What do my blood results mean? What are they telling me?

[ConkerTheKing]

This is upsetting me a good bit. I've long suspected that I have hormonal issues (persistent gyno after puberty, low motivation, mood swings, hard-gainer when it comes to lifting, regular strength plateaus, lack of "alpha" or confident feelings, etc), and over the last year I've had three sets of bloods taken. One was without medication or supplementation, the second was with Erase Pro, the third last week was with Raloxifene.

I'm 25 years old, 26 in July.

Blood work from April 2014, when I wasn't taking anything other than ZMA:

Testosterone: 13.5 nmol/L, range 8.6-29
Estradiol: 112 pmol/L, range 28-156
LH: 3.3 U/L, range 2-9
FSH: 1.9 U/L, range 2-12
Prolactin 214 mU/L, range 86-324

Blood work from July 2014, in the middle of my eighth and final week of Original Erase Pro:

Testosterone: 16.1 nmol/L, range 8.6-29
Estradiol: 424 pmol/L, range 28-156
LH: 4.8 U/L, range 2-9
FSH: 2.2 U/L, range 2-12
Prolactin 349 mU/L, range 86-324
Prolactin minus macroprolactin: 276 mU/L, range 63-245

Blood work from February 2015, after 2 and a half months of 60mg Raloxifene ED:

Testosterone: 12.6 nmol/L, range 8.6-29
Estradiol: 104 pmol/L, range 28-156
LH: 3.5 U/L, range 2-9
FSH: 2.2 U/L, range 2-12
Prolactin 174 mU/L, range 86-324
TSH: 1.92 mIU/L, range 0.27-4.2 (not sure if this was tested on the previous tests, will have a look at hard copies and edit post if it was)
SHBG: 30.4 nmoI/L range 16.5 - 55.9


Across all three blood tests, the trend is having normal testosterone but at the low end of the spectrum which isn't ideal, higher end of normal estradiol (with estradiol increasing 300% while on EP!) and high end of normal prolactin (again with a massive increase while on EP). Apart from these, and this is where I get worried, LH and FSH were more or less the same across all three tests, normal but in the extreme low end of normal, with FSH falling .1 below normal on one of the tests.

Now what's spooking me here is that after 12 weeks of raloxifene, from everything I've read, one expects to see LH, FSH, testosterone, and estrogen increased to a noticeable degree. In my case there was barely any change and some decreases. Does this point to an issue with GnRH? Am I potentially looking at secondary hypogonadism here? The fact that something which is supposed to stimulate hormone production failed to make any significant changes is leading me to question whether perhaps my issue here is that my body just isn't able to make as much LH and FSH as it needs to, or isn't detecting that it should be making more of the aforementioned.

Bearing all this in mind, where do I go from here? I'm currently taking Formeron (topical formestane) 75mg every day, began that last week so as to avoid an estrogen rebound once the raloxifene course is over, but the way I see it even if formeron does significantly raise my T:E ratio, that's not going to do much good when not enough test is being produced in the first place. And because my ranges are all "normal", my doc doesn't seem to want to know. The idea of normal range not necessarily being optimal doesn't seem to bother him, so maybe it shouldn't bother me, but I can feel the effects of this in terms of having absolutely no motivation or drive, and dammit I want to be more driven

Any advice? What are these results telling me, what specifically is likely to be the problem and what is likely to be possible in terms of dealing with it? Are there further tests I should ask for?

 

[Stackinplates]

I could be reading this wrong but your estradiol and your prolactin seem to be awful high

 

[Stackinplates]

I just briefly looked over your blood work I actually driving at the moment so didn't read your whole post

Is a doctor reviewing ur bloods ?

 

[Stackinplates]

When I get a minute I'll sit down and look over everything and see if I could be of help


Lot to read

 

[ConkerTheKing]

I just briefly looked over your blood work I actually driving at the moment so didn't read your whole post

Is a doctor reviewing ur bloods ?

My endocrinologist will be eventually but in Ireland the health service is full of bureaucracy and it can take months to get an appointment, so I'm exploring self-education in the meantime.

The trouble is though that because they all fall within the "normal" range except that one E2 and prolactin spike while I was taking Erase Pro, he doesn't see them as an issue. Because I was taking EP when I had that spike, I'm sure it will be blamed as the culprit.

Regardless, even if they're within the normal range they're not *ideal*. I'm not the kind of guy to be ok with being average so if there are things I can fix, I'll fix them.

Point is I first want to educate myself about what can cause results like those I've had. My LH and FSH are so low that it would take a minute drop to push them under the range - I seem to be one of those unlucky folk who is "borderline" unhealthy, so much so that it affects my quality of life but not enough to warrant clinical intervention.

If you can offer any insights into the possible roots of this, I'd really appreciate that. I'm on Formeron at the moment to see what difference that might make, but the way I see it inhibiting estrogen production won't change much if the issue is not producing enough LH and FSH in the first place, right?