In USA, you can purchase table salt, iodized or not-iodized. Packages are similar and on same shelf, people can make wrong purchase and also have no idea what iodized means.
Your mom and her household is probably iodine deficient. You can intervene with that problem.
With blood work, they make one needle stick into your vein and then plug multiple vials onto the needle. So its one needle, but takes some time to fill the vials. The vials have a vacuum, so they self load. Man up!
There is no iodine in USA bread. There used to be in milk, but most of that is gone. You really need to make an effort to get iodine, it is not really hidden in foods like it used to be.
Why a salt aversion? There is nothing really harmful about salt. When people have high blood pressure, reducing salt [sodium] reduces blood volume which helps reduce blood pressure. Concluding that salt causes high blood pressure is simply wrong.
Is English your first language.
Labs:
TT
FT
E2
TSH
CBC
hematocrit
TSH
fasting glucose
fasting cholesterol - can be too low
If TT, FT lower, test LH/FSH
if LH/FSH are low, test prolacin
Above can involve getting lab work multiple times.
As for sex drive when younger, that is simply the way things are. From what you describe, your sexual function and libido is good. I don’t know if your problem is hormone related or you just do not have much drive or ambition, but trapped in apathy. That can involve a lot of factors. Many younger guys feel unestablished and aimless. Life is not easy. Your body temperatures seem very good, so there is nothing major going on with your thyroid function. But you really need to make sure that you are getting iodine. If you are living with GF, she may be iodine deficient as well and you need to check her temperatures as well.
Please read the stickies found here: About the T Replacement Category - #2 by KSman
- advice for new guys
- things that damage your hormones
- protocol for injections
- finding a TRT doc
Evaluate your overall thyroid function by checking oral body temperatures as per the thyroid basics sticky. Thyroid hormone fT3 is what gets the job done and it regulates mitochondrial activity, the source of ATP which is the universal currency of cellular energy. This is part of the body’s temperature control loop. This can get messed up if you are iodine deficient. In many countries, you need to be using iodized salt. Other countries add iodine to dairy or bread.