Seeing the other thyroid thread got me thinking about my own thyroid. My GP sees things “in range” and all is good in his world even though I feel otherwise. Can someone help interpret my labs?
RANGE
TSH .4 .4-4.5
T3 FREE 3.8 2.3-4.2
T4 FREE 1.7 .8-1.8
T3 REV 19 8-25
Currently on 180mg test per week which puts me just over the the high end of the range at about 1250. The lethargy and motivation issues are gone but still feel strange(not myself like i took had a bunch of caffeine. Edgy, hard to focus) sometimes and memory has not improved. This is prescribed HRT by an osteopath. My GP wouldn’t even consider HRT because my levels were 20 points inside the bottom of the range.
Interestingly enough before I was prescribed i was experimenting with 125/wk sus and 125/wk deca which put my test levels at 2150 and all issues were gone. Felt fantastic all the time. The labs above were taken about 4 weeks after I stopped that experiment so I could bring my levels down before bloods. They still came back high at 1337 but I told the osteopath what I was doing and he was willing to work with me. I can share the full labs if needed.
Thanks in advance.
I wouldn’t mess with my thyroid with these numbers. Free T3 is close to the top of the range. The TSH is bottom, which means you don’t seem to need much signal to make thyroid hormone. Reverse T3 is a bit on the high end, but I wouldn’t mess with it. I was a bit above range on RT3, and brought it down using T3 (cytomel). I felt the same before and after.
Just my opinion, but don’t mess with thyroid unless you have symptoms and labs to go with it. Some would just say symptoms, but most people seem to want more energy. I wanted more energy, and felt the same with treatment. I am off of cytomel now (just didn’t do much for me). I’ve lost weight since being off of it too, so my thyroid likely made a good bounce back.
Thanks for the reply. The osteo wasn’t really concerned but i wanted another set of eyes on my numbers as I have no idea what i’m looking at. After dealing with my GP it’s hard to trust other docs but starting to feel more comfortable with him.
As an example of my GP’s mindset when i told him my sleeping issues were coming back his suggestion was that I remove the TV from the wall even though I haven’t watched TV in bed in years. I had a great GP before this one but his wife became ill and he closed his practice to care for her. Blended eastern and western schools of thought. Really liked him. Tough to find good docs that take insurance. The osteo is cash but i feel he actually cares and only charges me $80 for ten weeks of test;)
Well, I am no expert, but have seen a good amount of lab work including my own, and have use T3 in the past.
Yeah, some doctors are a bit hard to take seriously. I have had some cocky ones in the past. Many seem to think they know everything. It is funny how many gym bros know more about the endocrine system than many doctors do.
Your levels are too high, this is exactly how I feel when my testosterone/estrogen levels are high.
The mistake here is you went to a GP for a sex hormone evaluation and treatment expecting him/her to have knowledge in sex hormones, even a good number of so called hormone doctors tend fall short in the sex hormone category.
Then you have doctors that refuse to treat men with low-T, you’re not really up against anything difficult here. [sarcastic]
Yeah I found that out pretty quickly. He was game to add T to some other routine bloodwork but when i asked for an expanded panel including estogen he refused. Funny how when you pay a doc cash they work for you but when it goes through insurance they work for them.
Don’t really understand how to interpret. Feel fatigued and tired lately. What other blood values would help? Just had these results in january. TSH was .64(.4-4.5) back in october of 2020. T4total was 1.7 at that time as well. They did not test T3 at that time.
Hey @lordgains thanks for chiming in. My main concern is the thyroid as I really don’t understand what the numbers mean. I’m going in to see my normal doc to review but he is a moron so wanted to be able to challenge him if needed.
Since you asked though (and i def appreciate it) i’ll give you the rundown.
Fatigue seemed to start late last week. Feel like I need a nap every day and got up in the morning, skipped cardio and slept for 2 additional hours last monday morning. Today was not too bad. No napping and barely any caffeine. Maybe a corner has been turned.
Sleep
Go to bed every night at 930-10pm. Wake up at 5am every day. Last 4-5 days i’ve gotten extremely tired and fell asleep on the couch for a short time earlier in the evening. Usually wake up 3 times to pee but can get right back to sleep. Don’t really feel tired when the alarm goes off.
Food
Currently dieting. About 400 cal deficit not including cals burned training and with cardio. I’m sure this plays in a bit.
Meal1
40g oatmeal
1 scoop protein powder
2-3 whole eggs
Meal 2,3,
5oz chicken thighs
5oc chicken breast
100g spinach/kale mix
Meal 4
5oz ground turkey
50z lean ground beef
100gspinach/kale mix
Meal 5
3 whole eggs
1 cup egg whites
Macros are: 2500cal/55g carb/90g fat/350g pro
Been eating this way for 4 weeks. Aside from being hungry haven’t had any issues. Not really losing weight but the mirror is more important to me.
Training
30 min cardio on incline treadmill every day
Go to my trainer mon/wed/fri. Those are the heavy/hard days.
Tues/thurs/sat train at home. Pump/accessoty work.
Sun off or maybe some hiking or XC skiing.
Gear
Currently finishing 3rd week of a 12 week cycle.
600/wk primo
400/wk test
400/wk deca
All shots split into 2x per week
60mg/day tbol until week 4 ends
50mg proviron/day
Aromison as needed.
12mg/wk (split into 3)HGH taken on hard WO days. The first week was 6mg/wk then ramped up. We had some discussion on the HGH how to thread regarding this tactic. I know it’s not optimal but it’s what I can do. Worth the experiment in my opinion. I’ll update over there after a couple more weeks go by.
So far recovery has been great after hard WO’s. Especially legs. Or i’m not recovering and this is playing into the fatigue but I am able to crush it on every workout.
Work
Everything is relatively good at work. Was under a little self induced pressure in January as I didn’t get the sales I expected that month. Feb is a different story. Crushing it now. Pretty much have half my sales quota for the year and expect I’ll meet quota by april or so. Is there underlying stress that’s affecting me there? Don’t think so. Usually if there is work stress my overall sleep patterns start to suck as i can’t stay asleep and my mind races. Haven’t had that happen in a long time. Learned to just let things roll off and not sweat the stuff out of my control.
Sorry for the long winded response. I have other labs taken just before the cycle started I could share if they would be helpful. Thanks.
There sounds to be several variables at play here:
your diet seems to be lacking sufficient carb sources. Your body needs the energy to be able to get through you training sessions and recover optimally. Plus, you’re eating at a deficit.
you’re training 7 days a week with no rest days.
your sleep is lacking. You’re waking up 3 times per night to pee.
With all of the above taken into account, I would personally be a walking zombie after insufficient carbs, deficit diet, shitty sleeping patterns and working out 7 days a week. Frankly, I wouldn’t need a daily nap but a daily induced coma.
During a diet One is more tired and needs more sleep as Cortisol is up constantly.
Carbs are lacking. This drives up Cortisol even more than a diet alone and makes sleep sucky for most people. Serotonin and melatonin are probably low.
Are you injecting it in the morning? Because HGH is known to cause sleepiness.
Also as Rusty Hammer Said, your Training is not supported by your diet at all right now. This causes a need for more recovery.
I’d lower protein to around 2.2 g per kg BW and increase carbs to at least 200 g. Under 150g of carbs nearly everybody feels like shit and can’t sleep.
This has been my typical diet when losing fat for years. It’s typically short term. 4-6 weeks. Maybe the body doesn’t like it anymore.
Actual structured training is 6 days but will still be active on rest day.
Sleep has always been an issue for me. It’s a work in progress. The last year is prob the best sleep (duration of sleep during the time i’m in bed) i’ve had in many years. While I am waking numerous times per night I am able to be back asleep within a few minutes where it used to be 1/2-1 hour or more of laying there thinking. Know I have to improve this but it’s a process. Thanks for the insight.
Thanks for the reply. As far as the cortisol response I def agree. I’ve been working with an osteopathic physician on testing cortisol at various staged of training and dieting. So far i’ve had 1 test during a bulk and all was normal. I am waiting for the kit to arrive now for the next test would would be taken in my current training/eating state.
This has been my typical go to eating plan to start to get things mobilizing during a cut or if I stall. This is done for a few weeks and then back to a little higher carbs and lower protein. Maybe i will need to change things up a bit and see how I respond. This would usually take a week or so to adapt to but this time after the first week of shit I felt fine until the other day.
I am injecting mid afternoon. Usually around 2-3.
I feel as though my muscles are recovering but maybe the rest of the system is not.
I’ll bring the carbs back up a bit and see how it goes.