Hey all. This is a bit of a longer thread, so I will say thank you in advance to anyone that takes the time to read the full thing and is willing to offer up any thoughts, opinions, advice, recommendations. It’s greatly appreciated.
I’ve been checking out the threads here for awhile, thinking something was wrong with my system and I’m going to do my best to lay it all out and explain it. I’m sorry if I repeat information as I go through this.
I’ve suspected that something was quite right for about 2 years now and I might be on to something. Here’s the finer points.
Age: 36 (just turned 5 days ago)
Height: 6’2"
Waist: 32" (was 34 2 months ago)
Weight: 195 (I was up to 210, started a cut recently)
Hair: Body hair is finer, thinner. None on my back really, never been a hairy guy. Facial hair is patchy, always has been. Grows relatively slowly, I don’t even try to grow a beard.
Fat: Any fat I carry would be around my waist, but I’m currently quite lean at 195. Since I was 17, I’ve been between 10-15% bodyfat roughly and kept it that way with relative ease.
Health: I’m typically healthy. I very rarely, if ever, get sick. When I do, it’s usually stomach based and only lasts about 12 hours. I haven’t had a head cold in probably 2+ years. Last issue I had was a sinus infection in 2014. I have dust allergies, but even those have become pretty dormant (started using breathe strips while sleeping, fixed that issue and I’m not taking any allergy meds at all anymore).
Drugs: I’m not taking anything OTC or prescription currently. I don’t take painkillers for anything, I don’t take anti-inflammatory drugs at all. Only supplements. I’ll list those later.
Diet: My diet is about as good as it gets. My friends and co-workers are astounded at how well I keep that up. Chicken, beef, turkey, fish, veggies(at every meal usually), fruits(1-2 pieces a day), nuts, healthy oils, protein shakes. I supplement with BCAAs, creatine, plazma, EliteMineral Pro. Not a lot of sugar. I cut out wheat and dairy of my own accord.
Training: I was guilty of overtraining, big time. I was worn down, not recovering, but kept pushing. I remedied this, after reading stuff in the forums here about adrenal fatigue and such. I took 2 months and dropped weights to next to nothing, worked on mobility and bodyweight stuff. Slowly brought training back up. Currently doing 4 days a week of lifting (style change to more bodybuilding based, stopped chasing heavy stuff for the most part), 2 days of lighter lifting or conditioning. I don’t really do total ‘off’ days, I will walk or do sleds to help promote recovery.
Testes: Occasional aches seem to come to mind, but very, very few and far between. None in recent memory at all, but over the course of the years, I recall a couple of times.
Morning wood/nocturnal erections: Occasionally, yes. But not very often. No ‘random’ springing up during the day either.
Blows to the head: When I was 17, I was in a car accident (passenger). Dodge RAM hit the right front tire area of my buddy’s car, hard. I was in the passenger seat, 4 feet from impact. My head swung right, hit the window. Had a baseball sized lump for a couple days, but I had ZERO symptoms of anything. No headache, no dizziness, it didn’t even really hurt that bad at all, but slightly sore neck.
I play ice hockey too, so there’s been some hard hitting in the past, some TMJ issues from that, all of which is cleared up. I took a shoulder pad to the chin (glancing blow, from left side, that spun my head to the right), thought nothing of it, but it knocked my jaw a little out, went right back in. Two days later I had concussion symptoms. Passed in about 2 more days, I was perfectly fine a week later with activity cut out for that time frame. Have had no issues since.
Stress/Anxiety: I have very little stress going on(some monetary, but I don’t bother worrying about it. I don’t suffer from any anxiety. Overall, I’m happy, I’m cheerful. I rarely get pissed off (other than at people who can’t drive). I’m calm, my BP and pulse are always stable and normal (latest 122/76, pulse 60).
I’ve also, always, never been able to get ‘hard’ (not related to my penis this time). I’ve got a good amount of muscle mass, but my chest I’ve never been able to bring up and fill out, and the skin is always ‘loose’ (not droopy though, just easy to pinch, the muscle there isn’t as defined, even when I flex it and I’ve always carried extra around my midsection, that’s been impossible to cut down or eliminate.
Supplements:
Curcumin
Flameout
Vitamin D
Univeral Nutrition’s Packs
-Animal PAK (basically a hefty multi-vitamin, I take it spaced through the day)
-Nitro (BCAAs)
-Cuts (currently trying to cut down to 10% again for a live stage show which requires me to be basically bodybuilder lean, playing Rocky in Rocky Horror Show)
-PM (essentially the same as Biotests Z-12, which is my usual go to, but I wanted to try something new)
Plazma
Symptoms/Thoughts:
Over the course of the last 2-3, maybe 4 years, I was fighting the following:
Brain fog
Low libido
Hair thinning/falling out, hairline receded on both sides at widows peak, though only slightly
Low body temps
Dry skin
Feeling cold easily(especially in my hands. Feet, occasionally. Weird part of this is, I tend to ‘run warm’, where my body temp is low to check it, but my outward feel is that of a furnace. Ex girlfriends liked me, to steal my warmth)
Sparse eyebrows
Erectile dysfunction (issues with acheiving, then maintaining when I did, and with them being ‘weak’, rather than rock hard)
Constant fatigue
Trouble sleeping (waking up 3-4 times a night to piss)
Trouble putting on muscle/gaining weight (if I stop lifting, or don’t eat as much for a few days, I can shed pounds like crazy)
Concentration issues
Lack of motivation with work (lifting though, there is no lack of motivation). I like my job, I have fun there. I just can’t keep my focus.
After reading through the wealth of information on this site (after getting bloodwork in 2014, which I will post those results, as well as current results), I knew something wasn’t right and adding up. It was just the beginning of this year though, that I really started paying attention to it (when I took the time off). I started to suspect low iodine levels based on the symptoms, so I did a round of IR with Iodoral.
The IR cleared up a good number of issues (coupled with the discovery by me that my sinuses were jacked up and not letting me sleep properly. I was waking up pissing 3-4 times, never dreaming and always tired. Previously mentioned breathe strips have helped that immensely, I now wake up either no times or 1 time a night and I’m dreaming. I wake up feeling rested and rarely have energy issues through the day, but I am using caffeine a bit). I don’t use iodized salt, so I was supplementing for that reason. The above noted Animal PAK multi has iodine/selenium in it, but only RDA for them. Brain fog, hair thinning/falling out/receding fixed itself, dry skin went away, eyebrows are better, fatigue better, sleep better, morning wood better, but still only like 2 days a week on average, but up from basically never.
Body temp issue remained, though I would have a few random days of checking it orally where it would start at 97 and get up to 98.6. Most days though, it’s between 95.8 and 96.6 to start. I also decided to check it the rectal way, as a comparison, and it was usually around 96.9 that way. This has been consistent over the last month of checking it, after IR for almost a month. I was worried about taking too much iodine and causing problems (I was getting selenium via EliteMineral Pro, so that was covered), so I backed off on the Iodoral. Interestingly, on nights I take 25mg of that before bed, I seem to wake up the next morning with wood, but not always.
My libido issue remains as well, on top of the ED stuff. And my hands are almost always cold, anything under about 68 degrees (unless I’ve been doing something to warrant more blood flow) and they’re chilly (they’re cold right now typing this up). I like girls, I find them attractive still, I still want them. But when faced with the opportunity to do stuff with them of a physical nature, I find the performance portion an issue, which is frustrating as hell.
Lab results:
Results 2/17/2014 - as stated, this was before I started really paying attention to this stuff, I got the blood work done as I was just starting to exhibit some ED issues and feeling ‘off’. The doctor at the time told me everything looked ‘fine’, plus my T levels were high, so the ED could simply be ‘in my head’. Yeah. Since I didn’t know what all I needed then, a few results are lacking.
TSH 2.35 uIU/mL 0.27 - 4.2 uIU/mL
FREE T4 REFLEXIVE NOT APPLICABLE 0.7 - 1.7
ALBUMIN 4.9 g/dL 3.8 - 5.0 g/dL
SHBG 65 nmol/L 12 - 91 nmol/L
TESTOSTERONE,TOTAL 990.3 ng/dL 249 - 836 ng/dL H
FREE TESTO, CALC 141.0 pg/mL 35.1 - 130.4 pg/mL H
BIOAVAIL TESTO, CALC 374.5 ng/dL 78.9 - 334.8 ng/dL H
LDL (CALCULATED) 80 mg/dL 0 - 129 mg/dL
HDL-CHOLESTEROL 61 mg/dL >39 mg/dL
TRIGLYCERIDES 37 mg/dL <200 mg/dL
CHOLESTEROL 148 mg/dL <200 mg/dL
25OH VITAMIN D TOTAL 42.4 ng/mL 30.0 - 100.0 ng/mL
BUN 17 mg/dL 6 - 20 mg/dL
CREATININE 1.0 mg/dL 0.6 - 1.2 mg/dL
GFR ESTIMATED >60.0 mL/min >60 mL/min
SODIUM 139 mmol/L 135 - 146 mmol/L
POTASSIUM 4.3 mmol/L 3.5 - 5.1 mmol/L
CHLORIDE 104 mmol/L 98 - 111 mmol/L
CO2 28 mmol/L 22 - 32 mmol/L
ANION GAP 7 mmol/L 7 - 15 mmol/L
GLUCOSE 93 mg/dL 70 - 120 mg/dL
CALCIUM 9.5 mg/dL 8.3 - 10.5 mg/dL
WBC 3.83 K/uL 4.00 - 10.80 K/uL L
RBC 4.97 M/uL 4.50 - 5.25 M/uL
HGB 15.1 g/dL 14.0 - 16.5 g/dL
HCT 43.0 % 40.0 - 47.0 %
MCV 86.5 fL 82.0 - 99.5 fL
MCH 30.4 pg 27.0 - 34.0 pg
MCHC 35.1 g/dL 32.0 - 36.0 g/dL
RDW 12.6 % 11.5 - 15.5 %
PLATELET COUNT 318 K/uL 140 - 400 K/uL
MPV 9.0 fL 6.6 - 11.1 fL
Results - 9/28/2016 - I had these done 3 days ago, 2 days after I turned 36.
TSH 4.75 uIU/mL 0.27 - 4.2 uIU/mL H
T3, FREE 3.3 pg/mL 2.5 - 4.3 pg/mL
T4, FREE 1.43 ng/dL 0.9 - 1.7 ng/dL
PROLACTIN 10.8 ng/mL 4.0 - 15.2 ng/mL
LH 2.62 mIU/mL 1.7 - 8.6 mIU/mL
FSH 4.1 mIU/mL 1.5 - 12.4 mIU/mL
ESTRADIOL 12.5 pg/mL 5.0 - 42.5 pg/mL
ALBUMIN 5.0 g/dL 3.8 - 5.0 g/dL
SHBG 58 nmol/L 12 - 91 nmol/L
TESTOSTERONE,TOTAL 681.1 ng/dL 249 - 836 ng/dL
FREE TESTO, CALC 96.5 pg/mL 35 - 130 pg/mL
BIOAVAIL TESTO, CALC 261.4 ng/dL 79 - 335 ng/dL
TRIGLYCERIDES 36 mg/dL <200 mg/dL
HDL-CHOLESTEROL 63 mg/dL >39 mg/dL
LDL (CALCULATED) 71 mg/dL 0 - 129 mg/dL
CHOLESTEROL 141 mg/dL <200 mg/dL
CHOL/HDL RATIO 2.2
BUN 24 mg/dL 6 - 20 mg/dL H
CREATININE 1.1 mg/dL 0.6 - 1.2 mg/dL
SODIUM 142 mmol/L 135 - 146 mmol/L
POTASSIUM 4.3 mmol/L 3.5 - 5.1 mmol/L
CHLORIDE 101 mmol/L 98 - 107 mmol/L
CO2 29 mmol/L 22 - 32 mmol/L
ANION GAP 12 mmol/L 7 - 15 mmol/L
GLUCOSE 91 mg/dL 70 - 120 mg/dL
ALBUMIN 5.1 g/dL 3.8 - 5.0 g/dL H
AST 35 U/L 10 - 50 U/L
ALKALINE PHOSPHATASE 50 U/L 0 - 153 U/L
BILIRUBIN 0.6 mg/dL 0 - 1.2 mg/dL
CALCIUM 9.7 mg/dL 8.4 - 10.2 mg/dL
PROTEIN 7.6 g/dL 6.0 - 8.3 g/dL
ALT 47 U/L 10 - 50 U/L
E GLOM FILT RATE >60.0 >60
WBC 3.54 K/uL 4.00 - 10.80 K/uL L
RBC 4.59 M/uL 4.50 - 5.25 M/uL
HGB 14.2 g/dL 14.0 - 16.8 g/dL
HCT 41.0 % 40.0 - 48.4 %
MCV 89.3 fL 82.0 - 99.5 fL
MCH 30.9 pg 27.0 - 34.0 pg
MCHC 34.6 g/dL 32.0 - 36.0 g/dL
RDW 12.5 % 11.5 - 15.5 %
PLATELET COUNT 261 K/uL 140 - 400 K/uL
MPV 9.0 fL 6.6 - 11.1 fL
So, as I’m a bit of an amatuer with this stuff, I’m hoping that you all can help me shed some light on this.
TSH has doubled basically. My T levels have gone down quite a bit (seems normal). My estradiol level is, based on everything I’ve read on here, about 10 pg/mL low to where ‘ideal’ seems to fall.
WBC count is low, was in 2014. Unsure what that’s all about, honestly. BUN and Albumin slightly elevated, but I’ve read that those numbers can jack up a bit when you eat a high protein diet (which I do, so I’m not worried there much). Cholesterol levels are basically the same 2 years later, though it seems they may actually be a bit low overall, should probably try to bring that up some?
As for the LH/FSH and prolactin numbers, I’ll admit my knowledge there is lacking a bit, so this is where I’m hoping to get some thoughts from everyone else. My TSH is worrisome to me, as it has gone up a good bit. And my E2 being low is as well. The doctor I went to was very good for ordering tests as requested by me, but their lab requests didn’t have an rT3 to even order, so that one is lacking, sadly. If I get blood work done again, I’m going to use an online (found one called Chekd that will come to you and do the draw, seems pretty slick, but I need to investigate it more) testing facility next time to recheck my levels.
Thoughts from me:
Pituitary issue causing the thyroid issue?
Thyroid issue - seems hypo to me, though I could be off?
E2 being low is likely making me feel like I am, coupled with the high TSH.
I’m going to open this up to you all and see what you think. KSMan, I’m rather hoping you’re willing to toss some insight my way as well. I’m hoping to figure out which direction to push on this, so I don’t spin my wheels and waste any time in getting things sorted out.
Please let me know if there are any questions, or anything I’ve left out of this description, as it’s a lot of information and I’m sure (even though I’ve read the stickies multiple times) that I’ve missed something somewhere along the line with this.
Edit: Got this number back too, it was a little behind the others.
DIHYDROTESTOSTERONE 30 ng/dL 16 - 79 ng/dL