So Im about to be 49 , 5’7" 187lb and I’ve been having increasing
difficulty focusing
lack of drive (sex and in general)
bitchy mood
Gained some weight, too mostly around the belly (waist 38-39") so I thought it might have something to do with hormonal levels.
I’m in Spain and getting an appointment, blood work through insurance is quite cumbersome so I found this lab that offered some tests without prescription and thought I’d take them to get a feel and pick your brains here.
TRT is no really common here and I’d like to get your opinion on whether it looks it could be helpful/likely to be prescribed. If so, what things should I insist on getting tested.
From the stickies I understant that E2 is a bit high, is taking just aromatase inhibitors something people do?
AI would help, but will not be enough. 0.25mg anastrozole twice a week would be a good start. If you did TRT without AI E2 would get horrible.
Where are you from? - we know where you are.
Can you get TRT? T is not “low” so you would need to go private.
Can you post:
CBC
hematocrit
AST/ALT
fasting glucose
maybe A1C
AM cortisol [at 8AM or 1 hour after waking up]
TSH could be better. Are you using iodized salt? Do you eat much seafood? TSH=1.0 would be better. Thyroid lab ranges are very useless.
Getting TRT or TRT done properly is very difficult/impossible in many European counties. You are our first guy from Spain. What I do see that is good is that FT is available.
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.