Hey, I started E in January. T dropped at first but two weeks ago, I started feeling a little odd. Just had T levels measured and they more than doubled from pre HRT. Any one ever heard of this? Very, very depressing. ???
I had this happen to me last year when I had my dose doubled.
Bad idea.
It is now back to normal (Both E & T)
No other Meds. Am going this afternoon.
This happen to me. I started E and the next trip to the doc my t was at the top of the range for a male my age. We retested a couple of months later and it has dropped substantially. If it was still at the high level the doctor was going to look for possible adrenal issues.
Quote from: JLT1 on March 06, 2013, 12:53:58 PM
No other Meds. Am going this afternoon.
You should be taking a testosterone blocker in conjunction with your estrogen regimen if you are pre-op SRS or Orchiectomy. Your body will take excessive estrogens in some cases and convert the excess to testosterone, it's not at all unusual.
Quote from: girl you look fierce on March 07, 2013, 05:04:32 AM
Sorry just wanted to point out that it is T that converts to E by aromatization :)
E2 can convert to E1 but not to T.
That is why it should be major cause for concern if taking E makes someone's T go up...
I wouldn't waste any time arguing this with you, but my endocrinologist surely would. I de-transitioned for two years and went on a full male load of injectable T pellets and my boobs got bigger and my body continued to feminize in spite of it. The only difference was that erections came back. I questioned the endocrinologist about it when I saw him last and he made it clear that the body is capable of doing strange things.
Quote from: Shantel on March 07, 2013, 09:00:46 AM
I wouldn't waste any time arguing this with you, but my endocrinologist surely would. I de-transitioned for two years and went on a full male load of injectable T pellets and my boobs got bigger and my body continued to feminize in spite of it. The only difference was that erections came back. I questioned the endocrinologist about it when I saw him last and he made it clear that the body is capable of doing strange things.
Quote from: Shantel on March 06, 2013, 05:51:07 PM
You should be taking a testosterone blocker in conjunction with your estrogen regimen if you are pre-op SRS or Orchiectomy. Your body will take excessive estrogens in some cases and convert the excess to testosterone, it's not at all unusual.
Sorry to say, but you completely misunderstand the physiology of what was happening to you and what is possible. No matter what your endocrinologist may say, there simply is NO enzymatic pathway in humans that can convert estradiol, estrone or estriol to testosterone. It does not happen. In fact it cannot happen in vivo.
You continued to get feminizing effects on testosterone because there IS an enzymatic pathway to convert testosterone to estradiol mediated by aromatase. This frequently happens to body builders that abuse anabolic steroids--they get "bitch tits." Each person's system attempts to maintain the proportion of sex hormones within fairly tight limits via the pituitary-gonad axis. Too much T, and the aromatase pathway is activated converting T to estradiol. Too little T and the pituitary secretes LH and/or FSH to stimulate the testes to produce more T. These limits can be reset and probably were when you were on a feminization HRT regimen prior to detransitioning. Thus, when the endo gave you what should have amounted to a 'normal' male does of T, your system perceived it as WAY too much and aromatized it into estradiol. If you research side effects of Testosterone replacement therapy for men (with low T not wishing to feminize), one of the most common side effects is breast enlargement which happens via aromatization.
However, there is no reverse pathway to convert estradiol to testosterone. Sorry, but that is a fact and if your endo is willing to argue that, you would be well advised to find an endo that knows what they are doing.
Well thanks for the explanation, that seems to make sense. I had probably misunderstood the endo's comments in the first place!