Test Prop problems and PIP.... causing inflammation raising my ferritin levels.....

[BillyJ03z]

I have been on Test Prop 100mg @ .25mg ed (SQ and Shallow IM with 28g insulin)... Shots are incredibly easy but the PIP feels like I got hit with a shot gun and I always get sore, hard lumps at injection sites for a few days. The strength I feel on Prop vs Cyp is noticeably better which is why I like Prop.

So I had my blood tests done to check Thyroid and RT3 and my Ferritin is at 196ng/ml when it was only 115 back in May '18... A person on a thyroid forum told me that I am showing a lot of inflammation. I have not been sick and/or had any injuries... The only thing that changed since May 18 is that I started on Prop in beginning of June 18....

But since starting Prop I have been experiencing sore joints and random body pains at other joint areas (low back, etc...) I'm wondering if the Prop is causing inflammation in my body giving me these problems which is also making my thyroid kind of wonky due to iron issues now....

I was told that my Iron level and my Ferritin level are too far apart and concerning..... Any thoughts?

-Free T3: 4.0 ref range 2.0-4.4
-Free T4: 1.7 Ref Range: 1.2-4.9
-T3 Uptake: 26 Ref Range: 24-39 %
-Thyroid Peroxidase (TPO) Ab:13 Ref Range: 0-34 IU/mL
-Reverse T3, Serum: 14.9 Reference Range: 9.2-24.1 ng/dL

-Iron: 94 Reference Range: 38-169 ug/dL
-Iron Bind.Cap.(TIBC): 292 Reference Range: 250-450 ug/dL
-UIBC: 198 Reference Range: 111-343 ug/dL
-Iron Saturation: 32 Reference Range: 15-55 %
-Ferritin, Serum: 196 Reference Range: 30-400 ng/mL

 

[HealthMan]

I don’t see anything wrong with your iron/ferritin levels. Regarding the reaction you are having it seems to be more common with testosterone propionate than cypionate. You might wanna try injecting in a different place or deep in the muscle instead of shallow IM/subq.
Have you compared your labs (Cypionate vs Propionate)? Maybe you are responding differently to propionate and that might explain the sore joints etc difficult to know. But given you started to experience that after switching it is most likely the cause. Just make sure hormones like estradiol haven’t changed much after switching.

 

[BillyJ03z]

I was told on a thyroid forum that my Ferritin and iron are too far apart.... my iron should be higher and my ferritin lower... and my RT3 is a little high.. trying to dial in my thyroid, etc...

About a week a go I started injecting a combo of 10mg Prop/15mg Cyp (25mg total).... that seems to have lessened the residual PIP tremendously.....

 

[MarkM]

Your iron and ferritin are fine. Your ferritin is actually very good but you could bring your iron up some more. Ferritin is the storage for your iron while iron serum is the iron actually circulating in your blood. Just consider the fact that the range for ferritin is much greater than the range for iron. Only makes sense that ferritin can be higher than iron. So many people have low iron storage (ferritin) that they ar3 not used to seeing such good ferritin levels. Your TIBC and UIBC alone with your iron saturation ar3 good too.

Your thyroid looks good to me. Your RT3 is close to 15 but you have good levels of Free T3 which gives your a Free T3:Reverse T3 ratio of over 26 which is good. You want that ratio greater than 20. If your Free T3 were only 2.0 with your RT3 of 14.9 then that would be off.

What is your E2? Might have ver6 low estradiol. Are you takin* an AI?

 

[BillyJ03z]

What do you recommend to raise Iron levels?

My last blood test where I had my E2 checked was 1 month ago and it showed 20 pg/ml (20 - 53) labcorp....

Also, I was told my FT4 is in the bottom low end of acceptable and should be in the upper 50% range... I seem to have Hypo symptoms....

 

[MarkM]

Those are not LabCorp ranges for Estradiol Sensitive. That range is 8.0 - 35.0. Looks like you tested with the wrong Estradiol rest. The Roche ECLIA methodology test, which I believe you took, is for women. You need the Estradiol Sensitive test, LC/MS/MS assay. The non-Sensitive test you took normally registers a much higher estradiol figure than the Sensitive test. My guess your Estradiol Sensitive is much lower than the non-sensitive results you have.

It is my bet that you have very low E2 symptoms and that is creating the bone and joint issues.

Your iron is not bad. A good diet of red meat, chicken, fish, liver will help and if your supplement with Vitamin C and lysine it well help your item get absorbed. I don’t really think you need to supplement with iron. If you do, something small with like Thorne Research Ferrasorb. It has 36 mg of ferrous biglycinate chelate iron that absorbs well.

 

[BillyJ03z]

I did use an AI awhile ago as I had spiked my E2 very high when I started supplementing with DHEA. I stopped AI about 2 months but seem to still have some residual symptoms... ie. joint pain....

I eat a lot of red meat, chicken, etc... I guess it's just gonna take a little while to build up my E2 again.. on my next test I will make sure I do an E2 sensitive.... thanks for your help MarkM