Can someone explain to me the differences between high dose and low dose hrt? On my initial dose, where my E2 was 789 and T was 9, I was a bit giddy and very fem in my head. Research said that was too high. Still it felt nice.
With those results I was told to cut EV in 1/2, and cut the Spiro by 3/4. As of Last Friday's levels received today, my current levels are: E2 359, and T 21, I'm much more middle of the road, and a lot of the overload/Meltdown symptoms of ASD that were suppressed at the higher levels are back, but still at a far lesser degree than before hrt.
Initial dose was .25cc/7 days of EV 40mg/ml or 20mg/28 days
Lowered dose .07cc/4 days which ends up being 7 shots every 28 days and approximately 10mg/28 days
Each delivery system uses a different amount of E.
What is right with one isn't the same as another at that dose.
Like patches use it on a three to four day schedule that is delivered in a total different way that say shots at the same times.
If you want to play the numbers game, then be ready to not really know where you are other than it is this or that at the time they took the blood.
Hormones change all day long and even through the week it seems, so to really know from a blood test means that you have to take them every hour for a week or so and then average them out and then you have a real reliable number.
But even then, what that level is for you is going to be different for the next person, the ratio of T to E is the best indicator, not the levels themselves.
All the other hormones your body and mind use play into the ratios.
And even them what is the right ratio for you is going to be different for the next person.
One of the Dr's who contributes to the SOC told me that if it feels right to you, then it probably is.
She never took the levels except before I started to use them to have a baseline more for her research than for me.
The numbers are something that are an indicator for you and after a bunch of them and once you're more stable and can tell what is right for you, then you just have to go with the flow.
It takes time, there is no easy answer and there isn't ever going to be. The way we all use hormones.
The levels and ratios are all in a range that is really big considering, you'll have to find out where you are over time and by practice in knowing what is right to you.
Some woman have a higher T level and you'd never know, they don't have extra hair, they can be a feminine as any of them, just one more reason to think that gender is a social construct.
The same goes for men, they can easily have a higher E level. Those levels and ratios even change as we age.
So the best thing is to just relax and decide how you feel that day and is that how you want to feel?
You'll get used to it and then you'll have a better grip on it, it takes a year or so before the dose levels are adjusted right.
Don't go by the numbers people especially if they say that the 'normal' is this amount or that amount this number and that number, because it is about the ratio more than anything and your ratio is yours, it is different than others and theirs is different from others...
Don't fall into that number game, Dr's use it as a gauge but they go by how you feel a lot more, and the numbers only reflect the level at that moment the blood is drawn and just being at the Dr can change it.
People switching over to a different delivery system will usually go through a period of adjustment, though not as large, simply because each system works differently for each person.
There is no absolutes in this, there is only how you feel that you should go by and it's going to take time, if the last change is doing this, then get it changed so it does that.
You're the best guess as to what is working and isn't, all the numbers in the universe isn't going to change that, you are unique and there is no number for that...