Bloodwork: What to Test and When

📅 July 30, 2026 ⏱️ 2 min read ✍️ Team TPS

Bloodwork is the only instrument that tells you what is actually happening. Almost every problem discussed across this journal, oestrogen, prolactin, lipids, haematocrit, liver, blood pressure, is invisible until measured or until it is advanced.

The core panel

Full blood count. Haematocrit and haemoglobin especially. Compounds raise red cell count, thickened blood is a cardiovascular risk, and it is completely symptomless. Boldenone is the notorious one.

Lipid panel. HDL, LDL, triglycerides. Orals hit these hard and you will never feel it. See cholesterol and lipids on cycle.

Liver markers. ALT, AST, plus GGT and bilirubin. Note that ALT and AST rise from heavy training alone, so an isolated raised reading is not automatically liver damage. GGT is the more specific marker.

Kidney function. Creatinine and eGFR, with the same caveat: high muscle mass and creatine use both raise creatinine without kidney damage.

The hormone panel

Total and free testosterone. Free is the one that matters and it depends on SHBG.

SHBG. Explains why two people with identical total testosterone feel completely different, and why proviron is used.

Oestradiol. Ask for the sensitive assay. The standard immunoassay is unreliable in men and produces readings people then act on.

Prolactin. Only meaningful if you are running progestogenic compounds, but essential then. See cabergoline and prolactin.

LH and FSH. For recovery, to confirm the axis actually restarted rather than assuming it did.

When to test

Baseline before anything, mid-cycle while compounds are running, and post-recovery once the slowest ester has cleared. A baseline is the one people skip and the one that makes every later result interpretable.

Reading it sensibly

Reference ranges are population ranges, not personal ones. A single out-of-range value is a prompt to look closer, not a diagnosis, and trends across tests tell you far more than any one result.

Supplied for research purposes only. Not medical advice.