Low tetosterone and low iron levels

Triathlon Forum
1

Had some blood work done as part of a visit to the doctor after having been ill and sluggish mentally and physically for a few days.

In general, results are good but iron and tetosterone is low:

  • tetosterone is 334 (range 300-800) EDIT I am 35 year old so t level is pretty damn low
  • iron 64 (range 49-181)
  • iron saturation 19,7% (20/50%)

A few questions:
Is it true that iron and tetosterone tend to be lower in long course endurance athletes?
What are your levels?
Have you successfully been able to increase tetosterone and iron levels and if yes, how?

Will start with iron supplements I suppose and try to do more weight lifting. Diet etc is pretty good so those levers I cannot pull.

2

no, your testosterone is quite normal.

the problem isn’t your testosterone, it’s your brain. you need to STFU and take a day off, or two. I suggest you google “natural ways to boost your testosterone” on the guide to being manly blog (or something like that). Step # 1, get some fuggin’ sleep.

finally, what is a “long course endurance athlete”? there’s no such thing or category, it’s just something you are making up in your head to justify your overtraining.

  • tetosterone is 334 (range 300-800) EDIT I am 35 year old so t level is pretty damn low
3

Your testosterone levels aren’t that low, and yes, doing a lot of aerobic training can suppress those levels.

4

lowest iron about 70, most recent about 90 after one year of eating a steak every fortnight and other red meat at least once a week, plus an iron tablet say four times a week. gut function has in the past been impaired so yours may respond more quickly.

5

Do you know free testosterone level?
SHBG?
Did he test for any thyroid related stuff?

6

As a physician and someone who has been where you are with levels lower than optimal, to really get to the bottom of things, you need more info like Sex hormone binding globulin, free testosterone, estradiol levels, full thyroid panel, and LH FSH and prolactin levels as well as DHEA and am and pm cortisol levels. It is true that training too much and burning the candle at both ends can cause significant problems with your hormonal and other parts of your endocrine function. I would advise that you get f/u with a physician who knows the in’s and out’s of this issue. Unfortunately those can be hard to find. This has been a much more frequent issue in this day we live in with chronic stress and lack of sleep. 20 yeas ago the average testosterone levels for any male across the board were 50-100% higher than they are today. At minimum take some time off from training and get your levels rechecked. While they are in the “normal” range, your level is not where it should be. These so called normal levels are developed by the labs by taking a sampling of the population that is so called “normal” and setting the levels. That is no way really means these levels are truly normal much less optimal or what is to be expected in a man your age.

7

Looks normal to me. I’ve been tested and my levels are just a little lower when I’m training regularly.

It’s a typical response of the body to reduce lean mass if you are doing lots of aerobic work and minimal anaerobic or absolute strength work. Unless you want to be on TRT it’s tough to be a car that gets 80mpg, can pull a boat, can park in any metro area, is maintenance free, etc.

In response to the doc… 50-100% sound like awfully arbitrary numbers. Do you have any specific studies you were quoting those stats from?

8

Do you know free testosterone level?
SHBG?
Did he test for any thyroid related stuff?

Did not test for free tetosterone nor SHBG as far as I can see (I live in Chile, Danish by origen so do not know all the medical terms) but a lot of other stuff incl thyroid:

TSH tiroestimulante (Spanish, I assume it has something to do with thyroid): 1,74 (0,27-4,2)
T4 libre / T4 free: 1,24 (0,93-1,7)

Those levels looks pretty normal?

9

Wow! The guy asks a question and this is your response. Chill out. With an answer like this maybe your testosterone is too high. Geez.

10

Wow! The guy asks a question and this is your response. Chill out. With an answer like this maybe your testosterone is too high. Geez.

While we might not like the way Eric said it, the answer usually comes down to: sleep more, eat better, lift some weights/do some anaerobic activity. But the anti aging doc’s won’t say that because they will make zero dollars off us, so they try to sell a pill, which of course would get us banned from racing anyway.

11

It’s because I get sleep and train properly :wink:

Seriously though, my response was to the Op’s body of posts over the last few months, not this one post. Do a search of his name and see… Apology accepted

. Wow! The guy asks a question and this is your response. Chill out. With an answer like this maybe your testosterone is too high. Geez.

12

It’s because I get sleep and train properly :wink:

Seriously though, my response was to the Op’s body of posts over the last few months, not this one post. Do a search of his name and see… Apology accepted

. Wow! The guy asks a question and this is your response. Chill out. With an answer like this maybe your testosterone is too high. Geez.

Eric, in fairness, if you wanted to respond to the body of OP posts, then you should send the guy a private message as both of you would have the full context. There are many points in your post that are correct, but the tone can easily be mis read by those that don’t have visibility into what the OP has been doing and the only context is you hammering back at his post on this thread. Imagine if you are in a gym, and he asks the exact same question in front of a bunch of people and you’re walking by, and hear his question and respond like you did on this forum. If it was 1:1 with the OP in the gym, the response would be fine, but in front of a group of people who don’t have the full context, people would wonder why you are jumping all over him. Also keep in mind that when people see answers that seem to publicly hammer posters without any provocation, it discourages people from asking their own questions in the future because they fear being beaten up in public.

13

Dev, his questions have been asked and answered. at this point we are a captive audience because he chooses not to listen to what people are saying. In what gym can you ask the same questions over and over and get people to listen? If you don’t like what I’m saying to the guy then you can keep on walking.

this whole thing is just bullshit narrative for an inevitable testosterone prescription frankly.

Let me explain: no, there is to much. Let me sum up:

his testosterone is normal
his iron is normal
he is probably tired
he is probably training too much or the wrong way
he is probably getting too little sleep
he’s probably not eating right
he is getting world class advice from many others here on ST that he is either choosing to ignore or is just trolling us

It’s because I get sleep and train properly :wink:

Seriously though, my response was to the Op’s body of posts over the last few months, not this one post. Do a search of his name and see… Apology accepted

. Wow! The guy asks a question and this is your response. Chill out. With an answer like this maybe your testosterone is too high. Geez.

Eric, in fairness, if you wanted to respond to the body of OP posts, then you should send the guy a private message as both of you would have the full context. There are many points in your post that are correct, but the tone can easily be mis read by those that don’t have visibility into what the OP has been doing and the only context is you hammering back at his post on this thread. Imagine if you are in a gym, and he asks the exact same question in front of a bunch of people and you’re walking by, and hear his question and respond like you did on this forum. If it was 1:1 with the OP in the gym, the response would be fine, but in front of a group of people who don’t have the full context, people would wonder why you are jumping all over him. Also keep in mind that when people see answers that seem to publicly hammer posters without any provocation, it discourages people from asking their own questions in the future because they fear being beaten up in public.

14

Dev, his questions have been asked and answered. at this point we are a captive audience because he chooses not to listen to what people are saying. In what gym can you ask the same questions over and over and get people to listen? If you don’t like what I’m saying to the guy then you can keep on walking.

this whole thing is just bullshit narrative for an inevitable testosterone prescription frankly.

Let me explain: no, there is to much. Let me sum up:

his testosterone is normal
his iron is normal
he is probably tired
he is probably training too much or the wrong way
he is probably getting too little sleep
he’s probably not eating right
he is getting world class advice from many others here on ST that he is either choosing to ignore or is just trolling us

It’s because I get sleep and train properly :wink:

Seriously though, my response was to the Op’s body of posts over the last few months, not this one post. Do a search of his name and see… Apology accepted

. Wow! The guy asks a question and this is your response. Chill out. With an answer like this maybe your testosterone is too high. Geez.

Eric, in fairness, if you wanted to respond to the body of OP posts, then you should send the guy a private message as both of you would have the full context. There are many points in your post that are correct, but the tone can easily be mis read by those that don’t have visibility into what the OP has been doing and the only context is you hammering back at his post on this thread. Imagine if you are in a gym, and he asks the exact same question in front of a bunch of people and you’re walking by, and hear his question and respond like you did on this forum. If it was 1:1 with the OP in the gym, the response would be fine, but in front of a group of people who don’t have the full context, people would wonder why you are jumping all over him. Also keep in mind that when people see answers that seem to publicly hammer posters without any provocation, it discourages people from asking their own questions in the future because they fear being beaten up in public.

Eric

Your answers highly appreciated. Maybe the form could have been different but your content is good and that’s what I care about

FYI I actually I do listen to the advice I get and follow most of it. Also, feeling much better than last week except for the low t amd iron (just kidding :-))

That doesn’t mean I will stop asking questions though

A

15

Had some blood work done as part of a visit to the doctor after having been ill and sluggish mentally and physically for a few days.

In general, results are good but iron and tetosterone is low:

  • tetosterone is 334 (range 300-800) EDIT I am 35 year old so t level is pretty damn low
  • iron 64 (range 49-181)
  • iron saturation 19,7% (20/50%)

A few questions:
Is it true that iron and tetosterone tend to be lower in long course endurance athletes?
What are your levels?
Have you successfully been able to increase tetosterone and iron levels and if yes, how?

Will start with iron supplements I suppose and try to do more weight lifting. Diet etc is pretty good so those levers I cannot pull.

I feel like you should be having this conversation with your doctor.

But as to your question regarding iron levels: yes, I have successfully brought my iron levels up from a low base.

A few years ago, when I was training for my first marathon, I was tested and found to have had ferritin levels much lower than yours (around 19ng/mL) and my haemoglobin was also very low (around 14g/dL) which was close to being anaemic. It shouldn’t surprise you that I felt like shit and my performance reflected that.

How did I bring those levels back up? A few things:

  • Supplements. I take a regular iron/folate supplement. I take it before bed with some lemon juice (vitamin C helps iron absorption);
  • Diet. I’m a relatively hard core vegetarian (got my reasons), so I didn’t decide to chow down on the cow. But I did make sure to include a semi-decent source of iron in all my major meals: fortified milk on my breakfast cereal, beans/lentils with lunch and some leafy green vegetables with dinner;
  • Rest. I took two weeks completely off training after my blood test came back, followed by a week or two of unstructured, easy training.

Since then, I get my iron levels tested semi-regularly (along with B12 and a few others) and I’m always in the clear, even when I’m killing myself training. It can be done, even by a weirdo hippy vegetarian such as myself.

Having said that, your iron levels aren’t that low. I don’t think improving your iron intake will hurt you at iron (iron levels are often lower than average in endurance athletes) but it’s unlikely to be a silver bullet either.

16

My T level was down to 225 during IM training and was due to piss poor overtraining, not enough sleep, not enough food, and generally just overworked. My coach had me back off, but damage was done by then. I am 34 and my doctor told me that I could try DHEA from GNC or just start getting more sleep, eating better, and dropping a long workout or two a week and lift weights instead. I obviously chose better diet, etc. and not DHEA. I thought my diet was good, but as I looked at what I was eating and amount of calories being burned, I was way undervalued.

Therefore, 2014 I will be doing caveman training…not Paleo diet, but actually eating a steak on the ride, carrying a big stick to fend off anyone trying to draft illegally, and brushing up on my grunting to scare off the people I will be passing (all three of them) at the end of the run…