Shbg?

fitnessmuscle · Sep 10, 2022

I’ve heard that a high shbg level is bad for gains , but what about a low shbg level under the normal levels? is that good or bad? ideally where do you want shbg levels to be? Normal levels or low levels under the norm? also would shbg testing be worth getting if your free test is coming back in high range already? I’m a little confused about shbg and what it actually does

Maelstrom · Sep 10, 2022

Doesn't matter if your SHBG is low (or high) but your test, free test, E2 and DHT are normal (or where your you want them to be). SHBG is only an 'issue' when it's causing impact to test/E2 etc (too high or too low).

drew157 · Sep 10, 2022

Maelstrom said:
Doesn't matter if your SHBG is low (or high) but your test, free test, E2 and DHT are normal (or where your you want them to be). SHBG is only an 'issue' when it's causing impact to test/E2 etc (too high or too low).

Spot on

Type-IIx · Sep 11, 2022

fitnessmuscle said:
I’m a little confused about shbg and what it actually does

LOL. How much time do you have? I'll just leave it at, SHBG is a transporter protein & can, by endocytosis, transport androgen/AAS into cells via megalin receptor. This latter fact somewhat contravenes the free hormone hypothesis (that free T is the bioactive portion). Basically, optimally you want somewhat suppressed SHBG but not too low, while on a blast/cycle. Fortunately for us, androgen/AAS dose-dependently lowers SHBG (if it did not do so it wouldn't work so well). We're also fortunate that its loose-binding to albumin promotes its duration of activity.

rotinaj · Sep 11, 2022

Low is also theorized to be bad.
If all of your testosterone is free and unbound due to the lack of binding hormones, testosterone will not function properly within your body.

For example are you confident that it is free testosterone that interacts with other organs(such as your brain) beyond skeletal muscle? Shbg plays a role in our body, just like how estrogen should not be crashed, but there is honestly not much research on what happens when it is completely absent.

If you wanna be an experiment go for it and let us know what happens