TRT to Regulate High SHBG
Hubby here trying to help solve a puzzle for his wife. My wife is 45 and has had unregulated hormones for the past 5-7 years. Estrogen, Testosterone and SHBG have always been all over the place. One test sky high, the next borderline high, then sky high again. Never low or average, just borderline high or high. No pattern or obvious reasons.
She's always complained of feeling like her hormones were extremely low and with SHBG being very high it makes sense as all the estrogen and testosterone is "Bound" up. So even though her Estrogen/Testosterone are high...they are on the sidelines, unavailable. Free testosterone is basically zero.
Quality of life is hurting. Zero libido, brain fog, low energy, poor mood, the usual suspects for low hormones.
Endocrinology just shrugged their shoulders...no obvious gotcha's or signs of tumors...so they just said "you're probably just entering menopause". She saw a woman's health center focused mainly on perimenopause, menopause and women's health. Finally someone willing to help.
They put her on an Estrogen patch (Chimara), 0.05mg/wk and Testosterone 1% gel (Androgel 50mg/5gm packet). She is supposed to use 1/10th of the packet per day as opposed to the whole thing that men would normally take.
Her Dr's thought process is that by introducing external hormones the body will stop producing as much on their own and eventually stop almost completely and rely on external sources. The thought is the SHBG will also go lower as HRT (specifically TRT) continues and it will free up available hormones.
Anyone have experience with HRT/TRT to regulate high SHBG? Did TRT help?
Thanks, Concerned Hubby.