Bloodwork back .... HRT or cycle (or nothing?)

[BodyEnglish]

Background: 37 years old, 5'7, 170 lbs, 17% BF, lifting 1.5 years, mainly strength oriented 5x5 training.
Issues: Difficult gaining strength and hypertrophy naturally. Also, losing strength big time every time I try to cut (calories). Felt great during the first year while gaining strength and in caloric excess (natty). No problems with getting hard or horny (so far).

Finally got my results. I am in Canada so units may be different

Hormones:
Testosterone Total 14.9 Ref 8.0-29.9
SHBG 15 Ref 10-55
DHEA-S 4.7 Ref 2.2 - 13
LH 2.8 Ref 1.5 - 9.3
FSH 2.4 Ref 1.4-18.1
Estradiol 132 Ref Less than 147
Cortisol (8 am) 613 Ref 120-620
PSA 1.2 Ref Less than 4.1
TSH 1.57 Ref 0.2-4.00
T3 Free 4.8 Ref 3.3-6.1
Thyroxine Free 13.4 Ref 8.0-23.0

Liver:
Alk Phos 61 Ref 35-125
GGT 62 Ref Less than 86
ALT 34 Ref less than 66
Albumin 41 Ref 34-52

Vitamin Levels:
B12 365 Ref greater than 150
D 80 Ref 80 to 200 ** This was really low 6 months ago at 56. Took 4,000 IU Daily for 6 months to get it up here

Cholesterols
HDL 1.24 Ref 0.9-1.6
LDL 2.2 Ref 2.0-3.4
Cholesterol 3.98 Ref less than 5.21
Triglyceride 1.24 Ref less than 2.31

Iron
Ferritin 296 Ref 20-300
TIBC 61 Ref 45-81
Iron 17 Ref 6-27

Sugars
Hb A1c 5.7 Ref 4-6


CBC, Electrolytes and calcium, magnesium all check out okay, couldn't be bothered typing out.

This is what jumps out at me, even though everything is technically normal:
1. Vit D is at low end of spectrum. Need to get it higher.
2. Cortisol is at high end of spectrum. Need to reduce it. How??
3. T is in the middle. TRT or cycle?

So the big question is, do I fix all this before cycling / trt or jump in? With this cortisol, it explains why cutting is almost impossible so I'm going to go back on some caloric excess to build up my lifts and strength a little bit. Right now I'm pushing 1x/1.5x/2.0x bodyweight on bench/sq/deadlift but maybe try to get into 225/315/405 club for the big lifts.

What do all y'all say?

[GotNoBlueMilk]

Nothing. A cycle will make things worse in the long run. TRT is for life so why start unless you have no other option. Get your Vit D up (sublinqual works best for me). Focus on hypothalmus and pituitary health to get your LH up. That will raise your T.

What are the units on that Estrogen test?

You are probably over training too. Back off weight training and add some aerobics.

[BodyEnglish]

Nothing. A cycle will make things worse in the long run. TRT is for life so why start unless you have no other option. Get your Vit D up (sublinqual works best for me). Focus on hypothalmus and pituitary health to get your LH up. That will raise your T.

What are the units on that Estrogen test?

You are probably over training too. Back off weight training and add some aerobics.

Thanks for the advice. Just started adding cardio last couple weeks and feels good.

Estradiol units are pmol/L.

And (bear with me, I'm new to this), can you explain why / how a cycle would be bad at this point? I just need to know.

How do I get my LH up?

[BodyEnglish]

Bump.

Any additional opinions appreciated, thanks in advance.

[lacey23]

I agree with the other guy. But, I'm not exactly sure how one focuses on hypothalamus and pituitary health, lol.

The cortisol's fine in all honesty.

TRT is for life. If you are feeling fine it's not worth jumping into it just to try and reach some arbitrary lift #'s.

[GotNoBlueMilk]

Regardless if you do HRT or a cycle, your natural Test production stops. With HRT, it is for life so you don't care. With a cycle, the cycle is temporary so when you stop the cycle your body is producing NO Test. You then have to get your body to start producing Test again. This is a difficult process, and the older you are the harder it is to get your body to produce the same amount as it was before the cycle. Cycles should never be used to correct low T. They add to the problem.

Your E is 32 pg/ml then (units this board is most familiar with). Decent number.

[HRTstudent]

Nothing. A cycle will make things worse in the long run. TRT is for life so why start unless you have no other option. Get your Vit D up (sublinqual works best for me). Focus on hypothalmus and pituitary health to get your LH up. That will raise your T.

What are the units on that Estrogen test?

You are probably over training too. Back off weight training and add some aerobics.

Id agree with this.

HRT is not a quick fix by any means. You've got decent numbers to "work" with if you wanted to, but at your age, its not unheard of to go on TRT if you have obvious symptoms. It comes at a price though, namely, you'll be on TRT for "life"...