Free testosterone doesn’t line up with total testosterone 😦

[Mochizuki0124]

bay_area_schizo said:


I think I need to look into trt for real man I have a dexa scan scheduled for mid September...very curious to see what's going on in here

yeah I've been seriously considering it. just kinda scared. I haven't even tried HGH yet...wanted to see what type of improvements I could get with tirz and exercise. but these labs kinda make me think it's a waste of time.

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What are your body fat percentage and sleep like? Should your BF be sufficiently low and you're sleeping enough, then you've already done just about all you can. If, however, your BF% remains fairly elevated, lowering it might still raise your TT and, along with that, your FT.

 

[John_C]

At a total of about 700 with SHBG sitting at 65, that free value is behaving exactly as expected — so jumping to steroids after just 1 non-fasted blood draw seems premature.

I've run 150mg of testosterone enanthate per week for roughly six months now, and tracking free against total is part of my routine. In your case, though, you're still in the middle of weight loss on tirz, and that can leave SHBG somewhat raised while your body adjusts.

Once the scale starts moving more slowly, get a fasted morning retest before concluding that exogenous T is truly necessary.

 

[Turbo-Farmer]

bay_area_schizo said:


wow alot of good information there! thank you so much! so how can I improve insulin sensitivity? just keep working out and using tirz? I'm way more active now than I was before starting tirz.

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Trying to bring that A1c down.

Intermittent fasting plus dropping some pounds will do a lot for your metabolism, and down the line for your T as well.

Keep in mind that while you're in a calorie deficit, your body acts like it's starving, so hormone levels will be out of whack.

At a total T of 650 you're sitting at a solid number, and supplements along with weight loss can significantly help your overall health. Since 650 is over the cutoff for TRT, getting a prescription would likely be an uphill battle. Sarms are something you could explore for boosting T and bringing SHBG down, and they won't suppress your natural T production or lock you into a lifelong commitment.

 

[endlrls]

GLiPtest said:


Your total is quite good for your age (even for a 35 year old frankly).

The low free is likely a combination of boron, zinc, D3, and magnesium deficiency, all of which are very common, causing high SHBG. Not necessarily a clinical deficiency, but sub-optimal. Even if present in your diet, after 35 absorption becomes much less efficient.

Assuming you aren’t already doing any of this.

I’m not a “supplement nut” (I’m actually a fan of “big pharma” lol), I don’t even take a multivitamin, but after extensive research, then actually testing levels, I started using these. (Alas there are no pharmaceutical equivalents, but they use mostly branded active ingredients, which offer very high bioavailability and reasonable certainty they’re dosed correctly).

The beauty is even without testing your levels, none of these can reach harmful levels, but are enough to resolve any sub-optimal deficiency.


https://a.co/d/025Pl77q



https://a.co/d/0iZ6LLBj



https://a.co/d/00EtB6aO


Within a month, I’m confident you’ll feel the improvement before even getting bloodwork back showing at least a 2x rise in free T.

They all offer other significant, tangible, independent benefits too.

Your hair and nail quality will improve (zinc). If you have vertical ridges they’ll disappear.

Mood and cognition often improve with D3 (especially with less light in the fall and winter). K2 keeps calcium out of arteries and redirects into bone and teeth.

Magnesium Threonate is amazing for sleep and many folks benefit from less brain fog and stress. You can really feel the impact of this.

If you want to “see” the changes, you can test Zinc, Copper, D3, Magnesium RBC (not serum), and of course SHBG.

Again, I’m far more of a supplement skeptic, don’t buy into “herbal” anything, am well aware of the issues surrounding the supplement industry, but these specific nutrients, because that’s what they all are, in high bioavailability form, have shocked me with their effectiveness in improving my health (and all backed by reasonably solid science).

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Does Boron actually do anything useful?

Well.. on the bright side, none of the other supplements here will completely destroy your hair the way the big offenders do (DHEA and Tongkat Ali). Learned that lesson the painful way.. YIKES

Take care!

 

[bay_area_schizo]

Mochizuki0124 said:


How's your BF% and sleep? If your BF is low enough and you get adequate sleep then you've maxed out most of what you can do. But if your BF% is still pretty high, getting that down could still increase your TT and in conjunction, increase your FT.

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I don’t know my current body fat percentage. A DEXA scan is booked for next month.

 

[bay_area_schizo]

Mochizuki0124 said:


How's your BF% and sleep? If your BF is low enough and you get adequate sleep then you've maxed out most of what you can do. But if your BF% is still pretty high, getting that down could still increase your TT and in conjunction, increase your FT.

Click to expand...

no idea where my body fat stands at the moment. a dexa scan is on the books for next month

John_C said:

At a total of about 700 with SHBG sitting at 65, that free value is behaving exactly as expected — so jumping to steroids after just 1 non-fasted blood draw seems premature.

I've run 150mg of testosterone enanthate per week for roughly six months now, and tracking free against total is part of my routine. In your case, though, you're still in the middle of weight loss on tirz, and that can leave SHBG somewhat raised while your body adjusts.

Once the scale starts moving more slowly, get a fasted morning retest before concluding that exogenous T is truly necessary.

that seems like good advice, appreciate it

 

[bay_area_schizo]

Turbo-Farmer said:


Working on getting that A1c down.

Losing weight and intermittent fasting will go a long way towards improving your metabolism and eventually your T.

Be aware that your body is in starvation mode and your hormones will be off as long as your in a calorie deficit.

With a total T of 650 your at a good level and losing weight and supplements can go a long way to improving your health. 650 is above the threshold for TRT and you would have a difficult time getting a prescription. You can look into Sarms for raising your T and lowering your SHBG which won’t hurt your natural production of T or be a lifetime commitment.

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I wasn't familiar with sarms, so I looked them up....they seem interesting. I'll be sure to dig into them further