Since we have blown past the medical knowledge of most of the doctors in our rather rural area just because we are transitioning, and my husband drags his feet on any healthcare issues, I get to ask because I am worried.
He started on T a couple months ago. No baseline bloodwork because silly reasons, they used old labs that we don't have the numbers for. He has some sort of cysts that made a gyno immediately offer to schedule a hysto at the time, but he was still trying to act cis at the time and refused. We don't know the details.
At his one month bloodwork, the NP who does our HRT commented "That's interesting." and didn't really go into a lot of details - apparently on his starter dose of T (bloodwork taken about a week after T shot IIRC) he has T levels only a sliver below the cis male range, but his E levels are "high, for a cis female".
That.. bothers me, and I don't know what sort of things I need to try to get him to ask the doctors about. Has anybody got any ideas what we should check for?
T levels drop from very high just after an injection to low just before the next injection. Near male levels at the mid point indicate that the dosage may need to be a bit higher however this can't be determined until after several injections cycles as the T effect is accumulative.
As for estrogen, the female reproductive system take time to shut down and a week isn't sufficient time for that to happen. An additional complication is estrogen levels can be all over the place depending on the time of the month. Without knowing the test results, I don't have a feel for what to ask, but the following table may be helpful.
ESTRADIOL LEVELS
SEX pg/ml
Women (> 18 years old)
Follicular Phase 30-120
Ovulatory Peak 130-370
Luteal Phase 70-250
Post-Menopausal 15-60
Male 15-60
TOTAL TESTOSTERONE LEVELS
SEX ng/dl ng/ml
Females 6 - 86 0.1 - 1.2
Males 270 - 1100 2.4 - 12
I always ask for copies of test results so I can check them later if I need to, or if I move and need them in the future.
I didn't mean he started T then got bloodwork a week later, he started T with an injection every two weeks, then got a blood draw almost four weeks in. So come to think of it, he had to have had almost two weeks since his last injection. In any case, he got moved up to "the same dose but every week", but the numbers were enough to make the NP remark on them as odd.
On the one hand I don't want it to be serious, but on the other hand, I want it to be serious enough that we can call a hysto+oopherectomy "medically necessary" to insurance. :-\
Unless his dose was ridiculously low then it should be 'half the dose every week' or 'regular dose every two weeks'. That's what my endo does.
I'm not sure what's going on with your husband but I have insanely high E. I found out when we did a baseline to know what my starting point is with a few things. My E was so high I was in Estrogen Dominance and my doctor was chill about it saying that I'd go on T and we'd check the levels again at 6weeks to see how my body is reacting. I haven't gotten my results back yet but my health is improving. Having really high E can cause all sorts of issues but your husband having cysts is a whole other thing especially if the doctor thinks its necessary to operate. I hope he's doing alright and you guys have gotten some answers.