Hey, new to forum I recently have been tested for low T. And I have yet to see the Dr. I go the 9th for results and what to do about them. However I have a my health portal online and My results have been posted I’m very curious because it seems like my results are pretty dang low. And Figured I’d ask now since its kinda got me wondering and still 6 days before I see doctor. My Testosterone is 188.60 ng/dl I am 30 years old. How low is that for my age?
TT=188 is rather horrible.
Please post labs with personal identifiable info removed.
We need lab ranges.
Need to find the cause:
TT
FT
E2
LH/FSH ← must be done before TRT, cannot be done later
prolactin
CBC
hematocrit
We need oral body temperatures to eval thyroid function - see below.
We have more and more young guys here who are seeking answers.
Please read the stickies found here: About the T Replacement Category - #2 by KSman
- advice for new guys - need more info about you
- things that damage your hormones
- protocol for injections
- finding a TRT doc
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.
KSman is simply a regular member on this site. Nothing more other than highly active.
I can be a bit abrupt in my replies and recommendations. I have a lot of ground to cover as this forum has become much more active in the last two years. I can’t follow threads that go deep over time. You need to respond to all of my points and requests as soon as possible before you fall off of my radar. The worse problems are guys who ignore issues re thyroid, body temperatures, history of iodized salt. Please do not piss people off saying that lab results are normal, we need lab number and ranges.
The value that you get out of this process and forum depends on your effort and performance. The bulk of your learning is reading/studying the suggested stickies.
Thank you for replying. I found parts of your post confusing. I guess I wasn’t expecting such a thorough response and if i posted something i shouldnt have I’m sorry or in wrong area. So 188 is bad? I’ve had my thyroid checked It was fine and cortisol levels were fine. Body temps have been normal, blood pressure high, anxiety high, alot of weight gain, prostate normal, urine ph is low at 5. Prolactin is 5.56. Other than that I dont know much. This is all new to me. Thank you for responding. And sorry if this isn’t much help
You won’t have much trouble getting a doctor to prescribe you TRT, however I fear your doctor will set you up for failure on a protocol that doesnt match your labs, mainly SHBG.
Most do well on 50mg twice weekly, one weekly injection only makes sense if SHBG is high. Take this time to educate yourself and read through the sticky threads so you can easily spot an inexperienced doctor setting you up for failure, most doctor’s get TRT horribly wrong and the patient suffers.
Doctors are not taught male hormones in med school, you may not get them inline with injecting more frequently than one every 2 weeks, if they allow self injection just follow advice here and you’ll be better off. Half life of test is 5-8 days so one injection every two weeks makes no sense.
Thanks for responding. So my SHBG is low enough I need 2 50mg injections a week. TRT kinda scares me. I really dont know much about anything on it. I guess my only option Is TRT. I am going to have to do my research. I guess the shots or injections are best?
Also my doctor sent me to a urologist who seems legit. Hes the one handling all this. My primary doctor preferred a specialist to handle this situation. I’ll find out what the urologist wants to do the 9th.
You have come to the right place.
We get into some aspects of health that are largely neglected.
The problem with that is that the thyroid lab ranges include a lot of problems because the ranges are stupid. We are looking at your health and doctors are looking for disease.
We need your body temperatures as requested to the fraction of a degree. Body temperatures are in some ways a lot more specific about thyroid function than lab results.
TRT can be perfect and you can feel like crap with perfectly lab “normal” results. Pay attention to what is been asked of you. It is a steep learning curve and information rich, read things a few times to make sure you have picked all of it up. Depth of understanding comes later. You will end up knowing a lot of things that few doctors understand. You cannot be passive with your doctors and need to start managing yourself some aspects of your health care.
We can do better with all available labs in list format with ranges.
Example: Avg. adult male 270-1,070
188.6 is not very good.
You have low T.
Now you need more labs to diagnose and to try to find the cause. We know that elevated prolactin is not causing your low T.
I dont even own a thermometer. I haven’t had a fever in years and am rarely sick. I’ll have to pick one up or ask my doctor. They haven’t ever check my body temp… prolactin is 5.54 ng/ml normal range is 2.64-13.13, SHBG 15.4nmol/L normal range Is 13.3-89.5, free testosterone percent is 2.74 normal range is 1.6-2.9, free testosterone calculation is 52pg/ml normal range is 33-227, testosterone level is 188.6 ng/dl normal range Is 205-781. Testosterone bioavailable is 121 ng/dl. Normal range 131-682. Sorry that’s all the info I have. If there’s other tests or labs he needs to run please let me know. Is It ok to start TRT if you have moderately high blood pressure. I’ve seen heart doctors that have ran tests and everything is fine. Is it possible my bp Is high because of low T?
Welcom to the forum.
There is a LOT of information to take in when trying to optimize your own health.
Thankfully you will find lots of good information here and people willing to help you.
I will point out that you need to drop the idea of “my doctor says I am fine”, or based on my labs I am fine.
After spending a little reading here and other forums, you will discover that most doctors…even ones claiming to know about HRT/TRT really have no clue.
No one is going to care about YOUR health like YOU do.
Temperature readings at doctors office are not useful. We need temperatures at the times of day specified and you need to be resting, not eating or drinking for some time, not talking etc before the measurements.
In the future, we need labs in list format. It is hard to digest lab data buried in prose.
Blood pressure:
Do you have resting pulse rate? BPM
There are a few possible factors for elevated blood pressure and some could be diet related or deficiencies. Possible magnesium issue. If you get leg/foot cramps or can tighten a muscle and have it lock up, you have a magnesium deficiency. Two caps of “ZMA” at bed time will probably fix that. What is the connection to BP? The ability of the arteries to accept a pulse of blood from the heart depends on the muscle tone of the muscle that wrap internally around the arteries. Also not that low-T also can adversely affect arterial muscle tone.
Describe diet.
Describe caffeine intake.
Describe health issues, BP was one example.
Any digestive issues or food sensitivities/allergies?
List meds, Rx and OTC.
List supplements.
You can provide your history of using iodized salt or vitamins listing iodine now.
How many temperature readings do you need? My diet isn’t the best. I need alot of work done there. I usually eat a granola bar for breakfast or eggs as of lately. Lunch is at work so either fast food or a sandwich and bag of chips from lunch. Dinners consist of pizza once a week, then usually hamburgers and fries one night, chicken breast and veggies usually broccoli cauliflower carrots and mashed potatoes. a couple nights and pork chops and vegetables sometimes we make tacos or chicken alfredo.i don’t add salt to anything. But i know processed stuff has it. I dont think I’ve added salt to my food in 15 years. I try to limit as much I can. I rarely drink caffeine. No coffee, soda, sweet tea once a w
eek. And that’s a maybe at once a week.no food allergies. Only otc is quercetin and olive leaf extract. 500mg a day. I take it about 4 days a week though.excedrin If i get a headache maybe 2 tablets or 3 a month
For a month I took my blood pressure 6 times a day for the doctor. This was in January. I dont work in January. Being freezing cold most days I sat at home. My best blood pressure reading was 126/82, worst was 158/98. With most times being 140s over low 90s.
When my testosterone levels tanked (225 ng/dL) it caused high blood pressure and high resting heart rate, TRT cure both. Perhaps it will do the same for you, studies show high blood pressure and elevated heart rates can result from low hormone levels.
Thanks. Glad to hear you are better and it helped you
Salt: If you are not using iodized salt at home, you are iodine deficient. Prepared/factory meals and restaurant food: do not expect these to use iodized salt. All we are concerned with is the iodine, not the NaCl.
So I need to have my doctor check iodine levels, magnesium levels, I need to check my temperature a few times, resting blood pressure. With that information it will tell you what exactly? Just curious. Is it why my testosterone is low
Most guys never are able to find out why testosterone is low, those tests won’t tell you squat.
Same with me
How long did it take to see results if you don’t mind me asking
It took about a couple of months, back then I was on the wrong protocol, injection frequency and dosage were wrong. I’m a low SHBG and is making TRT difficult, my injection frequency lies between injecting every 2.5 -3 days.
Injecting EOD is just too unstable and chaotic for me but sexual function and libido are insane, injecting every 3.5 days is almost enough, mentally I feel great but sexual function and libido are absent.
I wish TRT was simpler for me, my body is just too darn complicated. Most do well injecting their doses twice weekly and can enjoy all the benefits right off the bat, some require fine tuning.