Issue with high hemoglobin & hematocrit (HGB @ 19.6!)

[Jamestrt]

hi guys, i'm back again.

been having some high pressure in my head the past few days, i noticed it most when i was running on the treadmill few days ago.

a 1-minute bloodtest showed my hemoglobin at 19.5, which is about ~58 or ~59 hematocrit. last blood test shows everything else across the board is within range. donated blood yesterday, too, and they told me i can't donate if hgb passes 20. had a doctor visit today, doc said i'm at risk of stroke or heart attack. this makes me concerned! what can i do?

my current dosage is still 100mg IM 1x per week. have been on trt since june 2015.

 

[Vince Carter]

you donated yesterday and your hemoglobin is STILL 19.5...?

 

[Nelson Vergel]

Take a baby aspirin and 1000 mg fish oils once per day and talk to your doctor about again donating or therapeutic phlebotomy (a doctor's order) to be done again. You probably waited a long time but do not stress too much. Your hematocrit will come down.

 

[Hammer]

I am in the same boat. Although I donate 500cc every 8weeks, my hematocrit was 59% and hemoglobin was 19.7 . I take 80mg or 0.4 cc of test cypianate once per week. My H&H was the highest it's ever been and I'm thinking that it is due to taking 25mg of DHEA at bedtime for sleep. I'm 59 years old and use a cpap for sleep apnea so I'm also wondering if my apnea may have caused the dramatic increase in H&H. I'm considering injecting twice per week at 0.2cc per injection to see if that helps. I have been on multiple forms of TRT for 5 years and the injectable seems to raise H&H much more than gels but is much more affordable. Maybe you can inject 50mg twice per week in addition to taking aspirin and fish oil as recommended? I also take aspirin and fish oil as directed by the doc.

 

[luismota]

Things I've noticed that helped is drink lots of water, take some Nitric Oxide stimulating supplements, along with the aspirin and fish oil will help. Avoid Caffeine also, as it is reduces blood flow in the brain, study below.


http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2748160/

 

[Jackie Treehorn]

I am in the same boat. Although I donate 500cc every 8weeks, my hematocrit was 59% and hemoglobin was 19.7 . I take 80mg or 0.4 cc of test cypianate once per week. My H&H was the highest it's ever been and I'm thinking that it is due to taking 25mg of DHEA at bedtime for sleep. I'm 59 years old and use a cpap for sleep apnea so I'm also wondering if my apnea may have caused the dramatic increase in H&H.

Hammer,

Just curious here...do you know what your pre-TRT H&H values were? Did you have sleep apnea prior to starting TRT?

I think there's a real good chance that your sleep apnea has caused an increase in you H&H levels. Your body has probably been trying to adjust for the decrease in oxygen levels in you blood, due to the apnea (increased RBCs, etc). I would have thought that the CPAP machine would help dramatically, but it doesn't seem like this is the case.

What does your doctor have to say about all of this?

 

[Jamestrt]

you donated yesterday and your hemoglobin is STILL 19.5...?

HGB was at 19.5 prior to donating

 

[Jamestrt]

Take a baby aspirin and 1000 mg fish oils once per day and talk to your doctor about again donating or therapeutic phlebotomy (a doctor's order) to be done again. You probably waited a long time but do not stress too much. Your hematocrit will come down.

definitely seeing urologist again next friday.

i also went back to my very 1st pre-TRT blood test results and it turns out my HGB is 17.7 / HCT is 56.1%. maybe i just have abnormally high blood thickness just in general. i'll give aspirin and fish oil a shot!

 

[Jamestrt]

I am in the same boat. Although I donate 500cc every 8weeks, my hematocrit was 59% and hemoglobin was 19.7 . I take 80mg or 0.4 cc of test cypianate once per week. My H&H was the highest it's ever been and I'm thinking that it is due to taking 25mg of DHEA at bedtime for sleep. I'm 59 years old and use a cpap for sleep apnea so I'm also wondering if my apnea may have caused the dramatic increase in H&H. I'm considering injecting twice per week at 0.2cc per injection to see if that helps. I have been on multiple forms of TRT for 5 years and the injectable seems to raise H&H much more than gels but is much more affordable. Maybe you can inject 50mg twice per week in addition to taking aspirin and fish oil as recommended? I also take aspirin and fish oil as directed by the doc.

wow that's quite high as well.. splitting to 2x weekly injections seems to be a good idea, i'll definitely give that a shot as well.

 

[Hammer]

Unfortunately my long winded reply got vaporized somehow so I'll give you the short answer at this point. H/H prior to TRT was 14.7 and 47.4 on average. Normally my H/H levels at the time of donation are about 17.6 - 18.2 with hematocrit at 52-54%. I'm hoping the with to twice per week will do the trick. My apnea levels according to the machine average 1.2 AHI. I was advised that levels below 4.5 are acceptable. The doc hasn't seen the last H/H levels yet. I'm not sure that the Red Cross forwards that info to the docs. I normally have it done in a hospital.