sorry, I had a client come and see me so I had to rush the rest of my response.
I don't know what your test levels are and SHBG levels are, so let's look at this for the time being on an assumption basis.
If your test levels are low your SHBG levels are high, this could be potentially due to your keto dieting, I have written a prior response to someone on the forum here, so excuse me if i paraphrase for this example.
think of basic human survival in cave man-day, when food is low(winter months) the hunters would become lethargic and do not much hunting and working as they are there to survive, and that is generally because fruit and carbs and excess of fatty meat wasn't available (winter and snow would make animals scarce, and fruit would die in the cold) so what would happen is your their hormone levels would drop, just to maintain basic survival. so if you are trying to survive and you are barely eating enough to do so, testosterone levels would diminish, thyroid levels would diminish as the body is trying to conserve as much energy as possible.
However, Come to the change of seasons, food would become more plentiful so when eating in abundance again would bring the body out of survival mode, and start becoming fully nourished again. now when foods are higher, especially based carbohydrate foods, insulin is secreted, and we know that higher levels of insulin have been known to lower SHBG. So here comes the logical thinking of this point... When food is higher, and your body is fully nourished, your hormones come right, and when in summer that is MATING season, so when that happens and hormones are at their highest, the FRUIT OF THE LOINS is more desirable.
But, I see you have said you have done a keto cut, and I am assuming that you did the traditional keto type of cut where you didnt really do any carb ups or if so, very minimal.
The benefit of the ketogenic diet is that insulin is low, and the growth hormone is high, and testosterone can be elevated. However, you do this a long enough time, and there are adaptions to the metabolism. Thyroid levels start to drop as most people are scared to bump up calories to where they need to be from time to time. This is why carbohydrate spiking in a keto diet to me, is incredibly important. Now with insulin levels being elevated during these carb up periods, as from above, SHBG levels will decrease, allowing for testosterone levels to be spiked higher, etc. We all know that higher testosterone combined with higher insulin levels is a magical response for gaining muscle, but if you aren't depleted enough, gaining fat too.
Back to the example of if your calories are too low during a cut and with traditional Keto dieting.
Look at anorexic women and highly undernourished women for that matter, the first thing they lose is their period, as their reproductive system shuts down as they aren't eating enough food to survive themselves, how are they supposed to support growing a human inside of them when caloric needs would be even higher than normal. Same thing here, when not eating enough your hormone levels are going to plummet. Anyone who has been through a drastic contest prep diet/Cut will attest to at about 8 weeks out,
www.youporn.com
goes out the window and you tend to go to
www.foodporn.com
.
remember the body is designed to survive. When food is low, your body wants to hold on to as much stored energy as possible (body fat) so what it does it starts lowering your energy so that you burn less, and store more for the long term survival. so how does it lower your energy requirements?
Well, thyroid levels decrease and you become lethargic. Your body starts to sacrifice muscle, as the more muscle you have the more energy you burn and that's a no-no at this stage! So body also shuts down the reproductive system lowering testosterone, so that you can survive, not procreate, as well as be energetic when it comes to combat. So looking at survival, your body may need 2000 cals to Survive, and you may need 2800 to MAINTAIN healthy hormone function so your 2300 calories are enough to survive and still keep hormones functioning for a period of time before leptin drops and your body realizes you aren't taking in that maintenance calorie level, or even over nourishing the body to keep your body thinking of the summer months like in the caveman days.
So the standard diet these days for people is a HIGH protein, Low fat, and high carbs as a rule, however I see some retardedly low amounts of saturated fats on most people that fuck with healthy endocrine function as I stated for your Mrs above.
So for me, my suggestion would be to sort out your diet, that they is between 25% and 30% fat intake in your diet, your protein is at about 1.25g per LB(2,5g/KG) of LEAN BODY MASS. Fill the balance of calories with carbs.
Your diet should be at about 100 calories more than maintenance at the current level to allow for your body to be SLIGHTLY overnourished.
As From above, you want to use some adaptogens to aid and assist you with what you want to do.
Ashwagandha at 300mg 2x daily. Studies have shown that Ashwagandha can raises testosterone levels and lower cortisol levels.
Boron at 10mg a day have had some studies say it will lower SHBG and estrogen, and some studies that have said it isn't the case, for the cost? throw it in, rather be sorted than not.
Tribulis at 500mg/1000mg a day. Old school sexual stimulant, and if you dont want to BANG then you arent going to have kids. Just saying, its apart of the process...thank me later
Mucana Puriens has been to raise dopamine levels and lower progesterone levels which can also raise the feel good hormones and help balance any hormone imbalances there are.
Staminogro has an insane profile for helping with fertility, you will need to pay with your 3rd unborn child for it, but it is great.
3 other things that I didn't mention: ZINC, MAGNESIUM, CBD
Zinc is known to be deficient in many people, and aids with many metabolic functions.
Magnesium lowers inflammation, and aids with healthy hormone function, and improves insulin sensitivity.
CBD has also been known to lower inflammation, cortisol, and many other cognitive functions too.
This is a shameless plug for a mate of mines product here, but Wild Leaf Infusions make a CBD HOT COCOA, that is infused with Magnesium, Zinc, AND 20mg Of CBD per serving. That combined with a simple sugar that will spike insulin somewhat and aid you with sleep, it is the perfect product for assisting you with what you are going through. It's not badly priced in comparison to most other CBD products, most 200mg tinctures are going to cost you R400 roughly, so this container has 200mg total for R229.95 as it is locally manufactured, can get from
www.wildleafinfusions.com
limiting training to 4 days a week will let you recover Better, less inflammation, still allow for you to gain muscle, and have time with family. I don't know if you are currently training in a gym set up due to this POES lockdown but if you are then awesome!
anyway, sorry I didn't get to a full response here yesterday. I am making assumptions of what you are dealing with, and I am shooting in the dark big time, but hey, don't know if you don't try, and gotta try and pull that shotgun approach and hit every topic possible.
