Good day my friend,
None of you really know me, but I’ve been around here for several years and a few other forum boards that have shut down over the last 10-15 years.
I just wanted to weigh in a little bit on the blood work you posted, if you don’t mind. I don’t know too much about your history or what you’re taking or how long you've been taking it, etc. I tell my students that you will learn more from talking with the patient than any chart or lab sheet could ever tell you, but like I said, it would be foolish to sit here and act like anyone could tell you what's going on with your body just by looking at some lab values.
With that being said, I could just give you some insight on what I see without having any other information to go off of.
Your kidney function looks great. Your liver AST level is 34, which means absolutely nothing. HDL levels are too low for my comfort, but unless you want to take medication that has some pretty grueling side-effects you are better off trying to correct it through diet. Besides, cholesterol is more genetics than anything else. I am surprised your cholesterol isn't a little higher with that testosterone level. With regards to your CBC - You have a high RBC count which is common in a lot of individuals who are taking AAS, especially testosterone. There is a disease known as Secondary Polycythemia that AAS can bring upon some individuals which causes an extremely elevated RBC, hematocrit, platelet count, and WBC count, but I don't see that in your labs here. With your high RDW, very low MCV, low hemoglobin and hematocrit, all of these values show you having a Microcytic Anemia. Some of the things we look at with Microcytic anemia are Thalassemias, Iron deficiency anemia, lead poisoning, sideroblastic anemia, and anemia of chronic disease. The majority of patients will have Iron deficiency or anemia of chronic disease.
This isn't to say that you have any of these conditions. AAS can cause your CBC to greatly differ and have such wide variability, especially when talking about RBCs and Iron. If you are having no symptoms, then there's not much that we would really do at this point unless that MCV level sparked an interest, which it kind of does but without any other supporting evidence it makes it impossible to say. Your absolute neutrophil count is nothing, that goes way up with steroid use, inflammation, working out, etc. Anemia causes thrombocytosis all by itself. There are obviously other realms one could delve into, such as the leukemia and lymphomas, but I see no reason to even bring that up at this point as it would be very irresponsible without any other evidence or information to go off of.
Definitely go see the hematologist and see what's going on and what they think, but I don't see a whole lot of anything as far as it being overly concerning. I hope you have a good rest of your week, my friend!
As I'm sure this doesn't need to be said, but this is not medical advice and should not be read as such. This is purely for educational discourse and healthy discussion. Always consult your own personal physician before making any decisions regarding your health. I would caution that you see an actual physician, though, as mid-level practitioners have infiltrated this field of medicine and like to play around in an area of medicine that is much too deep for their level of training (Physician assistants and Nurse Practitioners). Good day, everybody.
