25 Y/O Symptoms of Low T (Can't Make Sense of the Blood Work)

Pharma / TRT Testosterone Replacement
1

Background

25 y/o caucasian man with symptoms of low T for the last 5 or so years

-Did not show signs of puberty until 17-18
. No underarm hair until 17
. 0 Facial hair until 20, and it is still just a dirt stash/no cheek coverage. I shave once a week.
. Height wen’t from 5’7-6’1 between 18-20
. Penis size doubled between 16-22

-Abused caffeine for years, 1-3 energy drinks, diet soda / soda / coffee a day from 14-24, quit October 25th 2016 after tapering for a month (currently on decaf).

-Sedentary lifestyle now, used to be extremely active with 3 hours a day of walking/running lifting/swimming. My gym lifting friends would outpace me with identical diets and lifting regiments. I currently do not lift.

-I live in Vancouver, Canada so I barely get any sun exposure during the winter but I am also self employed and work from home so there are times where I don’t leave the apartment for days and I don’t have natural light

  • Currently eat healthy, I go between keto and 150g carbs a day. All organic meat’s, plenty of fish/chicken/beef, loads of greens and no refined carbs.

-Benzodiazipine withdrawals was on Clonozepam (Klonoplin) for 3 years 2.5mg a day. Spent 1 year tapering off but when I jumped off I felt like I was in hell and I still don’t feel right 1 year later.

Symptoms

-Depression

  • Severe confidence issues, used to be an extrovert now I am borderline agoraphobic and hate interacting with strangers and sometimes people I’ve known for 10+ years. Pretty handsome guy, used to model so I’m not sure why I’m not sure where this comes from.

  • Sensitive to cold (get cold easily)

-Horrible Heart palpitations, it feel like my heart completely stops for around 3 seconds and then comes back with a HUGE beat. Doctor REFUSES test it because “your blood pressure is fine”.

-Complication went to shit. It looks like rosacea but GP is unable to confirm. Constant redness. If i lift my face goes neon red.

-Gain fat super easily around the midsection, glutes and thighs. Have an extremely hard time getting below 17% (estimation) body fat. Was on Keto 1400 calories a day and went from 195 to 170 in 3 months, could not go lower than that stayed at 170 for a month at a huge deficit. I used to weight 165 at 10% BF when I was 20 y/o.

-No morning wood, and I mean EVER

-0 sex drive and or spontaneous erections. Masturbation comes from routine/boredom only now.

-Hair thinning/receding

-Issues focusing

-Vision quality reduced

-Generally sore muscles all over

Medication/Drugs

-Marijuana everyday at night for sleep only

-Psilocybin microdose (got me through benzo withdrawals)

-lamictal

Bloodwork

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20180127_1524594160×2080 2.15 MB
!

Note: “find a new doctor” Is just not an option in Canada unfortunately, I can’t even see a specialist in under 6 months. That being said I have been fortunate enough to sell my business for a large sum giving me both time off and the means to travel to any country (preferably the states) to seek the best treatment so would really like some advice / info on where I can go and who I need to see to get real care. Canada is a joke don’t buy the free healthcare hype.

Any and all advice is appreciated, sorry for the formatting

2

A couple years ago I began to withdraw off Klonopin after 30 years, Klonopin stresses out the glands in the body when you attempt to stop the medication as it replaces your hormones. I’ve been on TRT for 9 months and I’m still not completely recovered.

When low T I had heart palpitations all day long and has more to do with low hematocrit, red blood cells provide oxygen to your body’s organs and when you body senses low rbc it increases the output of your heart to compensate.

Your healthcare system is one big joke! They believe they can solve everything with drugs, SSRI’s and don’t consider unbalanced hormones could be the cause of many social anxiety disorders and depression. Your symptoms scream low T as you share a lot of my original symptoms. I bet your vit D is low.

3

Yea healthcare systems here are based solely on turnover which is insane in itself.

Edit - 2nd picture didn’t upload because new users are limited to 1 picture per new post
Here is second half of bloodwork

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4

Interesting how limited testing is in your healthcare anything to save a buck! TSH only test, that test can be normal and there can still be a low functioning thyroid. It’s outdated medical dogma to order solely this test.

It’s the same if a doctor only order TT without regard for the actual hormones themselves. The total score of 458 ng/dL (15.9 nmol/L) you can forget about state healthcare picking up the tab, since they are others scoring significantly lower who they will argue are the priority with the already limited underfunded state healthcare budget.

The way things are going you’re going to pay for TRT or you’re going to suffer. There’s no way your heart palpitations are from low T, it’s got to be physiological response to no Klonopin in your system. It can take years to recover from Klonopin, technically your body is still addicted to it. I had horrible heart palpitations that only TRT completely removed with the first shot.

5

TSH looks OK, but feeling cold so easily indicates an issue. So does fat gain. But staying locked up at home is a strong fat gain behaviour.

Starvation diets can be hormone harmful.

Low testosterone levels make many guys get into some social avoidance which could be making things worse.

Need more info re diet. What do you eat? What do not not eat? Do you eat green veges other than lettuces?

You can do more thyroid labs, but doc probably will not, and results can be normal while problems exist. This happens because the thyroid lab ranges are stupid.

You can eval overall thyroid function via oral body temperatures. See below. This is important.

Low thyroid function has been seen to be associated with panic attacks with some young guys here which resolved by addressing iodine deficiencies.

Supplements:

  • 5000iu Vit-D3 per day, find tiny oil based capsules and take 25,000 first five days. Take with an meal with some oils/fats while avoiding meals with high fiber such as oat meal.
  • High potency B-complex multi-vit with trace elements including 150mcg iodine plus 200mcg selenium.
  • Natural source vitamin E.
  • Vitamin K - irregular heart beat
  • Magnesium - irregular heart beat and muscle tone, nerve/brain function, see this site’s Biotest store product “ZMA” for an ingredient reference.
  • Fish oil

Do not use a multi-vit that does not have those amounts of iodine and selenium.

What medical issues?
Other meds?
Hair loss meds ever?

Leg/foot cramps or ability to tense and lockup a muscle group really suggests a magnesium deficiency.

Please study the ‘things that damage your hormones’ sticky. Advice for new guys sticky may also be something where you recognize things that apply to you.

How has body fat changed?
Weight?
Waist size?
Any signs of gyno or nipple sensitivity?
What is state of libido [zero] , sexual function [poor] etc. Does lack of morning wood say it all?

There are private doctors who work outside of the provincial health care systems. Start looking. Getting drugs in USA and bringing them back creates legal issues. You could do labs there and can order your own labs.

Find compounding labs.
https://www.google.com/search?q=vancouver+BC+compounding+pharmacy
Explore their websites for male hormone references, services and referrals.

And vancouver BC tesstosterone - Google Search

Please read the stickies found here: About the T Replacement Category - #2 by KSman

  • advice for new guys - need more info about you
  • 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.

KSman is simply a regular member on this site. Nothing more other than highly active.

I can be a bit abrupt in my replies and recommendations. I have a lot of ground to cover as this forum has become much more active in the last two years. I can’t follow threads that go deep over time. You need to respond to all of my points and requests as soon as possible before you fall off of my radar. The worse problems are guys who ignore issues re thyroid, body temperatures, history of iodized salt. Please do not piss people off saying that lab results are normal, we need lab number and ranges.

The value that you get out of this process and forum depends on your effort and performance. The bulk of your learning is reading/studying the suggested stickies.

Do you have a reduction of width of peripheral vision or other non-refractive visual field disturbances?

Labs:
TT
FT
LH/FSH
prolactin
AM cortisol - at 8AM or 1 hour after waking up
DHEA-S
If body temperatures are low: TSH, fT3, fT4
IGF-1

6

The comment re green leafy veges is a concern that a lack of vitamin K may be causing irregular heart beat. My dad had that and doc Rx’d drugs which dad did not take and he used Vit-K and cardiograms later showed problem fixed. Dad only lived to 101 years and was on his feet until near the very end.

7

Got some tests after going private

Results: TT: 14.9 nmol/l (8.4-28.8)

FT: 337 pmol/l (115-577)

Bioavailable test: 7.9 nmol/l (2.7-13.5)

SHBG: 43.2 nmol/l (10.0-70.0)

TSH: 1.25 mU/l (0.32-5.04)