Questions for men on anastrozole who have crashed their E2 Levels

[RAS]

I have a few questions for those who have crashed their e2 levels.

How low did your E2 levels go?
How long did it take to recover?
Did anything help you raise your levels?

I have searched on this and other forums and all I can see is that people have either upped their test dose, which for me any test only makes everything so much worse (think of an anxiety attack that lasts for the entire day, only Xanax or a boat load of alcoholic beverages seem to calm down for like 8 days) , Taken a huge amount of HCG (not sure if this works), and or added more DHEA-Pregnenolone, which I have started to do but is not having that much of an impact.

Back Story
Back on May23rd I crashed my e2, was @ 9 on the sensitive test <=29 , then took 2.mg of anastrozole on the 26th, thought the symptoms I was having were signs of elevated E2 levels (got the results back from my blood test a few days later). Have been through hell the past couple months, Anxiety that cripples and lasts all day, Fatigue, Insomnia, Dry Skin. July 11th had another blood test run and my E2 levels were @ 11and still having milder Anxiety, Fatigue, Insomnia, Dry Skin.

 

[Systemlord]

My E2 levels dropped to 7 pg/mL and recovery was quite fast, days as a matter of fact. It's common to see men struggle when basing the decision to take AI's on a feeling that E2 is high.

High low E2 symptoms are very similar and hard to figure out which is which. I do not think you will ever find the correct dosing for AI's since you seem to be an over-responder like myself.

Beer, HCG and DHEA will all contribute to estrogen production.

 

[DragonBits]

For years my E2 had been under 7.3, mostly under 5.0, so I wonder about the whole E2 crash problem.

This was when I was NOT on TRT.

So why wasn't I as affected as everyone else? I felt that maybe low E2 contributed to some tendon issues, but I was weight lifting so maybe it was just that. Not even really serious issues, just more prone to overuse problems.

Maybe high T and low E2 is the problem, other than that, maybe when you have low E2 for a long time you get more sensitive to it, use what you have?

 

[Vince Carter]

I think a short instance of a low E level isn't what it's made out to be, like there's some catastrophic immediate thing that happens and then this long recovery period. As opposed to suppressing E to near zero for a period of time...that's different. E goes up and down over the day(s) just like it does with your Testosterone levels. Im not a believer in this notion that I crashed my E and then it took a month to recover, makes no sense at all, and frankly how you feel NOW can have nothing to do with your E.

 

[RAS]

Historically I have been in the 30 range on the sensitive test depending on my test levels, and still had some symptoms of being low, the dry skin being the most evident.

 

[TLR]

Just quit the AI for awhile and it will take care of itself fairly quickly. Maybe not as quick as you like, but it beats doing something to try and swing it too far the other way.

 

[Cataceous]

My estradiol has been crashed since April, apparently related to pausing use of hCG. I did increase my testosterone dose, but it didn't help, and further lowered a crashed SHBG. This went on long enough that I've been supplementing with estradiol. Over this time five tests have showed endogenous estradiol to be below detectable limits, including a sensitive test. The obvious side effects were total loss of libido and trashing of lipids; no mood issues, though maybe felt a bit flat. Only with a test last week is there an indication that natural estradiol production may be returning. But I'm now resuming hCG injections, so it will be a little hard to link causes and effects.

 

[Vince Carter]

My estradiol has been crashed since April, apparently related to pausing use of hCG. I did increase my testosterone dose, but it didn't help, and further lowered a crashed SHBG. This went on long enough that I've been supplementing with estradiol. Over this time five tests have showed endogenous estradiol to be below detectable limits, including a sensitive test. The obvious side effects were total loss of libido and trashing of lipids; no mood issues, though maybe felt a bit flat. Only with a test last week is there an indication that natural estradiol production may be returning. But I'm now resuming hCG injections, so it will be a little hard to link causes and effects.

I know we talk about the Free E calc but I can't remember if you've applied that to this situation and what the result was??

 

[Cataceous]

I know we talk about the Free E calc but I can't remember if you've applied that to this situation and what the result was??

Presumably in all those instances where total estradiol was undetectable the free estradiol would be quite low. I did use the free estradiol calculator when use of estradiol cream resulted in total estradiol of 13 pg/mL. That yielded a low-normal value of 0.4 pg/mL. I did feel pretty good then, with restored libido. At the time SHBG was 9 nMol/L, so this somewhat fits your rule of thumb for making estradiol match SHBG.

 

[Vince]

Estradiol <5.1 7.6-42.6 even though it was the wrong estrogen test. This is my lowest level. I never felt anything from it, good or bad.

 

[DragonBits]

My estradiol has been crashed since April, apparently related to pausing use of hCG. I did increase my testosterone dose, but it didn't help, and further lowered a crashed SHBG. This went on long enough that I've been supplementing with estradiol. Over this time five tests have showed endogenous estradiol to be below detectable limits, including a sensitive test. The obvious side effects were total loss of libido and trashing of lipids; no mood issues, though maybe felt a bit flat. Only with a test last week is there an indication that natural estradiol production may be returning. But I'm now resuming hCG injections, so it will be a little hard to link causes and effects.

Surprising that quitting HCG crashes your estradiol, If true, it's kind of like an addictive drug in that aspect. You do OK without it, but once you use it, it becomes very difficult to quit.

I used HCG for ~6 weeks, when I quit my estradiol, free T, DHT all declined by ~50%, but my SHBG climbed from 41 > 73. In the past SHBG had been very stable. HOWEVER ...

At the time I assumed this was from taking LEF's ultra prostate formula, as lowing DHT and E2 / raising SHBG would likely help with BPH / PSA levels. I also started Lycopene and stopped taking DHEA/Preg.

With all those protocol changes, it's not possible for me to really determine what caused my E2 to decline or my PSA to drop back down.

But the only hormone that was new to my body was HCG, and since it's no doubt more effective than any OTC supplements, I tend to think HCG had caused the rise in PSA, and there is medical research that indicated this can happen. In the past DHEA seems to have no other affect on me other than raising serum levels of DHEA.

I am not aware of any research that indicates you will crash your estradiol when quitting HCG.

But I am not inclined to experiment any further and I have settled on what works for me.

 

[sh1973]

I personally think hcg, pregnenolone, dhea and most of the other supplemental aspects of trt are total BS and not needed. Most of the time all they do is complicate things.

 

[TLR]

I personally think hcg, pregnenolone, dhea and most of the other supplemental aspects of trt are total BS and not needed. Most of the time all they do is complicate things.

In my N=1 experience I tend to agree with you. I've seen other persons report they've helped them, and I know a lot of well known docs that believe in use of all the "ancillaries," but in 9 years I have tried all of it and I may as well be taking a sugar pill personally.

 

[RAS]

I took my last AI on May 27th. My levels were at 9 on the sensitive test a few days before, so it was all the way crashed, cut to July 11th and it was at 11. Every time I inject test its like it go and drops my E levels again, cause I get crazy low e sides for like 8 days almost..

 

[TLR]

I don't know man......I've crashed my E2 twice to the single digits but it didn't take me but a few weeks to go back to normal after stopping the AI (which I don't use anymore). I would THINK its impossible for test injections to be responsible for LOWERING your e2 since that's where E2 comes from in the first place.

 

[Vince Carter]

I took my last AI on May 27th. My levels were at 9 on the sensitive test a few days before, so it was all the way crashed, cut to July 11th and it was at 11. Every time I inject test its like it go and drops my E levels again, cause I get crazy low e sides for like 8 days almost..

What low e-sides by your judgement are you having? 9 or 11 are not crashed...by Quests own ranges <=29...could be very low for SOME guys but as a rule...NO.

 

[RAS]

What low e-sides by your judgement are you having? 9 or 11 are not crashed...by Quests own ranges <=29...could be very low for SOME guys but as a rule...NO.

It was 9 before I took 2.mg of anastrozole. Symptoms are Extremely dry skin all the time, no pump at the gym, not really sweating all that much, but when things get bad its usually starts with the chills, then, extreme fatigue, then after that its just like dropping into anxiety hell, which after a while the symptoms will lesson, and reverse. They seem to follow the same pattern. I have been really trying to find a cause to this. The only thing that stands out is that I increased my AI dose and was taking 100mg of zinc just before this happened. Funny thing taking zinc actually seemed to make things worse so I stopped, my TRT Dr has no answers either, the only other thing that is low is DHT and that is at a 8, and I guess the range is 16-79.

 

[smokedsalmon]

I knocked mine down to 12 recently by messing with AIs the whole first month or so on TRT. I felt worse and worse.

Before TRT, I did try internet-sourced enclomiphene, and at the time, found another guy who tried some too and everyone thought it was an AI. Who knows. But my endo then checked my E2, and it was "<20" (supposedly sensitive test). My libido was nonexistant for about a month at that time. So I'm not surprised that at 12, I don't feel so great.

This time around I'm not messing with any tricks to raise it. Just waiting out this 6 week period, then getting bloodwork and seeing where I'm at. The cat and mouse game isn't worth it.

 

[Bubbagump555]

I'm going through a similar situation this anxiety is killing me has it gotten any better for you?

 

[RAS]

I'm going through a similar situation this anxiety is killing me has it gotten any better for you?

I completely understand where you are and it SUCKS..... Yes it has gotten better, and everyday it seems to be less and less, no more anxiety, still have low e symptoms but each day is a little better. I did however have to cut out anything that can, has been known too, could, possibly, been linked too, found too in some study in some country lower estrogen. From caffeine, Green Tea, Green Tea Extract, B6, Saw Palmetto, DHT Blocking Shampoo, Vitamin D3, are just some examples. Once I got rid of the things that can lower E2 everything started to come back up.