Obese, Low Estradiol And High Progesterone?

Borz

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My labs are very confusing to me, I would appreciate any insights.

First about me:
-26 years old
-Obese (280 pounds, 6'1), I have around 70-80 pounds extra
-Have been eating a lot of PUFA for years
-I have Type 2 Diabetes, Fatty Liver, Hypertension, Hypothyroidism.

Labs:
Estradiol, Serum (E2): 22.29 pg/mL (range for males: 23.8 - 52.2 pg/mL)
Progesterone, Serum: 0.54 ng/mL (range for males: 0.1 - 0.2 ng/mL)
Testosterone, Free: 78.9 pg/mL (range: 47 - 224 pg/mL)
Testosterone Total, Serum: 318.40 ng/dL (range: 300 - 1080 ng/dL)
DHT: 203.6 pg/mL (range: 106-719 pg/mL)
SHBG: 15 nmol/L (range: 11 - 80 nmol/L)
Albumin: 5.3 g/dL (range: 3.5 - 5.3 g/dL)
Prolactin: 11.71 ng/mL (range: 4.04 - 15.2 ng/mL)
DHEA-S: 356.9 ug/dL (range: 280 - 640 ug/dL)
Pregnenolone: 17 ng/dL (range: 23 - 173 ng/dL)
Luteinizing Hormone: 7.6 mIU/mL (range: 1.7 - 8.6 mIU/mL)
Follicle Stimulating Hormone: 8.6 mIU/mL (range: 1.5 - 12.4 mIU/mL)
Growth Hormone: <0.05 ng/mL (range: 0.05 - 3 ng/mL)

The main thing I do not understand is why do I have below normal Estradiol as an obese guy, and why do I have higher than normal Progesterone?

I recently started incorporating Peat's dietary principles and this blood test was done before I improved my diet.
 

Hans

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Probably because the estrogen is intracellular and doesn't reflect in the blood. Estrogen is created inside the cell.
Progesterone is most likely elevated to combat the estrogen.
Your LH seem fine but pregnenolone really low. This could be because the pregnenolone is used to make cortisol and your testes is not responding to the LH. Insensitive testes are most likely due to oxidative stress, inflammation, insulin resistance and low T3/high rT3.
Did you measure hsCRP and thyroid and well?
 

lampofred

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Phosphate, cortisol, and PTH are probably higher than optimal, leading to lower than optimal testosterone. I would increase sugar and vitamin D intake (avoiding starch) and keep calcium higher than phosphate to lower phosphate and cortisol. Increasing gelatin intake would probably help too. Coffee, vitamin C, and maybe aspirin would also help.
 

Kram

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Probably because the estrogen is intracellular and doesn't reflect in the blood. Estrogen is created inside the cell.
Progesterone is most likely elevated to combat the estrogen.
Your LH seem fine but pregnenolone really low. This could be because the pregnenolone is used to make cortisol and your testes is not responding to the LH. Insensitive testes are most likely due to oxidative stress, inflammation, insulin resistance and low T3/high rT3.
Did you measure hsCRP and thyroid and well?
Dumb question probably. But what are the main things that cause oxidative stress? I assume fruits and some veggies are the best way to lower it due to antioxidants. Thanks.
 

lampofred

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But what are the main things that cause oxidative stress? I assume fruits and some veggies are the best way to lower it due to antioxidants. Thanks.

Insufficient CO2 due to burning fat instead of glucose due to PUFA/heavy metal accumulation and sugar/calcium deficiency.
 

Hans

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Dumb question probably. But what are the main things that cause oxidative stress? I assume fruits and some veggies are the best way to lower it due to antioxidants. Thanks.
Main areas of concern are the gut, inadequate sleep, excess sedentary behaviour, lack of grounding (at least in my experience), lack of sunlight, air and environmental toxins and nutrient poor diet.

I'd start by eating high quality food (such as red meat, organ meat, milk, eggs, fruits, etc), consuming lots of carbs (preferable from natural sources such as fruits and honey), getting out in nature (novelty), getting sunlight, stressing less and reduce an inflammed gut with activated charcoal, coconut oil, grated carrot, etc.
 

Broco6679

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Your progesterone levels aren't that high; it's the reference range that is wrong.

Progesterone: The Forgotten Hormone In Men?

"The reference range for progesterone levels in adult men is 0.13–0.97 ng/ml12. Zumoff and colleagues reported a mean serum progesterone level of 0.18+0.03 ng/ml for men (n = 7) and of 0.21+ 0.05 ng/ml for young women in the follicular phase (n= 8). In contrast to this, Muneyyirci-Delale and colleagues measured 0.78+ 0.28 ng/ml for healthy men and 0.26+ 0.18 ng/ml for postmenopausal women (Coat-a-Count RIA kit)."

"We found 1.21+ 0.41 SD nmol/l (0.38+0.13 ng/ml) for men and 1.24+1.18 SD nmol/l (0.38+0.37 ng/ml) for women, i.e. there were no differences between men and women."

What exactly constitutes a 'normal' level of progesterone in men is still up for debate. What isn't up for debate is that a level of 0.0 is not normal, nor is claiming that anything > 0.20 is high like the usual male reference range suggests.

I recently had my progesterone come back at 0.44 ng/mL, whilst estradiol was very low at 14 pg/ml. Despite this, I still have estrogenic symptoms and my prolactin is above range. Like Hans said, I don't think serum levels of a paracrine hormone which is produced and used in it's tissue of origin is a good measure of it's systemic activity or load.
 

lvysaur

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Seems that prolactin, FSH, LH, are all in the high end of normal. I know for a fact that the "proper" reference range for prolactin was revised within the last 60 years in order to make skyrocketing prolactin levels among the population look "healthy", I think Peat may have said this as well. FSH/LH I'm not sure. Your prolactin is definitely high though.
 

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