Bloodwork question
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Joshlm69
Well-known member
Your e2 is fine given how high your test is, and if you're not having any symptoms of having high e2, I wouldnt mess around with it. Remember e2 is anabolic & crucial for your joints. Did you get free test measured?
High Dose Fish Oil + Vitamin D 5,000-10,000 + Boron to lower SHBG. Also Ashwaganda+Tongat Ali. So Basically Up your vitamin D, fish oil & take M-Test.
High Dose Fish Oil + Vitamin D 5,000-10,000 + Boron to lower SHBG. Also Ashwaganda+Tongat Ali. So Basically Up your vitamin D, fish oil & take M-Test.
Renew1
Legend
^^^ My response would have been almost identical to this. ^^^
poison
Board Sponsor
I take cardiovascular support xt which has 2k iu vit d, and a half serving of multi xt, another 1k iu iirc. I already take 1800mg dha/epa daily. Mtest makes me feel lethargic.
Last few montgs my joints have hurt, could tge high e2 cause tgat?
Renew1
Legend
In general, Higher Estrogen is more beneficial to joints.
Apparently it can cause joint pain in some people.... But I've generally seen the reverse.
Joshlm69
Well-known member
Lethargy from M-Test could be the Ashwaganda I’m guessing. You could add in Optimize-T instead or just take boron + tongat separately. I’m a big fan of Optimize-T though.
As Renew said, higher e2 normally equates to more lubricated joints due to the additional water retention. My joints always feel at their best when my e2 goes up.
You should try address what your joints hurt though, especially for months at a time. That can’t be fun. Joint Support XT has treated me well & I take it daily
Smont
Legend
You don't really have high e2, it's slightly out of range but it's where I would expect it to be. Your joints should actually feel good/better with higher e2. On my regular trt150 test I'm a 900-950 test and low 40's e2. On cycle 450-600mg test per week or so my e2 will go up and as long as there's no side effects I don't mess with it because I typically get benefits from the higher estrogen until like 100pg/ml. 48 is fine if your not seeing issues.
Smont
Legend
How old are you if you don't mind me asking. I'm 40, I'm super active and I find my joints hurting often and I'm pretty sure it's age starting to show. I'm working on mobility and stability in my warm ups now and it helps. Over the past year my warm-ups have gone from 5 minutes to about 20 minutes. I'm guessing on the actual numbers but the amount of time I spend warming up has significantly increased
D3, magnesium, zinc and boron for shbg
D3, magnesium, zinc and boron for shbg
poison
Board Sponsor
OK cool. I added the supplements I know aren't causing issues back in, but haven't added basis or spermidine back yet, I'll see if it's one of those for some reason.
Makes sense what you're saying about the e2. So shbg is the only thing I could act on. I wonder if stinging nettle would be a good thing to try.
While I'm here, my ldl was just above range, and a couple other things were off. I take cardiovascular xt daily and have for a couple years now, plus fish oil, Egcg, curcumin, etc. Are these a problem?
Makes sense what you're saying about the e2. So shbg is the only thing I could act on. I wonder if stinging nettle would be a good thing to try.
While I'm here, my ldl was just above range, and a couple other things were off. I take cardiovascular xt daily and have for a couple years now, plus fish oil, Egcg, curcumin, etc. Are these a problem?
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Joshlm69
Well-known member
I take both basis & spermadine daily. BASIS definitely helped my joints not the opposite. I think the culprit may lay somewhere else; or it could be your training style & if you’re giving your joints/ligaments time to recover.
I don’t see anything bad in your overall stack; it’s an extremely healthy stack to be honest. All very health beneficial
poison
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I'm 51. I eat lean meats, as many whole grains as I can, decent veggies and fruits. I do hard kettlebells 3 days a week, and hard bjj 3 other days a week. My main issue is sleep: I only get 5-6hrs mon-Fri, and try to catch up on weekends. Sleep quality is great, no issues there.
My joint pain is weird. First, it was in my outer metatarsal, when I got up in the morning. Now it's in the thumb joint near the wrist, and my left elbow. It's not a generalized 'all my joints hurt'', and it kind of moved. Super weird. I feel like it might be a supplement, I will see.
I was thinking it could be arthritis, but the blood panels check for inflammatory factors, everything is great.
poison
Board Sponsor
I'm shocked. I fully expected low T, and maybe 5 years ago when I had a physical, it was at the very low end of the good range. I don't know what to think about it, but I'm a machine when it comes to exercise, I don't miss sessions, and I tend to train 100% all the time. I smoke guys half my age in bjj, and train with guys who are far bigger and better than me who also smoke me, so it's a real battle. I'm using a 32kg kettlebell, and do emom swings and Tyson pushups, or lately 5-6 sets of 60 swings and Tyson pushups, and 1 session of Turkish getups. I weight 180, for reference. I'm as careful with my diet as I can be, and I've been on the fish oil/egcg/curcumin/multi regimen for decades.
I guess I'm doing something right. Its nice to have proof that it's paying off. I actually would have been super bummed if there was an indication for trt, I'm not wanting to start that at all, so that makes me super happy.
Smont
Legend
Your super active at 51 and those sound like normal aches and pains to me. Mine are similar even at 40, although many of them are old injuries but still the joint pain definitely comes and goes. Sometimes it's my knees, sometimes it's my ankles or my wrists, most recently it's my shoulders and those come and go quite often, but none of them hurt all the time. You sound like your working out hard and It just comes with the territory of being awesome
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recompme
Member
Bro you took 3 days off the natty supplements you were taking. I'd say it's a strong possibility they are still in your system or perhaps it takes a wee bit longer for your body to 'calm down' off them. Tell us more about your protocol
Smont
Legend
3 days off was back in July
recompme
Member
My bad, so what's he done in the mean time, is he back on them before getting tested or off the natural supplements completely. I'm super interested in his lifestyle and supplements cos it's obvs successful.
poison
Board Sponsor
I took 3 days off before each blood draw, most recent included.
Smont
Legend
I was wrong, I was looking at the gap between posts only. My mistake
poison
Board Sponsor
Would you expect Anabolic XT or Prototest, respectively, to put a 51yo male in the 1000+ range? lol
It's very interesting. Maybe I'm just a mutant, or hyper responder.
Smont
Legend
I would call him a outlier, there's lots of people (gym ppl) doing what he does, there not walking around with 1200 test levels at 50. Most guys on TRT don't have a 1200!
Mutant sounds about right
. I definitely think those things are having some effect, but you gotta have pretty high natural testosterone to begin with
Smont
Legend
Not to sound too crazy, but I would ask my Dr if there's a way to check for adrenal tumors. There are rare occasions where in your 50s and 60s you could get an adrenal tumor. It would be like a freak one in a million thing but it might be worth checking just in case. Because when that happens it jacks your testosterone or hormone levels through the roof and it's most common in middle age men and postmenopausal women.
When I say most common, take that with a grain of salt, because it's highly uncommon in general.
When I say most common, take that with a grain of salt, because it's highly uncommon in general.
poison
Board Sponsor
No, it was from my MD. If I recall it was around 300 at the time.
Smont
Legend
Ok now I'm confused, I missed that, 5 years ago you were a 300 test level? Because that's not the low end of the good range that's just low that whole range that they call the good range is crazy. Can we do a recap lol. What am I mixing up here
Hyde
Legend
Very healthy estradiol level for that amount of test. Dr. Eric Serrano has mentioned 20:1 being an ideal ratio to use as a baseline, measured against how a patient feels, are they having negative symptoms etc. I prefer my estrogen higher than that, going by numbers.
1,000:50 = 20:1
And now at 1,200ng/dl, you’re even lower estrogen relatively. Certainly not high at all.
Now, why you have such high levels is indeed weird. Could be a slow metabolizer/poor clearance rate. But the higher SHBG also helps ensure your Free/unbound test isn’t going rampant, so the body is pretty balanced despite the big Total T number.
I’d stop all the natty supps for a while and test in a few months if you really want the most clarity, but if you feel better on them I don’t see why you’d care. You aren’t unhealthy; LDL slightly elevated at 50 is pretty commonplace, and if diet/insulin levels are good with cardio in play it’s probably not a major concern.
1,000:50 = 20:1
And now at 1,200ng/dl, you’re even lower estrogen relatively. Certainly not high at all.
Now, why you have such high levels is indeed weird. Could be a slow metabolizer/poor clearance rate. But the higher SHBG also helps ensure your Free/unbound test isn’t going rampant, so the body is pretty balanced despite the big Total T number.
I’d stop all the natty supps for a while and test in a few months if you really want the most clarity, but if you feel better on them I don’t see why you’d care. You aren’t unhealthy; LDL slightly elevated at 50 is pretty commonplace, and if diet/insulin levels are good with cardio in play it’s probably not a major concern.
akboom87
Well-known member
So from what I gather 5 years ago-ish, he had blood drawn was on the low end of the scale.
Fast forward to this post bloodwork in July test was 1,003 total T
Then 01/09/2026 another blood drawn and 1,213 total T
Smont
Legend
Wow, ya Im really stumped on the how. Even enclomphine likely wouldn't bring a 300 to a 1200, even if it was from all the test boosters and supplements it's odd that the numbers are continuing to trend up still. I have seen some things that pin testosterone levels directly to age and for the 50-59 group the #'s were 200s-800s, 800+ being extremely rare
poison
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Good call, thank you. I'll wait for everything to come in, then inquire on that.
poison
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Thank you. I'll post more results when they come in!
poison
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Here's the latest results.
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poison
Board Sponsor
And the synopsis.
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Screenshot_2026-01-23-10-19-45-15_879b8fa406501828e2f4d8c6e3c74ac2.webp -
Screenshot_2026-01-23-10-19-51-96_879b8fa406501828e2f4d8c6e3c74ac2.webp -
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Screenshot_2026-01-23-10-20-06-33_879b8fa406501828e2f4d8c6e3c74ac2.webp -
Screenshot_2026-01-23-10-20-11-16_879b8fa406501828e2f4d8c6e3c74ac2.webp
Hyde
Legend
Geez what kind of dipshit AI are they using to make these summaries; SMH.
“Excellent blood glucose control” and fasted sugars of 96 do not go together. They’re fine; at 51 they’re a solid place to be. But 100 is considered prediabetic.
Then they’re talking about risks of developing blood thickness with a 17.3 HGB and elevated test. The elevated test is what’s directly raised the HGB out of range slightly, and there’s no further risk of things “getting thick”. The HGB & HCT are direct measures OF the blood thickness! That’s what the levels show, concentration/viscosity. And nobody, not even 70 year olds, are stroking out explicitly from being at a 17 hemoglobin.
Then talking about EGFR and the slight rise in creatinine being representative of declining kidney function - eGFR IS DIRECTLY BASED ON CREATININE. If you raise creatinine, it’s a direct correlation for the estimate equation; they might as well be synonymous. And creatinine is very transient, so only consistent trending has any value - and only a Cystatin C test can tell you an accurate glomular filtration rate. Get one of those if it continues to trend down on the next one.
Anyway, I hate AI, but you’re all good to go if you feel good. Your DHEA is nearly in low ranges, so if you wanted to experiment with some transdermal supplementation (XPG, Iconic) to see how you feel & respond, could be a supplement to play with. But it will also further raise estrogen and testosterone somewhat.
My theory is either the supplements you’re taking are showing up as testosterone, or your body is not clearing test at typical rates (possibly from the supplements?). But with LH at 3, your pituitary is healthy but certainly not in overdrive. So the testes aren’t getting stimulated to some wild degree. That’s why I believe what I do. Buildup or false positive reading, at least until you stop the supplements and still see these kinds of numbers. There could be an underlying issue as Smont pointed out.
“Excellent blood glucose control” and fasted sugars of 96 do not go together. They’re fine; at 51 they’re a solid place to be. But 100 is considered prediabetic.
Then they’re talking about risks of developing blood thickness with a 17.3 HGB and elevated test. The elevated test is what’s directly raised the HGB out of range slightly, and there’s no further risk of things “getting thick”. The HGB & HCT are direct measures OF the blood thickness! That’s what the levels show, concentration/viscosity. And nobody, not even 70 year olds, are stroking out explicitly from being at a 17 hemoglobin.
Then talking about EGFR and the slight rise in creatinine being representative of declining kidney function - eGFR IS DIRECTLY BASED ON CREATININE. If you raise creatinine, it’s a direct correlation for the estimate equation; they might as well be synonymous. And creatinine is very transient, so only consistent trending has any value - and only a Cystatin C test can tell you an accurate glomular filtration rate. Get one of those if it continues to trend down on the next one.
Anyway, I hate AI, but you’re all good to go if you feel good. Your DHEA is nearly in low ranges, so if you wanted to experiment with some transdermal supplementation (XPG, Iconic) to see how you feel & respond, could be a supplement to play with. But it will also further raise estrogen and testosterone somewhat.
My theory is either the supplements you’re taking are showing up as testosterone, or your body is not clearing test at typical rates (possibly from the supplements?). But with LH at 3, your pituitary is healthy but certainly not in overdrive. So the testes aren’t getting stimulated to some wild degree. That’s why I believe what I do. Buildup or false positive reading, at least until you stop the supplements and still see these kinds of numbers. There could be an underlying issue as Smont pointed out.