Help Needed - Blood Test Results and Low T Levels

[SV670]

This forum has a lot of members that are very knowledgeable so I hope you guys can help me out with some advice. I'm doing a lot of my own research, but I would appreciate some feedback from people who are a lot more experienced than I.

Background:
I'm a 25 year old male who's been seriously working out for about 4 years now. By seriously working out, I mean being consistent with going to the gym and making it a part of my life. I do resistance training 4-5 times a week and cardio 3-6 times a week. Around the time I started working out I also started to eat a lot better. When I was younger, I never watched what I ate, but when I started working out I also started eating 6 meals a day and eating very healthy mostly unprocessed foods (typical bodybuilding foods). I naturally have an endomorph body type, so I have some muscle, but some fat as well. I've tried a variety of different training techniques and different diets for cutting/bulking etc. I've tried carb cycling diets for 8-10 weeks at a time taking in about 25% carbs at times. I don't know if doing this has negatively impacted my body over the long term (maybe as a shock to my body?) but I'm disclosing as much info as I can here.

I generally work out hard and push myself, weather it's lifting weights or cardio. I was never happy with the progress I made in strength gains, I always felt weak. When trying to cut, it was always very difficult even though I was giving it my all in terms of frequent cardio, calorie/carb cycling & lifting. I always feel tired as well. I train early in the mornings and I'm always completely exhausted for the rest of the day.

Symptoms (I'm just going to list them all because I don't know which ones would be most relevant):
- Dry mouth
- Decreased libido
- Feeling tired all the time
- Feeling weak in the gym when lifting
- Random bouts of shortness of breath (where I have trouble taking deep breaths and completely filling my lungs with air) and a feeling of tightness in my throat
- At times my thighs begin to really itch a lot and I have small amounts of acne on them at times
- Very dry skin (mostly hands and calf/shin area)
- Intolerance to cold: It seems like I'm always freezing.
- Inability to concentrate

I've had these symptoms for over a year and a half. I got a blood test done in early 2008 and everything turned out fine (looking at the test, they DID NOT test my testosterone levels!).

I recently did some research and thought I had hypothyroidism got a very complete blood test done, here are some of the results:

Total Cholesterol: 174 mg/dl

Red Blood Cell Count: 3.85 Million/uL (low, the normal range is 4.2 - 5.8)
Hemoglobin: 12.6 g/dL (low, normal range is 13.2 - 17.1)
Hematocrit: 37.6% (low, range is 38.5 - 50%)

TSH: 1.38 mIU/L (seems normal)
T4 (Thyroxine), Total: 7 mcg/dL (In range)
Free T4 Index (T7): 2.4
T4, Free: 0.9ng/dL (I'm on the lower end of the "normal" range which is 0.8 - 1.8)
T3, Total: 49 ng/dL (low, range is 76 - 181)
T3 Uptake: 34%

Total Testosterone: 147 ng/dL



So after this test I had another follow up test done a week later, here are the results:

Total Testosterone: 37 ng/dL (VERY LOW)
% Free Testosterone: 1.15% (LOW)
Free Testosterone: 4.3 pg/mL (LOW)
FSH: 2.5 mIU/mL (In range)
LH: 2.5 mIU/mL (In range)
Prolactin: 6.7 ng/mL (In range)

So I have very low testosterone levels along with a low red blood cell count, low hemoglobin and low hematocrit levels.

When it comes to my thyroid, I have a normal TSH level, but low Free T4 and low Total T3.

I have 2 appointments set with different endocrinologists because I want to get a second opinion and I understand that treating these types of disorders takes a competent doctor who's willing to listen which can be challenging. I first want to find out WHY my body is producing testosterone in such low levels and what's behind it.

Please help me interpret these blood test results. I obviously have low testosterone, but how do those tie in with my other results (thyroid and low red blood cell, etc.)?

What are some important things I should know and what questions should I ask going into my first meeting with the endocrinologist?

What other specific tests should I ideally get done?

Any opinions or comments would be greatly appreciated. I've been battling feeling tired and just not having a good sense of well being for a long time now, and there is a sense of relief to know what's behind it, but there is also a lot of anxiety as well with so many different things to research and learn and try to pinpoint the exact problem and how it effects other things.

[barcafan]

Thyroid is shot to shit, so are adrenals most likely.

You need more comprehensive tests but i'll leave the floor to the compedent people here.

[hardasnails1973]

I be looking at why it is low more then anything because back filling all the hormones will give support but will not correct the main issue. I be looking at intestinal infections, or low ferritin and different forms of anemia to start of first. Then start looking at the hormones levels. Look for the root cause not just bandaid the symptoms. This is problem with modern medicine. Look at lifestyle, stress factors, chemical toxicity, mental and emotional well being, nutrition, hidden infections, sleep hygiene, ect, ect.

[JimRat]

As HAN says, rule out everything else before adding in hormones. Check for tick-borne infection (lyme, babesia, bartonella, etc.) Babesia infects the RBCs and may cause shortness of breath, fatigue, and other symptoms, especially in the presence of lyme disease... Lyme patients sometimes show reduced conversion of T4 to T3...

[barcafan]

jimrat, are there any conclusive tests to find any tick borne infections?

[SV670]

Originally Posted by hardasnails1973

I be looking at why it is low more then anything because back filling all the hormones will give support but will not correct the main issue. I be looking at intestinal infections, or low ferritin and different forms of anemia to start of first. Then start looking at the hormones levels. Look for the root cause not just bandaid the symptoms. This is problem with modern medicine. Look at lifestyle, stress factors, chemical toxicity, mental and emotional well being, nutrition, hidden infections, sleep hygiene, ect, ect.

This may sound odd, but where do I even begin?? There are so many different conditions that could cause this....I mean how do I go about narrowing it down to a specific intestinal infection, low ferritin, anemia, tick-bone infection, etc....??

I feel a little overwhelmed because there are so many different things that could cause this. Is there a specific blood test to take (or a series of blood tests) that will help pinpoint the problem?

[JimRat]

jimrat, are there any conclusive tests to find any tick borne infections?

Barca, it's regarded as a clinical diagnosis generally by the doctors who treat lyme. However, when you combine suspicious test results with clinical symptoms, then the collective evidence can strongly suggest lyme infection. For instance, a low CD-57 test (immune subset) combined with a positive or equivocal western blot test (through Igenex Lab, CA) strongly points to lyme, especially in the presence of symptomology.

This may sound odd, but where do I even begin?? There are so many different conditions that could cause this....I mean how do I go about narrowing it down to a specific intestinal infection, low ferritin, anemia, tick-bone infection, etc....??

Sorry, I didn't mean to overwhelm with any of this info...just suggesting possibilities that should not be overlooked. These problems are not always straightforward and sometimes you have to rule out things as you go along. The good news is...a lot of the testing...ferritin, infection, thyroid...are all simple blood tests. Just go one thing at a time. Good luck.

[pmgamer18]

One thing I will tell you now is stop working out so hard your dam sick and this is only stressing your Adrenals big time. Like Hard says find out why your low Endo's are not good Dr. 's for this see if you can find a good DO Dr. like Dr. John aka SWALE even ask if your Dr. will work with him over the phone.
All Things Male - Center for Men's Health
Or drive out and see Hardasnails and Dr. O.
You can keep in shape but listen to your body if you don't recover fast after exercising your over doing it making your self worse. It just may well be your over training got you in this shape I see this a lot.

Read my story I went on TRT and suffered 23 yrs on TRT not know why I was low it was just 5 yrs ago we figured out why I was low. Now after needing heart bypass sugary do to low hormones I feel better. Do go down that road I did life is short.
realthyroidhelp.com • View topic - My Story.
Read this about Adrenals and Thyroid.
Adrenal Fatigue Chelation « livingnetwork.co.za/

[SV670]

Originally Posted by JimRat

Barca, it's regarded as a clinical diagnosis generally by the doctors who treat lyme. However, when you combine suspicious test results with clinical symptoms, then the collective evidence can strongly suggest lyme infection. For instance, a low CD-57 test (immune subset) combined with a positive or equivocal western blot test (through Igenex Lab, CA) strongly points to lyme, especially in the presence of symptomology.



Sorry, I didn't mean to overwhelm with any of this info...just suggesting possibilities that should not be overlooked. These problems are not always straightforward and sometimes you have to rule out things as you go along. The good news is...a lot of the testing...ferritin, infection, thyroid...are all simple blood tests. Just go one thing at a time. Good luck.

With regards to Ferritin, I did get tested for that any my level is 181 ng/Ml which seems average (range is 20-345)
My Iron level is 88 (range is 45-175).

I also saw my endocrinologist today and he's going to have me do another blood test of:
Free T3, Free T4, TSH, Cortisol (Total), FSH, ACTH, PSA, FR & TDT Testosterone.

I told him the any sort of tick-bone infections and he said he had never heard of tick-bone infections causing any sort of thyroid or hormone problems.

So basically I'm going to wait on those tests to see what comes up, but I would also like to get some tests done to see if there are any infections (intestinal or tick-bone). Is there a way I can get these done at a lab without and order from my endocrinologist? If so, where? I'm in Southern California so I would like to find a lab here. I also want to get a cortisol saliva test done, but my doctor didn't know where I could go for that. So I'm looking to get those 2 additional test done but don't really know where to go. I've done a search and couldn't find much either. Anyone have any info?