dehydration and doing blood tests for testosterone.

[DragonBits]

I recently did a blood test which included total T, I was surprised that my total T was 868 ng/dl. This was 12 weeks after injecting testosterone undecanoate.

Typically I would have expected around 600 ng/dl.

A few days later, I discovered I was seriously dehydrated. So I wondered, was the reduced total blood volume giving me a higher relative level of total T?

Any thoughts about this possibility?

 

[Nelson Vergel]

A few days later, I discovered I was seriously dehydrated. So I wondered, was the reduced total blood volume giving me a higher relative level of total T?

Any thoughts about this possibility?

Yes, very possible.

 

[Cataceous]

The effect seems rather large to be caused by dehydration. If that were the mechanism then wouldn't it represent a huge—and probably fatal—loss of fluid? More likely factors include lab error, change in SHBG, etc.

 

[DragonBits]

The effect seems rather large to be caused by dehydration. If that were the mechanism then wouldn't it represent a huge—and probably fatal—loss of fluid? More likely factors include lab error, change in SHBG, etc.

I had gotten myself really screwed up with the issue of chronic and acute dehydration, and I had another "odd" blood test result. It so happened that I saw my primary care doctor on 2/19 and he did a comprehensive blood test which included PSA+%, then on 2/21 I did a psa+% which my urologist had schedule.

On 2/19 my PSA was 4.2 % free 23.4, then on 2/21, PSA was 4.7 % free 18.4. At the time, I thought the 4.7 was an outlier, maybe sex or maybe lab error, just seemed out of the norm for such a short time between tests. My potassium level was a little high and out of range, but that happens often for me.

What really triggered my aggressive deep dive into this was blood pressure.

On my visit to the PCP on 2/19, my blood pressure was 124/81, but the next few days my BP started to go down to 109/69, I thought that's good. Then the next day BP shot up to as high as 180/106, and on my visit to the urologist on 2/28 to discuss PSA results, the assistant first measured BP at 190/110 in the doctors office. Even after a second BP test where I calmed down a little, my BP was still 174/97.

I was shocked and wondered what the heck is going on?

At first I thought I wasn't taking enough magnesium, but taking more didn't help Then looking online at BP and seeing that dehydration can cause these types of BP changes, and I know sometimes I had a dry mouth when sleeping.

After that, I drank 2.5 quarts of water, including taking fasting blood salts (to balance electrolytes), I didn't really urinate that much after but still my BP stayed pretty high, in 150 range.

In desperation I got out the "big guns" (the next step if nothing worked would be a doctor or hospital visit). The big guns means I took a triamterene-hctz 37.5MG /25 Mg tab. (In my "stock" from when my mother was taking BP meds) Also on my mind was I was scheduled on 3/2 for a prostate MRI with contrast, I didn't want to have to cancel the appointment or get intravenous gadavist in that situation, and if they checked BP before the MRI, no doubt they wouldn't want to proceed.

That sure worked. I peed a lot that day, then my BP went back to normal, today it's 124/81 without doing anything special.

I sort of know what led to being dehydrated like that, but this post is already long. So now I just keep 2 quarts of water at my desk and make sure i finish them before 7 PM.

Cross my fingers and sure glad this is over !!