I am not considering gym performance in any of this. My experience is, when my T levels go up, I have a little more drive and my shoulders get bigger. That’s the difference between very low T, and double range free T but normal range total T. What I know from observation - which is being around guys using AAS for performance - is that they feel awesome with higher T to a point. That point is way outside what anyone here is trying. 12 GRAMS a week was hard on the system, 2-5 GRAMS made all of them feel like Superman. What I’m saying here is, you can absolutely cover up a lot of things by getting way above normal range. That is not TRT, but comes under the realm of “Bio-hacking” for some opinions. 500mg a week should - and usually does - make just about anyone feel like a god. That doesn’t mean that they had low T before or that they should be running that dose long-term. There are guys on here that are high SHBG and the cause is unknown and currently undiagnosable, which leaves them with pushing their levels high to feel normal. Fine, that’s all we have for some guys. However, there are guys that decide in advance that how they “Feel” matched low T so they need test, with zero regard for what the labs indicate. So I’m saying, some guys have a mental problem, and being supraphysiological is their fix because they have some warped idea of normal or don’t want to consider anything other than TRT as a solution. I am double range free T and feel good. When I shot 250mg of enanthate for a couple of weeks because I didn’t know any better, I felt way better. Does that mean that I should be running a total T of 2100 all of the time ? Absolutely not. It feels fantastic, but that’s not TRT or normal, that’s abusing a drug to chase a feeling.
The experience of many, many athletes with otherwise normal levels would argue that you are the minority here. I don’t mean in regard to training and performance, I mean they are riding a high when the cycle is in progress - up to an upper limit. I’m not sure what 12 grams does to your total and free T, but that is on the other side and does not result in a guy feeling great.
I can assure you that simply not having a deficiency doesn’t always equate to symptom resolution. I see this stuff all day long. There are a ton of factors at play here.
I’ll provide one example. You had a natural total of 1100 for the longest time and suddenly you dropped down to 650. You feel like crap but you don’t have a deficiency. Your body is accustomed to much higher levels. What do you do in this case?
Out of interest could anyone suggest undiagnosed issues that could be causing high shbg?
I’ve had multiple thyroid tests (it is at the upper end but not outside of range- ive always had quite a high metabolism)
I’ve had liver tests and all function has been cleared as normal and fine (by NHS)
They are the only two things Dr Google has thrown up- anyone else seen other causes of high SHBG?
I eat plenty of fresh fruit and veg, buy decent meat from the butchers. I buy organic free range eggs.
I do like a coffee and I do drink alcohol- however that last round of bloods Id not had a drop of beer etc for 2 weeks as wanted to see effect on shbg in the blood draw.
I don’t drink to excess anyway- just a few beers or share a bottle of wine with the Mrs over a weekend.
Pretty much the only way to treat high SHBG is to inject a good amount of T. Also Low dosing Anavar will help but very hard to get prescribed in UK. Forget about finding out why it’s almost impossible, nobody seems to really understand SHBG or why it suddenly increases in some people. Also forget about natural supplements, none of them work.
Yes… The one who does his videos in his car hiding from an empty parking lot claiming he’s an alpha male… All while microdosing testosterone and using an AI.
Yeah I remember him. Was there some back and forth with you and him or was that him and Jay Campbell? I can’t remember. But I’m pretty sure there was some YouTube drama around him at some point, I think anyways
Liver problems (Cancer for example, but there are others)
HIV (Hopefully not)
Hyperthyroidism (might want to look into that one)
Hypogonadism (Although with those T levels you won’t get that as a diagnosis)
There are others. At the end of the day TRT may be the only option to treat a problem that is undiagnosable. But, it doesn’t hurt to play the game and rule out the other likely offenders. If it’s cancer and you go on TRT, it’s not a great combo.
I’m wandering if I’m borderlin hyperthyroid. This test showed close to top end on a couple of markers. I dont understandthyroid fully- maybe sometimes Im a bit out of range and its raising my SHBG?
