Hi! Can anyone help w my blood test results.

[msmopar]

Hi I'm brand new here. My husband has been here a short while and now we both are!!

I am a 45 yo female and have been working out for about 4 years. Body fat is around 23.8 weight about 146, at 5'8" Started taking my workouts seriously about 3 years ago. I've been trying to better myself both body and mind and after reading about bio identical hormones I thought I should get some blood test drawn and see how I'm doing.

Turns out I have VERY low testosterone .

My total test level is 3 with a range of 2-45 ng/dl
My free test is super low at 0.4 w a range of 0.1-6.4 pg/ml

Other things:

Estradiol is <15. Range is <= 31 for postmenopausal
DHEA SULPHATE Is <15 w range 25 - 220 mcg/dl
Estrogen total serum is 92. W range <130 pg/ml
IGF is 223 w range 52-328 ng/dl
Progesterone is <0.2 w range <=0.2 ng/ml for postmenopausal
Pregnolone is 15 w range 13-111 ng/ml
Any ideas?

[kelkel]

I'm a bit uneasy venturing into womens BW. Did you see this link:

http://forums.steroid.com/showthread...iends-to-Enjoy!

Your other half was on it. Consider posting in the womens only forum!

Welcome to the forum BTW!

[Trific]

Welcome!

[steroid.com 1]

Like kel, I am also am not versed enough in women's hormonal loops to make any evaluation of your blood work.

We [the staff here] have discussed creating a women's forum for HRT and it is in the works but can't tell you an exact date yet.

Here's a good read:
http://www.lef.org/magazine/mag2004/...rt_test_01.htm
http://jcem.endojournals.org/content/86/4/1842.full

Most anti aging (A4M) Doctor's are well trained in how to manage women's hormones better then most endocrinologist so if you just Google that and where you live you should find the help you are looking for.

[Moparman]

Hi all! And hi msmopar!! Ltns!!

We are working w a group right now. The diagnosis was low T. Extremely low T. They said the estrogen levels were fine so they prescribed a testosterone cream. Once the meds arrive I'll know more about dosage.

On a good note she was in range on most everything. Cortisol was extremely low at 0.5 but the ref range was 4 to 22.

[steroid.com 1]

EXCELLENT!

Do us a huge favor; keep this thread updated on all the details of msmopar's therapy...every detail.

We need to learn more about women's hormonal health and what better than to follow a live patient.

Remember, we need details and update this thread, don't start any new threads.

Thanks much!!!

gd

[system admin]

My wife's levels are WAY off and we have been to doctor after doctor with no luck.... We feel your pain and know just how horrible it can feel! Stick around and let us know what you find out

[msmopar]

We will!!

[Vettester]

In the lab results, it mentions "post meopausal". Is that the case, or are you still experiencing normal menstrual cycles? Or possibly Peri-Menopausal (?), which was the case for my wife, and started in her late 30's.

Also, could you give me a little more detail on the "Off" assay?

There are a few other areas of lab work that you should look into as well. A full, comprehensive thyroid test should be in order, including TSH, FT4 & T3, RT3, & antibodies. More times then not, the thyroid will be taking some sort of toll when all of these other areas of the endocrine system are not in balance. Your iron (TIBC), ferritin, B12, D3, and calicium also need to be on the priority list.

Your doctor/clinic should be closely looking at options for BHRT; both upstream and downstream from just the testosterone . 45ng/dl - 70ng/dl is a good area to aim for with a total serum score, and your free testosterone can/will improve with optimizing SHBG, which in your case will involve lowering your SHBG. Vitamin D therapy can help, and some women even supplement a small amount of nettle root (consult your physician). You will see this variable improve just with the androgen improvement from BHRT, and optimizing Preg and DHEA upstream. When looking at DHEA supplementation, do yourself a favor and look closely at the Keto7 DHEA. My wife wasn't able to get her hormones truly balanced downstream until she got on the Keto7. It won't have any androgenic conversion downstream, which isn't a bad thing if you're being prescribed exogenous hormones.

I really believe the doctors should be looking at your estrogen (E1, 2, 3) replacement, as well as progesterone, which is usually included in the compounded creams. Again, your situation may be unique, or post menopausal situations might be warranting something else?

Go REAL slow when starting out with the test cream, and incrementally increase your dosage every 1 or 2 weeks. Dr. Uzi Reiss prescribes creams that are 0.6 % per gram (6mg of test/gram), and usually suggests starting with 1/8 -to-1/4 gram per dosage, 1x or 2x per day. Highly suggest getting Dr. Reiss' book, The Natural Superwoman. Many women, including my wife, also administer with test cypionate , which can be injected SubQ. For her, it works great, and she can stack it with a little B12 Methylcobalamin.

Glad you joined, we look forward to following your progress here.

[Moparman]

Thanks vettester. I take it you own a vette??

We do have a full blood work report. I will (or the wifey) will post them up tomorrow. But all the thyroid numbers were right in the middle of the range.

She listed postmenapausal ranges cause we figured that was the only ranges that could be applicable. Msmopar had a partial hysterectomy 10 years ago and she has only one ovary. Her uterus is gone. She doesn't menstruate since the hysterectomy and she has lots of flashes now so follicular or luteal phase didn't seem applicable. I don't know. We had three choices so I picked one that seemed right

[msmopar]

so my thyroid panel reads:
T3 uptake 32 w range 22-35
T4 total 7.0 w range 4.5-12.0
Free T4 index (T7) 2.2 w range 1.4-3.8

iron (TIBC), not measured
ferritin, not measured
B12, 407 w range 200-1100 pg/ml
D3, 31 w range 30-100 (I wasnt supplementing at time of test but I am NOW taking 5000 iu's of D3 every day)
and calcium is 9.7 w range 8.6-10.2 mg/dl

vettester, you said

Also, could you give me a little more detail on the "Off" assay?

im not sure what you meant by that. could you explain?

i can post other test results if you think they are important but most everything else was right in the middle of the range.

[steroid.com 1]

Thyroid looks okay with what you presented.

Do you have:

TSH
FT4
FT3
RT3
Antibodies?

[msmopar]

they didnt seem to run those tests. but heres what they did run:

[Vettester]

Ms. Mopar, in your original post, you noted an assay you had "Off", which had a value of 223. That is the lab I am asking you about.

Like GD mentioned, we need the other thyroid assays to get a better assessment on the thyroid. The T3 uptake reflects the protein levels, but TSH, RT3 & thyroid antibodies will tell us more on the actual condition of the thyroid. I suspect if anything, you might be leaning towards hyperthyroidism (just a guess).

Knowing your situation with the hysterectomy, I would highly suggest that you make sure you are dealing with a physician that really has a grasp on female BHRT (someone like a Dr. Reiss or at least an A4M certified physician.). There's a lot of discussion with post menopausal women implementing progesterone, or even cycling it to mimic the body's natural function, as it was when you were younger. Again, a lot of these leading doctors are administering these medications in vaginal application crèmes; applied 1x to 2x per day. You are probably experiencing some 'dryness' issues. Your initial script for testosterone will help, and you should see some noticeable improvement if you can get your DHEA level >150. Your vitamin D therapy will also help a bit with this subject.

[msmopar]

damn autocorrect! that OFF was supposed to be IGF

[Vettester]

damn autocorrect! that OFF was supposed to be IGF

OK, good, I was racking my head trying think what assay might also be called the "OFF" lol.

[msmopar]

I'm going to copy these over to the female low t forum