I’m trying to narrow down what my issue is with libido the past few years after I had a long run of successful hormone replacement therapy with no side effects. I’m leaning a lot towards it being a dopamine issue, I’m concerned about dopamine desensitization from T and at the same time blunting of dopamine because of Vicadin use.
However I think my estrogen could be an issue obviously and also my thyroid not bein dialed in totally.
That is why I have another thread on here that I’m asking to get some help on getting very specific about comprehensive labs so I can sit there with the doctor and make him check off exactly what I need to get to start sorting my libido issue out.
But within recent months just concerning my estrogen I’ve gotten two insanely different results when I’ve stuck to the same protocol that I’ve been on for years and got the blood draw on the exact same day of the week within the same morning fasted time frame.
Typically over the years my E2 has been consistently between 21-27. Now a few months ago on a Quest lab I got 36. Hmm. Ok maybe my E2 is creeping up for some odd reason. Now Labcorp results say my E2 is less than 6!!! That’s using the Roche method. Quest doesn’t say what method it used, but I know on lab sheet the doc checks the box for “male profile” CP317986. On Quest results it has some note saying if you’re a male who anticipates low Estradiol levels to get an ultra sensitive assay. And if you are on faslodex (which I’m not) cross reactivity could lead to falsely high results so use ultra sensitive.
So a few months ago on Quest:
TT 826 (range 250-1100)
FT 225.6 (35-155)
Estradiol 36
Now with LabCorp
TT 826 (264-916)
FT 22.7 (6.8-21.5)
Estradiol less than 6
Literally exact same TT numbers but E2 results opposite end of the Spectrum!
I’ve tried reading on the differences of estrogen labs but it’s confusing to me. I’ve seen threads guys get crazy variance like I just did and others guys get similar results. I re-read stickies here again and seems my doc did the correct E2 labs right just different lab company?
Is it realistically possible for my E2 to swing from 36 to less than 6 on the exact same protocol within months? Drawing labs on exact same day of week? And if it was under 6 wouldn’t I be experiencing extremely negative side effects??
Is there something that can throw off these tests drastically?
I want to do labs soon again (hence the other thread asking for help on what to do precisely) so I can sort out what’s going on with my dead libido and lack or any sexual pleasure, concerning dopamine, thyroid, E2…
Thanks for any insight on the matter and what estrogen labs I should be getting.