Could use some reassurance

[DuchessBianca]

Hello! This is more of a spinoff of a thread I posted before but I'm currently panicking a bit for probably irrational reasons and could use some reassurance. Had my blood work last week and everything was pretty much all good except my prolactin levels have went up from 10ng/mL at 2 months to 21.0 ng/mL at a bit over 6 months. My doctor while he most likely believes it's elevated due to my elevated estradiol levels he just wants to be safe and make sure that is the reason and not prolactinoma. He has told me to cut my estradiol dosage by 2/3rds for 2 weeks (my Spironolactone and Finasteride dosages will not be affected) and get retested and if my prolactin levels go down a bit then everythings perfect and if not then he wants to schedule an MRI to check. The thought of lowering the dosage of a pill that while not perfect has brought me not just slight physical changes thus far but so much mental stability/peace has been sending my mind into chaos/panic mode a bit as I'm just terrified of losing any potentional physical changes/more importantly the mental ones and reverting to the suicidal/complete mess I was before starting HRT. I have tried seeing if I could just get the MRI outright and bypass the lowering dose 2 week trial but he has told me that my insurance might decline to pay for it if tried outright and continued to recommend the 2 week trial.

So is my mind just panicking for no reason and everything will be fine for me and nothing will be lost during those 2 weeks? >_<

[Michelle_P]

Bianca, you'll be just fine, and won't lose anything.  Yeah, you'll feel funny knowing your E dose is lower, but for a few weeks, it's no big deal.  On the prolactin level, 21 ng/mL is pretty low, really.

There's a really cheap test that measures the amount of actual real prolactin, compared to macroprolactin, huge molecules that test like prolactin but are actually inert and harmless.  You might nudge your endocrinologist to try that test.  It takes several days to get results back, but it can do wonders to set your mind at ease. (Macroprolactin, Serum; Test ID MCRPL)

My level was running around 40, but the Macroprolactin test showed the level of active prolactin was down around 9.  MRI showed a 3mm adenoma on one side of the pituitary gland, a probable prolactinoma.  (MRI = Expensive!; Macroprolactin, Serum test = Cheap...  Should have done the test first rather than MRI... Live and learn...)  If I could have avoided the MRI, I could have saved a few thousand US dollars.