# Well I'll be damned!



## Dog-guy (Sep 20, 2019)

So after figuring out that my annual checkup doc screwed up my last blood test, I went out and got one from privatemd.  AWESOME PROCESS BTW...
Below are my results and what do you know...my boys aren't as great as I thought.  Guess my 22 year old dumb@$$ put a hurting on them with cycles too early.
    For you guys who know labwork, look everything over and give me your opinion please.  I'm 46, two kids and don't want more.  Already have undersized balls, so I don't care about atrophy.  If you were me what would your next step be?  Also, I have a TRT clinic nearby that looks really good so it would be easy to go that route but are there cons with getting that diagnosis??

Test Name Result Flag Reference Range Lab

CBC With Differential/Platelet

WBC 5.4 NORMAL 3.4-10.8 x10E3/uL 01

RBC 4.80 NORMAL 4.14-5.80 x10E6/uL 01

Hemoglobin 15.1 NORMAL 13.0-17.7 g/dL 01

Hematocrit 43.7 NORMAL 37.5-51.0 % 01

MCV 91 NORMAL 79-97 fL 01

MCH 31.5 NORMAL 26.6-33.0 pg 01

MCHC 34.6 NORMAL 31.5-35.7 g/dL 01

RDW 13.3 NORMAL 12.3-15.4 % 01

Platelets 252 NORMAL 150-450 x10E3/uL 01

Neutrophils 60 NORMAL Not Estab. % 01

Lymphs 29 NORMAL Not Estab. % 01

Monocytes 7 NORMAL Not Estab. % 01

Eos 3 NORMAL Not Estab. % 01

Basos 1 NORMAL Not Estab. % 01

Neutrophils (Absolute) 3.2 NORMAL 1.4-7.0 x10E3/uL 01

Lymphs (Absolute) 1.6 NORMAL 0.7-3.1 x10E3/uL 01

Monocytes(Absolute) 0.4 NORMAL 0.1-0.9 x10E3/uL 01

Eos (Absolute) 0.2 NORMAL 0.0-0.4 x10E3/uL 01

Baso (Absolute) 0.0 NORMAL 0.0-0.2 x10E3/uL 01

Immature Granulocytes 0 NORMAL Not Estab. % 01

Immature Grans (Abs) 0.0 NORMAL 0.0-0.1 x10E3/uL 01

Comp. Metabolic Panel (14)

Glucose 97 NORMAL 65-99 mg/dL 01

BUN 20 NORMAL 6-24 mg/dL 01

Creatinine 1.19 NORMAL 0.76-1.27 mg/dL 01

eGFR If NonAfricn Am 73 NORMAL >59 mL/min/1.73 01

eGFR If Africn Am 84 NORMAL >59 mL/min/1.73 01

BUN/Creatinine Ratio 17 NORMAL 9-20 01

Sodium 141 NORMAL 134-144 mmol/L 01

Potassium 4.5 NORMAL 3.5-5.2 mmol/L 01

Chloride 102 NORMAL 96-106 mmol/L 01

Carbon Dioxide, Total 21 NORMAL 20-29 mmol/L 01

Calcium 9.5 NORMAL 8.7-10.2 mg/dL 01

Protein, Total 7.3 NORMAL 6.0-8.5 g/dL 01

Albumin 4.9 NORMAL 3.5-5.5 g/dL 01

Globulin, Total 2.4 NORMAL 1.5-4.5 g/dL 01

A/G Ratio 2.0 NORMAL 1.2-2.2 01

Bilirubin, Total 0.7 NORMAL 0.0-1.2 mg/dL 01

Alkaline Phosphatase 70 NORMAL 39-117 IU/L 01

AST (SGOT) 22 NORMAL 0-40 IU/L 01

ALT (SGPT) 26 NORMAL 0-44 IU/L 01

Testosterone, Serum

Testosterone, Serum 250 LOW 264-916 ng/dL 01

Adult male reference interval is based on a population of

healthy nonobese males (BMI <30) between 19 and 39 years old.

Travison, et.al. JCEM 2017,102;1161-1173. PMID: 28324103.

Luteinizing Hormone(LH), S

LH 3.9 NORMAL 1.7-8.6 mIU/mL 01

FSH, Serum

FSH 5.1 NORMAL 1.5-12.4 mIU/mL 01

1 of 2

Estradiol

Estradiol 19.3 NORMAL 7.6-42.6 pg/mL 01

Roche ECLIA methodology

Performing Laboratory Information:

01: LabCorp


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## snake (Sep 20, 2019)

TRT it is!


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## BRICKS (Sep 20, 2019)

What Snake said.  Hit up that TRT clinic.


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## dk8594 (Sep 20, 2019)

Agree with the above.  You said the clinic near by you is good, but here are some things to consider.

1)Do they take insurance?
2)Do they require you to come in for weekly injections or do they write you a script?
3)Are they the type that are going to try to pressure you into other, unneeded, services?

My experience with clinics is that they are more focused on sales than health and are fine if you don't have any other underlying conditions and have the $$.


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## Iron1 (Sep 20, 2019)

Might be worth a visit to an endocrinologist if that's not what you meant when you said TRT clinic.


Wellness/anti-aging clinics that prescribe TRT are great and are generally easier to work with but they usually operate outside of insurance. Endo's, while sometimes a little trickier to get into a good blood level range, will go through insurance.

Both offer the same treatment but one may prove to be a better financial decision.


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## Dog-guy (Sep 20, 2019)

snake said:


> TRT it is!



How do you all handle the monitoring of levels?  I'm obviously going to be taking a higher dose of test so is there a "protocol" for follow up blood draws?  I'm guessing some docs don't care if you're at 1700 but some may.  The clinic I'm looking at allows self administration too.  Any reason not to file it on insurance?


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## gymrat827 (Sep 20, 2019)

bring this test to your doc or have him re test you.....You ll get it asap and insurance *should* pay unless you have an issue that prevents it.


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## Dog-guy (Sep 20, 2019)

Iron1 said:


> Might be worth a visit to an endocrinologist if that's not what you meant when you said TRT clinic.
> 
> 
> Wellness/anti-aging clinics that prescribe TRT are great and are generally easier to work with but they usually operate outside of insurance. Endo's, while sometimes a little trickier to get into a good blood level range, will go through insurance.
> ...



The men's clinic I've talked to does file insurance.  Just didn't know whether filing on insurance could cause future denials on anything like life insurance etc.


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## Dog-guy (Sep 20, 2019)

dk8594 said:


> Agree with the above.  You said the clinic near by you is good, but here are some things to consider.
> 
> 1)Do they take insurance?
> 2)Do they require you to come in for weekly injections or do they write you a script?
> ...



1. They file
2.  First follow up is 1 month then every 6 months and they allow self administration.
3.  Looks like they only offer replacement therapy so should be no gimmicks.
Good thoughts!


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## Dog-guy (Sep 20, 2019)

They're going to accept my labs which saved me $150.  I'll have an initial free consult with the clinic director who goes over the process.  Then they schedule the Dr visit $225.  They said cost averages $60 per month including meds.  Just made appt for Monday:32 (20):


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## j2048b (Sep 20, 2019)

Dog-guy said:


> They're going to accept my labs which saved me $150.  I'll have an initial free consult with the clinic director who goes over the process.  Then they schedule the Dr visit $225.  They said cost averages $60 per month including meds.  Just made appt for Monday:32 (20):



Who is this clinic u talk about? Would be nice to find clinic who offer to take insurance


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## dk8594 (Sep 20, 2019)

Dog-guy said:


> The men's clinic I've talked to does file insurance.  Just didn't know whether filing on insurance could cause future denials on anything like life insurance etc.



If it goes on your record, it will be considered a pre-existing condition for when/if you ever start a new health plan.  Health insurance isn't my specialty, but under current laws a new plan can't deny you based on that or charge you higher premiums, but the industry is too unstable to tell you if that will be the case in the future.

As far as life insurance...no clue.


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## snake (Sep 20, 2019)

Dog-guy said:


> How do you all handle the monitoring of levels?  I'm obviously going to be taking a higher dose of test so is there a "protocol" for follow up blood draws?  I'm guessing some docs don't care if you're at 1700 but some may.  The clinic I'm looking at allows self administration too.  Any reason not to file it on insurance?



You can get your own BW and get your normal BW through your GP. Once locked in, 2x/year is good providing nothing changes.


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## bugman (Sep 20, 2019)

I've used them for all of my BW.


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## notsoswoleCPA (Sep 21, 2019)

dk8594 said:


> If it goes on your record, it will be considered a pre-existing condition for when/if you ever start a new health plan.  Health insurance isn't my specialty, but under current laws a new plan can't deny you based on that or charge you higher premiums, but the industry is too unstable to tell you if that will be the case in the future.
> 
> As far as life insurance...no clue.



Even when I went to a clinic that accepted my insurance, it was so random whether insurance would cover certain things.  For example, sometimes my lab work was covered, then I'd get a $600 bill from the lab because insurance deemed that one of the tests wasn't necessary and thereby denied the whole claim.  Then I'd start the arguing of "What would you charge my insurance company, because that is all I am going to pay you" mess, and I'd get it knocked down to $140.  It was just a HUGE pain in the a$$ because of what insurance picked and chose to cover.  In the end, Defy is actually cheaper with everything being 100% out of pocket.


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## Dog-guy (Sep 21, 2019)

notsoswoleCPA said:


> Even when I went to a clinic that accepted my insurance, it was so random whether insurance would cover certain things.  For example, sometimes my lab work was covered, then I'd get a $600 bill from the lab because insurance deemed that one of the tests wasn't necessary and thereby denied the whole claim.  Then I'd start the arguing of "What would you charge my insurance company, because that is all I am going to pay you" mess, and I'd get it knocked down to $140.  It was just a HUGE pain in the a$$ because of what insurance picked and chose to cover.  In the end, Defy is actually cheaper with everything being 100% out of pocket.



Even out of pocket one visit every 6months works out to about 20 bucks a month plus meds so maybe 75/ month when the dust settles.  Plus they prescribe AI.


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## Rhino99 (Sep 21, 2019)

Defy prescribes an AI also...just want you to compare apples to apples


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## Dog-guy (Nov 21, 2019)

Wanted to share my numbers and get some thoughts about levels especially my E.

Two initial blood tests were done.  One I had done and the other at the clinic.

Mine
Test 250
Estradiol 19

Clinic's
Test 285
Free 59
Estradiol 104.9?? Huge difference in a week.

Doc put me on:
160mg test-C 1xwk
Anastrazol 1mg 2xwk

Blood work after 30 days

942- test
180 free test
<15 estradiol (too low to measure)

Doc adjusted me to:
100mg 2xwk- test
.5mg Anastrazol 1xwk

Questions are why the crazy free test numbers and what would make my Estradiol levels be all over the place?  It almost seems like the initial E numbers on the test I had done were correct but the 104 was off because the 1mg of AI 2xwk slammed my E.


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## CJ (Nov 21, 2019)

Free test is good, it's not bound to anything, like shbg, so it's free to be used for anything.

I can't explain that crazy E2 number, other than it's just a blip and it wasn't accurate. 

I like how the Dr dropped your anastrozole level, you don't want your e2 crashed. You don't want it too high OR too low. He probably erred on the side of caution after that crazy e2 reading. Hopefully it'll end up that you won't need any ai at all. 

Question...is your new protocol 100mg 2x per week for a total of 200mg/week, or is it now a total of 100mg/week, split into 2-50mg doses?


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## Dog-guy (Nov 22, 2019)

200/wk split Thurs and Sun.  He's basing the dosage more on how I feel than the numbers. toward the end of the week I felt a little off so he split the dosage and bumped it to 200.


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