TL;DR labs (7 days post-injection / trough):
- Estradiol: 197 pmol/L (53.68 pg/mL) → lower than I expected for weekly EV injections, but still within lab female reference range
- Total Testosterone: 0.99 nmol/L (28.55 ng/dL) → well suppressed / female range
- Free Testosterone: 18 pmol/L (5.19 pg/mL) → suppressed / below male reference range
Overall: T suppression looks great, but E seems surprisingly low at trough. Anyone else on weekly IM EV experience similar levels?
For context:
I had my blood drawn exactly 7 days after my last injection (right before my next dose/trough levels).
I’ve gone through 5 vials of injectable estradiol valerate (10 mg/mL, arachis oil) and have been doing IM injections every 7 days. I originally tried subcutaneous injections, but they caused swelling and itching, so I switched to IM.
I’m also taking my usual 12.5 mg cyproterone acetate every other day (every 48 hours).
I just got my labs back and I’m honestly shocked — I thought I might actually be overdosing because I assumed my E levels would be well within female range, but they came back much lower than expected.
My testosterone suppression seems fine, though.
Am I misunderstanding how trough levels work, or do these estradiol levels seem unusually low for this regimen?