Urine Hormone Panel and some other tests

Member Stories Lab Tests
#1

So I have my results from Dr. Crisler. I also asked him to perform the Adiol-G test. The plan of action now is to take DHEA for a month and get retested. He is worried about my adrenals burning themselves out since my stress hormone levels are all high. He was also concerned about the high progesterone level.

Note that I have high levels of T but am still having problems.

Any thoughts/suggestions?

Results(serum):
DHT 30 (25-75) ng/mL
Adiol-G 313 (260-1500) ng/dL
Prolactin 8.9 (2.0-18.0) ng/mL
SHBG 33 (7-49)nmol/L
FSH 3.6 (1.6-8.0) mIU/mL
LH 4.3 (1.5-9.3) mIU/mL
HCG <2 (<5) mIU/mL
Progesterone 1.1 (<1.4)ng/mL

Vitamin D was on the lower end also.

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#2

mystory,

Thanks for posting this. In the Hormone and Blood Testing forum I posted my own analysis of my own urine profile - you should take the time to take the three ratios of 5a to 5b metabolites and compare them to the ranges from the Hong Kong paper. See the sticky thread at top of this forum, note that your 5a THF/THF ratio is 0.43, below the normal 0.5-2.5 range quoted in “Diagnosis of 5alpha-reductase 2 deficiency.pdf”.

Your Adiol-G is low (but higher than the rest of us sufferers) based on papers I’ve read about what normal adiol-G levels should be in men (remember that the ranges quoted by blood labs often include sick folks or transgender folks or what have you). Normal seems to be about 900 to 1500 ng/dL. BTW you are at 3.13 ng/mL in the units that the rest of Mew’s table are in, you may wish to ask him to update the table with the converted units.

kazman

#3

kazman, I read through the Chinese paper. I find it interesting because the methods they use is everything I have been studying in microbiology this semester.

I’m going to give DHEA a shot. I’m worried about my high Corticosteroid levels. My blood pressure has gone up also. It was around 110/70 6 months ago when I was experiencing little to no sides. Now it is 140 to 150/70. It’s a huge increase and my guess is that it has to do with the high cortisol levels. Crisler wants to monitor these since my adrenals can give up. I don’t know what his plan of action is other than hoping the DHEA will make things “magically better”.

Here are my ratios with the ranges in parenthesis. I’m in the lower edge on all three ratios. The 11-OHA/11-OHAe is 0.53 which is below 1.09
5a-THF/THF - 0.42 (0.5-2.3)
5a-THB/THB - 1.32 (0.84-3.50)
A/Ae - 1.00 (0.67-2.96)

The question is where do we go from here? What were our levels like before taking fin? Is low 5ARII activity even responsible for our sides?

From my research I found that IGF1 boosts 5AR activity and creatine boosts IGF1. So you can increase the activity with creatine? I’m going to give it a try after getting my next lab result in a month.
Here are the studies that I looked at: propeciahelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2796

#4

After some thought I can’t imagine that 5arII deficiency is causing my sides. When I was on propecia, 5arII was inhibited completely and I barely had any sides. So being a little deficient in 5arII activity now shouldn’t be as bad. This is so frustrating.

#5

The thing you are worst in are the cortisol related metabolites. According to the Quest Endomanual, the only other 5-alpha reductase issue, as signaled by an out of range Adiol-G in adult men, appears to have something to do with congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH). Have been unable to determine whether too high, or too low adiol-G is the adult male marker for CAH.

A couple of years ago a doc prescribed me topical cortisol to help even out my cortisol secretion (excessive in the morning and then levels crash in the PM). Had to cut back the dose because my blood pressure would spike. I no longer use this and do not recommend it for post-fin, the theory is by taking some in the morning you “rest the adrenals”, might be true for someone with more common adrenal fatigue but not us… Have been researching phosphatyllserine as an approach to resensitizing pituatary cortisol receptors, but looks like the type that would be useful is not yet quite on the market.

How about you specializing in neuroendocrinology. We are going to need several just to treat everyone that has found their way here thus far.

#6

No - Prepecia was supposed to inhibit something like 75 to 90% of 5ar Type 2 )only). There are several cases where the drug completely inhibited Type 1 and Type 2 even after cessation of the drug. Those folks the only relief they can get is DHT in cream or shots.

#7

I know the 5arII inhibition wasn’t complete on fin, but it was a lot more than should be now. I was not aware of people still having 5ar inhibition even after stopping fin(that is what it is looking like with the low adiol-G results, but again we do not know baseline values from before we started, maybe our levels were always low, that’s why we are having side effects now). The only thing that would explain this, is that fin could have induced a different pattern of gene expression. I know that under certain environmental conditions some genes become expressed while others don’t. It’s possible it caused this. Although, after cessation without the environmental stimuli present things should get back to normal.

I will look into CAH.
Perhaps I should also talk to an endocrinologist to get their opinion on what is going on. My levels are obviously out of whack so they shouldn’t tell me that nothing is wrong. Or should I just let Dr. Crisler make all the decisions?

#8

Here is another urine panel that was taken in mid November. As you can see things are evening out with the corticosteroids. Testosterone and DHT are high.
I’m still having sides, although I’m feeling slightly better. I’m not taking any supplements other than vitD and fish oil.
I met with Dr. Crisler and our strategy is just to wait and see what happens. His only suggestion is to take a DHEA supplement.
The 5ar activity is still low if I do the ratios?
5a-THF/THF - 0.41 (0.5-2.3)
5a-THB/THB - 2.05 (0.84-3.50)
A/Ae - 0.93 (0.67-2.96)

It is now 9 months since I’ve been off of 9months of fin usage.
Let me know your thoughts.

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#9

Whats your 3-adiol g, i think you posted it, but i forget what it was? Its the best marker for 5 AR activity, DHT won’t do it alone…Doctors on this board even stated that.