High LH, FSH and normal testasterone

[zooz333]

Hi...I'm a 37 years old male and recently I did a couple of semen analysis and they came up with low sperm count (one test was 10 million and the next which was 1 week later was 7.6 million).
My doctor ordered a hormone test for FSH, LH, testesterone, and prolactine, the results were as follows:

Testosterone: 9.63 ng/ml  (Normal range 2.6 - 10.1)
Prolactine: 7.35 ng/ml (Normal range 2.7 - 16.9)
LH: 13.1 mIU/ml (Normal 0.8 - 9.1)
FSH: 11.2 mIU/ml (Normal 1.6 - 11)

my doctor told me a whole lot of confusing stuff which didn't make sense to me based on my medical knowledge which I confess is also general but the question marks for me were:

She told me I'm sufferring from failure in the gland producing the LH and FSH (anterior pituitary gland), and that will cause after a short while the inability to produce sperm at all, but isn't failure means Low levels???? this gland is responsible for production of many other hormones, shouldn't there be any other abnormal symptoms of failure other than low sperm count???

Could the FSH and LH be high and still the testosterone is in the UPPER normal levels???shouldn't the testosterone be low??

High LH could indicate testicular failure.....shouldn't that cause also low testosterone??

I just want to know whether this report (High FSH, LH and high testosterone) without having any other symptoms except low sperm count makes sense or not...I'm a bit suspicious about the accuracy of the lab results..

cheers to you all....

[solace21]

Hi Zooz333,

     On a second thought, your problem appears to be due to deficiency in aromatase enzyme, which could be confirmed by testing the estrogen level. Have a look at the following article and the Table-5 therein :

http://www.endotext.org/male/male17/male17.htm  

If the same is confirmed, a low dose estrogen treatment should bring back the hormone levels under control and might also improve the sperm count. My earlier comment regarding  zinc and folic acid, I hope, should still hold good as an additional benefit. As zinc does mediate many enzyme production in the body, I am not sure whether the benefit from zinc is also as a result of improvement in aromatase enzyme production. Any how, zinc is said to maintain the structure of the sperms.  Please discuss these points with your doctor.

Solace.

[solace21]

Hi,
    I shall share my knowledge/ignorance on this subject as follows:
When you have high levels of Testo, your brain ( Hypothalamus and pituitary ) should have sensed the same and correspondingly reduced the levels of LH and FSH, but as per the report, it does not happen, which means, there is some problem with the negative feedback in the brain. It may be due to some problem with the testo receptors in the brain, or due to reduced level of free testo in circulation. So you should also check the free testo in the blood. Free testo can reduce if your liver produces more of SHBG. You can also a test for SHBG. It is also better to do the whole tests in another Lab to rule out any errors in measurement.
As far as sperm production is concerned, it is entirely done in the testes, based on FSH and testo level. If your free testo is less, it could affect spermatogenesis. Low sperm may be due to many other factors, including low Zinc absorption. There are medical reports which talks of improved sperm production after treatment with zinc and follic acid, if you want I can dig it up for you.
Are you consulting an Endo, in any case, take a second opinion from an Endo with a new set of Lab reports.

Solace