Re: Finasteride side effects / trying to control e2
Well, you know, you have blood tests showing normal levels of DHT and not-out-of-whack relation of estradiol to testosterone but you insist that you have extremely low conversion to DHT and you insist that you have extreme conversion of T to E.
Nothing, it seems, will shake you of these conclusions.
I've got to admit it, Shaolin, this is exactly what I've been feeling. You've been getting solid, reasonable advice from me and Bill, but its the guy who first tells you that you're crazy, and then tells you to blast your body with shitloads of steroids that you listen to.
I think the only pill you need right now is a chill pill.
Bill is dead on when he tells you that some of your endos have scape-goated some of your bloodwork because they don't really know what is happening. Those values aren't really that abnormal, and shouldn't be causing the debilitating symptoms that you've been experiencing. Regardless of this, it is pretty easy to rule out these possibilities by just correcting the values.
I've taken a look at some of your posts on propeciahelp.com (you must be solonjk). Previously, it looks like some of your free T and dht were pretty low. This is something that would easily be corrected with the Testim that your doctor gave you. Testim is really good shit for this sort of thing. It keeps your levels consistently in the high-normal range (or better), and it is particularly good at elevating DHT levels, because you spread the gel over a wide area of skin, unlike patches (like Androderm) that cover only a small area. Use the gel by itself, and see what happens to your blood work in three weeks. If your E is too high, then take the aromatase inhibitor. Balancing free T, dht, and E to normal physiological levels is not particularly difficult, even among people in your demographic. If you get these levels normal, and you are still having issues, then it is not likely to be due to any of them.
It also appears that one of your urologists said that you had severe prostatitis. Did you take the antibiotic course, as recommended, and see him for follow up? If you have an infection in your balls, you would definitely have the symptoms you are experiencing.
And these kinds of changes don't happen overnight. For example, you say that you took an AI one day, and the next day you are disappointed because your nipples are still sore. It isn't going to get corrected overnight.
My point is this: to rule out a theory about what is wrong with you, you need to treat it correctly, and see if the symptoms persist when the treatment works as designed. I don't think you are going to get anywhere with your current approach. In order for us to help you, you must modify your approach so that you can help yourself.
As far as high progesterone goes, this is not important if it is not a consistent finding. It is in the adrenal pathway, so if you so much as get stressed out, and your ACTH shoots up, your progesterone will fucking skyrocket. One time, an inexperienced phlebotomist drew my blood, and fucked up my vein. She kept pulling it out, and moving it around when it was in, trying to correct the positioning. I got all pissed off and demanded that someone else take my blood. They complied, but it ended up being a complete waste of money: all of my adrenal values were sky high as a result of the stress (ACTH was 450 (6-48 pg/mL), 17-OH pregnenolone was 1200 (53-357 ng/dL), etc.). My values have been normal otherwise.
After all, there could be a totally unrelated cause to some of your symptoms. You talk about absolutely being bed-ridden with fatigue. What would it mean if your hormonal levels were totally normal during this period? It would probably mean that you should be looking at causes of fatigue other than hormones, like mononucleosis, giardiasis, etc.
If you resolve yourself to just doing what you have to do to monitor and correct any issues in your steroidogenesis pathways, you can effectively narrow down a diagnosis, or eliminate entire realms of possibilities entirely. If you find that it is not hormone related, you don't have to accept the conclusion that you are crazy, rather you need to explore different avenues and different doctors.
My 2 cents.