Gimzim
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Hey guys, I've just got some labwork and it's seriously confusing the hell out of me. I know some of you folks know your stuff, so I wanted to pick your brains a bit to see what you think about this. I'm a bit of a "complex case", but I'd really appreciate it if you took the time to read through these and help me out on it.
To give you an overview of my situation, I'm 22, male, and for quite a long time - to some extent, since always - have experienced low libido, and some degree of ED as a consequence.
A few months ago, I took Saw Palmetto for hairloss, and my libido all of a sudden rose through the roof. I went off it because it wasn't doing much for my hairloss, and I went back to my normal, low-libido self again. And then I thought there might be a problem. I got my hormones checked, got some results back and they looked OK. I still wanted a sense of certainty, so I recently got a full panel. I've now got my results back.
The problem I have now is, I'm suspicious that my doctor and/or his lab have used dodgy range estimates. I'm in the UK, and this wouldn't be too unusual here as we're quite behind you Americans on hormones. My concerns here are twofold:
1. My doc's lab identified my FSH as abnormal, but the range he's got for his sample is different to any I've seen before. Under most ranges, mine seems normal.
2. His lab identified my estradiol as normal, but in this case I think the problem is the opposite. Most ranges would indicate mine is too low.
I've presented my results here in American and UK values, since I know a lot of you are more familiar with the former. I'd appreciate your thoughts, as I'm completely at a loss on all of this.
So here we go. Here's the results in American units:
Testosterone = 631ng/dl (288-864)
Free Testosterone = 15.6 pg/ml (7.2-23)
Estradiol = 5.2 pg/ml (range <10.8 pg/ml)
Prolactin = 184 IU/L (range 86-324)
SHBG = 37 nmol/l (10-80 nmol/L)
FSH = 4.1 mIU/mL (6-24 mIU/mL)
LH = 4.0 mIU/mL (1-8.4 mIU/mL)
T3 = 2.2 nmol/L (1.1-3.1 nmol/L)
T4 = 87 nmol/L (59 – 154 nmol/L)
Glucose = 5.2 nmol/L (3.9-6.4 nmol/L)
And in UK units:
Total testosterone 21 nmol/L (10-30 nmol/L)
Free Testosterone 15.6 pg/ml (7.2-23 pg/mL)
Estradiol 19.2 pmol/L (<40 pmol/L)
SHBG 37 nmol/L (10-80 nmol/L)
Prolactin 184 IU/L (86-324)
FSH 4.1 mIU/mL (6-24 mIU/mL)
LH 4.0 mIU/mL (1-8.4 mIU/mL)
T3 2.2 nmol/L (1.3-3.1 nmol/L)
T4 87 nmol/L (59-154 nmol/L)
Glucose 5.2 nmol/L (3.9-6.4 nmol/L)
To give you an overview of my situation, I'm 22, male, and for quite a long time - to some extent, since always - have experienced low libido, and some degree of ED as a consequence.
A few months ago, I took Saw Palmetto for hairloss, and my libido all of a sudden rose through the roof. I went off it because it wasn't doing much for my hairloss, and I went back to my normal, low-libido self again. And then I thought there might be a problem. I got my hormones checked, got some results back and they looked OK. I still wanted a sense of certainty, so I recently got a full panel. I've now got my results back.
The problem I have now is, I'm suspicious that my doctor and/or his lab have used dodgy range estimates. I'm in the UK, and this wouldn't be too unusual here as we're quite behind you Americans on hormones. My concerns here are twofold:
1. My doc's lab identified my FSH as abnormal, but the range he's got for his sample is different to any I've seen before. Under most ranges, mine seems normal.
2. His lab identified my estradiol as normal, but in this case I think the problem is the opposite. Most ranges would indicate mine is too low.
I've presented my results here in American and UK values, since I know a lot of you are more familiar with the former. I'd appreciate your thoughts, as I'm completely at a loss on all of this.
So here we go. Here's the results in American units:
Testosterone = 631ng/dl (288-864)
Free Testosterone = 15.6 pg/ml (7.2-23)
Estradiol = 5.2 pg/ml (range <10.8 pg/ml)
Prolactin = 184 IU/L (range 86-324)
SHBG = 37 nmol/l (10-80 nmol/L)
FSH = 4.1 mIU/mL (6-24 mIU/mL)
LH = 4.0 mIU/mL (1-8.4 mIU/mL)
T3 = 2.2 nmol/L (1.1-3.1 nmol/L)
T4 = 87 nmol/L (59 – 154 nmol/L)
Glucose = 5.2 nmol/L (3.9-6.4 nmol/L)
And in UK units:
Total testosterone 21 nmol/L (10-30 nmol/L)
Free Testosterone 15.6 pg/ml (7.2-23 pg/mL)
Estradiol 19.2 pmol/L (<40 pmol/L)
SHBG 37 nmol/L (10-80 nmol/L)
Prolactin 184 IU/L (86-324)
FSH 4.1 mIU/mL (6-24 mIU/mL)
LH 4.0 mIU/mL (1-8.4 mIU/mL)
T3 2.2 nmol/L (1.3-3.1 nmol/L)
T4 87 nmol/L (59-154 nmol/L)
Glucose 5.2 nmol/L (3.9-6.4 nmol/L)