To people who don't have access to sensitive E2 tests. How do you interpret and act on your blood work?

[Samgotti18]

Basically the whole steroid community in North America is adamant to use the LC/MS method to get the most accurate E2 blood work. For a lot of people outside NA it is very difficult to get access to this form of testing.

My lab for example uses the CMIA method. I spoke to the doctor at my lab and told him about my concerns and was open about my steroid use. He was a really cool dude and had a good chat with him. He says that the difference between the two tests will only be a couple of points as long as the values are in the normal measurable ranges.

In my case I run 300mg test per week and am currently dosing 3.125 Aromasin on pin days (Monday & Thursday) and my E2 test (CMIA method) from today put my E2 at 26. I don't aromatize heavily at all, but a little elevated E2 causes me sensitive nipples.

Now if I go by what a lot of my fellow Americans are saying, my test result would put my E2 somewhere in the teens or single digits if run on a sensitive test. I don't have any symptoms of low E2, let alone crashed E2. But I still want to be careful, because nothing is worse than crashed E2 lol.

Would appreciate feedback and a good discussion.

Cheers boys

 

[Smont]

You find baseline and monitor its ups and downs.

Fake numbers but if estrogen is 45 and the range is 40-50 than just track what makes it go up and down

Kinda like bf calipers are not accurate but the numbers going up or down is a accurate way to track progress even tho it's not your actual %

 

[Smont]

Or, go somewhere else for bloodwork

 

[KvanH]

Or, go somewhere else for bloodwork

The problem is, or might be, that no lab in the whole country offers sensitive E2 test.

 

[KvanH]

Basically the whole steroid community in North America is adamant to use the LC/MS method to get the most accurate E2 blood work. For a lot of people outside NA it is very difficult to get access to this form of testing.

My lab for example uses the CMIA method. I spoke to the doctor at my lab and told him about my concerns and was open about my steroid use. He was a really cool dude and had a good chat with him. He says that the difference between the two tests will only be a couple of points as long as the values are in the normal measurable ranges.

In my case I run 300mg test per week and am currently dosing 3.125 Aromasin on pin days (Monday & Thursday) and my E2 test (CMIA method) from today put my E2 at 26. I don't aromatize heavily at all, but a little elevated E2 causes me sensitive nipples.

Now if I go by what a lot of my fellow Americans are saying, my test result would put my E2 somewhere in the teens or single digits if run on a sensitive test. I don't have any symptoms of low E2, let alone crashed E2. But I still want to be careful, because nothing is worse than crashed E2 lol.

Would appreciate feedback and a good discussion.

Cheers boys

Yeah, I haven't found a lab to offer a sensitive E2 test. Do you know, if you could get a sensitive E2 test done, if you'd have a dr.'s referral? I've been wondering about that myself.

There's a thread created not too long ago, where someone had taken and illustrated the difference between his results with a senstivie E2 test and a 'non sensititve'/'basic' test and IIRC the difference was pretty meaningful. I can't remember which way the results were, but I want to say, that the sensitive test result was higher.. I'll try to find it at some point.

I've been doing pretty much what Smont said and monitoring the changes and trying to evaluate things based on where the result sits in relation to the ref range and in relation to other hormonal values.

 

[Samgotti18]

You find baseline and monitor its ups and downs.

Fake numbers but if estrogen is 45 and the range is 40-50 than just track what makes it go up and down

Kinda like bf calipers are not accurate but the numbers going up or down is a accurate way to track progress even tho it's not your actual %

That's kind of what I'm doing atm.

Before my cycle my E2 came back at 20 pg/ml - and I felt absolutely perfect at that time.

I dropped my Aromasin for 9 days on cycle, my E2 came back at 38 pg/ml and I was already getting mild high E2 sides.

Picked up the Aromasin again at small doses (3.125mg on pin days) and that has put me at 26 pg/ml with bloods being taken one day after my injection and Aromasin dosage.

I feel like I'm in a good spot but I still want to be careful, as I'm on the lower end of the spectrum and it probably won't take much to crash my E2.

That being said I have no idea if dosages of 3.125mg Aromasin can even cause a crash in E2

 

[Smont]

On 300 test that's a small bump in estrogen, not bad. You could probably drop the ai and use a more frequent injection schedule to lower it. Or try some dim. If your bodyfat is on the higher side then getting down to a bf where your abs are visible will help. Less fat less conversion to estrogen. Your ai dose is pretty low as is so I wouldn't be worried

 

[Samgotti18]

On 300 test that's a small bump in estrogen, not bad. You could probably drop the ai and use a more frequent injection schedule to lower it. Or try some dim. If your bodyfat is on the higher side then getting down to a bf where your abs are visible will help. Less fat less conversion to estrogen. Your ai dose is pretty low as is so I wouldn't be worried

Yeah, I'm pretty happy about the small rate of aromatization. I have friends who go into the 100s on their E2 with 150mg Test p/w and they are sub 12% body fat. Just goes to show how much aromatization comes down to genetics lol.

I'm somewhere around 18% body fat and still have a couple of weeks of my cut ahead of me, so will definitely drop a couple points of body fat.

I should have mentioned, my prolactin came in a bit high at 28.4 ng/ml (Range: 3.5 - 19.4). So I'm currently taking Vitamin E 400 IU and 200mg P5P per day to lower it.

I'm also taking Calcium D Glucarate for my E2 management.

I will drop my AI dosage down to 3.125 1x p/w and see how I fare with that. I can always still increase it, if I feel the need to.

It's a fine balancing act and as I'm naturally at the lower limit anyway, I just want to make sure I don't push it too far down. Even if my AI dose is small.