New Guy Here

[bluebullet75]

Hey all. New guy here, 40 years old. I've been feeling a bit unusually tired and have to live off of coffee. Libido fallen off a bit, but thought it was just old age. I still remain physically active and stay pretty lean. Because of the tiredness and sometime difficult to concentrate, I decided to do a self test through labcorp and came back with these results:

Test Serum: 168 LOW 348-1197 ng/dL 01
LH 4.5
FSH 4.1
Estradiol 6.9 LOW 7.6-42.6 pg/mL 01

I'm assuming my test serum is low considering reading online that some 50 years old people were in 200's and was consider low. The weird thing is it seems my LH and FSH are normal. I believe these the functions that tells testies to produce more test. So would I be a good candidate for TRT?

[Justin]

Hey all. New guy here, 40 years old. I've been feeling a bit unusually tired and have to live off of coffee. Libido fallen off a bit, but thought it was just old age. I still remain physically active and stay pretty lean. Because of the tiredness and sometime difficult to concentrate, I decided to do a self test through labcorp and came back with these results:

Test Serum: 168 LOW 348-1197 ng/dL 01
LH 4.5
FSH 4.1
Estradiol 6.9 LOW 7.6-42.6 pg/mL 01

I'm assuming my test serum is low considering reading online that some 50 years old people were in 200's and was consider low. The weird thing is it seems my LH and FSH are normal. I believe these the functions that tells testies to produce more test. So would I be a good candidate for TRT?

Yes, you would be a good candidate for testosterone (TRT).
As for your LH and FSH, you are correct, they are responsible for sending the signal to the testicles to make testosterone, but the testicles still require the ability to make the actual testosterone, which leads us to the two types of hypogonadism or low testosterone.

Primary Hypogonadism: This refers to a man who produces adequate amounts of LH and FSH to produce testosterone but while the signal is strong the testicles are not functioning at full capacity. This can be due to testicular injury or simply age. In either case, it's not normally reversible and requires TRT to improve.

Secondary Hypogonadism: This refers to a man who does not produce adequate amounts of LH and FSH to produce testosterone. His testicles have the ability but the signal is weak. This man will more often than not will also need treatment. This type of low testosterone has numerous causes, primarily the use of other medications but also pituitary issues, head trauma, alcoholism, exposure to certain chemicals, etc. In some cases this can be reversed without the need for full TRT but normally only in very young men and even then it's a 50/50 shot.

Last thing, try not to get too caught up in the age argument. The idea of a set amount of testosterone being OK at a certain age is a bit misleading and is a practice/thought that's pretty old. Unfortunately, some doctors still hold to it as they have not evolved with the information we now have and understand about testosterone. Point being, optimal testosterone levels are optimal for most men in the 700-1100 ng/dl range for most adult men...some men a little less but that's a good average and optimal doesn't change due to age. It's also very important to consider Free Testosterone, not just total. Total testosterone, which you had tested, represents all the testosterone in the body. However, Free Testosterone represents your usable testosterone, making it the most important number, as what isn't Free isn't usable. It is very likely that your Free Testosterone is also low since Free Testosterone represents a portion of your Total Testosterone.

[bluebullet75]

Thanks for the response Justin! I'm plan to retest in a week, this time around the morning as the previous test was taken in the afternoon. Which Privatemed/labcorp test should I order that will include free testosterone?

[Justin]

The LabCorp test code for Free & Total Testosterone is 140103