What Bloodwork to Run?

Hey, so semi long post here, which I will try to make short.

Last year, I tried self medicating with TRT. I dabbled with mk677 and low dose cialis too. I had a rough time with it, ended up with anxiety, high hematocrit, and came off after 10 weeks. Since then, I found out I have sleep apnea. I tried taking mk677 and again, had pretty bad anxiety (the day after, lasting a bit into the following day). So that was odd. I did find that there is some literature on that as it pertains to ghrelin and PTSD (I probably have ptsd, from a year or 2 long odyssey dealing with the Cuban mafia 12 years ago).

Part of me wonders if some of my issues the first round were rooted in messing with GHS like MK and the testosterone issues were related only to the high hematocrit. I was running about 37.5 EOD of the test, and my HCT hit 52 about 3 days after pinning (I got bloods drawn about that time).

Part of me doesn’t want to mess with any of this, again, as my levels are 600 now naturally. But part of me can’t recover from exercise (I mostly trail run/hike due to coronatine) and I have mild ED, though it did seem like last time I tried taking test, it really didn’t improve that much, which makes me suspect high SHBG. I was also a moderate to heavy drinker last year. Not binging, but drinking every day in the 4-6 per day range.

I get free bloodwork, so I am just looking for some ideas of things to run. I can’t get SHBG (they don’t have the test) but I can get free test, thyroid, and vitamin d. Any thoughts or ideas of things to run? Sorry if this is jumping around a bit. It’s hard to know what to include.

If I were to run this again, I would try things at 100mg per week split into 2 doses.

Edit: One addition i’d like to make here is I have pretty faint eyebrows on the outer parts. They are sort of there for a third, but the outer third becomes almost invisible. I’m just noting that for the thyroid association, but am not sure what it means or what to try. Last thyroid test was at 2.97 (range .5-5.0)

Have you taken care of your sleep apnea?

Yeah, got a resmed 10, and it’s definitely great. Ahi went from 23 to usually around 1-2 (5 cutoff)

How long with that unit? Have you gotten blood work since introducing this cpap?

I’m about a month in. No bloodwork since starting. Also, I should cop to the fact that I kept drinking on and off and have only been dry for about a week. But I shouldn’t overstate this as drinking a fifth a night or anything (more like a 4-6 per night thing, with occasionally more) I was able to stop with willpower, and haven’t had any physical side effects of stopping so I presume it couldn’t have been too extreme. That said, it seems like alcohol at the chronic consumption level can raise SHBG.

You will likely spend months dialing in your protocol and few get it right on the first try. It sounds like your dosage was excessive. I have seen members with Total T at 1995 ng/dL and very low Free T and extremely high SHBG.

The TSH is a stimulating hormones, not a thyroid hormone. In range TSH doesn’t carry much weight, thyroid hormones are the last piece of the equation. There was a member with full blown hypothyroidism at a TSH of 2.7.

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I would say if previous to the CPAP you were at 600 ng/dl TT and still drinking If you quit the booze I suspect your numbers to climb significantly. Your crushing your T with the booze and not able to maximize the benefits of sleep since the booze disrupts it.

Try reading Allen Carr’s the Easy Way to Control Alcohol. I drank as much as you and quit last September without will power.

Hematocrit at 52 is not something to worry about.

Personally, I drink all the time and it doesn’t have much effect on my numbers except for my triglycerides. I’m in the 4-6 beers a night club, lol. I just make sure to stay hydrated and I feel pretty good everyday. Having high T seems to help with the hangovers!!! Ha!!

also, when my total T was in the 600’s I would work out and have to go lay down afterwards. I was a zombie for hours. Now my total T is in the 1200 - 1300 range and I work out all the time and recover easily. I’ll do a really hard crossfit workout and go home and do yard work, It’s a Huge difference!

Begs the question, what kind of beers? Imagine your performance/recovery if you weren’t drinking a six pack a day.

I’ve seen this debated heavily with some saying it matters, and other saying it doesn’t. Since I ran too many things at once, it’s hard to determine why I felt so shitty, but it very easily could have been the other stuff (cialis, mk677)

It’s hard to know why things felt so bad last year. But again, as noted at the top, I added way to many confounding variables: Test (inconsistent dosage, north of 140 a week at times, then settling in, but also MK677, which I now know for SURE gives me anxiety because I tried it last month (one pill 10mg), got great sleep for one night, then insane feelings of doom over nothing the next day. I generally know the difference between stressing over stress versus random anxiety out of nowhere. I also had cialis in there, along with caffeine.

I’m tempted to try the trt dose at 100 mg per week if I do it again, going with a 3.5 day split.

Side question, can I deduce my SHBG from Albumin, TT, FT, and e2? I have those numbers, but they don’t run SHBG at my clinic.

“Begs the question, what kind of beers? Imagine your performance/recovery if you weren’t drinking a six pack a day.”
I drink all kinds. Love heavy craft beers or sometimes just some light beer. I think it’s a choice of destressing from the day and enjoying a little buzz vs. not drinking and staying stressed but getting more ripped. I’m in good shape and I’m not entering any contests so I’ll keep “chugging” along with the delicious beer… pun intended :slight_smile:

I did the same thing for a while in terms of too much stuff and too many variables. Less substances definitely seems to be better. I quite the HCG and AI and I quite a lot of the supplements I was taking. I think I feel better without most of the stuff. Just cypionate works pretty good

Oh yeah that’s right, I also was taking periodic AI last time. Whenever I felt “bloated” which, idk even know how I determined that, but it was like .5 at times, and then only .25. But at one point, I was drinking like usual, took MK677 the night before, then woke up and decided to up the test dose (100 in one pin) then drank 4 esspressos, to get myself all jacked up for a big meeting. And then I went for lunch and thought I was gonna die, So much anxiety, felt super low blood sugar, looked red in the mirror, ended up feeling like that all fucking day, and went to a clinic (they just hydrated me with gatorade and shit). But I felt like trash, and then I think I went home, and thought maybe it was too high of estrogen, and took a little more AI, then felt like shit even more for another 2 days before things stabilizedish. That’s how insane I was trying to chase my own tail. I just failed to recognize that this shit is more like steering a battleship than being able to turn a car in another direction.

That much alcohol can definitely raise SHBG (I know from experience) which could have the effect of lowering free T even given normal total T levels. So even if your total T looked good, if your free T was low you could still feel like shit. I’ve only had one blood test since I quit drinking but my free T practically tripled. I drank 5-6 beers a night for years though.

Glad i’m not the only one in this boat. That said, my free test was 9.8 ng/dl. My total T was actually 550 (a recent test had it at 600, but no free test was taken).

Well you sound like an outlier. Most people can’t consume that heavy and not suffer consequences. I got those kind of genes from my family too, both sides. No negative consequences via bloodwork, ever, but the inflammation and fat gain def became a problem. Especially considering a lot of those heavy craft IPA and DIPAs have more cals than a snickers bar with less nutritive value. Could be nearly 1800 cals a day from beer.

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Damn skippy. Same problem. My liver values at most were only slightly elevated. The only easy part is that “cutting” was always a question of simply not drinking, and voila! calorie deficit would appear!

How’s the cream working?