blood test question

[sap]

Tomorrow I need to do a blood test for my second endo appointment.
Now, she didn't tell me if I should do the test before I take my hormones or after?
Should I wait until after the test? Should I just take them at the regular time?

[Dena]

I use pills and was told not to take my pill the day of the test. I can take it after the  test.

[Ms Grace]

I take mine after my blood test, but I have my tests very first thing in the morning so I'm still taking them at more or less the same time.

[JessicaSondelli]

I was asked to do the blood test 6 hours after taking my morning dose.


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[KayXo]

Goes to show you that blood tests can be strongly influenced by when and what you take so that in the end, especially levels of estradiol are unreliable. At any given point of time, they may be high and then lower or higher at another point in time. If some endos only stopped and realized this...I proved this when I got tested at the same time, on a fast, in two days interval. E and P levels differed by a great margin, especially E. Other factors also changed quite a bit.

[Debra]

I take mine before the test to show a 'high point' of the estrogen...but we have done blood tests 12 hrs after taking it as well

[sap]

In the end I did the blood test early in the morning, it was about 12 hours after my last hormones and then I took my hormones almost in the regular time (delay of minutes  )

But what should I expect the results to be that way? Would it show my Estrogen in the male range?
How can the doctor know whether she should raise my intake that way?

[melissa_h]

I didn't get instruction on this, but for test 2 and 3, I took my pills as I always have, in the morning, with the test near the noon hour.

Levels had actually dropped from 141 to 110 between tests, in spite of an increase in dose.

If the doc gives instruction, follow it, otherwise I'd say it's up to you

[KayXo]

But what should I expect the results to be that way? Would it show my Estrogen in the male range?
How can the doctor know whether she should raise my intake that way?

I personally find that basing dose on levels makes no sense because they fluctuate so much during 24 hours and test doesn't measure how sensitive you are to levels. It's never been found that a certain range produced the best results in all transwomen. And we can't compare to ciswomen because they developed at an earlier age, with no prior masculinization and high growth hormone levels. Their levels fluctuate anyways, quite a lot during the cycle, from 20-650 pg/ml so where to aim???

I think it makes more sense to base dose on how you feel and how well your physical transformation is progressing. If things are moving along just fine, why change anything right now?

You can bring this to your doctor's attention, perhaps. See what they say.