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Morning and greetings from South Africa,
I am a long time lurker who is coming out of the shadows for some hormone advice. I have the symptoms of low test, but my blood tests say I’m fine…
Background:
21 years old, 6’2, 73kg/160 lb
+-1 year gym experience, little weight gain and not very much progress (my fault; not eating well and not training consistently. This has greatly improved over the last 3 months.)
Maxes (all recent):
Squat: 95kgX5
Bench: 75kgX5
Dead: 120kgX5
Bodyweight: 63kg – 76kg in a year (give or take) but lost 3kg over the last two weeks due to not eating (moved out of home, has been a nightmare.)
I know I'm weak and scrawny, I'm working on that bit
Blood results (all done at my request, and my doc only wanted me to do these):
Original values are in nmol/L or pmol/L, converted using an online converter.
Total test: 23.93 nmol/L = 689.62 ng/dL
Free test: 421 pmol/L = 12.14 ng/dL (which is 1.76% of total test)
SHBG: 47.4 nmol/L
S-TSH: 2.30 mIU/L
Reason for tests:
Very low libido, no interest in sex-related matters, no morning wood for 8 weeks solid (now 11 weeks) and very few over the previous 3 months. I went from being able to have 4 rounds in an afternoon with my GF (+- 2 years ago) to being physically unable to get it up for days at a time.
We currently have sex around twice per month, which is no fun for me and driving her mad (we share a bed at night.)
I have very little body hair (average pubic hair, but very little on my arms and legs, none (at all) on my chest and back and I have a little moustache and chin hair but nowhere near a beard. It grows slowly (I shave about twice per week to keep neat) and to a max length of +-1cm (0.4 inches.) I come from a hairy family, and stand out in terms of hair (the other guys started shaving at 13.)
I remember times when I had plenty of energy with crappy eating, doing as I like and 4 hrs sleep. Now I wake up tired after 8 hours sleep, 4 solid meals and looking after myself. It's like I have constant fog in my head (read the term somewhere, perfect description.)
Essential question:
My total test is fine, my free test is lower than 2% but I don’t think it’s that low, and my SHGB is far too high (almost out of range, according to lab ranges; their upper flag is 48 nmol/L.) What are the chances that this is a hormone problem, and if it is, what is it likely to be?
I know I need to get an estradiol (E2) test done and most likely some others (prolactin for one.) Which should I?
My doc first said I was depressed (this is theoretically possible, as I’m bipolar, but I’m not that low. I also haven’t had this sort of libido/ED problem before, depressed or not. I am on Lamotrigine (brand name Lamictal) and have been on a list of others including lithium carbonate, if this rings any bells (all the research I have done says that this isn't the problem, but I’m asking anyway.) Now he says everything “must be fine, as your bloods were perfectly normal”.
Any and all advice would be much appreciated. I don’t know what my options are right now, but will get hold of an endocrinologist (I have looked at 3 online thus far) if you guys think this is worth taking up. I have read scary things about docs who say things like “you have test of 300, so it's not low and as such your ED is all in your head” kind of things. I frankly don’t know what to ask.
Much appreciated,
madcap
I am a long time lurker who is coming out of the shadows for some hormone advice. I have the symptoms of low test, but my blood tests say I’m fine…
Background:
21 years old, 6’2, 73kg/160 lb
+-1 year gym experience, little weight gain and not very much progress (my fault; not eating well and not training consistently. This has greatly improved over the last 3 months.)
Maxes (all recent):
Squat: 95kgX5
Bench: 75kgX5
Dead: 120kgX5
Bodyweight: 63kg – 76kg in a year (give or take) but lost 3kg over the last two weeks due to not eating (moved out of home, has been a nightmare.)
I know I'm weak and scrawny, I'm working on that bit
Blood results (all done at my request, and my doc only wanted me to do these):
Original values are in nmol/L or pmol/L, converted using an online converter.
Total test: 23.93 nmol/L = 689.62 ng/dL
Free test: 421 pmol/L = 12.14 ng/dL (which is 1.76% of total test)
SHBG: 47.4 nmol/L
S-TSH: 2.30 mIU/L
Reason for tests:
Very low libido, no interest in sex-related matters, no morning wood for 8 weeks solid (now 11 weeks) and very few over the previous 3 months. I went from being able to have 4 rounds in an afternoon with my GF (+- 2 years ago) to being physically unable to get it up for days at a time.
We currently have sex around twice per month, which is no fun for me and driving her mad (we share a bed at night.)
I have very little body hair (average pubic hair, but very little on my arms and legs, none (at all) on my chest and back and I have a little moustache and chin hair but nowhere near a beard. It grows slowly (I shave about twice per week to keep neat) and to a max length of +-1cm (0.4 inches.) I come from a hairy family, and stand out in terms of hair (the other guys started shaving at 13.)
I remember times when I had plenty of energy with crappy eating, doing as I like and 4 hrs sleep. Now I wake up tired after 8 hours sleep, 4 solid meals and looking after myself. It's like I have constant fog in my head (read the term somewhere, perfect description.)
Essential question:
My total test is fine, my free test is lower than 2% but I don’t think it’s that low, and my SHGB is far too high (almost out of range, according to lab ranges; their upper flag is 48 nmol/L.) What are the chances that this is a hormone problem, and if it is, what is it likely to be?
I know I need to get an estradiol (E2) test done and most likely some others (prolactin for one.) Which should I?
My doc first said I was depressed (this is theoretically possible, as I’m bipolar, but I’m not that low. I also haven’t had this sort of libido/ED problem before, depressed or not. I am on Lamotrigine (brand name Lamictal) and have been on a list of others including lithium carbonate, if this rings any bells (all the research I have done says that this isn't the problem, but I’m asking anyway.) Now he says everything “must be fine, as your bloods were perfectly normal”.
Any and all advice would be much appreciated. I don’t know what my options are right now, but will get hold of an endocrinologist (I have looked at 3 online thus far) if you guys think this is worth taking up. I have read scary things about docs who say things like “you have test of 300, so it's not low and as such your ED is all in your head” kind of things. I frankly don’t know what to ask.
Much appreciated,
madcap
