Estradiol vs Fractionated Estrogen Test

guyisasguydoes · Jul 11, 2021

True story: convinced an endocrinologist that I lost faith in to do an estradiol test. Did so to save from paying for it. He decided to also do a fractionated esttogen test. The estradiol test showed 44pg/ml, 2pts above the high end of normal. The fractionated estrogen test was 240pg/ml which is 50pts higher than high end of normal.

I was curious about estrogens as I’ve developed some minor gyno and he’s well aware of it. Nothing major but enough for me to ask questions about it.

I naturally asked him about the high fractionated estrogen test and does that mean that the two other estrogens are much higher than they should be and why and could they be causing the gyno I’m noticing. His reply: “I rarely see this and I really don’t know”.

Most guys I’ve talked to have said it’s E2 that you need to monitor. But what if E2 is only a couple of pts high and the other estrogens are much higher? Seems to be a reasonable question to me?

Cataceous · Jul 11, 2021

It may be an oversimplification, but it's said that estrone has about a tenth the potency of estradiol, and estriol has a tenth the potency of estrone. If you take this at face value then if your extra estrogen were 50 pg/mL of estrone it would only be like an extra 5 pg/mL of estradiol. But as I said, reality may be more complex, with different relative strengths for the different estrogens in different tissues/receptors.

Here's where I read it:

Given by subcutaneous injection in mice, estradiol is about 10-fold more potent than estrone and about 100-fold more potent than estriol.

Estrone - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Dicky · Jul 13, 2021

guyisasguydoes said:
I naturally asked him about the high fractionated estrogen test and does that mean that the two other estrogens are much higher than they should be and why and could they be causing the gyno I’m noticing. His reply: “I rarely see this and I really don’t know”.

That's such an awesome answer. Many docs will just make stuff up to shut you up and get you out the door.

guyisasguydoes · Jul 13, 2021

Dicky said:
That's such an awesome answer. Many docs will just make stuff up to shut you up and get you out the door.

Yeah when he said that, I said “wow ok. I’m sure you agree it’s a reasonable question here?” He said “oh sure yeah.” I’m mean honestly…you’re a Dr and your patient asks you a question like that and that’s your reply??? He’s the same guy who saw my T levels very low end of normal and heard my symptoms. Sent me to a urologist who gave me a speech about not believing in producing anymore Barry Bonds or Mark McGuires and proceeded to recommend a penis pump to address my issues which were libido almost zero and ed and almost no sensitivity. I actually got up and left as he offered a quick prostate exam as I was already there. What a fucking moron and really disrespectful.
I’ve been on 100mg of T since that meeting once a week and I’ve seen improvement. Probably need to up to the dose a little but I’m on the right track.