The Notorious's Blood Work Questions

[thenotorious]

Hello, i want to do some bloodwork and need advice which test to do.

I am for sure gonna do total testosterone to see where i am at currently and free T3, to see how my thyroid is doing sice my basal body temperature is a little bit low(but TSH is normal). I am also gonna run SHBG to calculate free testosterone. Do i need Albumin as well?

Is it necessary to measure free T4 to evaluate thyroid function?

I also wanna test for adrenal fatigue. I plan on running DHEA-S. Will that be enough? I also been thinking about Cortisol blood test, but have heard that the blood test of Cortisol is useless.?

The last thing i am gonna test is if i have iron overload. Should i run Iron or Ferritin test?

thanks a lot

one more question: i usually wake up at 8.30 to 9.00. so i could get the labs done at 10:30 because i need to drive. Is it better to wake up at 7.00 and do the tests at 8.30, or to sleep longer and have the test done later?

 

[Megatron28]

Hello, i want to do some bloodwork and need advice which test to do.

I am for sure gonna do total testosterone to see where i am at currently and free T3, to see how my thyroid is doing sice my basal body temperature is a little bit low(but TSH is normal). I am also gonna run SHBG to calculate free testosterone. Do i need Albumin as well?

Is it necessary to measure free T4 to evaluate thyroid function?

I also wanna test for adrenal fatigue. I plan on running DHEA-S. Will that be enough? I also been thinking about Cortisol blood test, but have heard that the blood test of Cortisol is useless.?

The last thing i am gonna test is if i have iron overload. Should i run Iron or Ferritin test?

thanks a lot

Why do you want to get all this blood work. The only symptom you have listed is low body temp.

 

[thenotorious]

My testosterone is on the low side, i feel drained all the time, don't have beard, have no energy, can't handle stress and so on
And my immune system is bad in the winter. I also sneeze all the time and fell pressure under my nose in summer.

 

[Megatron28]

My testosterone is on the low side, i feel drained all the time, don't have beard, have no energy, can't handle stress and so on
And my immune system is bad in the winter. I also sneeze all the time and fell pressure under my nose in summer.

Sounds like allergies and low vitamin D. How do you know your testosterone is low? Have you done blood work for it in the past?

 

[thenotorious]

Sounds like allergies and low vitamin D. How do you know your testosterone is low? Have you done blood work for it in the past?

yes, i have done it. could you or anyone else please answer directly to my questions as i plan on doing the bloodwork tomorrow.

 

[Megatron28]

yes, i have done it. could you or anyone else please answer directly to my questions as i plan on doing the bloodwork tomorrow.

It is hard to know what blood work to recommend without knowing what your symptoms are. If we are trying to diagnose cancer that would require a certain set of labs. Hypogonadism is a different set of labs. All you have really told us is that you think your body temp is lower than normal which may indicate a thyroid problem. It would help if you could be more forthcoming with information and your medical history. We can't read your mind.

If you want to cpget checked for Hypogonadism, the recommended blood work is covered in the following Sticky thread.

http://www.steroidology.com/forum/testosterone-replacement-therapy/662394-basic-trt-overview.html

 

[thenotorious]

Heh...its funny to me...because i ask one thing and you offer another thing. I have read a lot on the subject, and i have already done all, FSH, LH, Prolactin, and E2 blood tests. I have the results of them and i don't have any questions about them. I know what they mean, because i read about it. But as i read these things, some questions remained unanswered, and those are the questions i asked.

I have all the symptoms and indicators of adrenal fatigue, and that is why i decided to rule that out. I read what the symptoms are etc., but i just don't know exactly what blood test to run.

My basal body temperature is low, that is fact. It fluctates between 36.4 and 36.6 degrees Celsius, whereas it should be between 36.6 and 36.8. And that itself is enough reason to check the thyroid. I also get colds easily, easily feel cold in winter, like my circulation is bad...that is some more reasons to check thyroid.

I also read that iron overload can cause hypogonadism, that test is cheap ass, 3$, so i want to rule that out.

Now if you could answer my questions, which i really want to know the answer of, and then we can have further debate, that would be great..

 

[thenotorious]

Do i need albumin to calculate free T?

Do i need free T4 to evaluate thyroid function?

Which blood tests for adrenal fatigue?

Iron or ferritin?

one more question: i usually wake up at 8.30 to 9.00. so i could get the labs done at 10:30 because i need to drive. Is it better to wake up at 7.00 and do the tests at 8.30, or to sleep longer and have the test done later?

 

[Megatron28]

Do i need albumin to calculate free T? JUST GET THE FREE T LAB INSTEAD OF CALCING IT. BUT YES, ALBUMIN IS NEEDED IF YOU WANT TO CALC IT

Do i need free T4 to evaluate thyroid function? GET FULL THRYOID PANEL. T3, T4, Free T3, Free T4, TSH.

Which blood tests for adrenal fatigue? CORTISOL

Iron or ferritin? BOTH

one more question: i usually wake up at 8.30 to 9.00. so i could get the labs done at 10:30 because i need to drive. Is it better to wake up at 7.00 and do the tests at 8.30, or to sleep longer and have the test done later?

Get up at 7:30-8:00 and go in for blood work. Get a full 8 hours of sleep. Go in fasted.

 

[Megatron28]

Heh...its funny to me...because i ask one thing and you offer another thing. I have read a lot on the subject, and i have already done all, FSH, LH, Prolactin, and E2 blood tests. I have the results of them and i don't have any questions about them. I know what they mean, because i read about it. But as i read these things, some questions remained unanswered, and those are the questions i asked.

I have all the symptoms and indicators of adrenal fatigue, and that is why i decided to rule that out. I read what the symptoms are etc., but i just don't know exactly what blood test to run.

My basal body temperature is low, that is fact. It fluctates between 36.4 and 36.6 degrees Celsius, whereas it should be between 36.6 and 36.8. And that itself is enough reason to check the thyroid. I also get colds easily, easily feel cold in winter, like my circulation is bad...that is some more reasons to check thyroid.

I also read that iron overload can cause hypogonadism, that test is cheap ass, 3$, so i want to rule that out.

Now if you could answer my questions, which i really want to know the answer of, and then we can have further debate, that would be great..

I don't think it is funny. I can't read your mind. I don't know what is going on with you and you were withholding information. Hilarious!!!

I am not being paid to sit here and field your questions. Don't act like I am obligated to spew out answers to your every question.

 

[thenotorious]

I am sorry, i just didnt feel like writing the whole long story. But the questions i asked are pretty general, so they dont need a whole story to be answered. I appreciate your effort, i know you want to help on a whole picture.

With the labs, i pay every thing separately, so just getting the whole thyroid panel is not really convenient for me. And i think the free t3 is the most important. I already have Tsh, its just under 2.

As for iron and ferritin, ferritin is the more expensive one, so i dont wanna do it if its not really necessary.

 

[Megatron28]

I am sorry, i just didnt feel like writing the whole long story. But the questions i asked are pretty general, so they dont need a whole story to be answered. I appreciate your effort, i know you want to help on a whole picture.

With the labs, i pay every thing separately, so just getting the whole thyroid panel is not really convenient for me. And i think the free t3 is the most important. I already have Tsh, its just under 2.

As for iron and ferritin, ferritin is the more expensive one, so i dont wanna do it if its not really necessary.

Look at my signature below for info on getting blood work.

 

[thenotorious]

yea, but thats US only if i am correct. im from germany

 

[thenotorious]

If i test in at 540 and my lab ranges are 280-800, is that the same as if i test in at 670 and the lab ranges are 340-1000? I guess its not, but many people say that ranges matter?

 

[Megatron28]

If i test in at 540 and my lab ranges are 280-800, is that the same as if i test in at 670 and the lab ranges are 340-1000? I guess its not, but many people say that ranges matter?

540 is 540. You shouldn't adjust it.

Think of it as the scale you use to measure your weight. Let's say it says you weigh 200 lbs. And you keep weighing yourself and you always come in between 198 and 202 lbs on it -- ignoring fluctuations in your body weight. Lets say you do all these weighings in succession.

Lets say you now use your doctor's scale and it says you weigh 201 pounds. Again successive weighings all come in between 200 and 202 pounds.

As you can see they both pretty much said you weigh about 200-201 pounds. The ranges were different though.

It is basically just a standard deviation concept in statistics.

 

[thenotorious]

My Free T3 came back at 5.21 pmol/L with the range 3.1-6.8. This means my thyroid is perfectly fine, right?
And my Cortisol came back at 253.7 nmol/L with the morning range 171-536 and afternoon range 64-327. The blood was taken at 9.14 am, thats an hour and a half after awakening.
Are those results ok?

PS: and iron is 15.1 umol/L with the range 10.6-28.3, which is surprisingly low to me, because my blood is like dark red and my hematocrit is usually high it was 52.1 in 2012 and 47.5 in 2014 and hemoglobin was 173 and 169.

I am awaiting the free testosterone results which Will come in 10 days.

 

[thenotorious]

could somebody please comment on my results?

 

[Megatron28]

My Free T3 came back at 5.21 pmol/L with the range 3.1-6.8. This means my thyroid is perfectly fine, right?
And my Cortisol came back at 253.7 nmol/L with the morning range 171-536 and afternoon range 64-327. The blood was taken at 9.14 am, thats an hour and a half after awakening.
Are those results ok?

PS: and iron is 15.1 umol/L with the range 10.6-28.3, which is surprisingly low to me, because my blood is like dark red and my hematocrit is usually high it was 52.1 in 2012 and 47.5 in 2014 and hemoglobin was 173 and 169.

I am awaiting the free testosterone results which Will come in 10 days.

Everything you listed is in the normal range. It would be helpful though to see all your lab results though. Hopefully you ran complete labs.

Also, I really recommend that you start your own thread. This Ask Anything thread is good for general questions, but not so good for having a dialogue devoted to a specific person's issues. I can't urge you enough to do this.

In fact, now that I think about this I can going to move your posts for you into a new thread.

 

[Baldur2630]

Make sure you get FREE Testosterone. My Total T was 484, doc said it was very high for a 72 year old man, but when I eventually got my Free T results it was almost ZERO.

 

[thenotorious]

Everything you listed is in the normal range. It would be helpful though to see all your lab results though. Hopefully you ran complete labs.

Well i didn't..
Maybe if you tell me which parameters are important, i can check them next time..
But with these tests i ruled out thyroid problems, adrenal problems, and iron overload, am i right?
What remains on my list to check is:
-ultrasound of testicles
-sleep study(although i am not close to overweight and am young[22] and don't snore)-do you still recommend it?
-pituitary MRI
-i don't know, could my thick blood(high HEMATOCRIT,HEMOGLOBIN) be a problem?
I HAVE SOME ''GENERAL'' BLOOD WORK FROM BEFORE, WILL POST IT LATER.