Low Pregnenolone, High Cortisol, Low T

[Peyt]

Hello Everyone,

I would love to know your thoughts on this issue.
I have been feeling tired and run down for a while now. I am 45 years old.
Because of having so many G.I. issues I went to GI doctor (Who also does alternative medicine) to see if he can find out the problem.
After doing several tests, we found out that I have a yeast infection (Candida over-growth) which I will be starting Nystatin for it shortly.

But some of the other blood test results showed hormonal imbalances as well. At the moment, he wants me to treat the candida first before
working on the hormonal stuff. 

What was usual about the test is that my Pregnenolone came out low but cortisol was high!
How can this be?
From what I gathered, Pregnenolone makes Cortisol. So how can I have too much of something when I am low on it's building blocks??

I did have slightly high Cholesterol as well (5% above normal)
Testosterone was low (238)

Your thoughts are greatly appreciated.
Thanks
Peyt

[Kierkegaard]

Hello Everyone,

I would love to know your thoughts on this issue.
I have been feeling tired and run down for a while now. I am 45 years old.
Because of having so many G.I. issues I went to GI doctor (Who also does alternative medicine) to see if he can find out the problem.
After doing several tests, we found out that I have a yeast infection (Candida over-growth) which I will be starting Nystatin for it shortly.

But some of the other blood test results showed hormonal imbalances as well. At the moment, he wants me to treat the candida first before
working on the hormonal stuff. 

What was usual about the test is that my Pregnenolone came out low but cortisol was high!
How can this be?
From what I gathered, Pregnenolone makes Cortisol. So how can I have too much of something when I am low on it's building blocks??

I did have slightly high Cholesterol as well (5% above normal)
Testosterone was low (238)

Your thoughts are greatly appreciated.
Thanks
Peyt

Sometimes the metabolite of a hormone can have such a high demand that it sucks up the hormone from which it's made. I've seen this a few times on the forum, and there's a member with a thread on progesterone and cortisol up right now who has mentioned what you have here. What this could mean is that your preg and progesterone are lowish to begin with or that you're under such massive stress that even normal levels of these hormones can't keep up with your demand for cortisol.

[Peyt]

Hello Everyone,

I would love to know your thoughts on this issue.
I have been feeling tired and run down for a while now. I am 45 years old.
Because of having so many G.I. issues I went to GI doctor (Who also does alternative medicine) to see if he can find out the problem.
After doing several tests, we found out that I have a yeast infection (Candida over-growth) which I will be starting Nystatin for it shortly.

But some of the other blood test results showed hormonal imbalances as well. At the moment, he wants me to treat the candida first before
working on the hormonal stuff. 

What was usual about the test is that my Pregnenolone came out low but cortisol was high!
How can this be?
From what I gathered, Pregnenolone makes Cortisol. So how can I have too much of something when I am low on it's building blocks??

I did have slightly high Cholesterol as well (5% above normal)
Testosterone was low (238)

Your thoughts are greatly appreciated.
Thanks
Peyt

Sometimes the metabolite of a hormone can have such a high demand that it sucks up the hormone from which it's made. I've seen this a few times on the forum, and there's a member with a thread on progesterone and cortisol up right now who has mentioned what you have here. What this could mean is that your preg and progesterone are lowish to begin with or that you're under such massive stress that even normal levels of these hormones can't keep up with your demand for cortisol.

Thanks for your reply.
Well I definitely have a lot of stress in my life. But I have never had the progesterone measured, so I am not sure if it's low.
When Pregnenolone is low will that make progesterone automatically low?
And I wonder if the yeast infection can contribute to the stress.

[PeakT]

Hello Everyone,

I would love to know your thoughts on this issue.
I have been feeling tired and run down for a while now. I am 45 years old.
Because of having so many G.I. issues I went to GI doctor (Who also does alternative medicine) to see if he can find out the problem.
After doing several tests, we found out that I have a yeast infection (Candida over-growth) which I will be starting Nystatin for it shortly.

But some of the other blood test results showed hormonal imbalances as well. At the moment, he wants me to treat the candida first before
working on the hormonal stuff. 

What was usual about the test is that my Pregnenolone came out low but cortisol was high!
How can this be?
From what I gathered, Pregnenolone makes Cortisol. So how can I have too much of something when I am low on it's building blocks??

I did have slightly high Cholesterol as well (5% above normal)
Testosterone was low (238)

Your thoughts are greatly appreciated.
Thanks
Peyt

Sometimes the metabolite of a hormone can have such a high demand that it sucks up the hormone from which it's made. I've seen this a few times on the forum, and there's a member with a thread on progesterone and cortisol up right now who has mentioned what you have here. What this could mean is that your preg and progesterone are lowish to begin with or that you're under such massive stress that even normal levels of these hormones can't keep up with your demand for cortisol.

Thanks for your reply.
Well I definitely have a lot of stress in my life. But I have never had the progesterone measured, so I am not sure if it's low.
When Pregnenolone is low will that make progesterone automatically low?
And I wonder if the yeast infection can contribute to the stress.

This would fit into the "pregnenolone steal" model.  Read up on that, and you'll see what I mean.

[Kierkegaard]

Hello Everyone,

I would love to know your thoughts on this issue.
I have been feeling tired and run down for a while now. I am 45 years old.
Because of having so many G.I. issues I went to GI doctor (Who also does alternative medicine) to see if he can find out the problem.
After doing several tests, we found out that I have a yeast infection (Candida over-growth) which I will be starting Nystatin for it shortly.

But some of the other blood test results showed hormonal imbalances as well. At the moment, he wants me to treat the candida first before
working on the hormonal stuff. 

What was usual about the test is that my Pregnenolone came out low but cortisol was high!
How can this be?
From what I gathered, Pregnenolone makes Cortisol. So how can I have too much of something when I am low on it's building blocks??

I did have slightly high Cholesterol as well (5% above normal)
Testosterone was low (238)

Your thoughts are greatly appreciated.
Thanks
Peyt

Sometimes the metabolite of a hormone can have such a high demand that it sucks up the hormone from which it's made. I've seen this a few times on the forum, and there's a member with a thread on progesterone and cortisol up right now who has mentioned what you have here. What this could mean is that your preg and progesterone are lowish to begin with or that you're under such massive stress that even normal levels of these hormones can't keep up with your demand for cortisol.

Thanks for your reply.
Well I definitely have a lot of stress in my life. But I have never had the progesterone measured, so I am not sure if it's low.
When Pregnenolone is low will that make progesterone automatically low?
And I wonder if the yeast infection can contribute to the stress.

Preg steal is a possibility, as Peak mentioned, which basically means the body has such a demand for cortisol but limited hormonal resources from pregnenolone (either low with normal stress or normal with high stress, etc.) that it sucks up most hormones preceding cortisol in favor of cortisol and dries up the route to DHEA as well. 

And my money is on yeast infections being potentially big stressors.  Any infection sets off inflammatory markers, and these set off stress channels via norepinephrine. 

[Peyt]

Thanks to both of you (Peak-T and Kierkegaard)
I watched a couple of short clips on youtube about pregnenolone steal and it sounds about right.
Especially because I have low DHEA

I think my Dr. is in agreement with Kierkegaard about yeast infection having a big part on this.

Before putting up this thread, I was a little frustrated with my Doctor thinking why doesn't he give me something for Low-T,
But now I realize once I treat the yeast infection, the whole thing may just fix itself or at least improve.
I would probably retest myself for T, Pregnenolone and DHEA once my candida treatment is finished.

Thanks again you guys, you are great!

[PeakT]

Be curious what happens so let us know