Howdy folks! Finally get to start my log today after numerous delays, incredibly excited to get going.
You can find a lot of background information on my situation, including several previous blood tests, in this thread (clicky), but here follows a summary:
I'm a 25 year old guy, I've never run anything anabolic or hormonal at all (apart from Erase Pro, my disastrous experience with which is detailed in the afore-linked post) and just seem to have been dealt a naturally unfortunate hormonal hand.
Essentially what I'm dealing with is frustratingly borderline hypogonadotropic hypogonadism, combined with high (though within range) estradiol and prolactin. Once I got these results, they explained a whole bunch of ongoing issues - intermittent libido (sometimes jacked up like a teenager's, sometimes near dead for several days), mood swings, lack of motivation, abdominal weight being impossible to shift (can lose enough weight to have my rib-cage looking like a xylophone, and I'll still have a Santa Claus belly), lethargy, and a general sense of drifting through life with neither purpose nor a desire to seek purpose. </end philosophical rant> Due to what I now understand to be a high prolactin level, I have a near constant feeling of "contentment" even if I've actually achieved almost nothing and have just sat around playing Angry Birds all day, or spent all night getting drunk with friends. I'm motivated to go to the gym, but in order to have a good workout I take Animal Pump beforehand - and as I understand it, the caffeine in this product temporarily causes a dopamine surge which neutralises the prolactin somewhat.
In short, my hormones are messed up and it's messing my life up.
The fact that my testosterone is well within the lab range (although sub-optimal, it's safely away from the minimum) is a testament to the fact that my balls are perfectly capable of doing a fine job if they're instructed to. The problem is that my brain, whether due to a lack of GnRH from the hypothalamus, or a lack of response to GnRH from the pituitary gland, is telling them not to bother making much. I have no doubt that if my LH and FSH were to increase, so would my test production - this is in fact evidenced by the fact that during my disastrous Erase Pro run (see my linked bloods, and after reading my E2 and Prolactin values ritually burn any products you still own that contain Arimistane), my testosterone increased by 3 nmol simply from increasing LH by around 1.5. This, to me, indicates enormous potential from my endocrine system if only I could give the HPTA feedback loop a breath of life. And that's where Black Lion Research come in.
Earlier this year, BLR released two products, Rebirth and Letrone. Both had been hotly anticipated by BLR fans like myself, particularly after the demise of Formestane left the OTC supplement market almost entirely devoid of reliable AIs. I have quoted the product descriptions of both below, for anybody who is unfamiliar with either, but essentially, Rebirth contains two compounds, one of which has been definitively proven to have SERM-like effects, and the other of which can be presumed to have SERM-like effects due to its effectiveness in fighting estrogen related breast cancer - on a par, according to research, with Tamoxifen, a common choice for those in PCT. Letrone, on the other hand, contains extracts from a herb which appears to be an extremely powerful aromatase inhibitor.
Together, I am hoping that these products can starve my brain's estrogen receptors of action, with the effect of kicking the hypothalamus in the proverbial balls (sorry >_>) and forcing it to get its feedback loop off the ground once and for all. To that end, I will be getting bloods done near the end of the run, to compare with the following blood test which is a baseline obtained one week ago. I will be testing for Testosterone, Free testosterone, Estradiol, LH, FSH, Prolactin, SHGB, thyroid hormones TSH, T3, T4, and the standard Liver and Renal tests. As well as this, I will be discussing any changes in mood, libido, outlook, energy, strength, and anything else of note. The one thing I will not be able to do as fully as others is discuss workout changes, as my workouts are currently severely limited due to an ongoing meniscus tear. The only exercises I can safely do during this log are those which place little to no stress on my knees, so essentially only sitting down exercises and supported (feet on rest / bench) lying exercises. While I will discuss these when I do them, others have suggested that it'll be interesting to have a log which doesn't focus entirely on the bodybuilding aspect, so maybe this is a blessing in disguise.
With that, here are my baseline bloods, and here we go!
Hormones
Testosterone: 11.1 nmol/L (range: 8.6-29.0)
Estradiol*: 80 pmol/L (range: 95 - 223)
LH: 3.1 (range: 2 - 9)
FSH: 2.0 (range: 2 - 12)
SHGB: 24.4 (range: 16.5 - 55.9)
Prolactin: 224 (range: 86-324)
Thyroid
TSH: 2.74 (range: 0.27 - 4.2)
Free T4: 14.6 (range: 12.0 - 22.0)
Total T3: 1.86 (range: 1.3 - 3.1)
* I should point out that this range does not seem to be correct - up until very recently, the lab used a range of 28 - 158, which seems to be the consensus among users here as well. Regardless, it does show that estradiol has remained somewhat under control even after stopping Formestane - possibly due to fat loss which occurred during the Formestane run.
As you can see from these results, I'm not shut down, but I'm about as close to shut down as you can get without actually being shut down. Both thyroid values are near the bottom of the range, testosterone is near the bottom of the range, LH and FSH are literally on the border line of hypogonadotropism. I suspect that part of the reason my estradiol didn't recover back to baseline after formestane is simply because not enough testosterone was being made to convert!
With all this in mind, let's go for a month of trying to get this whole system back into shape. My follow up blood test is on Tuesday the 10th of November, exactly one month from today. I will begin the log during the subsequent posts. I will wait until the end of the log to post and compare liver and renal values, as this post is already far too long
You can find a lot of background information on my situation, including several previous blood tests, in this thread (clicky), but here follows a summary:
I'm a 25 year old guy, I've never run anything anabolic or hormonal at all (apart from Erase Pro, my disastrous experience with which is detailed in the afore-linked post) and just seem to have been dealt a naturally unfortunate hormonal hand.
Essentially what I'm dealing with is frustratingly borderline hypogonadotropic hypogonadism, combined with high (though within range) estradiol and prolactin. Once I got these results, they explained a whole bunch of ongoing issues - intermittent libido (sometimes jacked up like a teenager's, sometimes near dead for several days), mood swings, lack of motivation, abdominal weight being impossible to shift (can lose enough weight to have my rib-cage looking like a xylophone, and I'll still have a Santa Claus belly), lethargy, and a general sense of drifting through life with neither purpose nor a desire to seek purpose. </end philosophical rant> Due to what I now understand to be a high prolactin level, I have a near constant feeling of "contentment" even if I've actually achieved almost nothing and have just sat around playing Angry Birds all day, or spent all night getting drunk with friends. I'm motivated to go to the gym, but in order to have a good workout I take Animal Pump beforehand - and as I understand it, the caffeine in this product temporarily causes a dopamine surge which neutralises the prolactin somewhat.
In short, my hormones are messed up and it's messing my life up.
The fact that my testosterone is well within the lab range (although sub-optimal, it's safely away from the minimum) is a testament to the fact that my balls are perfectly capable of doing a fine job if they're instructed to. The problem is that my brain, whether due to a lack of GnRH from the hypothalamus, or a lack of response to GnRH from the pituitary gland, is telling them not to bother making much. I have no doubt that if my LH and FSH were to increase, so would my test production - this is in fact evidenced by the fact that during my disastrous Erase Pro run (see my linked bloods, and after reading my E2 and Prolactin values ritually burn any products you still own that contain Arimistane), my testosterone increased by 3 nmol simply from increasing LH by around 1.5. This, to me, indicates enormous potential from my endocrine system if only I could give the HPTA feedback loop a breath of life. And that's where Black Lion Research come in.
Earlier this year, BLR released two products, Rebirth and Letrone. Both had been hotly anticipated by BLR fans like myself, particularly after the demise of Formestane left the OTC supplement market almost entirely devoid of reliable AIs. I have quoted the product descriptions of both below, for anybody who is unfamiliar with either, but essentially, Rebirth contains two compounds, one of which has been definitively proven to have SERM-like effects, and the other of which can be presumed to have SERM-like effects due to its effectiveness in fighting estrogen related breast cancer - on a par, according to research, with Tamoxifen, a common choice for those in PCT. Letrone, on the other hand, contains extracts from a herb which appears to be an extremely powerful aromatase inhibitor.
Together, I am hoping that these products can starve my brain's estrogen receptors of action, with the effect of kicking the hypothalamus in the proverbial balls (sorry >_>) and forcing it to get its feedback loop off the ground once and for all. To that end, I will be getting bloods done near the end of the run, to compare with the following blood test which is a baseline obtained one week ago. I will be testing for Testosterone, Free testosterone, Estradiol, LH, FSH, Prolactin, SHGB, thyroid hormones TSH, T3, T4, and the standard Liver and Renal tests. As well as this, I will be discussing any changes in mood, libido, outlook, energy, strength, and anything else of note. The one thing I will not be able to do as fully as others is discuss workout changes, as my workouts are currently severely limited due to an ongoing meniscus tear. The only exercises I can safely do during this log are those which place little to no stress on my knees, so essentially only sitting down exercises and supported (feet on rest / bench) lying exercises. While I will discuss these when I do them, others have suggested that it'll be interesting to have a log which doesn't focus entirely on the bodybuilding aspect, so maybe this is a blessing in disguise.
With that, here are my baseline bloods, and here we go!
Hormones
Testosterone: 11.1 nmol/L (range: 8.6-29.0)
Estradiol*: 80 pmol/L (range: 95 - 223)
LH: 3.1 (range: 2 - 9)
FSH: 2.0 (range: 2 - 12)
SHGB: 24.4 (range: 16.5 - 55.9)
Prolactin: 224 (range: 86-324)
Thyroid
TSH: 2.74 (range: 0.27 - 4.2)
Free T4: 14.6 (range: 12.0 - 22.0)
Total T3: 1.86 (range: 1.3 - 3.1)
* I should point out that this range does not seem to be correct - up until very recently, the lab used a range of 28 - 158, which seems to be the consensus among users here as well. Regardless, it does show that estradiol has remained somewhat under control even after stopping Formestane - possibly due to fat loss which occurred during the Formestane run.
As you can see from these results, I'm not shut down, but I'm about as close to shut down as you can get without actually being shut down. Both thyroid values are near the bottom of the range, testosterone is near the bottom of the range, LH and FSH are literally on the border line of hypogonadotropism. I suspect that part of the reason my estradiol didn't recover back to baseline after formestane is simply because not enough testosterone was being made to convert!
With all this in mind, let's go for a month of trying to get this whole system back into shape. My follow up blood test is on Tuesday the 10th of November, exactly one month from today. I will begin the log during the subsequent posts. I will wait until the end of the log to post and compare liver and renal values, as this post is already far too long