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Surprised by a Hormone Panel


SquashFairyDude

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SquashFairyDude

Hope this is the right place to post, if not I'd be happy to move it. I just got a hormone panel done by LabCorp to further explore myself (and to see if my body was out of balance or something), and I must say the entire process was quite painless. It only cost about $170, it took less than a week from start to finish, and everything was done buisness as usual. Bear in mind, any kind of blood test is simply a snapshot of your ever-changing hormone levels at any given time. I took my test in the afternoon after 12+ hours of fasting because testosterone levels are typically elevated in the morning. I am a 25 year old Caucasian male (who nerds out about stuff like this), and if I have made any mistakes in my interpretation/understanding, please let me know. Here's what I got.

 

1. Luteinizing Hormone: In males, LH up-regulates secretion of testosterone from the testes when levels are low.

  • Healthy Levels: 1.7-8.6 mIU/mL
  • My score: 7.7 mIU/m

2. Follicle Stimulating Hormone: In males, FSH matures developing sperm cells and blocks LH receptors within the testes (thus inhibiting testosterone secretion)

  • Healthy Levels: 1.5-12.4 mIU/mL
  • My score: 3.7 mIU/mL

3: Testosterone: The primary males sex hormone involved in sperm production, muscle/bone growth, and libido. While men produce much more testosterone than women, women are typically more sensitive to it's effects.

3a: Serum Testosterone: Total testosterone. About half of this is active, while the other half is not yet active

  • Healthy Levels for my age bracket: 264-916 ng/dL
  • My score: 905 ng/dL

3b: Free Testosterone: 1-2% of the serum testosterone, is active

  • Healthy Levels: 9.3-26.5 pg/mL
  • My score: 13.4 pg/mL

4: DHEA-Sulfate: A hormone that is not entirely understood, but gets converted into sex hormones including testosterone

  • Healthy Levels: 138.5-475.2 ug/dL
  • My score: 176.9

5: Estradiol: A major female sex hormone. Women have much higher levels than men, and it's effects are complex. For my purposes, it is thought to down regulate testosterone secretion. 

  • Healthy Levels: 7.6-42.6 pg/mL
  • My score: 28.3 pg/mL

I got insulin and thyroid stimulating hormone (not involved with sex/libido as far as I know) tested while I was at it , and they were both normal. 

 

As a pretty thin guy who has never felt sexual attraction in his life, I was expecting my testosterone to be on the low side of normal. Surprisingly, I was on the upper fringes of healthy serum testosterone while being pretty average for free testosterone, even after I deliberately went at a time that testosterone is typically lower in the day (to avoid a false "normal" score if my testosterone was low). All accompanying hormone levels were also nothing to really write home about, implying that I should have as strong a libido as any other guy in his 20s, if not somewhat stronger. Moral of the story, people are complex. Have you ever gotten a hormone panel? If so, were your levels high, normal, or low? Regardless, what are your thoughts?

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I am a middle aged female, mostly healthy (for my age!) - ten years ago I had my "chemistry" checked also - NORMAL !!!  So, asexuality is NOT a hormone imbalance, and people who don't know anything about asexuality should stop saying it is.

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I don't know about a "panel" but I did have numerous checks done over the years and the number one thing that apparently stands out every time is low testosterone.  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

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Low testosterone may show a relative lack of sexual arousal.  Testosterone levels have nothing to do with whether someone wants to have sex with another person.   Many asexuals who feel sexual arousal satisfy it with masturbation.  

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Look at it this way. Every test is within normal levels, ergo the chances of any illness within the HPT axis are as minimal as reasonably possible. 

 

As our other respondents have said, hormone levels have precisely nothing to do with romantic attraction or sexual attraction. They can affect libido, but a) this doesn't apply to everyone, and b) they aren't the only cause. 

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The fact that asexuality is not related to testosterone is an important reason for thinking of it as an "orientation".

 

I read about some old research trying to get homosexual men to want women by giving them more T. Guess what they wanted? More sex... with men.

 

My partner has median testosterone. It's worth checking, in case low libido due to hormonal issues is getting confused with asexuality. But yeah.

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  • 3 weeks later...
QueenOfTheRats

Nice testosterone score, OP. My hormones were all good too. Asexuality really is an orientation.

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