Finally got blood tests -

cholesterol, liver function, kidneys, glucose etc all fine! My blood is in great shape for someone in their 50's who has been on HRT for 30 years.

Blood serum levels

Estrogen 2623
Progesterone 318
Testosterone 0.7

What does that mean and are these levels ok? I feel great - but what are the normal ranges...

advice please from someone who has more experience...

looks like you were tested right after administering your hrt right?

E is pretty high which is normally the reason it is that high like when i have taken an injectible then tested mine is similar but if i wait 3-4 days it is back to normal ranges.

it doesnt say if it is e1,e2 ect but yes the others look fine without knowing your regime ofc, not that im a doctor i just nearly dated one once

Correct - I took my sublingual pill just about an hour before hand I did wonder about that actually.

EDIT -

well this is interesting... Just spoken to the doctor and he is of the opinion that the levels are high enough that it's almost totally impossible that all of it comes from the pills... His conclusion is that I may actually have something in my body which is making near normal female levels of E - which is inevitably weird as usual for me - WHY is nothing in my body ever quite normal?  I'm 50 for goodness sake - even if I had undisclosed ovaries they should be packing up by now - so why I am suddenly producing my own endogenous estrogen at pretty healthy level and where is it all coming from?

You might want to go off Estrogen for a bit and retest to see what if anything happens.

He probably says that because he expected you to take the pill by swallowing it and you took it under the tongue. Blood is normal for someone who just took an estrogen pill under the tongue just an hour before being tested.

Quote from: Myself on April 30, 2010, 01:38:55 PM
He probably says that because he expected you to take the pill by swallowing it and you took it under the tongue. Blood is normal for someone who just took an estrogen pill under the tongue just an hour before being tested.

Wow thanks - I do hope you are right. Going back for further tests in a couple of weeks. As I already know I have AIS I'm certainly hoping that it will turn out to be something simple like that.

Quote from: rejennyrated on April 30, 2010, 04:33:58 AM
Finally got blood tests -

cholesterol, liver function, kidneys, glucose etc all fine! My blood is in great shape for someone in their 50's who has been on HRT for 30 years.

Blood serum levels

Estrogen 2623
Progesterone 318
Testosterone 0.7

What does that mean and are these levels ok? I feel great - but what are the normal ranges...

advice please from someone who has more experience...

I had an estrogen level like that once.  The doctor called and asked if I had just taken my shot.  I had taken it about three days prior.  The doctor did mention that the level was way high and scheduled another one just before my next injection.  At that point it was in the normal range for a woman in mid-cycle (around 450) and testosterone at about 20, and that calmed them.

Originally I was on a fast-track feminization regimen (meaning a sustained higher than average estradiol level and my testosterone was so low it was immeasurable)  but since being post op my doctor is aiming for levels more closely associated with other women in my age group.

I'm a bit more cyclic since I do injections twice a month.

I have a girlfriend who is IS and has both ovaries, though no uterus, *and* testicles.  It was a bit of an effort to get that sorted out.  The doctor feels that she will not need any additional HRT once she completes her transition.  (lucky)

-Sandy

Quote from: rejennyrated on April 30, 2010, 02:02:48 PM
Wow thanks - I do hope you are right. Going back for further tests in a couple of weeks. As I already know I have AIS I'm certainly hoping that it will turn out to be something simple like that.

It can't be that. If it was related then your testosterone would be sky rocket (therefore converted into estrogen, therefore explaining high estrogen).
You took a pill under the tongue, let it dissolve and get straight to the bloodstream straight away, skyrocketing your blood estrogen and went to do a blood test just an hour later..

The rest is really normal

Quote from: Myself on April 30, 2010, 02:52:24 PM
It can't be that. If it was related then your testosterone would be sky rocket (therefore converted into estrogen, therefore explaining high estrogen).

No - I think you missunderstand what I mean - I don't mean the AIS is causing it becuase of course having been postop for 26 years I have no testes - so no testosterone - I meant that as I already have already had one known Intersex anomily it wouldn't have been a huge surprise to find another...

Anyway - we'll see. - oh and the doctor knew that the I take the pills by sublingual method anyway. The dosage I take is pretty tiny actually for that very reason - the real mystery is that there simply isn't enough in the dosage I take to explain those levels.

Even 1mg can explain this level if taken under the tongue. Also let's say, did you lose some pounds lately? that can cause estrogen to be released from fat cells, in all people, even men. And even more if you are taking a pill to increase estrogen then more estrogen is stored in the cells to be released later..

I wouldn't suggest you not taking estrogen for a 2 weeks and 4 weeks and then blood test, that would be awful. But you could if you wanted.

You're simply not *that* special. It's because of the pill.

The last time I got my E level looked at, a month after starting to self medicate E, it was 1400 something. And I've got my balls and chain still, and I was taking less than 1/3rd of the MG/day I'm taking now. My E level while on avodart alone was 124 or 127.

When you take straight up estrogen sublingually and it isn't bound up to do time release, your estrogen spikes SKY BLOODY HIGH. My doctor explained it as being that it goes really really high, then tapers off and the T starts to regain ground, and that fluctuations like that are bad.

He put me on ogen/estropipate instead of estridol; a dose is supposed to stay for 24 hours instead of 12, so by taking twice a day I have a more consistent level.

Yes I think we have now established that.

It wss just me having nightmares from the previous little anomily which was found when I was "discovered" to be PAIS... I just ABSOLUTELY HATE being poked and prodded by doctors and the last little escapade led to a lot of that, I ended up at a hospital having loads of tests and examinations and I was just freaking out that it was all going to start up again. Believe me the very last thing I want is to be *special* in that kind of way. The irony is I only really did the darn blood test in the first place because someone told me that regular monitoring was a sensible precaution after 30 years.

This morning I've had an opportunity to talk more calmly with the doctor and hopefully he accepts that that is all it was so we'll call that nightmare closed.

Haha, that is one of those little ironies, isn't it?

I'm sorry, I was insensitive, I really do understand where you came from. When I tested that high... oh my god I freaked out and thought I had cancer. It was like 2 weeks before I got to see my endo for the first time (I had the test done by a local GP) and actually went off E for a couple of days before deciding that if this was going to kill me, then I was going along for the ride.

Looks like my test results. Mine are always high. I've actually stopped estrace subllngually to let the level go down. It went down when I started swallowing, but down into the 400-600's, not thousands as before. I find the range better, 'cause my breasts have started growing again with lower amounts going through. I'm post-op, so that might be a difference. I've tried estrace both ways (swallow vs sublingually), as well as prometrium too (going on it, going off it, and cycling it).

I find it comes down to striking a balance and listening to your body to know what's working for you and what isn't. At this point, swallowing and cycling my progesterone (prometrium) seems to do something right for me -- but that might not be the case for others. Too much progesterone and too much estrogen seems to make me gain weight, especially in the belly area. A balance, and I seem to get more balanced everywhere.

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Post Merge: May 02, 2010, 07:19:11 AM

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There's this little study (sorry, it's just an abstract ) that talks about taking estrace orally vs sublingually.

http://journals.lww.com/greenjournal/Abstract/1997/03000/Single_Dose_Pharmacokinetics_of_Sublingual_Versus.4.aspx

I found taking the pill by swallowing (something I started doing because gothique11 talked about her experienced in another post) also did better for me.

I agree it is probably all about balance.