As Dr Crisler suggested I stopped TRT for two months and then did the Rhein 24 hour urine hormone profile. His reasoning behind this was the fact that my two sets of blood work labs prior to treatment were all over the map and I don’t present as a person with low T. (I was on T for a short time) I went to see him because no one in Portland, OR has a clue how to administer TRT. Long and f%&*ing dreadful story.
Well the results are back and I would suggest if you really want to see what’s going on with your body spend the $200 and do this test.
This test checks hormones and all of their metabolites so I’ll spare you all of the results. Here is the important stuff.
T=45 reference range 45-85 (My two Quest labs were 525 in 2006 and 379 in 2007. Reference range 250-1100. Free T 70 in 2006 and 44 in 2007) This explains a lot. I feel like crap and have most of the symptoms of low T. For me Androgel worked well and the shots not so well. I think the shots would have been fine but I would have had to inject every 3-4 days. I had a huge fall off after day 3.
E2=0.6 reference range 0-7.0 This also explains a lot. My Quest labs had my E2 at 46. I tried Arimidex as a standalone and my E went to low in no time using 1mg a week and then .5mg a week. Now I know why because it was low to begin with!! I felt like total crap on Adex alone.
DHEA=158 reference range 5-1476 Looks like adrenal fatigue.
5-AT=1775 reference range 42-710 I’m way high here and this is a metabolite of T. Guess I found where a lot of my T is going. I’ll have to research this more.
DHT=5.2 reference range 0-13 Looks like for my low T level I’m still getting a midrange conversion to DHT which may explain why I don’t appear to be hypogonadal.
There is a ton of other stuff on here that is all mid range. My point with this is I would do this with initial blood work for free t, LH, and FSH. It would help to have both. Blood work is a snapshot of your current hormonal status and you could end up getting denied treatment when the 24 hour test will tell the true story. I credit Dr Crisler for wanting to confirm T is my problem and I think this test confirms that. Can’t wait to get back on T because life has been hell without it for 2 months.