Free T too low?

[LewisJ]

23 year old male, is there anyway I could reduce shgb or improve my FAI

 

[Systemlord]

SHBG is influenced by diet and genetics. Lots of vegetables can increase as SHBG. The calculated method for Free T assumes everyone binds T (binding affinity) exactly the same.

The more accurate assays and the calculated method can differ by 40%.

Describe your lifestyle, good and bad habits.

 

[Gladiator]

I thought I had my SHBG under control until last 3 bloods.
It was always at 25-26 until a year ago it dropped to 18. Then up again then 19 then last bloods 30
My free testosterone has gone from 900s to 500s
It’s something that if you don’t have it checked every 4 months you wouldn’t know the difference.

But you can have the same blood sample checked 10 minutes apart and get totally different results apparently

 

[sammmy]

Your Free Testosterone is good and healthy. Supplements do not work for reducing SHBG, no matter what they claim.

Do not try to fix something that isn't broken, in order to "optimize" yourself according to bro pseudo-science. The most you can achieve is to break something, this time for real.

 

[Gladiator]

SHBG rises with exogenous T, so the SHBG result only matters if you're natty. Am I right @readalot?

My SHBG was over 40 before I started trt. Dropped as low as 18 and gone up to 30

 

[Gladiator]

Hmm, I could be understanding it incorrectly, but I do know that looking at SHBG when on trt is misleading, if not pointless (at least regarding its relation to T). Cutaceous has a good post about SHBG being like a sponge. Unfortunately I could not find a way to include it in this thread.

Your SHBG is always relevant. It doesn’t matter if you are on trt or not.
If your SHBG is high it’s going to bind up your testosterone.
Saying it’s working like a sponge is correct. It’s binding up all the goodness and not letting your body use it.

 

[RickB]

Your SHBG is always relevant. It doesn’t matter if you are on trt or not.
If your SHBG is high it’s going to bind up your testosterone.
Saying it’s working like a sponge is correct. It’s binding up all the goodness and not letting your body use it.

Now I remember what @readalot said. The exogenous T will raise the free T but will not lower the SHBG. It’s just that the system is flooded with T leading to more free without affecting SHBG.

 

[Cataceous]

Your SHBG is always relevant. It doesn’t matter if you are on trt or not.
If your SHBG is high it’s going to bind up your testosterone.
Saying it’s working like a sponge is correct. It’s binding up all the goodness and not letting your body use it.

You have to think of free testosterone as like a steady drip of water onto the sponge of SHBG. The sponge always gets saturated eventually so the rate of water dripping off the bottom of the sponge matches the rate of what's entering from the top. In this analogy it is the flow rate of water that provides the "goodness"; at steady state it is unaffected by the size of the sponge. The point is that the amount of SHBG doesn't affect free testosterone much, if at all. Instead, if you have high SHBG then you are simply able to store more total testosterone. The actual driver of free testosterone is the rate of testosterone production in normal men, or the dose rate in men on TRT.