quite common for low SHBG men to have anxiety and emotional problems.
A few years ago I starting withdrawing off Klonopin which one of the withdrawal symptoms is poor sleep, it disrupted my sleep patterns and as a result drove testosterone down to Total T 120 ng/dL.
You need TRT, don’t wait too long because the consequences aren’t pleasant. Heart disease, cardiovascular disease, dementia and alzheimer’s disease. When you get any of these, you’re undone.
You’re too young to be having these types of problems, it’s means something is wrong and unfixable without intervention. Good news is TRT just may save your life.
A 4-point cortisol would be nice to see, but is pricey. Perhaps a Reverse T3 test next time if body temps are low, it can block Free T3 from entering your cells.
I’m from the UK, so I don’t know what the chances are that I will be prescribed TRT. A competent doctor should see the problem with my hormones and prescribe. Its just that I’m only 20 and TRT is hard to get here anyway.
A competent TRT doctor is tough to find, most are clueless. At your age you will be fighting the doctors, zero chance at getting TRT without first trying Clomid or HCG.