Bloods taken before and after nine months, and the changes are large enough that I want to understand which are cause and which are consequence.
The narrow version of the question is why total and free can move differently here, and which of the two is worth tracking.
I would rather have one careful answer than five confident ones.
Short answer first, then the reasoning. Quarterly for the first year is convention rather than evidence, and it is defensible for a simple reason: it is roughly the interval over which HbA1c becomes informative again, since it reflects about three months of glycaemia. After the first year, and once doses are stable, annual is reasonable unless something specific is being followed.
PurityPaulOR said:Quarterly for the first year is convention rather than evidence, and it is defensible for a simple reason: it is roughly the interval over which HbA1c…
Agreed, and reference ranges are laboratory-specific. Comparing your number to somebody else's range, or to a screenshot from another country, is how people convince themselves something is wrong.
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View ResultsDr.PathRoch said:Bloods taken before and after nine months, and the changes are large enough that I want to understand which are cause and which are consequence.
Can confirm the pattern Dr.PathRoch describes. One addition: if the lab changes analytical platform between your draws, the comparison breaks and nobody tells you. It is worth asking when a value moves inexplicably.
Clinical perspective, offered as context rather than as advice.
Sex hormone labs after weight loss on the hormone panel — for the men in this thread:
Testosterone: 319 → 559 ng/dL (dramatic improvement!)
Free T: 7.4 → 12.9 ng/dL
Estradiol: 51 → 29 pg/mL
SHBG: 25 → 41 nmol/L
Visceral fat contains aromatase which converts testosterone to estrogen. As you lose visceral fat, this conversion decreases and testosterone naturally rises. I feel 10 years younger.