High E2 On 70mg? Am I a Freak?

[lemonflavor]

54 year old male. I'm going to contact Defy, but I'm a little freaked out and wonder if anyone else has been here. I'll try to make it short:

I'm on TRT for the second time around. I deal with chronic mental health issues and chronic pain which came about well before low T. First time around I felt so overstimulated I couldn't stand it and had to quit. Doctor was typical--only looking at Total T, but I did ask for estradiol once beforehand.

This time around I started out at around 20mg, injecting 3x a week. Then after around 4-5 days I felt OK and worked up to 90mg per week in five weeks. Doc took only Total T and I was at 800. Then after about two weeks of that I got uncomfortable again and went back down to 70mg. Everything went backwards somewhat. (I realize there's often a honeymoon period.)

Now I've got all sorts of wonky stuff going on. I don't like to blame everything on low or high e2 like so many on the boards do, but this is hard to ignore. Could I possibly have high estrogen being at this low of a dose?

Side effects:

• Shoulders are killing me. Not unusual for them to hurt, but mobility is very restricted unlike ever before.
• Less interest in hobbies in last few weeks.
• Possibly sensitive nipples, but I don't usually check that, and I don't like being touched there anyway.
• I had two pimples on my forehead. I normally only get a single one maybe once a year. Just today I looked at my back and there are red spots all over it. I can't tell if it's acne or what's going on. It's not like I have whiteheads or anything like when I was young.

Conversely, my workouts got even better after I lowered the dose. I respond well to weight training and that got better right away. But then it went up another notch after lowering the dose.

When it comes to other areas of health, I call myself 'the 5%' because I'm always that one who's so sensitive, or gets the unusual side effects, or something happens that a doc has never seen before. It seems to be happening here too.

I wanted to see if this would work out (speaking of) with the regular doc because of finances, but I'm practically forced to spend money on Defy now. Any comments while I wait to get in?

 

[Deleted member 16042]

Seems like random adjustments are confusing your body. Steady state on any new protocol takes around 6-8 weeks. Changing dose after a few days or week or whatever and expecting rapid results is an exercise in futility.

Stick with one dose for 6-8 weeks, get blood tests, re assess symptoms... then consider other adjustments..

If I am counting right, you have had at least 3 changes in around 8 weeks, and it sounds like you increased/decreased over a couple of periods during this time. This is not how to approach dosing.

Your symptoms also are kind of random.

800 total T is not very relevant. We need to know free T, E2 sensitive LC/MS/MS testing methodology and SHBG to have a clue how to interpret what's going on. If you are going with Defy, these should be part of your initial tests.

 

[lemonflavor]

Thanks. I've come a little back down to earth now. I guess what I'm asking is if anyone has had these symptoms and had only 70mg have that much of an effect. And had high e2 from that. In thinking more about it I realize some of these symptoms could be either random, or from the T itself like acne.

 

[Vince Carter]

I have crazy Estrogen conversion on just 16mg per day, yes it is possible. I totally concur with Blackhawk here. Too add, your symptoms can read as a mix of high and low E....acne is a high E thing, it was for me. But on the opposite side sore joints is a low E hallmark. Note carefully the specific E testing that you need as Blackhawk posted.