Has anyone on here successfully raised their SHBG

[Deucalion]

you gave so much good info here
as basic as it sounds, how do you know all of this? studying in your free time? school?

Thanks man, without giving out too much personal info I have a graduate degree in healthcare. I have read a bit of peer-reviewed articles regarding this topic and other steroid-related topics. Honestly, though, the information I provided here is based on what we know so far... There is still debate as to the FULL function of SHBG, this is why my later posts kind of segue into I don't believe increasing SHBG will help out too much, but if you can raise it in a safe way that does not entail taking anti-convulsants, then why not haha?

 

[Rampage0331]

I think I am getting more what you are saying, especially since this is for TRT, not supraphysiological doses/effects. SHBG may actually have a purpose which is to transport T,E2, or DHT to "at need androgen receptors" in this case. So, yes, you may get SOME relief of E2 and DHT symptoms in this scenario due to them being bound and non-active, the thing is you will EVENTUALLY have to process these hormones though. My understanding is that if the SHBG doesn't get rid of the hormone by it binding to a higher affinity androgen receptor, some fall off during pass 1 liver, and most hormones fall off and become bioavailable by pass 2 liver.

I feel like I threw a bunch of information at you, here is the thing, you are correct as far as I can understand it. The thing is I will have to take this a different route so it is more specific to you. What is your free T on TRT? If it is normal, more SHBG would cause the bioavailable (Free T) to decrease causing symptoms of low T at the same dose. Studies now recognize Free T as being the better determiner for TRT replacement than total T. So you taking 200mg per example would feel like 100 mg if you raised your shbg, less sides, but only because you have less bioavailable. It takes a lot to pull those hormones off SHBG the receptor affinity would have to be high, and like I had said DHT and E2 are gonna be the ones more than likely pulled off first due to their molarity and affinity for androgen receptors.

I understand healthcare is awful, I appreciate your service man!

I think you need to really look at this differently SHBG is not going to be able to be influenced much. I hear coffee can raise SHBG, doubtful it would be significant though. You may be better off dealing with issues more singularly. At the end of the day, your free T and aromatization are the problem... DHT you are kinda stuck with unless you take a 5a reductase inhibitor which like you had said previously can be awful for sides... The medicine is pretty clear on all of this, if you are interested in supplements that are NOT tested as rigorously for FDA approval that is a different conversation.

Sorry for this cluster fuck of a post, essentially the gist is I do not think raising your SHBG will do much . Even if SHBG would help relieve some of your symptoms a little bit, raising shbg is impractical and not going to happen in a significant or safe way.

Hey what’s up man! I was hoping I could get your take on something. So I started the Anavar but decided to stop after a week because the pumps were way too gnarly to perform at work (I have a physically demanding job) and I also felt very off. Went and got my bloods done a few days after I dropped the var and when I got my bloods done it was a day after taking a dose of the aromotase inhibitor. My SHBG actually raised to 9 lmao, but It said my estrogen was 168! Usually my estrogen is between 40-60 and that’s not even with an AI. Is this possible that the Anavar raised my estrogen this Much? Could they have ran the bloodwork wrong? I ran this same Anavar for three weeks two years ago and my bloodwork all came back just fine. Curious as to what your take is on this. I plan on getting bloodwork done again in a few weeks and seeing where I’m at. I have the rest of my numbers for blood levels if you wanna know them too

 

[Deucalion]

Hey what’s up man! I was hoping I could get your take on something. So I started the Anavar but decided to stop after a week because the pumps were way too gnarly to perform at work (I have a physically demanding job) and I also felt very off. Went and got my bloods done a few days after I dropped the var and when I got my bloods done it was a day after taking a dose of the aromotase inhibitor. My SHBG actually raised to 9 lmao, but It said my estrogen was 168! Usually my estrogen is between 40-60 and that’s not even with an AI. Is this possible that the Anavar raised my estrogen this Much? Could they have ran the bloodwork wrong? I ran this same Anavar for three weeks two years ago and my bloodwork all came back just fine. Curious as to what your take is on this. I plan on getting bloodwork done again in a few weeks and seeing where I’m at. I have the rest of my numbers for blood levels if you wanna know them too

Hey man, how have you been? Wow, that is insane, what dose of Anavar? I would not think it could have that much of an increase in E2... What is your T and free T levels?

When you say "felt off" what do you mean? Any erection, erection quality, or ejaculation issues? Are any other symptoms like bacne, gyno, or water retention occurring?

I will be honest, I am not well educated in this taking AI for me and controlling E2 has never been a numbers game for me. I have always played it by "feel".
I have heard aromasin CAN cause falsely increased E2 when an immunoassay is used for e2 blood testing. An LC-MS/MS Estrogen blood test would have a lower chance of a false positive, GENERALLY. I am not sure it would in the presence of AIs though, I would assume an LC-MS/MS E2 test would have more specificity.

 

[Rampage0331]

Hey man, how have you been? Wow, that is insane, what dose of Anavar? I would not think it could have that much of an increase in E2... What is your T and free T levels?

When you say "felt off" what do you mean? Any erection, erection quality, or ejaculation issues? Are any other symptoms like bacne, gyno, or water retention occurring?

I will be honest, I am not well educated in this taking AI for me and controlling E2 has never been a numbers game for me. I have always played it by "feel".
I have heard aromasin CAN cause falsely increased E2 when an immunoassay is used for e2 blood testing. An LC-MS/MS Estrogen blood test would have a lower chance of a false positive, GENERALLY. I am not sure it would in the presence of AIs though, I would assume an LC-MS/MS E2 test would have more specificity.

Hey what’s up dude! Thank you for getting back to me. Other than this weird test result life is pretty good over here! How about you?

Here’s the numbers
TESTOSTERONE (TOTAL) 824 H ng/dL
FREE TESTOSTERONE,SERUM 245 pg/mL
ESTROGEN 167 pg/mL
PROLACTIN (MALE) 13.43 H ng/mL 2.64 - 13.13
SEX HORMONE BINDING GLOBU 9.3 L nmol/L 16.5 - 55.9

These are the only relevant numbers here from the blood work. I don’t like my prolactin being high, is there anything I can do about that?

So as far as feeling “off” I had no sex drive, poor erection quality and shitty orgasm sensation. I’m not surprised my estrogen was high. Definitely matches the symptoms, but that high from a low amount of Anavar for 5 days? That seems crazy.

Since then I have pretty much gotten back to normal I think. Morning wood, sex drive is back, good erections and orgasms lol. The whole thing is super weird. I’m getting my levels checked again next week so we’ll see what the new number is. Is it possible a lab can make a mistake an run the test wrong?

 

[Deucalion]

Hey what’s up dude! Thank you for getting back to me. Other than this weird test result life is pretty good over here! How about you?

Here’s the numbers
TESTOSTERONE (TOTAL) 824 H ng/dL
FREE TESTOSTERONE,SERUM 245 pg/mL
ESTROGEN 167 pg/mL
PROLACTIN (MALE) 13.43 H ng/mL 2.64 - 13.13
SEX HORMONE BINDING GLOBU 9.3 L nmol/L 16.5 - 55.9

These are the only relevant numbers here from the blood work. I don’t like my prolactin being high, is there anything I can do about that?

So as far as feeling “off” I had no sex drive, poor erection quality and shitty orgasm sensation. I’m not surprised my estrogen was high. Definitely matches the symptoms, but that high from a low amount of Anavar for 5 days? That seems crazy.

Since then I have pretty much gotten back to normal I think. Morning wood, sex drive is back, good erections and orgasms lol. The whole thing is super weird. I’m getting my levels checked again next week so we’ll see what the new number is. Is it possible a lab can make a mistake an run the test wrong?

Yea, that is bizarre, I have been good thanks!
What got you back to normal? AI or just stopping Anavar?

Anavar is non-aromatizing, I don't understand how this could have occurred, I thought maybe if it displaced T off the AR it may have slowly crept up but that is clearly not the case with your other labs.

This is a total spitball, but maybe your E2 did rise a little from your normal and gave you higher E2 sides but that number is falsely elevated either from lab error, which is rare, or from the immunoassay picking up on something else structurally close to E2.

The prolactin is not too bad, but if you want to drop it down a little there is a supplement called P5P it is essentially a form of B6. I would NOT be looking to do anything drastic with your level being a small amount above normal. They recommend 200mg/day but honestly, you could dose smaller since it is not too high.

 

[Rampage0331]

Yea, that is bizarre, I have been good thanks!
What got you back to normal? AI or just stopping Anavar?

Anavar is non-aromatizing, I don't understand how this could have occurred, I thought maybe if it displaced T off the AR it may have slowly crept up but that is clearly not the case with your other labs.

This is a total spitball, but maybe your E2 did rise a little from your normal and gave you higher E2 sides but that number is falsely elevated either from lab error, which is rare, or from the immunoassay picking up on something else structurally close to E2.

The prolactin is not too bad, but if you want to drop it down a little there is a supplement called P5P it is essentially a form of B6. I would NOT be looking to do anything drastic with your level being a small amount above normal. They recommend 200mg/day but honestly, you could dose smaller since it is not too high.

Yea my understanding of it being non aromatizing made me feel like I was good to take this with no estrogen issues coming up. My blood test was through the VA lab so it could very well be part of the equation here lol.

So I stopped the Anavar and started the AI at 1/8tg of a tab once per week and then bumped up to half a tab this week once I saw how high the estrogen levels were. I’ll probably stick to that 12.5mg dose but try it twice a week this week and see how I feel. I’m gonna do it the way you suggest and focus more on feel than worry about numbers. However, I’m definitely interested to see what my levels are at next week.

Edit: more questions for you.

So I’m getting ready to make the swap to just sourcing all of my test/HCG on my own, but for the moment I’m still using a trt place even though the the dr has no idea what he’s doing lol. The test I have that they prescribe has DHEA in it, I haven’t been taking that brand of testosterone for very long but I was wondering if DHEA mixed in with the testosterone is good to go. I’ve never heard of that before this place. He said it shouldn’t make a difference but I am not familiar with DHEA.

Also, wouldn’t my test levels have to increase to have such a significant increase in estrogen? Without any changes in my testosterone levels how could I have that high of an estrogen level if it is in fact legit and not a lab error?

 

[Deucalion]

Yea my understanding of it being non aromatizing made me feel like I was good to take this with no estrogen issues coming up. My blood test was through the VA lab so it could very well be part of the equation here lol.

So I stopped the Anavar and started the AI at 1/8tg of a tab once per week and then bumped up to half a tab this week once I saw how high the estrogen levels were. I’ll probably stick to that 12.5mg dose but try it twice a week this week and see how I feel. I’m gonna do it the way you suggest and focus more on feel than worry about numbers. However, I’m definitely interested to see what my levels are at next week.

Edit: more questions for you.

So I’m getting ready to make the swap to just sourcing all of my test/HCG on my own, but for the moment I’m still using a trt place even though the the dr has no idea what he’s doing lol. The test I have that they prescribe has DHEA in it, I haven’t been taking that brand of testosterone for very long but I was wondering if DHEA mixed in with the testosterone is good to go. I’ve never heard of that before this place. He said it shouldn’t make a difference but I am not familiar with DHEA.

Also, wouldn’t my test levels have to increase to have such a significant increase in estrogen? Without any changes in my testosterone levels how could I have that high of an estrogen level if it is in fact legit and not a lab error?

Haha yikes, I have heard horror stories about trt clinics and doctors...

That is interesting, DHEA is a precursor to hormones, I could be wrong but not too effective for men on TRT. It can balance cortisol which can be nice, it is usually more effective for women since ~50% of women's androgens are produced by adrenal glands whereas ~5% are for men. I suppose with the HCG it may be a little more effective. I would see if it helps mentally or with libido. DHEA in all of its forms can be found online too so if you like how it feels it is available.

Right, I am confused about that too, I think it must be some form of error. The thing is, you had high E2 sides though, so I am baffled man. That is why I said spitballing, this is odd for sure.

 

[Rampage0331]

Haha yikes, I have heard horror stories about trt clinics and doctors...

That is interesting, DHEA is a precursor to hormones, I could be wrong but not too effective for men on TRT. It can balance cortisol which can be nice, it is usually more effective for women since ~50% of women's androgens are produced by adrenal glands whereas ~5% are for men. I suppose with the HCG it may be a little more effective. I would see if it helps mentally or with libido. DHEA in all of its forms can be found online too so if you like how it feels it is available.

Right, I am confused about that too, I think it must be some form of error. The thing is, you had high E2 sides though, so I am baffled man. That is why I said spitballing, this is odd for sure.

Yea this whole thing is super weird. I’ll definitely give you an update on my next round of bloodwork. I just don’t get how it could be so high when no other levels changed, to me it would make total sense if my test shot up but my estrogen was 4x higher then it was a few weeks ago when I got blood work done and all my other levels are virtually unchanged. I have started a pretty low dose HGH cycle aswell but I don’t see how that could affect anything.

Yea man it’s wild. When I asked my current trt Dr. about SHBG back when we first started talking in this thread he literally said “it sounds like you know more about it then I do” lol. A guy who’s in charge of managing peoples hormones should be the subject matter expert on this. My VA doctor pretty much told me he’s not qualified to give me any advice on my hormone levels without actually saying it, but will do the blood work for me so I’m not paying out of pocket which is pretty cool. Only thing the va has ever done right lol.

I can’t really put my finger on it but I felt better on the previous brand of testosterone I was on, without the DHEA. It’s probably because I used the same stuff for the last three years, but I just feel different since taking this new brand. I’m definitely going to be switching back to just test without any extra stuff in it.

I’ll give you an update here once I get my round of bloodwork back. Hopefully everything is back to normal. As always, I appreciate your feedback and input!