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Old 03-04-2019, 11:59 AM   #1
liftsiron
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The 3 Types of Testosterone Levels Getting tested?

The 3 Types of Testosterone Levels
Getting tested? Here's what to ask for from the lab.
by TC Luoma | 02/25/19

Most doctors don't measure testosterone levels. Historically, it just hasn't been part of the standard health panel of drug tests, but it damn well should be.
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If they do measure testosterone levels, however, they'll almost always measure something called "total testosterone," which is, as the name implies, a measurement of the total amount of testosterone flowing through your veins.

The numbers might range anywhere from 300 to 1100 (nanograms per deciliter of blood). The trouble is, it tells you almost nothing about your hormonal status. For one thing, blood values of testosterone vary by the minute.

The only way to get a reasonably accurate reading would be to collect urine over a 24-hour period and have the lab use it to measure testosterone and its metabolites. Alternately, you could donate at least three blood samples from different times of the day. The lab would then pool the samples together and test that sample.

But those ways are more expensive, more time consuming, and more inconvenient. And even if you did pool multiple blood samples, it still wouldn't tell you much. For one thing, even though the results might indicate that you have a "normal" level of testosterone, it might not be normal for you.

Or maybe you had a reading of 1,000 in your twenties, but now you're getting by on a comparatively low level of 400. While 400 is considered normal, it might not be an optimum level for you. The only way you'd know what was normal for you is if you'd established a testosterone baseline reading before you turned 30, but hardly anybody does that.

Then there's the issue of steroid hormone binding globulin, or SHBG. It's what's called a glycoprotein and it literally binds up the sex hormones, including, on average, about 60% of your testosterone, and that percentage keeps climbing as you grow older.

The more SHBG you have, the more of your testosterone is bound up, leaving less of it free to do all the good stuff. So while your testosterone level may be as high as 600, a good portion of it could be locked up.

That's why, at the very least, when trying to determine your testosterone levels, doctors should ask the lab for your.

Total testosterone levels
"Free" testosterone levels
"Bioavailable" testosterone levels

That way you can get a little bit better of an idea of what your testosterone situation is. Determining normal T levels is tricky, so regardless of what your lab values are, and given the problematical nature of the lab tests, you have to instead rely on symptoms and the simple desire to be more than you are, hormonally speaking.
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Old 03-04-2019, 05:40 PM   #2
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Never heard of bio available testosterone. But makes sense that would be useful to know. It’s my understanding that bound test (to shbg at least) isn’t necessary a bad thing. It’s what moves it around to other parts of your body. Like muscles. Which makes Free Test not that useful either. I’d be curious if they consider test bound to shbg is still considered bioavailable?
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Old 03-04-2019, 07:11 PM   #3
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Never heard of bio available testosterone. But makes sense that would be useful to know. It’s my understanding that bound test (to shbg at least) isn’t necessary a bad thing. It’s what moves it around to other parts of your body. Like muscles. Which makes Free Test not that useful either. I’d be curious if they consider test bound to shbg is still considered bioavailable?
SHBG bound testosterone is useless only free testosterone activates the AR.

Testosterone and estradiol circulate in the bloodstream, loosely bound mostly to serum albumin (~54%), and to a lesser extent bound tightly to SHBG (~44%). Only a very small fraction of about 1 to 2% is unbound, or "free," and thus biologically active and able to enter a cell and activate its receptor. SHBG inhibits the function of these hormones. Thus, bioavailability of sex hormones is influenced by the level of SHBG. The relative binding affinity of various sex steroids for SHBG is dihydrotestosterone (DHT) > testosterone > androstenediol > estradiol > estrone.[6] DHT binds to SHBG with about 5 times the affinity of testosterone and about 20 times the affinity of estradiol.[7] Dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) is weakly bound to SHBG, but dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate is not bound to SHBG.[6] Androstenedione is not bound to SHBG either, and is instead bound solely to albumin.[8] Estrone sulfate and estriol are also poorly bound by SHBG.[9] Less than 1% of progesterone is bound to SHBG.[10]

SHBG levels are usually about twice as high in women than in men.[7] In women, SHBG serves to limit exposure to both androgens and estrogens.[7] Low SHBG levels in women have been associated with hyperandrogenism and endometrial cancer due to heightened exposure to androgens and estrogens, respectively.[7] During pregnancy, due to activation of SHBG production in the liver by high estrogen levels, SHBG levels increase by 5- to 10-fold.[7] The high SHBG levels during pregnancy may serve to protect the mother from exposure to fetal androgens that escape metabolism by the placenta.[7] A case report of severe hyperandrogenism in a pregnant woman due to a rare instance of genetic SHBG deficiency illustrates this.[7]
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Old 03-04-2019, 11:39 PM   #4
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Guess that's why some guys can respond well to low doses, and not others. Assuming genetics dictates the SHBG thing.

I was reading some posts over at PM awhile back, and a vet over there swears up and down that small, daily injections are the way to go for trt. I'd guess it would apply for larger doses too. But he pins 15mg ed of test, his total test was 900 IIRC, and his free test was over 300 - a whopping 33% of his total! Btw he has been doing this for years, and those bloods were no fluke - he has those #'s often.

Some say that proviron frees up more test, but I didn't really notice any diff in results muscle wise, just boners all day.
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Old 03-05-2019, 05:13 AM   #5
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I also heard Masteron helps improve free test or with the shbg
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Old 03-05-2019, 06:35 AM   #6
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I thought new research showed that was necessarily the case with SHBG. I will have to see if I can find it.
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