Low LH And Potential Low Testosterone?

[faxmulder]

Hi guys,

M34, 1.81 for 73kg, no smoker.

An overview on my issues: difficulty in focusing on a single task (ADD-like); brain fog, mild OCD (repetitive behaviors), over-thinking and over-analyzing everything; cold hands; low-grade varicocele, periods of lack of libido; hay fever; autoimmune inflammatory disease; dry itchy scalp and skin with poor hydration.

Suspecting that my problems could be related to low t (maybe caused by varicocele), I've just done blood analysis. Here my results.

What's your opinion guys?

Thanks for your help

• vit D -- 24 ng/mL
• estradiol (E2) -- 26 pg/mL
• FSH -- 3.7 mUI/mL
• TSH-R -- 2.16 nUI/mL
• *LH -- 1.2 mIU/mL
• Prolactin (PRL) -- 10 ng/mL
• S-Testosterone -- 4.68 ng/mL
• albumin -- 4.4 g/dL 3.7 5.5
• SHBG -- 24.10 nmol/L
• total cholesterol -- 218
• tryglicerides -- 71

 

[Hans]

Hi guys,

M34, 1.81 for 73kg, no smoker.

An overview on my issues: difficulty in focusing on a single task (ADD-like); brain fog, mild OCD (repetitive behaviors), over-thinking and over-analyzing everything; cold hands; low-grade varicocele, periods of lack of libido; hay fever; autoimmune inflammatory disease; dry itchy scalp and skin with poor hydration.

Suspecting that my problems could be related to low t (maybe caused by varicocele), I've just done blood analysis. Here my results.

What's your opinion guys?

Thanks for your help

• vit D -- 24 ng/mL
• estradiol (E2) -- 26 pg/mL
• FSH -- 3.7 mUI/mL
• TSH-R -- 2.16 nUI/mL
• *LH -- 1.2 mIU/mL
• Prolactin (PRL) -- 10 ng/mL
• S-Testosterone -- 4.68 ng/mL
• albumin -- 4.4 g/dL 3.7 5.5
• SHBG -- 24.10 nmol/L
• total cholesterol -- 218
• tryglicerides -- 71

Hey man.
From the results you posted most things look pretty good except vit D is too low and TSH a little high.
I think your LH is suppressed due to low thyroid as you express a lot of hypothyroid symptoms.
Are you under a lot of stress?
How many calories are you eating per day and what's your macros.
And what does your diet look like in general?

 

[faxmulder]

Hey man.
From the results you posted most things look pretty good except vit D is too low and TSH a little high.
I think your LH is suppressed due to low thyroid as you express a lot of hypothyroid symptoms.
Are you under a lot of stress?
How many calories are you eating per day and what's your macros.
And what does your diet look like in general?

Hi man,

About the diet: my macros are around 60% proteins, 30%carbos and 10% fats.
I’m not doing Keto but I started controlling carbs because I didn’t want to gain weight.
I’m not tracking right now but last time I was at around 2000 calories/day, sometimes less.
Usually I eat: chicken, beef, tuna, pork, beans, grains, eggs, diary, fruit, pizza (once a week - I’m Italian at the end of the day lol).
A few beers a week and that’s all. That being said, I should eat more veggies for sure.

The only supps that I’m taking are: Vit E, Magnesium, resveratrol, curcumin, grape seed extract (advised by MD for keeping inflammation at bay).

Yeah, I’m considering changing job and this is, in addition to my issues, quite stressful. I had also some episodes of ED in the past months - MD at the time said that it was probably performance anxiety, since I had no physical issues and I had no problems getting erections but losing them only just before penetration. Anyways I’ve insisted to get hormones panel.

do you think that my levels could be caused by varicocele? If it is the thyroid, which kind of bloodworks should I get?

In the meantime could supplement with iodine + selenium be helpful?

thanks for your help mate!

 

[Hans]

Hi man,

About the diet: my macros are around 60% proteins, 30%carbos and 10% fats.
I’m not doing Keto but I started controlling carbs because I didn’t want to gain weight.
I’m not tracking right now but last time I was at around 2000 calories/day, sometimes less.
Usually I eat: chicken, beef, tuna, pork, beans, grains, eggs, diary, fruit, pizza (once a week - I’m Italian at the end of the day lol).
A few beers a week and that’s all. That being said, I should eat more veggies for sure.

The only supps that I’m taking are: Vit E, Magnesium, resveratrol, curcumin, grape seed extract (advised by MD for keeping inflammation at bay).

Yeah, I’m considering changing job and this is, in addition to my issues, quite stressful. I had also some episodes of ED in the past months - MD at the time said that it was probably performance anxiety, since I had no physical issues and I had no problems getting erections but losing them only just before penetration. Anyways I’ve insisted to get hormones panel.

do you think that my levels could be caused by varicocele? If it is the thyroid, which kind of bloodworks should I get?

In the meantime could supplement with iodine + selenium be helpful?

thanks for your help mate!

Calories are definitely too low. A high stress job increases the need for calories even more. I think around 3000 calories is a good amount to eat. The food you eat seem good, so I would just eat more of it. Protein with each meal and then a bunch of carbs with it. I'd say protein is too high and carbs too low, unless you do really well on the high protein. Carbs are needed to keep stress at bay and keep the metabolism running optimally. Fats is also too low, around 60-100g is a good amount if you want to up your androgens.
You could slowly start to lower your protein all the way down to around 150g daily and then up the carbs by 50g on a weekly basis until you find your sweet spot.
Veggies is not needed at all if your diet contains enough vitamins and minerals already.

How much of each of the supplements are you taking?
Resveratrol is touted to be anti-aging but no human studies show that, plus it acts estrogenic in of itself, so I would not use that.
Varicocele is usually caused by excess estrogen, but your estradiol is normal. We don't know estrone-sulfate though, which is the long term storage form of estrogen.

A thorough thyroid panel would include TSH, total and free T4 and T3 and rT3. It's very important to test them all to get a good idea. I did an article on testing thyroid if you'd like to read it: How to interpret your thyroid test results to get rid of hypothyroid symptoms for good!

 

[GreekDemiGod]

Following.
@faxmulder Those T levels are decent. You are most likely not hypogonadal and can optimise your levels through lifestyle, diet, supplements and hormonal support

I think your LH is suppressed due to low thyroid as you express a lot of hypothyroid symptoms.

Could low thyroid cause LH supression? I too have low levels of LH (and FSH)

 

[Hans]

Following.
@faxmulder Those T levels are decent. You are most likely not hypogonadal and can optimise your levels through lifestyle, diet, supplements and hormonal support


Could low thyroid cause LH supression? I too have low levels of LH (and FSH)

Definitely. Hyperthyoid people have much higher levels of LH and downstream androgens than hypothyroid people. When thyroid hormones are low, LH is one of the first ones to take a dip.

 

[GreekDemiGod]

Definitely. Hyperthyoid people have much higher levels of LH and downstream androgens than hypothyroid people. When thyroid hormones are low, LH is one of the first ones to take a dip.

I'm wondering if my T problem might have been a thyroid problem all along.

 

[Hans]

I'm wondering if my T problem might have been a thyroid problem all along.

Could be. Thyroid controls everything and if it goes down, every else in the body slows down. But just taking thyroid might not solve it because there could be many hicups along the way to proper T3 utilization, such as high cortisol, reduced conversion, elevated rT3, inadequate T3 uptake, etc.

 

[faxmulder]

Following.
@faxmulder Those T levels are decent. You are most likely not hypogonadal and can optimise your levels through lifestyle, diet, supplements and hormonal support


Could low thyroid cause LH supression? I too have low levels of LH (and FSH)

thanks man, do you have any suggestion for supplements? Could shilajit and/or tongkat ali + boron work for improving LH, while not raising estradiol too much?

 

[faxmulder]

Could be. Thyroid controls everything and if it goes down, every else in the body slows down. But just taking thyroid might not solve it because there could be many hicups along the way to proper T3 utilization, such as high cortisol, reduced conversion, elevated rT3, inadequate T3 uptake, etc.

thanks man for your help, I've scheduled full thyroid panel for mid-February.
In the meantime could cordyceps + shilajit (or maybe tonkgat ali) + boron work for improving LH, while not raising estradiol too much?
As a reference, I've just started taking agmatine, pycnogenol and taurine pre-workout.

I've also seen that that ashwagandha, iodine and selenium are advised for raising thyroid values, should I try these supplements?

 

[Hans]

thanks man for your help, I've scheduled full thyroid panel for mid-February.
In the meantime could cordyceps + shilajit (or maybe tonkgat ali) + boron work for improving LH, while not raising estradiol too much?
As a reference, I've just started taking agmatine, pycnogenol and taurine pre-workout.

I've also seen that that ashwagandha, iodine and selenium are advised for raising thyroid values, should I try these supplements?

My pleasure man.
Those supplements can help increase testosterone but I think it will be very mild.
Ashwagandha and selenium can improve thyroid hormones yes so maybe that is something you can try.

But addressing the root cause is always the best approach.

 

[Dino D]

@faxmulder did you fix it?