Estradiol: Why You Should Care

Pharma TRT
321

[quote]Headhunter wrote:
KSman wrote:
BigBen72 wrote:

My test results are as follows:
E2 21 pg/mL Ref. Range: 12-41 pg/mL
Prolactin 5.8 ng/mL Ref. Range: 2.1-17.7 ng/mL
Testosterone 313 ng/dL Ref. Range: 175-781 ng/dL
Free Testosterone 9.3 pg/mL Ref. Range: 8.7-25.1 pg/mL
Hemoglobin A1C 5.3 Ref. Range: 4.0-6.0
TSH 1.65 ulU/ml Ref. Range: .34-5.6 ulU/ml
T4, Free 1.2 ng/dL Ref. Range: .6-1.2 ng/dL

Tyroid seems good with that T4 level. But watch that T4 does not go over range over time. Your lower TSH level suggestes that your thyroid has no problem making hormones.

Your E2 appears to be very good. However, your TT is low and your FT is low as well. So your E2 would not appear to be lowering T via HPTA repression. But your E2:FT ratio is probably adverse in some respects.

TRT will be good for you. If you train, sweat and shower a lot, transderal T may be wrong for you and your alternative would be injections.

When you start TRT, you should start Arimidex at the same time. And you need 250iu hCG SC EOD to keep your testes alive.

Dose on-TRT Arimidex to keep E2 at 22pg/ml. Scale your starting dose to be your weight divided by 160 to get milligrams per week.

T+AI+hCG

Interesting…so, to make sure I’ve got it, my weight (254 lbs) divided by 160 would be my weekly Arimidex dose, spread out over 7 days? Roughly 1.75 mg (the caps come in .25 mg), so one cap per day? Or is 2 EOD better? I know you like the EOD protocol.

And BigBen…I am jealous of those numbers, bro, 'cept for the T! Lucky!!
[/quote]

Thanks for the feedback KSman. I will ask my doctor about hCG and AI. I will bring up the topic of pregnenolone production and hopefully make a convincing case for the hCG. If I cannot get on hCG will I be able to begin using it in a few months or will it be too late by then?

Thanks for the kind words HH. Other than no sex drive and the loss of mental clarity I am healthy a horse.

322

[quote]BigBen72 wrote:

Thanks for the feedback KSman. I will ask my doctor about hCG and AI. I will bring up the topic of pregnenolone production and hopefully make a convincing case for the hCG. If I cannot get on hCG will I be able to begin using it in a few months or will it be too late by then?

Thanks for the kind words HH. Other than no sex drive and the loss of mental clarity I am healthy a horse.
[/quote]

I’ve been doing this for 5 years and I have to tell you: finding a doc other than an anti-aging clinic, who’ll do the ‘three legs’ (Test, HCG, Arimidex) will be harder than hell. You will have to either order your stuff from overseas or go to an anti-aging clinic (I use Renewman).

Read anything on here by Happydogg or KSMan. Use an anti-aging clinic. Save yourself a lot (and I mean a LOT) of misery.

323

Hey all, great thread that inspired me to finally get to the doctor and have my hormones checked out. I’ve suffered from gynecomastia (hard gland behind the nipple and fat) nearly my whole life. I don’t need to bore you with the trauma it inflicts on a young man. I hope this is the appropriate place to post.

Here are my labs from my GP (seeing an endo next month):

AGE: 31

Total testosterone: 902 ng/dl RANGE: 240-820
Estradiol-17 BETA: 62 pg/ml RANGE: 12-41
Prolactin: 8 ng/ml RANGE: 2-18
TSH: 2.23 RANGE: 0.35-5.00

Other routine symptoms include: seemingly impossible to gain strength, fatigue, irritability, difficulty maintaining erections. I don’t drink, smoke, touch drugs or junk food (when you’re trying to reduce your gyne on your own, you don’t take many chances). I’ve tried to live as healthy a lifestyle as possible for the past 8 years.

I assume the high E2 could be responsible for a lot of my problems? Any clue why my total T would be so high?

Looking forward to complete labwork, but thought I’d throw this out there anyway if someone wants to comment.

Thanks guys.

P.S. Gyne reduction surgery is definitely in my future, but I want my hormonal system fixed up beforehand.

324

[quote]Optimus_Primal wrote:
Hey all, great thread that inspired me to finally get to the doctor and have my hormones checked out. I’ve suffered from gynecomastia (hard gland behind the nipple and fat) nearly my whole life. I don’t need to bore you with the trauma it inflicts on a young man. I hope this is the appropriate place to post.

Here are my labs from my GP (seeing an endo next month):

AGE: 31

Total testosterone: 902 ng/dl RANGE: 240-820
Estradiol-17 BETA: 62 pg/ml RANGE: 12-41
Prolactin: 8 ng/ml RANGE: 2-18
TSH: 2.23 RANGE: 0.35-5.00

Other routine symptoms include: seemingly impossible to gain strength, fatigue, irritability, difficulty maintaining erections. I don’t drink, smoke, touch drugs or junk food (when you’re trying to reduce your gyne on your own, you don’t take many chances). I’ve tried to live as healthy a lifestyle as possible for the past 8 years.

I assume the high E2 could be responsible for a lot of my problems? Any clue why my total T would be so high?

Looking forward to complete labwork, but thought I’d throw this out there anyway if someone wants to comment.

Thanks guys.

P.S. Gyne reduction surgery is definitely in my future, but I want my hormonal system fixed up beforehand.[/quote]

Your prolactin is good and E2=62 is bad. Considering your high TT, you should start Arimidex/anastrozoke aka adex at 1.5mg per week in divided doses. Also depends on your body weight and %BF.

Your E2=62 is probably pushing up SHBG and pushing FT down. Reducing E2 will do the reverse. This will have profound effects on your mental well-being and libido. It should be transformational.

High E2 is also a big risk factor for your prostate.

That may be all that you need.

Become aware of the problems of E2 getting too low. Also about adex over responders who need to take 1/8th or 1/4th of the expected dose. You need to convince your doc that your target should be E2=22 which is considered optimal, but doc will not know that.

If your doc will not do this, you can self medicate and get E2 labs on your own.

It is crazy going to endo’s for things this simple.

Arimidex is expensive, $8 - $9 per mg. No generic at the pharmacy.

E2 can be increased by drugs, alcohol, supplements, grapefruit and other foreign substances.

325

I recently sent off for a saliva testosterone / estradiol test.

My estradiol came back at 2.2 pg/ml (acceptable range of 0.8-1.5)
My testosterone was 102.1 pg/ml (75-95)

I’ve never done a cycle of AAS and I’m 34 years old. Health is good and by body fat is around 14%. I’ve been lifting for 3 years.

I weigh 177 pounds, here are the #s on the big lifts:

Bench 185
Deadlift 285
Squat 225

My first question is: Are my estradiol levels high enough to reduce my gains from lifting?

Second, how can I get my estradiol levels down into the normal range?

Third, if I were able to get my estradiol levels down, should I expect to see an increase in strength / growth?

326

Checkout the following link: grape seed extract as a natural and potent aromatase inhibitor?

http://cancerres.aacrjournals.org/cgi/content/full/66/11/5960

327

Just how effective are vitamin C and zinc for reducing Estrodiol? The book that you suggest recommends them, but are they just incremental (using a flyswatter where a hammer is needed) or useful?

328

Anyone ever have the problem where they dial in on the correct Arimidex dose (for me, 1.5 drops daily) but while it puts both “heads” in the exact right place (hah! clarity + libido are strong), on the other hand your joints crack and pop a little more than usual?

329

[quote]katzenjammer wrote:
on the other hand your joints crack and pop a little more than usual? [/quote]

Katz,

I have a hunch this is due to the fact that your body probably “naturally” cracks because of a little war and tear.

When your not on an AI, you might be retaining a little excess water, and possibly higher cortisol, thus, no cracking.

Just a hypothesis that seems to make sense to me

330

Get E2 tested. If E2 is not below 22, perhaps higher levels are soothing to an preexisting joint problem and perhaps the optimal E2=22 is not optimal for joint problems… just speculation from a guy with osteoarthritis.

331

[quote]Eggman wrote:
Checkout the following link: grape seed extract as a natural and potent aromatase inhibitor?

http://cancerres.aacrjournals.org/cgi/content/full/66/11/5960[/quote]

Thanks for the info Eggman. The article seems promising, but since they were dealing with rats I’m not sure about dosage.

What would you recommend for a daily dose?

332

leonidas4,

Good question about dosage. In short, I don’t know. I’ve been considering grape seed extract as an anti-oxidant. While researching GSE, I stumbled across the website noted above.

I already take arimidex, so now I’m not so sure about supplmenting with GSE. Maybe it makes more sense for someone who is not already on HRT but would like to clear E2 efficiently.

333

leonidas4,

Good question about dosage. In short, I don’t know. I’ve been considering grape seed extract as an anti-oxidant. While researching GSE, I stumbled across the website noted above.

I already take arimidex, so now I’m not so sure about supplmenting with GSE. Maybe it makes more sense for someone who is not already on HRT but would like to clear E2 efficiently.

334

How much E2 clearance does vitamin C give? Zinc? Should one cut back on those prior to blood work evaluating E2 levels?

335

[quote]Wise Guy wrote:
katzenjammer wrote:
on the other hand your joints crack and pop a little more than usual?

Katz,

I have a hunch this is due to the fact that your body probably “naturally” cracks because of a little war and tear.

When your not on an AI, you might be retaining a little excess water, and possibly higher cortisol, thus, no cracking.

Just a hypothesis that seems to make sense to me[/quote]

[quote] KSman wrote:
Get E2 tested. If E2 is not below 22, perhaps higher levels are soothing to an preexisting joint problem and perhaps the optimal E2=22 is not optimal for joint problems… just speculation from a guy with osteoarthritis. [/quote]

Thanks guys. I think you’re right that the excess water is normally smoothing things out. However, it doesn’t hurt or anything and mostly happens briefly and early in the morning when I’m just getting going - so, hopefully, it’s just harmless and not chronic. We’ll see…hah! Cheers guys!

336

[quote]katzenjammer wrote:

Thanks guys. I think you’re right that the excess water is normally smoothing things out. However, it doesn’t hurt or anything and mostly happens briefly and early in the morning when I’m just getting going - so, hopefully, it’s just harmless and not chronic. We’ll see…hah! Cheers guys!

[/quote]

Keep us posted.

337

[quote]Elaikases wrote:
How much E2 clearance does vitamin C give? Zinc? Should one cut back on those prior to blood work evaluating E2 levels?

[/quote]

I take 800mg of Vitamin C and 25mg of Zinc daily along with Arimidex. I don’t know, quantifiably, how much E2 clearance these provide.

338

Eggman, thanks for the response. Another, price competitive E2 clearance method is DIM.

Indolplex with DIM by PhytoPharmica. (See www.ritecare.com/prodsheets/PHY-15336.html.

Mostly marketed to women to reduce high hormonal levels associated with PMS.

Anyone here have any experiences with DIM products?

http://www.amazon.com/s/?ie=UTF8&keywords=indolplex&tag=googhydr-20&index=hpc&hvadid=1101425981&ref=pd_sl_9o21zibwsa_e

http://www.bizrate.com/vitamins_nutrition/products__keyword--indolplex.html

339

I have noticed that with increased zinc…100mg aday I needed to reduce my dose of A-dex…
Its took me awhile to figure this out…I was in a sweet spot for like 4-5 months…then for like 2-3 weeks I noticed all the signs of being over A-Dexed.

The only thing I changed was upping the zinc…backed off on the Dex and things went WAY back up…and Way more often if you know what I mean.

340

[quote]BigDawg22 wrote:
I have noticed that with increased zinc…100mg aday I needed to reduce my dose of A-dex…
Its took me awhile to figure this out…I was in a sweet spot for like 4-5 months…then for like 2-3 weeks I noticed all the signs of being over A-Dexed.

The only thing I changed was upping the zinc…backed off on the Dex and things went WAY back up…and Way more often if you know what I mean. [/quote]

Very interesting! Are you taking a little copper to counter the copper depletion such a high dose of zinc would cause?

Thanks for sharing.