Twenty-One Markers and an ECG
Seven in the morning, fasted, at home. Everything the clinic ordered plus all five things I asked for on top — including the one test that settles the iron question. Full list, and why each one is on it.
Seven in the morning, at home, fasted. Twenty-one markers and an electrocardiogram — everything TRT Colombia ordered, plus all five things I asked for on top.
Four days ago I published what the last panel said and called it final, right before it stopped being final. This is the draw that actually closes it.
21 blood markers + 1 ECG.
16 ordered by TRT Colombia — laboratory value COP $1,270,000, covered entirely by them.
5 added by me — requested in writing the night before, and when no reply had come by morning I printed a one-page request sheet with the tube type for each and handed it to the nurse at the door. All five went in. Additional laboratory cost COP $310,000 — that part is on me, and it is the best value in the whole panel.
Fasted 11 hours. Hydrated. No training beforehand.
The 16 ordered by the clinic
These are the markers the July panel didn't cover — the ones that were measured at baseline in April and then not repeated, which is exactly why comparing was impossible.
| # | Marker | What it answers |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | LH | How suppressed my own pituitary signal is on TRT |
| 2 | FSH | Same axis, and what the HCG is doing. Neither proves fertility — only a semen analysis does |
| 3 | Prolactin | Was high-normal at baseline. Did it climb? |
| 4 | DHEA-S | Adrenal androgen output alongside everything being administered |
| 5 | Morning cortisol | Whether the stress axis is coping with six training days and a deficit |
| 6 | IGF-1 | The one I most want to see. It was above range before I took a single growth-hormone peptide. What did CJC-1295 and ipamorelin add on top of that? |
| 7 | Fasting insulin | Glucose of 89 is excellent — but how much insulin does it cost to hold it there? |
| 8 | HOMA-IR | Insulin resistance, calculated from the pair |
| 9 | HbA1c | Baseline was 5.7% — the first tick of prediabetic. Ninety-four days of deficit and a GLP-class compound should have moved it |
| 10 | Homocysteine | Vascular risk the standard panel misses entirely |
| 11 | hs-CRP | Systemic inflammation — and the check on whether my ferritin of 78 is real or propped up |
| 12 | Vitamin D (25-OH) | Was 35 — sufficient, not optimal |
| 13 | TSH | Pituitary thyroid signal |
| 14 | Free T4 | Thyroid output independent of TSH |
| 15 | Free T3 | Where a sustained deficit throttling the thyroid shows up first |
| 16 | Cystatin C | Settles the kidney question: artefact of muscle and daily creatine, or genuine |
| + | Electrocardiogram | Rhythm and conduction before the protocol goes any further. The one that isn't a blood test |
The 5 I added
These came out of writing the last article. Analysing the complete July panel left two questions I couldn't answer with the data I had, and three numbers I wanted that nobody had thought to order.
| # | Marker | Why I asked for it |
|---|---|---|
| 17 | Reticulocyte haemoglobin Ret-He / CHr | The one that ends the iron argument. It measures whether the red cells being built right now are actually getting iron. Ferritin and saturation only let you infer it. This is the single most important addition on the list. |
| 18 | Albumin | Free testosterone can't be calculated properly without it. My last free-T number rested on an assumed value — this replaces the assumption with a measurement. |
| 19 | ApoB | A better cardiovascular number than anything on a standard lipid panel. It counts the actual plaque-forming particles instead of estimating what they carry. |
| 20 | Lp(a) | Measured once in a lifetime. Largely inherited, completely invisible otherwise, and it changes how aggressive the ApoB target should be. |
| 21 | Soluble transferrin receptor sTfR | Backs up the iron picture and, unlike ferritin, isn't distorted by inflammation. |
The Clinic Wrote Back
A few hours after the draw, TRT Colombia confirmed it: they had passed the request to their medical team, and every one of the five additions went into today's collection — the reticulocyte profile with Ret-He/CHr where the analyser supports it, albumin, ApoB, Lp(a), soluble transferrin receptor, plus further iron markers on top of what I asked for.
Then they said something worth quoting, because it is the part I did not expect:
"At this stage, your current results do not indicate an urgent need for blood donation, phlebotomy, iron supplementation, or an aromatase inhibitor. The best next step is to wait for the additional results and have our physician review the complete picture before making any treatment adjustments."
That is four independent agreements in one paragraph. No phlebotomy. No blood donation. No iron until it is confirmed. No aromatase inhibitor for an estradiol sitting at the top of its range.
Those were exactly the four conclusions the last article argued for — and I reached them by reading a PDF with a lot of help from research, while they reached them as clinicians looking at the same patient. Arriving at the same place from different directions is the only real validation an amateur analysis ever gets.
It is also the correct answer on the merits. The tempting move with a finding like the iron pattern is to act on it — start the supplement, feel productive. The right move is to measure first, because the one thing worse than an untreated iron problem is treating an iron problem you do not have.
Now I Wait
Results will trickle in over the next few days, but the hormone assays are the slow ones — the full set lands in roughly a week.
Then the comprehensive review with the clinic, against the April baseline, with nothing missing for the first time. And then the part I actually care about: a new protocol built on the complete dataset instead of most of one.
The reading order is already decided. Iron first — Ret-He and sTfR settle whether the pattern I found is real and whether supplementing is even the right move. Then IGF-1 against the 251 I was already running before any peptide. Then HbA1c against 5.7%. Then cystatin C and creatinine read as a pair. Then free testosterone recalculated with a real albumin value.
And thank you again to TRT Colombia for covering a panel I didn't ask them to pay for, and to the nurse who turned up at seven, took the printed sheet without blinking, and drew the extra tube.
That one will be the final results. For real this time.
Related Reading
- These Are the Final Results. Nooot. — the complete July panel, and the iron finding that drove three of these additions.
- The Numbers Came Back — the partial results, before testosterone landed.
- Five Tubes of Blood and a 688-Page Manual — where the April baseline came from.
- MONSTER 2.0 — The Blueprint — the training block all of this is measuring.
- The Sword Goes Back in the Sheath — why the recovery weeks are part of the plan.
