- cross-posted to:
- onehundredninetysix@lemmy.blahaj.zone
- cross-posted to:
- onehundredninetysix@lemmy.blahaj.zone
Ummm, so my latest blood test came back and those are the results…
I’m on 5mg of valerate every 3 days, 25mg of cypro daily and 400mg progesterone rectally daily.
My E at trough used to be around 360 pg/ml, but I guess it creeped up.
The full results
The most important values are (table for readability):
| Hormone | US units | EU units |
|---|---|---|
| Estradiol | 868.7 pg/ml | 3189 pmol/L |
| Testosterone | 12.7 ng/dL | 0.44 nmol/L |
| Progesterone | 19.8 ng/ml | 62.09 nmol/L |
| Prolactin | n/a | 2181 mIU/L |
| SHBG | n/a | 98.3 nmol/L |
| LH & FSH | None | None |
Now…there are a couple of things happening here:
- My E is astronomically high. This is bad for a couple of reasons. I’ll increase my shot interval to every 4 days right away. This is way too fucking much.
- My SHBG is…surprisingly normal? I was expecting it to be through the roof with such high E levels. Weird.
- My progesterone levels dropped…a lot. They were around 176 ng/ml (560 nmol/L) last time and this is almost a tenth of that…why? I’m still taking the same dose. This is very strange.
- My prolactin is very high…this is a bad thing. Cyproterone raises prolactin, kratom (which I also take) raises prolactin, however…this could very well indicate a prolactinoma, a benign brain tumor in my pituitary gland. It produces prolactin on its own, so it can cause this.
Honestly? I can fix my E levels. Valerate sucks ass, but changing the frequency to 4 days will help a lot, I think. But the prolactin honestly worries me…this could certainly be a tumor. And I could blame only myself…I could have easily done monotherapy, but I wanted the guarantee of zero T, from the cypro. But it may actually be causing problems now…
Idk. This isn’t the end of the world, definitely. My high E levels might be why my boobs are so small, but probably not. I’m worried about the prolactin, but I’ll probably live.
I’d love to hear some opinions from you all. I’ll be glad for anything! Thanks for being here for me, with me. I love you all so much 🩷
Edit: The weird thing is, my boobs still definitely hurt in a sore kinda way. Or at least one does (left, as always). I think they’re still growing. Despite my absurd E levels, could they still be growing? Please be patient with me, I’m kinda slow 😭
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I’d recommend talking to a doctor if you can about the tumor thing.
Also, is that prolactin result from the first shot? Whenever a blood test includes prolactin, they always have me sit and wait around for like 20 minutes (with the needle in and capped off), allegedly because prolactin levels increase with stress (getting stabbed with a needle) and that can cause false readings.
I don’t know what you mean by first shot, but this definitely wasn’t my first injection (it’s been like 6 months on injectables). My prolactin has always been normal, even when taking even more insane doses of cypro (50mg daily), it used to be around 500-600, now it’s nearly 3000.
I know stress can cause it, also poor sleep and having sex. I…kinda have all of those, lol.
Either way, it’s not something to be treated lightly and I’m gonna drop cypro entirely.By “first shot” I mean when you go get your blood tested. If you only take the reading from the same sample as everything else, it can show up higher than it normally is. From my latest test (pills, sublingual, spiro (fuck I hate Spiro)):
Hormone Reading Prolactin 76.40 ng/ml Prolactin (20 min.) 64.10 ng/ml Cypro gave me bomb-ass results while I was taking it (with oral pills), but yeah, those are concerning numbers.
No, my endo only draws my blood once. You’re right that that would have an effect on the result, the first will definitely be higher.
Cypro gave me bomb-ass results while I was taking it (with oral pills), but yeah, those are concerning numbers.
Yep. I’m taking care of it.
Side note, but…there’s another unit used for prolactin? Jesus fucking christ, give me a break. Can’t we all agree on something once? 😭
So, say one was a vampire and drank your blood. Would they become a girl?
Just a silly hypothetical question haha
Actually, at these levels…probably
That’d be awesome tho, they’d get their blood and also a banger rack along with it :3
Idk why you were ever taking so much cypro. Stop it. 5mg valerate every 3 days seems like a lot too. You cant OD yourself into a faster transition Miisha <3.
You’re injecting and taking an anti-androgen? You should be able to just do monotherapy.
I was doing 5mg of valerate every 7 days, I got my blood drawn about 2 and a half days after my injection and was at 489 pg/ml for estradiol and 1.1 pg/ml testosterone. My provider actually recommended I step my dose down slightly.
I know about mono.
Wait, you got your blood draw halfway? I’m sorry, but you’re really not supposed to do that. It doesn’t really give you any useful information. What you want to be doing is checking your trough, your lowest level, always.
Oh god, 25mg cypro daily is a fuck ton… Cypro was never intended for long-term use, especially at dosages like that. Not a doctor but please lower cypro to at least 12.5mg daily, if not every other day.
I know it sucks seeing slow results but transitioning isn’t a race. Take less, do blood samples and if it’s wrong then adjust accordingly. Cypro like that long-term can get you killed
I think I can just drop the cypro entirely. It’s pure bad. The results are super slow, but I guess they’re there at least?
Thank you 🩷
AAAAAAAAHHH! Oh, god.
Did your doctor tell you it might be a tumor? High levels of prolactin by itself can indicate that, but given that your E levels are through the roof that could very well be causing it as well. Listen to your doctor first of course, but I would only be concerned about a tumor if it didn’t come back down after you lowered your E levels. I’ve never heard of anyone giving themselves a tumor through E, and several studies have confirmed there’s no increased cancer risk beyond the risk of breast cancer associated with having boobs.
Yeah, the breast cancer risk associated with estrogen HRT is from the old studies of postmenopausal women over 60, and generally when they used to use Estrone which is the most common type of estrogen in postmenopausal women, before they found Estradiol when they started studying premenopausal women at all. Unfortunately, medical science for women is lacking and has always been poorly funded. That is unlikely to change in our lifetimes. Drug companies and government funding they control are concentrated on synthetic drugs that can drive high enough prices. And lingering patriarchal mentality in medicine means only men’s quality of life issues usually get researched and even then only if they can newly charge a ridiculous price for an existing medication like they did with Viagra.
So far there have been no comprehensive, controlled studies of the effect of HRT on pre- or peri-menopausal women, much less trans women. However, most reviews suggest that it’s generally safe even at high levels. Women commonly experience much higher levels of Estradiol than yours during pregnancy for example, sometimes as much as exceeding 30,000 pg/mL in their third trimester according to some studies, though most say 1,000-6,000 through all but the first month or so is most common. There is also almost no research on pubescent girls and that’s what we really need to understand, but generally the normal levels for an adult premenopausal cis-woman are 30-400 pg/ml depending on phase of their cycle.
There is even less research for progestin or estriol so I won’t go onto those, but limited data is out there.
But check with your doctor to be sure, just I think jumping to conclusions is just going to affect your mental health negatively. It’s statistically likely not that bad.
No, this info isn’t directly from my doctor, I just know that that’s one of the symptoms of prolactinomas. Didn’t know it could be the E levels, huh! Thanks for letting me know!
I’m definitely reducing that, no question about it. I’m just risking my health with no real benefit at all.And I’ll probably drop the cypro completely soon. It’s not doing me any good and the risks are real. Not one, but two types of benign brain tumors…fun!
Thank you, really 💜
I’ve already commented plenty on your other post, but I will say that my best friend (she’s cis) has a prolactinoma, and it is basically ruining her life. She’s back on treatment now, so it should be reducing, but it gave her all the symptoms of Borderline Personality Disorder and Bipolar Disorder in droves. She was much, much better after her first round of treatment (before it came back). Now she’s considering getting brain surgery because of how bad it is. All I mean to imply here is that having such high prolactin could be causing some major psychological problems, regardless of what is causing it. I don’t see the psychological effects of hyperprolactinemia discussed often enough, despite empirical evidence suggesting it.
Jeez…I’m so sorry for her 🫂
That’s absolutely horrible, wow…I’m still holding onto hope that it’s just my E levels, but if turns out to be a prolactinoma…well, starting HRT was well worth it. At least to me :D
I’ll get it checked. Tysm 💜
I hope my concern is unnecessary, and I don’t mean to imply that you might have a prolactinoma (despite it being a technical possibility), I moreso just wanted to let you know that high prolactin can have lots of negative effects. Speaking of which, I probably should get my prolactin levels checked next time I get bloodwork. I’ve been off CPA for over a year, but given that I just started progesterone a few months ago, it’s worth checking.
