In my middle 20’s and have been on testosterone for 3 years. Have recently been dealing a lot with health problems (due to chronic candida infection). I also believe my hormones also been a reason for feeling like shit and continued being sick.
I have been using 250mg Testosterone E each week but I recently found out that my Testosterone was under dosed which is why my testosterone and estrogen is so low.
Testosterone: 545 (Normally 1100-1200 on 250mg Testosterone E)
E2: 13.4 pg/ml Range: 25-40 (Standard assay/non sensitive test)
DHEAS: 185 Range: 211 - 492 (Was 120, 3 months ago when I was in withdrawal from Pregabalin (Lyrica))
Prolactin: 18.4 Range: 2-17
SHBG: 39 Range: 11-78 (Tested this 3 years ago and was then 24)
IGF-1: 132 Range: 20-347
TSH: 1.3 Range: 0.3-5.2
T4: 1.7
I have been using Kratom everyday (13-15 grams each day) due to my chronic back pain (Was prescribed Pregabalin before but stopped after having side-effects and had a long and horrible withdrawal from it). I have already started tapering with the help of ULDN and I plan on quitting in a couple of months and then use LDN to deal with the withdrawals and PAWS.
Do you guys think my high prolactin, low DHEAS and high shbg is due to my kratom usage or the low testosterone and low estrogen levels?
What do you think is behind the high prolactin, SHBG and low IGF-1, DHEA-S?
As far as using 250mg for TRT, I don’t really see a good reason to lower it consider I usually only have 1100 ng/dl testosterone (which is at the top of the range) + I know exactly my AI dose when the testosterone is correct.
Why do you feel the need for an AI? I am not suggesting that you lower the dose, just that it’s a high dose for TRT so you should be concerned about what is going on. I am not gong to comment on the Candida infection line. What else do you have going on? What’s is the cause of the back pain? What else are you taking? Who are you seeing for medical care?
I take AI since I aromatise a lot. I had high estrogen efter before using testosterone and if I don’t use an AI my estrogen goes extremely high.
I have been struggling a lot with different health issues the last couple of years (started before TRT) which I believe was caused due to candida. I have been on a very strict diet for the last 2.5 months which meant no sugar, no dairy, almost no gluten and no alcohol which has improved my health but I still have a lot of problems which I believe is more related to my hormones (especially the low estrogen).
My back pain is caused due to a herniated disc but my pain has decreased a lot due to my new diet change and I hope I don’t need to use Kratom for my pain but rather LDN.
I take Vitamin D, Magnesium, Ashwagandha, melatonin, ULDN (Ultra Low Dose Naltrexone), Agmatine (helps with the pain) and hydroxyzine (anti-histamine for sleep).
I am self-prescribed due to it being impossible being prescribed TRT at my age in my country.
Got any other labs? How about ranges? I understand your reason for your diet, but I can tell you that certain aspects of it are hurting your health. What are the other health issues? What country are we talking about? Are you seeing a Naturalpath, Homeopath, Functional Medicine practitioner, MD?
I am still waiting on some results but I have more results back from January. Let me know if there is any specific lab value you would like to see.
I can’t see how my diet would have made things worse, if anything it has improved a lot of the values (like lipids, TSH and etc).
The health issues are getting sick easily, chronic sinus infections, suddenly developed extreme grass allergy, bloating, headaches, constant stiff neck, etc. (a lot of these have improved since I started my candida diet).
More mental issues have been a lot of fatigue, low libido, no morning wood, anxiety, long refraction period, etc but these could very well simply be due to the low estrogen (I have had low estrogen before and I remember how shitty I felt then).
Sweden but I live in Colombia now. (which is good b.c testerone is legal here).
A Candida diet is going to push you into a lot of deficiencies. I’m not going to rip on Naturopaths or the Candida thing, but you should give serious consideration to this not being the actual problem at all. Also, post whatever labs you have with ranges. I live in Nicaragua, so I have a good idea of how the living is for you there.
I know but this was also because the testosterone that I bought was bunk/under dosed. I have now pharma testosterone so my testosterone will be back to the right level.
So I use aromasin, do you know how long it takes for estrogen to increase when you have your crashed your estrogen with aromasin? Some say it takes 5-7 days, will some say it takes 2-4 weeks.
It will come up pretty quick, but it might be 2 weeks before you feel totally levelled out again. What are you buying? The Bayer or the knock-off? I’m using Testex from the pharmacy, I think it’s produced in Guatemala for this market, it’s cheap too.
I honestly couldn’t rule any of that out, but I doubt the SHBG is connected the E2 number. Low Test is definitely a factor in the others, but your test wasn’t particularly low as far as that goes, but who knows? Everybody is their own person.
WebMD is absolutely not a 100% conclusive source. It probably has plenty of false or exaggerated information. That’s my disclaimer before I post WebMD’s warning about Kratom:
“Kratom can cause many side effects when taken by mouth, including tongue numbness, nausea, vomiting, dry mouth, need to urinate, constipation, aggression, hallucinations, delusions, and thyroid problems. Kratom in large doses may cause trouble breathing, brain swelling, seizure, liver damage, and death.
Kratom can cause dependence when taken regularly. People who use kratom regularly and then stop taking it may experience decreased appetite, diarrhea, muscle pain and spasms, twitches, watery eyes, anxiety, trouble sleeping, anger, hot flashes, and fever.”
So IS your daily dose of this causing problems? Dunno. COULD your daily dose be causing problems? Yes.