HRT Update #5
Ok Howdy, it's the 3 month mark, so how's my HRT going? It's not going great, but I suppose it could be worse.
Generally HRT has been going decent. I've seen multiple wanted effects, such as breast budding, slower facial-hair growth, lower libido, and slightly modified romantic feelings. I believe any other effects outside of these general effects didn't actually happen, but honestly those are pretty great so I'm not complaining.
I did get more blood-work done, which was definitely less nerve-wrecking this time. I actually had to get 2 done since I accidently took the estradiol before the first one, so I'm pretty used to it by now.
Here's my hormone levels after 24 hours since the last dose, 3 months into treatment, on 2mg Estradiol daily and 12.5mg cyproterone every second day:
Estradiol: ~150 pmol/L (~40.8 pg/ml)
Testosterone: ~0.6 nmol/L (~17.3 ng/dL)
Prolactin: 16 ug/L
Let's take a moment to analyze these.
Testosterone: decreased significantly from 19.5 nmol/L to 0.6 nmol/L. The target is usually 0.5-ish nmol/L, but 0.6 is probably just as good. So my Testosterone is good! It's exactly what we're aiming for!
Prolactin: Ok so I don't actually know too much about this one, but to my knowledge this level is fine. I was just curious if increased estrogen would cause it to go up or not, and looks like maybe slightly but within margin of error.
Estradiol: This is the worrying one. Originally, before starting HRT, my estradiol level was 128 pmol/L. Now my estradiol is 150 pmol/L. This is extremely low, and is still in the cis male range for estradiol, though almost on the border. I believe the target levels are around 350 pmol/L, or minimum at least being 200 pmol/L. This is, to say the least, bad. I have had feminizing effects, which does mean it is working at least a little, but having low E, without having cis-levels of T, can potentially cause some issues, but I'm mainly just dissapointed that I'm not getting the full effects of HRT yet. I understood that 2mg orallly was a low starting dose, but it being this low is quite shocking to me at least. Definitely going to be working with my doctor to get a higher dose.
I haven't had my next appointment with the doctor yet, that's on the 10th. So any updates to my HRT routine will be put in an update #4.5.
I am going to try to get injectible estradiol monotherapy though, or at least just injectible estradiol. I don't have very solid reasons for this, but generally only having to do an injection once a week instead of taking tablets daily would be nice, since there's less of a chance I forget/delay taking them due to multiple factors. The other reason is I just think it could be fun! Learning how to properly give injections just seems interesting.
The main reason I want injections is the potential for monotherapy. Doing so would eliminate the need for the cyproterone, which takes a drug off my list, as well as the fact the cyproterone has a decent sized side-effect list
Anyway, aside from the cool hormone level and drug stuff, any new changes? Nope! Not at all! Honestly any change that's happened in my life over the past month was more caused by the depression than anything else. I hope I see an increase in development and changes after I get on a higher dose, but for now I'm just waiting it out and trying to be happy with what I have gotten so far. But seriously not complaining about the 0 libido and modified romantic feelings, absolutely love those!!!!.
Update you on the 10th! =3
-Evelyne.