Checking Levels at 24?

Pharma / TRT Testosterone Replacement
1

I am questioning if I should perhaps go get my hormone levels checked and wanted to see some others opinions.

I am a 24 year old male. I was involved in a severe head trauma when I was 18 that caused some hearing loss in my left ear as a result. Other than the hearing loss I appear to be outwardly healthy. I do not have a loss of sex drive and I carry a larger than average build.

I tend to sleep 10 hours or even as much as 11 or 12 if I don’t have to wake up. I don’t feel particularly refreshed upon waking even after 12 hours. Then other times I will only sleep 5 hours and can’t go back to sleep. I often wake up from 8 hours of sleep and eat and immediately want to take a nap. I experience fatigue throughout the day and have little motivation to do much of anything.

I take pre workout supplements with caffeine just to get motivated to go train. I am irritable, unhappy, and in general rarely in a good mood. I also don’t seem to recover from workouts nearly as well as I should. I am strong and have good size, I am just tired all the time and don’t recover well. This is despite adjusting amount of training, rest periods, training frequency, etc.

I lack many of the other symptoms of hormone issues so I am not sure if it is just all in my head. Full head of thick hair, plenty of sex drive, some body hair, aggression, etc. But looking at my past I can’t help but wonder if there may be some pituitary gland damage from the head trauma. I had double vision for 6 months or so post trauma due to pressure on the optic nerve, which is correlated with pituitary issues.

All of the vision corrected itself and like I said earlier the only known remaining side effect is the loss of about 30-40% hearing in one ear. The only other thing I can think of is I have a cyst on the back of my neck offset to one side about an inch, and a small cyst just below my collar bone in the front offset about an inch as well. These were looked at by a dermatologist and said to be harmless with just a visual inspection.

I see a ton of good advice given on here. Guys and gals please help me out and tell me if I am crazy or not.

2

You can order labs on your own at LEF.com and pay out-of-pocket. Cheaper with a membership.

Check your waking body temp before you get out of bed and record. Ideal is 97.8, near 97 or lower indicates a thyroid issue. Do you use iodized salt or have iodine in vitamins?

Age=24
What is your waist size?
Weight?
Height?
Where do you carry fat?

Get cold easily?
Any hypothyroidism in the family?

How do you react to major stressful events?

Morning wood?

Your issues can be from many things. At your age, low T would be a symptom and not a cause. You need to find root causes and not treat symptoms.

Sleeping a lot can be a sign of depression.
Apathy can be form of depression.

Some problems are caused by Rx or OTC drugs, alcohol, weed, stimulants, diet etc
Many things like this should not be treated with AD meds, that would be treating the symptom and not addressing the cause.

3

[quote]KSman wrote:
You can order labs on your own at LEF.com and pay out-of-pocket. Cheaper with a membership.

Check your waking body temp before you get out of bed and record. Ideal is 97.8, near 97 or lower indicates a thyroid issue. Do you use iodized salt or have iodine in vitamins? I don’t use additional salt at all. My multi-vitamin contains iodine (as kelp) at 150 mcg per day.

Age=24
What is your waist size? 34"
Weight? 210
Height? 6’0"
Where do you carry fat? Legs, hips, butt, and lower stomach. Some around the chest as well.

Get cold easily? At times, most other times I sweat obnoxiously when the room is a comfortable temperature.
Any hypothyroidism in the family? My grandmother on my fathers side was on hypothyroid medication.

How do you react to major stressful events? Sometimes okay others not very well at all.

Morning wood? Usually

Your issues can be from many things. At your age, low T would be a symptom and not a cause. You need to find root causes and not treat symptoms.

Sleeping a lot can be a sign of depression.
Apathy can be form of depression.

Some problems are caused by Rx or OTC drugs, alcohol, weed, stimulants, diet etc
Many things like this should not be treated with AD meds, that would be treating the symptom and not addressing the cause.[/quote]

I answered all of the questions you asked above.

I am not on any Rx or OTC drugs, I don’t drink, don’t smoke weed, etc. The only stimulants I take are pre workout drinks and all are within the suggested amounts. Diet isn’t great but far from horrible. I don’t live on fast food or fried food or the like. Mainly meats and complex carbs.

As far as temperature goes, even during the day when I have been awake and moving around some I rarely get a reading above 96.5. Average would be around 96. I will start checking it in the mornings. When I cut body fat for summer and get to 10% or less my body temp will get way down to around 95 even in the middle of my day. I get very cold easily during those times.

Thanks in advance for any help.

4

sounds like a cortisol (energy, sleep issues, need for caffeine), aldosterone (sweating - caffeine makes your elctrolyte balance even worse), and Thyroid (temperature) issue.

check out stopthethryoidmadness.com and their section on adrenals.

any ankle, knee, hip pain?

ask for tests for
TSH
Free T3
Free T4
8am Cortisol blood draw (or the four times daily saliva test)
Aldosterone

might as well check Total Testosterone and Estradiol while you are at it.

5

Some minor knee and ankle pain from time to time.

6

what does hip knee or ankle pain signify?

7

it signifies low aldosterone (which leads to sodium depletion (does not show on blood tests), electrolyte imbalances, excess sweating or excess urination, and conversely water retention, high blood pressure, higher heart rate.)

knee, hip, ankle muscles are more susceptible to this according to a couple of books and sights I have read… plus my knee pain of several years disappeared once I started taking 2 teaspoon coarse sea salt during the day (I have low aldosterone).

try taking 1/2 teaspoon of sea salt (not regular salt - you need to trace minerals in sea salt) toss it to the back of your throat and chug some water…then see how you feel in an hour.

or you can try the pupil light test found on the STTM adrenal page.