Optimal Luteinizing Hormone Numbers?

Just that, what is optimal LH levels? I’m within the ‘range’ (2.33) but that rarely means anything in my experience…

Should also point out this is 5 weeks after stopping TRT, and 3 weeks after stopping HcG only PCT

That’s a pretty good number for that time frame. And I guess optimal would be whatever number gets you feeling well. Nobody knows that that is. It’s highly individual. What was your LH before you started trt?

LH numbers change drastically in a short period. You want a combo of LH/FSH with accompanying T/Free T levels to diagnose whether secondary or primary. You can’t judge LH with one lab its like a snapshot of a changing number.

Okay I have ordered free T but will take a few days to come back.

This is what I have so far:

fsh 1.69 (was 2.51)
lh 2.33 (was 2.84)

Your LH levels are in the range at which low-T is diagnosed which is typically below 3. These levels are your baseline levels and I don’t expect any change.

You take an 85 year old man and his testosterone panel shows his T at 305 ng/dL, it’s in range but this in no way means it’s a healthy level because cardiovascular disease typically occurs below 440 ng/dL.

Do we really care what LH & FSH are? They can provide info on if your issue is primary or secondary, but really your testosterone levels are what matter or if you’re trying to be fertile you’re sperm count/motility, etc.

Ultimately it’s how you feel, if you feel okay, then you’re good, don’t worry about it, if you don’t, you’ll have to take steps to address it or just live with it.

Or am I off base here?

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Nope. Numbers are useful, but they don’t tell the story of how you feel. If you feel good at level X then you don’t need to tinker around trying to hit a different “right” number.

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So T labs are back (5 weeks after stopping 200mg per week of Test E, and 3 weeks after HCG only PCT), higher than before I started??

T: 1316 (13.16) Range 2.41 - 8.71
Free T: 15.70 (1.2%)
SHBG: 93

Basically higher than when I started

SHBG: 77 (normal range 13.5 - 71.4)
Test: 1110 (normal range 240 - 871)
Free: 14.70 (1.3%) (normal range 5.71 - 18.74)
E2: 26 (normal range 11 - 44)

If you had TT of 1,110 why were you on trt?

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Low free T due to high SHBG

Any comments?

About what? There is no ‘perfect’ LH number and your TT has come back since stopping TRT, so that’s good. Look at lowering your SHBG if you’re still feeling bad, but you haven’t mentioned how you’re actually doing or any symptoms so there’s not much to go on

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Is this normal?
Is this a normal time frame for things to come back?
Anything else I can do to increase free T?
Just any comments in general, any related case studies, any anecdotal stuff that might help in any way?

Still struggling with low free T symptoms, mainly ED and low libido.

Your free T is fine. Your TT is excellent. You probably didn’t need trt in the first place, frankly.

As far as recovery time goes it’s pretty in line with expectations. Maybe a little quicker than guys who run a traditional PCT, but it’s not much more than a few weeks difference.

How much LISS cardio are you doing per week? If the answer is not a lot then add more. It’s good all around, but it’s also very good for ED issues.

What are your other stats? Age, height, weight, body fat, exercise routine, diet, etc.

I have been doing anything I can to get more healthy, but on a friend’s advice was doing HIT not LISS. So not much.

Exercise routine for the last month has been:
Day 1: Chest & arms gym (40 mins) + 40 min bike HIT outdoors
Day 2: Back & shoulders gym (40 mins) + 40 min bike HIT outdoors
Repeat

Also been detoxing mercury, trying to balance methylation, meditating, taking NO boosters, increasing cholesterol.

Nearly everything works to boost libido for a ‘while’ then my body just re-adjusts and back to square 1. No solutions are sustainable so far.

37, 93kg, 186cm, some belly fat, some muscles under the fat, diet is 20/4 IF (first meal salad, second meal coconut milk ice cream for fats, third meal rice, meat, veggies)

Thanks

Don’t listen to your friend regarding LISS. It’s good for basically everything inside your body. Helps with BP, erections, mood, overall heart health, everything. HIIT is mostly dumb unless you’re doing CrossFit or if you have the self control of a Franciscan monk. When you do HIIT you’re burning every last gram of glycogen your body can find. What do you replace it with right after? A shitload of starchy carbs, usually. That’s a treadmill that you’ll never get off of. HIIT can be great for fat loss if you have perfect discipline, but it’s a tough slog and it’s hard on your body.

Biking is great, and when the weather here cooperates I do as much of it as I can. No reason to change that. But you may benefit from changing your current training split because it’s not terribly logical. Try PPL for a few months and I bet you’ll enjoy it. Or modify it if you’d like. I do PPPPL/P* because I have a bad knee and overtraining legs means I sacrifice LISS, which isn’t a trade off I’m willing to make.

*Heres how my routine looks:

M: push
T: pull
W: push
Th: pull
F: legs, push

It works for me because I made changes as needed. You can do the same. Using the basic framework and then making modifications to suit your needs and abilities is a good way to integrate a new routine.

@iron_yuppie Thanks for this, will test out the new push, pull split idea. Yea the bike is fun, nice to get out in the mornings into nature. Should be even more fun now I don’t have to ride like I’m being chased by an axe murderer every few mins.