Hi everyone, thanks for taking the time. Finding this forum has been an absolute godsend and I have been doing nothing but reading my ass off to learn and absorb as much information as possible. Here is my story (important parts are in bold):
I always had intermediate gyno and puffy nips since early puberty. I thought I was just unlucky and sort of lived with it. It was always embarrassing but whatever, that's life and I lived with it. Fast forward to my early 20s and my gyno was getting worse and I also had poor erection quality coupled with hair loss starting at around 22-23 years old. I thought I was purely unlucky in all of these camps and didn't know what to do.
Finally one day I was able to save enough ($5K) for gyno surgery and the doctor ensured me that the gyno would never return. He actually said "I have to say that in 1% of cases gyno will return but I've never seen it". I think that was a lie. Either way, I got the gyno surgery and all was well for about a year. Since then my gyno has gradually returned, sexual characteristics like ED are very bad although my libido (desire) is quite high.
Last Fall I decided to see an expert and went to an endocrinologist because at this point I was sure that my testosterone was very low. The endo said it seemed like I was okay but ran some tests and said testosterone was normal and estradiol was quite high but that there was nothing else to do and basically to go away. End of the road.
Here are the results:
Test:
748 ng/dL
(250-1100 ng/dL)
Free Test:
112 pg/mL
(35-155 pg/mL)
FSH:
6.1 mIU/mL
(1.6-8.0 mIU/mL)
Estradiol: 52 pg/mL
(< or = 29 pg/mL)
barely out of range
WAY OUT OF RANGE
Free Estradiol: .59 pg/mL.
(< or = .45 pg/mL)
WAY OUT OF RANGE
SHBG: 41 nmol/L
(10-50 nmol/L)
is this high?
Prolactin:
9.1 ng/mL
(2-18 ng/mL)
To my pleasant surprise he was right on the testosterone and I was pleased to have a decent number and see that my T wasn't super low and it seemed normal. But my E2 levels are very high. I'm so enraged and disappointed that all along the way several medical experts have had the opportunity to steer me in the right direction and failed. The gyno surgeon could have told me to see a hormone specialist. The endo could have treated my estrogen issue seriously and seen it as the cause of these bitch tits, hair loss, and poor erection quality.
There are, of course, other symptoms. I've fought my ass off to keep a weight of 180 at 5'9" and lift weights of 245 on Bench and 295 on Squat, etc. All these goals have been achieved fiercely due to my test/E2 ratio being off balance.
But I have great hope and I'm glad to have found the underground experts of this forum because now I have a plan and I'd like you guys to vet it.
First I'm going to get a testosterone and sensitive E2 panel before I begin to corroborate the above results from the endo which were about 5 months ago. Then I'm going to use letrozole at .5mg eod combined with raloxifene 60mg ed to try to reverse the gyno. I will increase the dosage to 1mg eod or .5 ed and up the raloxifene to 80mg ed if that does not solve it. I will then reevaluate where I am at the end of that process. I will also get a test/sensitive E2 panel every 3 weeks on these regimens to keep a close watch on what's happening.
So there it is, the first day of the rest of my life. I'm trying to stay cool, calm, and focused. I'm annoyed that all of this information was out there floating around and yet I trusted so-called experts to help. That time is done, now I trust science and this fine community of experimenters to solve my own problems.
Please critique my plan and give your two cents, it really would be much appreciated to help tweak my path forward I'm especially wondering if Arimidex or Aromasin would be better choices here since letro is "wild"? And what sort of protocol should I have as a long-term solution to this problem. Just use these things to keep me in range forever?
Thanks everyone
I always had intermediate gyno and puffy nips since early puberty. I thought I was just unlucky and sort of lived with it. It was always embarrassing but whatever, that's life and I lived with it. Fast forward to my early 20s and my gyno was getting worse and I also had poor erection quality coupled with hair loss starting at around 22-23 years old. I thought I was purely unlucky in all of these camps and didn't know what to do.
Finally one day I was able to save enough ($5K) for gyno surgery and the doctor ensured me that the gyno would never return. He actually said "I have to say that in 1% of cases gyno will return but I've never seen it". I think that was a lie. Either way, I got the gyno surgery and all was well for about a year. Since then my gyno has gradually returned, sexual characteristics like ED are very bad although my libido (desire) is quite high.
Last Fall I decided to see an expert and went to an endocrinologist because at this point I was sure that my testosterone was very low. The endo said it seemed like I was okay but ran some tests and said testosterone was normal and estradiol was quite high but that there was nothing else to do and basically to go away. End of the road.
Here are the results:
Test:
748 ng/dL
(250-1100 ng/dL)
Free Test:
112 pg/mL
(35-155 pg/mL)
FSH:
6.1 mIU/mL
(1.6-8.0 mIU/mL)
Estradiol: 52 pg/mL
(< or = 29 pg/mL)
barely out of range
WAY OUT OF RANGE
Free Estradiol: .59 pg/mL.
(< or = .45 pg/mL)
WAY OUT OF RANGE
SHBG: 41 nmol/L
(10-50 nmol/L)
is this high?
Prolactin:
9.1 ng/mL
(2-18 ng/mL)
To my pleasant surprise he was right on the testosterone and I was pleased to have a decent number and see that my T wasn't super low and it seemed normal. But my E2 levels are very high. I'm so enraged and disappointed that all along the way several medical experts have had the opportunity to steer me in the right direction and failed. The gyno surgeon could have told me to see a hormone specialist. The endo could have treated my estrogen issue seriously and seen it as the cause of these bitch tits, hair loss, and poor erection quality.
There are, of course, other symptoms. I've fought my ass off to keep a weight of 180 at 5'9" and lift weights of 245 on Bench and 295 on Squat, etc. All these goals have been achieved fiercely due to my test/E2 ratio being off balance.
But I have great hope and I'm glad to have found the underground experts of this forum because now I have a plan and I'd like you guys to vet it.
First I'm going to get a testosterone and sensitive E2 panel before I begin to corroborate the above results from the endo which were about 5 months ago. Then I'm going to use letrozole at .5mg eod combined with raloxifene 60mg ed to try to reverse the gyno. I will increase the dosage to 1mg eod or .5 ed and up the raloxifene to 80mg ed if that does not solve it. I will then reevaluate where I am at the end of that process. I will also get a test/sensitive E2 panel every 3 weeks on these regimens to keep a close watch on what's happening.
So there it is, the first day of the rest of my life. I'm trying to stay cool, calm, and focused. I'm annoyed that all of this information was out there floating around and yet I trusted so-called experts to help. That time is done, now I trust science and this fine community of experimenters to solve my own problems.
Please critique my plan and give your two cents, it really would be much appreciated to help tweak my path forward I'm especially wondering if Arimidex or Aromasin would be better choices here since letro is "wild"? And what sort of protocol should I have as a long-term solution to this problem. Just use these things to keep me in range forever?
Thanks everyone
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