Are My Free Testosterone & Total Test levels good?

Hello I recently got some blood work done to check my free & total testosterone, as well as estradiol and LH & FSH. I'm coming across conflicting answers on google and was wondering if you guys can give me some perspective. I'm 21 years old (natural) , and i just recently did a bodybuilding show about 4 weeks ago. this test was done 3 weeks post show & around 12pm. below are my results

Total Testosterone: 354 ng/dL range of test: 250-1100 ng/dl

Free Testosterone: 38.6 pg/ml range of test: 35 - 155 pg/ml

Estradiol: 15.2 pg/ml range of test: 0 - 40 pg/ml

LH: 6.7 mIU/ ml no range provided

FSH: 5.5 mIU/ ml no range provided

So from my research it looks like my total T is quite low for my age, but my free t seems to be high according to a few sources. My estradiol seems fine not too high or low and i don't know about LH or FSH. The reasoning for the test was that i was experiencing low T symptoms throughout the last 6 weeks of prep for the show. 4 weeks after and i feel a lot better, but sex drive is still low. I got this test done from anylabtestnow at a local anti aging clinic. They may recommend TRT come monday when they call me, but do these levels justify that and should i first try alternative methods to raise my T? I workout 5 days a week, eat well, sleep 8 hours night.

thanks,

Quote:

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Originally Posted by sirliftsabunch

Hello I recently got some blood work done to check my free & total testosterone, as well as estradiol and LH & FSH. I'm coming across conflicting answers on google and was wondering if you guys can give me some perspective. I'm 21 years old (natural) , and i just recently did a bodybuilding show about 4 weeks ago. this test was done 3 weeks post show & around 12pm. below are my results

Total Testosterone: 354 ng/dL range of test: 250-100 ng/dl

Free Testosterone: 38.6 pg/ml range of test: 35 - 155 pg/ml

Estradiol: 15.2 pg/ml range of test: 0 - 40 pg/ml

LH: 6.7 mIU/ ml no range provided

FSH: 5.5 mIU/ ml no range provided

So from my research it looks like my total T is quite low for my age, but my free t seems to be high according to a few sources. My estradiol seems fine not too high or low and i don't know about LH or FSH. The reasoning for the test was that i was experiencing low T symptoms throughout the last 6 weeks of prep for the show. 4 weeks after and i feel a lot better, but sex drive is still low. I got this test done from anylabtestnow at a local anti aging clinic. They may recommend TRT come monday when they call me, but do these levels justify that and should i first try alternative methods to raise my T? I workout 5 days a week, eat well, sleep 8 hours night.

thanks,

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Well, there are many things that can cause your symptoms and this blood test doesn't begin to cover all possibilities.
From, my experience, you are within all of the recommended levels therefore they will not offer TRT.
My total was at 169 and they refused TRT because I just became 50 three days before and my free was at the minimum value. Had I taken the test three days earlier, i would have been below.
Anyway, they said the benefit was not worth the risk and refused. All of this was after 3 months worth of tests to see that everything else was in check.
Note: the real value that they look at is free T.


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Quote:

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Originally Posted by sirliftsabunch

Hello I recently got some blood work done to check my free & total testosterone, as well as estradiol and LH & FSH. I'm coming across conflicting answers on google and was wondering if you guys can give me some perspective. I'm 21 years old (natural) , and i just recently did a bodybuilding show about 4 weeks ago. this test was done 3 weeks post show & around 12pm. below are my results

Total Testosterone: 354 ng/dL range of test: 250-100 ng/dl

Free Testosterone: 38.6 pg/ml range of test: 35 - 155 pg/ml

Estradiol: 15.2 pg/ml range of test: 0 - 40 pg/ml

LH: 6.7 mIU/ ml no range provided

FSH: 5.5 mIU/ ml no range provided

So from my research it looks like my total T is quite low for my age, but my free t seems to be high according to a few sources. My estradiol seems fine not too high or low and i don't know about LH or FSH. The reasoning for the test was that i was experiencing low T symptoms throughout the last 6 weeks of prep for the show. 4 weeks after and i feel a lot better, but sex drive is still low. I got this test done from anylabtestnow at a local anti aging clinic. They may recommend TRT come monday when they call me, but do these levels justify that and should i first try alternative methods to raise my T? I workout 5 days a week, eat well, sleep 8 hours night.

thanks,

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A couple of notes.

1) I assume that's just a typo and the upper end of the TT test should be 1000.

2) The upper end of the Free T range seems rather high, at least compared to LabCorp ranges. At LabCorp, the range for a 21-29 year old male is 9.3 - 26.5. Life extension Organization recommends (at least for us old farts) that we adjust our FT to the upper 33erd percentile of our age group. Other recommendations I've seen published is the 50th percentile of the 21-29 year old range. The range you posted for your lab just seems a bit wide and the upper end is way different than LabCorb, so I'm not sure how to interpret the information. If you trust the test and the lab, it would seem that you are at the low end of the range.

3) You mentioned that you were preparing for a natural BB competition. I'm assuming this meant some strict dietary restrictions. Whenever you stress the body with excessive exercise or calorie restriction, it goes into starvation mode and adjusts your hormones to reduce your metabolic rate. It's millennia of years of evolution to prepare you for survival. One of the things it does is lower LH production, which in turn crashes your T production. This is well studies in the medical literature. Though I've not seen anything published regarding SHBG, I suspect it also increases production of it to lower free T and conserve the little T you do produce. Another hormonal response is to lower T4 production from the thyroid and to increase conversion of T4 to reverse T3 (rT3) rather than the more active T3. This can also account for your low T symptoms.

I would suggest that you give it a rest for at least another month with normal calories and exercise and then rerun the labs before you make any drastic decisions about going on a lifetime medication at such a young age.

Very good point Youthful. I am assuming that your carbs were very low, if any. Stop and think about your diet, your routine, and your cardio on essentially 0 carbs.


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Yeah i read a study that followed a natty bb before a show and his test levels dropped by 70%. I was unsure how long it takes the HPTA axis to kick in and get my t levels up after a show. So doing another test in a month sounds like a good idea to see if the levels normalize after eating like normal. yes my carbs were very low between 50g-150g of carbs a day during prep. as for the lab range of the free t, thats what confused me. it looks like i have low free t according to the ranges but some sources online say anything above 35pg/ml is a decent or very good free t level. thanks for the help fellas!

55 is on point. Just rest and resume your normal lifestyle. Competitive bodybuilding (pre-contest phase) is not a healthy endeavor in most cases, trust me on that point. You'll recover!

Aren't those great results for a bodybuilder? Don't they suggest he has achieved a high level of muscularity with poor T levels so if he did TRT to get to optimal T Levels he would gain even more muscle without doing a cycle and do better in the competition?


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