My bloodwork

B

berserk

Member
I have just finshed a 3 month AAS cycle. My dosing schedule was 700mg/week of testosterone enanthate. I also took 20mg/day of tamoxifen citrate (nolvadex) and 1.25mg/day of finasteride (proscar)

I had a comprehensive (fasted) blood test done before I commenced the cycle (was taking nothing at all) and everything was in the normal reference ranges except Free Testosterone. Here are the pre-AAS levels:

T 27.1 nmol/L (normal range 6-30)
Free T 525 pmol/L (170-500)
Estradiol 137 pmol/L (<190)
SHBG 43 nmol/L (15-70)
LH 5 IU/L (1-12)
FSH 2.7 IU/L (1-18)

I'm not sure why Free T was high, in fact I'm not sure what Free T actually is. I know it's important, and what really sucks is that in the post AAS test they failed to measure it! But my T and E levels are through the roof, and my natural production signals (LH and FSH) have been suppressed. My balls have not shrunk however. Anyway, here are the post AAS results (taken after 10 weeks of the 12 week cycle):

T 138.6 nmol/L (6-30)
Free T Not Measured
Estradiol 402 (<190)
SHBG 42 nmol/L (15-70)
LH 0.9 IU/L (1-12)
FSH 1.0 IU/L (1-18)

So in summary, after 3 months of 700mg/week of Enanthate my T went from 27.1 to 138.6! But E went from 137 to 402 ! But tamoxifen binds as an inactive estrogen so levels may appear high but it doesn't mean I would have high E symptoms.  

For the record, I went from 202lb (92kg) to 215lb (98kg) now. No sides except for a bit of bloating. So difficult to say how much weight gain is water and/or fat though. The fun begins now . . . my natural levels are currently suppressed and I have taken my last shot . . .let's see how much I lose lol! I will keep on taking the nolvadex and proscar for a few weeks though. And actually try to increase the weights I've been lifting (cluster time!)

I am really annoyed that Free T was not measured in the post AAS . . can someone explain the value of knowing Free T levels?

Cheers,

b
 
Free testosterone is bioavailable test as opposed to test that's bound by SHBG or albumin. To see you measures so high as they are now isn't unusual. Bloodwork is best saved for after PCT though.
 
If I was you... I wouldn't have gone down the hormone highway at all. Not with those testosterone levels (both total and free).
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They also failed to measure my free T levels last time I got my bloodwork done. The inept staff at the lab at first claimed it had been an oversight on their part, but when I inquired about it further, it turned out the lab wasn't equipped with the necessary tools to measure free T at all! I have no idea why they can measure total T but not free T (maybe they were just bullshitting me), but apparently it's not that uncommon for them to have problems/issues with it.

Did you get your pre and post AAS bloodwork done at the same lab?

Anyway, you'll definitely benefit more from knowing your free T levels than you would from knowing your total T. A man can have high total T levels, but it won't necessarily do him any good (at least not for building muscle), if almost all of it is bound by SHBG and albumin.
 
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(LittleBigHorn @ Jan. 18 2007,04:20)</div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">If I was you... I wouldn't have gone down the hormone highway at all. Not with those testosterone levels (both total and free).  
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Yea, heheh, I'm thinking about getting TRT to get my levels UP to where yours were! I'll bet you made some badass gains though! Too bad the E is so high. You're gonna start painting your fingernails if you don't fix that.
 
I wouldn't worry about fingernail painting, but if you start watching &quot;steel magnolias&quot; over and over...time to look into some anti-e therapy.
 
Yeah I think a bit of arimidex won't go astray next cycle!

But I do believe I'm right in saying that tamoxifen binds as a weak/inactive estrogen which may still show up in blood tests but is not necessarily exhibiting E-like effects. But it mainly binds to breast tissue alone (hence why it a breast cancer drug) . . .so again, arimidex for sure next time to be safe and hopefully hold less water and possibly less body fat?
 
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(berserk @ Jan. 18 2007,10:58)</div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">Yeah I think a bit of arimidex won't go astray next cycle!

But I do believe I'm right in saying that tamoxifen binds as a weak/inactive estrogen which may still show up in blood tests but is not necessarily exhibiting E-like effects. But it mainly binds to breast tissue alone (hence why it a breast cancer drug) . . .so again, arimidex for sure next time to be safe and hopefully hold less water and possibly less body fat?</div>
Tamoxifen acts as an estrogen within the liver too. Actually helps lipids on recovery I believe. As to whether or not it would show up in the test as E I honestly don't know.
 
I believe determining Free T is much more difficult and much more expensive than determining Total T. I think it is possible that some labs may not be able to determine Free T because of the methods involved.
 
Hey I just did a search and found cool (looking at least) Free T and Bioavailable T calculator  -  it works from albumin, SHBG and total T.

However, it states down the bottom that drugs may scew the results. I don't think it would be accurate for me with all the enanthate, proscar and nolvadex floating around in my system. It is also implies that Free T and Bioavailable T are two different things.

Anyway, here is the link:

http://www.issam.ch/freetesto.htm
 
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