What should I have tested for bloodwork?

[Greed013]

Analysis (Pricelist) - Avicena Lab

avicenalab.com.mk

This is the clinic I have the options of, I can't see anything missing from here but I don't really know what I should have tested.

I did 2 rad+lgd cycles last year, first with great results and the second, not great but not bad. Also played around a little bit with cardarine and stenabolic with minimal results for both.

It's been 3 months or so since I last had anything wanted to give my body a break to get back to baseline. I want to get tested as I have no idea how to tell when my testosterone is low, I don't experience any low test side effects like losing gains or anything after finishing my cycles. Pct for rad + lgd is nolva around 40/20/20/20 + bulbine natalensis. Though I think this might be because I am not an observant person at all (hence wanting the tests).


If levels aren't suppressed I will likely have a crack at some test-e or something and then get bloods done again after to see whats going on inside.

What tests would you guys recommend I get? Money isn't majorly an object but I would rather not waste it or waste my time there if its not in one go.

5'11 85kg BF Unknown but would guess around 12 sort of area if it makes a difference. Thanks in advance guys

 

[KvanH]

For hormonal: Total testo, Estradiol E2, SHBG giving you calculated free testo. These at least. Maybe add LH and FSH. You could check prolactin, but the sarms you took shouldn't affect it.

For general health: lipids (ldl & hdl), maybe liver (alt & ast).

@Whisky just took pretty comprehensive blood work mid cycle. Maybe he can chime in.

 

[Humbl3]

Analysis (Pricelist) - Avicena Lab

avicenalab.com.mk

This is the clinic I have the options of, I can't see anything missing from here but I don't really know what I should have tested.

I did 2 rad+lgd cycles last year, first with great results and the second, not great but not bad. Also played around a little bit with cardarine and stenabolic with minimal results for both.

It's been 3 months or so since I last had anything wanted to give my body a break to get back to baseline. I want to get tested as I have no idea how to tell when my testosterone is low, I don't experience any low test side effects like losing gains or anything after finishing my cycles. Pct for rad + lgd is nolva around 40/20/20/20 + bulbine natalensis. Though I think this might be because I am not an observant person at all (hence wanting the tests).


If levels aren't suppressed I will likely have a crack at some test-e or something and then get bloods done again after to see whats going on inside.

What tests would you guys recommend I get? Money isn't majorly an object but I would rather not waste it or waste my time there if its not in one go.

5'11 85kg BF Unknown but would guess around 12 sort of area if it makes a difference. Thanks in advance guys

No joke ask for a female hormone panel

 

[Mathb33]

Complete male panel, liver values , kidney values , cholesterol, blood glucose , thyroid panel. Of course my bloodwork or some people here would have a LOT more than this but in the position you’re in right now this will be plenty to ensure you’re ready/healthy for a cycle. I’d also insist on taking the habit of checking your blood pressure and your resting HR.

 

[Humbl3]

Complete male panel, liver values , kidney values , cholesterol, blood glucose , thyroid panel. Of course my bloodwork or some people here would have a LOT more than this but in the position you’re in right now this will be plenty to ensure you’re ready/healthy for a cycle. I’d also insist on taking the habit or checking your blood pressure and your resting HR.

As well....
My bad

 

[Mathb33]

Also... knowing where your red blood count is before cycle might help you knowing if / how much you might need to donate blood. Imo RBC , kidneys , cholesterol and blood pressure and your biggest concern.

 

[Whisky]

For hormonal: Total testo, Estradiol E2, SHBG giving you calculated free testo. These at least. Maybe add LH and FSH. You could check prolactin, but the sarms you took shouldn't affect it.

For general health: lipids (ldl & hdl), maybe liver (alt & ast).

@Whisky just took pretty comprehensive blood work mid cycle. Maybe he can chime in.

yeah no worries

OP - math has mentioned most of what I would (and what I do get).

main question is why are you testing - is it just to check hormones or are you concerned about your overall health......imo the more we progress down this anabolic path the more important the overall health markers (liver, kidney etc) become. You want to be seeing all your key markers in range when off cycle and not too far out of range on cycle.

hormone checks off cycle simply tell you that you’ve recovered a natural level back (incidentally, from your post it seems to infer that you want to check your back to baseline but it doesn’t seem like you had bloods before touching anabolics so you won’t know what your personal baseline is?) - the key is it let’s you see a trend (ie are you gradually reducing your natural test levels over time - what normally happens).

the health markers can allow for supplements to be added as needed, ie if your liver is taking a kicking increase TUDCA or NAC etc.

some health markers will also give you a warning to reign **** in, with the best will in the world it’s not worth fucking your long term health for an extra inch or two on the arms. Kidneys is a good example of this, the liver can repair its self, the kidney can’t, you want to know if you have issues there.

hematocrit is another good one - you can donate blood if it becomes an issue but unchecked it’s a potential problem.

blood pressure is massively important btw. Math mentioned it and I’ve just walked my dog listening to a podcast about bostin loyd who left his bp unchecked and now has an egfr of 15......

 

[Greed013]

yeah no worries

OP - math has mentioned most of what I would (and what I do get).

main question is why are you testing - is it just to check hormones or are you concerned about your overall health......imo the more we progress down this anabolic path the more important the overall health markers (liver, kidney etc) become. You want to be seeing all your key markers in range when off cycle and not too far out of range on cycle.

hormone checks off cycle simply tell you that you’ve recovered a natural level back (incidentally, from your post it seems to infer that you want to check your back to baseline but it doesn’t seem like you had bloods before touching anabolics so you won’t know what your personal baseline is?) - the key is it let’s you see a trend (ie are you gradually reducing your natural test levels over time - what normally happens).

the health markers can allow for supplements to be added as needed, ie if your liver is taking a kicking increase TUDCA or NAC etc.

some health markers will also give you a warning to reign **** in, with the best will in the world it’s not worth fucking your long term health for an extra inch or two on the arms. Kidneys is a good example of this, the liver can repair its self, the kidney can’t, you want to know if you have issues there.

hematocrit is another good one - you can donate blood if it becomes an issue but unchecked it’s a potential problem.

blood pressure is massively important btw. Math mentioned it and I’ve just walked my dog listening to a podcast about bostin loyd who left his bp unchecked and now has an egfr of 15......

*Big thanks to all who replied*

Mainly testing because I want to make sure I don't totally **** my test levels and end up having to cruise on anabolics for the rest of my life. I realise now that I should really have gotten checked before starting but my thought process was really that one or two cycles of just sarms in a year should be fine and not wreak too much havoc on my health. Feel dumb about it but there's nothing I can do now except check and make sure they are in the normal range.

Think I will get the tests you have all kindly suggested especially as a youth I was far from a stranger to drug use so probably best to get everything checked out just to make sure. I look and always feel very healthy but you never know what is going on inside I guess.

 

[KvanH]

Just to be clear; You can't fully prevent long term effects on your endocrine system. So even if your hormone levels are fine now after 2 sarm runs, it doesn't mean they would be fine after your next completely identical sarm run. And also doesn't mean you won't end up needing trt somewhere down the line, even if levels are fine now 3-4 months after the last run.

And you are planning a test cycle next, so you can't know how will your levels be after that cycle and how will they be a year, 2 years, 5 years from now.

Just putting this out there.

 

[Whisky]

Just to be clear; You can't fully prevent long term effects on your endocrine system. So even if your hormone levels are fine now after 2 sarm runs, it doesn't mean they would be fine after your next completely identical sarm run. And also doesn't mean you won't end up needing trt somewhere down the line, even if levels are fine now 3-4 months after the last run.

And you are planning a test cycle next, so you can't know how will your levels be after that cycle and how will they be a year, 2 years, 5 years from now.

Just putting this out there.

yeah exactly

you can’t avoid the fact there will most probably be a slow decline in your natural levels (this happens as we age but is hastened by aas use)

it’s not linear but to illustrate my point

your natural level when you started may have been 700

after 1 cycle you recover to 650
After cycle 2 you recover to 600

you then test - 600 is mid range and fine so you carry on (unaware you’ve already trended down)

3rd cycle you get to 550
4th to 525
6th to 500 and so on

some guys walk around naturall at 450 and are fine, it’s in range and no problem so you could see test levels of that or above and think you have no issue.....but from the illustration you can see a clear decline which would by a certain point lead to trt being needed.

there are outliers who recover back fully for sure but for most of us there has to be an acceptance that continued cycling (whether it’s once a year with perfect pct or more than that) will hasten the path to trt.

just how it is brother.

from a health standpoint it’s just smart to know where you are at, especially as there isn’t much that we can’t address through basic supps or changes in aas protocols etc

 

[KvanH]

yeah exactly

you can’t avoid the fact there will most probably be a slow decline in your natural levels (this happens as we age but is hastened by aas use)

it’s not linear but to illustrate my point

your natural level when you started may have been 700

after 1 cycle you recover to 650
After cycle 2 you recover to 600

you then test - 600 is mid range and fine so you carry on (unaware you’ve already trended down)

3rd cycle you get to 550
4th to 525
6th to 500 and so on

some guys walk around naturall at 450 and are fine, it’s in range and no problem so you could see test levels of that or above and think you have no issue.....but from the illustration you can see a clear decline which would by a certain point lead to trt being needed.

there are outliers who recover back fully for sure but for most of us there has to be an acceptance that continued cycling (whether it’s once a year with perfect pct or more than that) will hasten the path to trt.

just how it is brother.

from a health standpoint it’s just smart to know where you are at, especially as there isn’t much that we can’t address through basic supps or changes in aas protocols etc

This is very interesting topic to me and I was contemplating making a thread for this at some point, but haven't. I'm wondering does anyone even know a guy who's cycled and is not on trt when they're 50 yo or something.

The statistics would be somewhat misleading as guys who do AAS will often check their hormons and so stay on top of things and know when they need the trt. And many just stay on b&c basically making trt inevitable. I believe there are a lot of guys who have never done any AAS, but would need/benefit from being on trt, but just never have checked their hormones. So the difference is not like only 0.1 % with no AAS use needs trt, but 90% of guys with history of AAS use of any kind needs trt.

Mostly just guestimating here tho.

 

[Whisky]

This is very interesting topic to me and I was contemplating making a thread for this at some point, but haven't. I'm wondering does anyone even know a guy who's cycled and is not on trt when they're 50 yo or something.

The statistics would be somewhat misleading as guys who do AAS will often check their hormons and so stay on top of things and know when they need the trt. And many just stay on b&c basically making trt inevitable. I believe there are a lot of guys who have never done any AAS, but would need/benefit from being on trt, but just never have checked their hormones. So the difference is not like only 0.1 % with no AAS use needs trt, but 90% of guys with history of AAS use of any kind needs trt.

Mostly just guestimating here tho.

its a really tough one to qualify properly as obviously test decreases with age so at 50 it could be argued that anabolics didn’t lead to trt but aging did in any individual case.

we know from studies and plenty of other cases that anabolic use has the capacity to impact the ability of the endrocrine system to fully recover and that this definitely happens in many cases.

but the extent to which anabolics play a role can’t be clearly qualified en mass imo, we just have to make interpretations of the data we do have.

ive always seen it a bit like baldness where someone prone to baldness will end up bald regardless and anabolics we know hasten it, but any individual could time it would have happened anyway......

 

[KvanH]

its a really tough one to qualify properly as obviously test decreases with age so at 50 it could be argued that anabolics didn’t lead to trt but aging did in any individual case.

we know from studies and plenty of other cases that anabolic use has the capacity to impact the ability of the endrocrine system to fully recover and that this definitely happens in many cases.

but the extent to which anabolics play a role can’t be clearly qualified en mass imo, we just have to make interpretations of the data we do have.

ive always seen it a bit like baldness where someone prone to baldness will end up bald regardless and anabolics we know hasten it, but any individual could time it would have happened anyway......

Yea the 50 was just some number I threw out. It differs a lot on the country I assume, but where I live it's very rare for someone to be on trt and I would guess that 95% of the trt patients have history of AAS use. Not only becuase the AAS use affecting the endocrine system, but also a lot because they have followed their hormonal levels as I said. I've read/heard that it's very difficult to even get a doctor to have your hormons checked. Luckily it can be checked in labs without doctors referral these days.

Hmm.. Kind of rambling here again. Main point is it would be very interesting to know a ball park of how much the AAS use actually affects guys needing trt down the line. But obviously no real data on it or comparison to people not using AAS + all the variables mentioned here.