First blood work results - Questions

[bluecrush93]

I just received back my initial blood work, and I'm not quite sure what to make of it. Here were my results:

Total Testosterone: 1335 mg/dl
Free Testosterone: 9.0 pg/ml

How can I have such high TT with such low FT? I seem to have the lowest percentage of FT anyone in searching around this forum and others. Would that be the reasons for the symptoms that match low T?

Is there anything I can do to raise FT without increasing TT? If I'm not mistaken, won't taking cyp increase both? Would just hCG be an option to increase FT but not TT?

As you can tell, I'm totally confused here.

Thanks,

Dan

[Justin]

High Total and low Free is not uncommon. Total testosterone represents all the testosterone in your body. Free testosterone represents the testosterone that is NOT bound and therefore useable by the body, if it's not Free your body cannot do anything with it. Therefore, Free testosterone is the most important number.

There are things you can do to help free up some of your bound testosterone such as supplementing with Vitamin D3, but when your free levels are very low, in most cases supplement plans like this won't have a large affect.

Yes, HCG will increase your Free testosterone but it will also increase the Total. When Total goes up this increases Free, there is more available to be Free. Remember, Free is simply a portion of the total.

[bluecrush93]

Thank you for the reply, Justin. Is there a limit to how high you can/should take the TT in an attempt to increase the FT? Meaning, if it means I have to get TT up to say, for example 1700 in order to hit 25 FT, is that a bad thing?

[Justin]

Many doctors are uncomfortable with total testosterone levels that they consider too high, but in truth all that matters is the thickness of your blood, cardiovascular and prostate health and estradiol levels. If those things are good, the number itself is rather meaningless. On the flip side, when total testosterone levels increase, some of those issues can become problematic and the higher test levels go the greater risk but it's not a black and white cut and dry sort of thing, the result is different for all men.


And no, there is not a a set level you need to bring your total up to to get your free to go up X amount.

Tips:

Supplement with D3
Make sure you're getting plenty of sleep each night
Avoid alcohol
Eat plenty of healthy fats
Supplement with Omega Fish Oil
Supplement with zinc and copper
Avoid all medications that you can

You could try this and see if your Free levels go up and any symptoms start to improve. If that doesn't work you'll probably want to consider treatment.