First Labs after starting TRT - high Free-T

[Rendar]

Hello all,
I was diagnosed with secondary hypogonadism about a year ago (low LH/FSH) .Total T was 85 at that time. Doc put me on clomid for awhile which brought me up to about 450-500 total, but still didn't feel very good. Went off the clomid in January and began 100mg t-cyp/week ( 1 weekly injection) on March 19. Just got labs back after being on it for 6 weeks.

Total T - 778 ng/dl (250-1100)
Free T - 191.4 pm/mL (35-155) High
Estradiol -13 pg/mL (8-43)

I'm starting to feel better, but not great yet.

Is the high free-t anything to worry about? I read it can cause issues with red blood cells. Was also surprised to see E that low since the free-t is so high. I'm not taking anything other than the t-cyp. No HCG or A.I.

Thanks for any information/advice.

[steroid.com 1]

Can you post all of your blood work complete with ranges here?

Can't tell by above without ranges as well.

Estradiol looks low, is this a sensitive assay?

[Rendar]

The ranges are in parentheis. That's the only bloodwork that was done this time.

[ZenFitness]

Who are the labs through? The free T range seems strange compared to what I've seen.

[Rendar]

Who are the labs through? The free T range seems strange compared to what I've seen.

Quest Diagnostics

Here is a pic of the results:

[steroid.com 1]

Your labs for what you have are fine with the possible exception of slightly low E2.

Free is nice as it Total.

Estradiol could even be lower as it appears this is not a male sensitive assay.

There should be a lot more labs. Read kel's sticky on Finding a TRT Doc you will see the post labs that you need.

[Rendar]

Yeah I'm looking for a new doc that specializes in TRT. I had to ask for the E2 and free-t. He was just going to check total. You'd think an Endo would know, but oh well.

[ZenFitness]

My bad... it's in pg/mL instead of ng/mL. Please disregard my comment above

I also run high on free T and my doc says no big deal.

[LowT Mike]

Hello all,
I was diagnosed with secondary hypogonadism about a year ago (low LH/FSH) .Total T was 85 at that time. Doc put me on clomid for awhile which brought me up to about 450-500 total, but still didn't feel very good. Went off the clomid in January and began 100mg t-cyp/week ( 1 weekly injection) on March 19. Just got labs back after being on it for 6 weeks.

Total T - 778 ng/dl (250-1100)
Free T - 191.4 pm/mL (35-155) High
Estradiol -13 pg/mL (8-43)

I'm starting to feel better, but not great yet.

Is the high free-t anything to worry about? I read it can cause issues with red blood cells. Was also surprised to see E that low since the free-t is so high. I'm not taking anything other than the t-cyp. No HCG or A.I.

Thanks for any information/advice.

Rendar,

Your labs look good. I would say everything looks good. Dont worry about the free T being elevated. That means nothing. Reference ranges for Quest and Labcorp are all over the map and by no means a measure of what optimal levels are! Quest is the worst lab and where they came up with those reference ranges I will never understand. But since you've started with quest it might be better to stick with them for uniformity when staging your labs and progression. Thats all that really matters. Labs are only used as a guideline anyway and you should always treat the patient and not the labs.

[Rendar]

Thanks for all the replies, I appreciate it. If E2 is a bit low, what can be done to raise it slightly? Or is it just lower in some people?

[jasondd1]

Did we ever confirm that this was estradiol sensitive?

[LowT Mike]

Once you start TRT estradiol should elevate.

[Rendar]

Did we ever confirm that this was estradiol sensitive?

I don't believe so.

Once you start TRT estradiol should elevate.

It has. My labs just before starting had it at 6. Still thought it would be higher though.

[HealthyMan]

First question is when did you pin the week you had your bloodwork? Second, have you considered pinning every 3.5 days? Your spike must be crazy considering the half life. You must feel awful around day 4 or 5 after pinning?

[Rendar]

First question is when did you pin the week you had your bloodwork? Second, have you considered pinning every 3.5 days? Your spike must be crazy considering the half life. You must feel awful around day 4 or 5 after pinning?

The labs I posted were drawn for a few hours before my weekly injection. So they should reflect my low point.

And no I don't feel worse on day 4 or 5. If anything, the trend seems to be feeling worse the first couple days following injection.