blood work - interesting question

[Steve123]

Hello,

Had a question. Got more blood work and went to Endocrinologist. Long story short, I decided to bite the bullet, come off 'DIY' Testosterone replacement, see the doc and basically find out where my levels turn out. I'm 6 weeks in without any exogeneous testosterone. It's been 4.5 months since I took Tren and even longer since I took any other anabolic. We got my blood work back and my total T is 132 (rr = 270-1050). About what I might have expected. HOWEVER, my SHBG is extremely low and my Estrodiol is non-existant. Needless to say the Endo thinks I'm still taking anabolics but I'm not. Do you guys know what might cause such a supression of SHBG and Estrogen without any anabolic or AI/SERM? I'm not taking a damn thing right now and these numbers really don't make any sense. By the way LH and FSH are low but in normal range.

Is it possible for Tren Enanthate, while long gone by now, to still be exerting some influence on SHBG?

 

[Stewie]

I would retest Estradiol on a few occasions before determining if actually low. A good physician would do this with any lab value that's questionable.

This is from another board.

Originally Posted by DrMariano
The primary purpose of a binding protein such as SHBG is to prolong the life of testosterone in the body. Otherwise, with a half-life of 10-100 minutes - testosterone would be almost totally eliminated from the body within 50 minutes to 8.3 hours without constant production or frequent application of testosterone.

The quickest way to increase SHBG is to treat a person with T3 (Cytomel) or to a lesser extent Armour Thyroid, when optimizing thyroid hormone signaling. This increases SHBG production from the liver. Optimizing thyroid signaling first is important to set the stage for subsequent testosterone treatment. Doing so helps correct low SHBG.

Low SHBG is one of many reasons testosterone levels are so low in diabetes type 2. When SHBG is low due to insulin resistance/diabetes type 2 and high insulin level, treatment with testosterone helps reduce insulin resistance. Over several months time, SHBG self-corrects as other metabolic improvements with testosterone treatment occur such as loss of belly fat. Of course, in the presence of diabetes type 2, one of the first things to do is to optimize thyroid hormone and treat the insulin resistance with medications such as Metformin or Actos. This would help improve SHBG and would set the stage for testosterone treatment, minimizing problems that can occur with testosterone treatment - such as anxiety, irritability, fatigue, excessive estrogen, etc.

Low SHBG also occurs in inflammatory diseases (such as rheumatoid arthritis, etc.) - where Interleukin 1 beta reduces SHBG production. I generally assess for the presence of immune system problems since they are often at the root of mood disorders. Reducing pro-inflammatory signaling would help correct their role in reducing SHBG.

SHBG is important but usually it is self-corrected by addressing more important problems - such as hypothyroidism, diabetes, chronic inflammatory illness - prior to testosterone replacement.

When it does become a significant problem is when it is too high - such as with high dose T3 treatment in cases of peripheral thyroid resistance. When SHBG is high, a normal 100 mg a week dose of testosterone cypionate can achieve blood levels past 1500 ng/mL. A concern at that level when coupled with high SHBG is that the lower free testosterone levels may become a significant factor in reducing the effects of testosterone. SHBG bound to testosterone does have signaling function on its own - what it does is unclear - but it is interesting to speculate that if the testosterone-bound SHBG signal is too high, perhaps it may inhibit libido.

Hello,

Had a question. Got more blood work and went to Endocrinologist. Long story short, I decided to bite the bullet, come off 'DIY' Testosterone replacement, see the doc and basically find out where my levels turn out. I'm 6 weeks in without any exogeneous testosterone. It's been 4.5 months since I took Tren and even longer since I took any other anabolic. We got my blood work back and my total T is 132 (rr = 270-1050). About what I might have expected. HOWEVER, my SHBG is extremely low and my Estrodiol is non-existant. Needless to say the Endo thinks I'm still taking anabolics but I'm not. Do you guys know what might cause such a supression of SHBG and Estrogen without any anabolic or AI/SERM? I'm not taking a damn thing right now and these numbers really don't make any sense. By the way LH and FSH are low but in normal range.

Is it possible for Tren Enanthate, while long gone by now, to still be exerting some influence on SHBG?