Estrogen replacement after breast cancer diagnosis anyone???

ChiSandy

Could also have been that before you started on AIs, it wasn’t that the testosterone was “opposed” by estrogen, but rather that the aromatase secreted by your liver was converting it to a form of estrogen, as it does to androgens produced by your adrenal glands and "non-brown" fat cells. Once aromatase began to be thwarted, the testosterone became the dominant hormone, which was probably the cause of your clitoral enlargement.

Research published in recent days suggests that the more highly your tumor cells express progesterone receptors, the more that progesterone impairs access to estrogen by the tumor cells by interfering with its estrogen receptors as well--thus enhancing the anti-estrogen and tumor-starving effects of both SERMs and AIs. Caution is that it’s been studied only in mice thus far.

Boobytrap

Hiya MargoChanning

You raise some interesting points, especially with relation to measuring and supplementing declining hormone levels. I thought I'd update where I'm at. I'm taking bioidentical oestrogen, progesterone and testosterone. The testosterone is a gel and I have noticed my stomach and inner thighs are a little hairier from where I put it, so I'm going to have to try and rotate that around more sites. I have my follow up with my gynae to check my hormone levels on Wednesday. On the whole my moods feel much more stable. I still have some bad days, but at least I have the knowledge that I'm no longer on the aging superhighway and am giving my body the hormones it needs to repair. I'm actually going to my uncles funeral for bowel cancer next week too. So I'm not burying my head to the horrors of possible recurrence. But I've decided to make my decisions based on the here and now. I seriously think I'd have driven into a brick wall if I went much longer without hormones anyway!