Does anyone know what Estradiol should be after using an AI?

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BarbaraA
BarbaraA Member Posts: 7,378

I took a saliva test in order to measure the effectiveness of my eating and supplementing with AI type foods and phhytochemicals. My estradiol came back low at .7 pg/ml. What I can't find anywhere is what is normal for a postmenopausal women. Anyone know? My PR came back at 10 pg/ml - also low. Thanks for any help.

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  • dlb823
    dlb823 Member Posts: 9,430
    edited July 2010

    Hi, Barbara ~  For testing via blood, postmenopausal (untreated) normal is from ND to 37 pg/ml.  My most recent one was 17.  Assuming blood & saliva results use the same reference range, .7 sounds extremely low to me.   I'd love to know what all you're doing!    Deanna

  • mollyann
    mollyann Member Posts: 472
    edited July 2010

    Is there any evidence demonstrating lowering estrogen levels is actually beneficial for recurrence or survival? I would like to see the evidence.

  • BarbaraA
    BarbaraA Member Posts: 7,378
    edited July 2010

    Thanks Dlb. I eat little meat except occasional hormone free beef and chicken. No dairy. No sugar or processed food. All orgranic fruits and vegetables. I take 500 mg Chrysin, 200 mg DIM, 800 mg curcumin/bioperine, 200 mg grape seed extract daily. Wow. I guess it's working.

    Mollyann, since both AI's and Tamox are Rx'd for ER+ BC patients, and I don't want to take either poison, I figure that I can keep my estrogen production down naturally and still feel like a normal human being. I'm not saying AI's and Tamox will work or not, I'm only noting that they are standard of care and if I can achieve the same results as a standard of care drug naturally, then that's what I'm going to do.

  • fairy49
    fairy49 Member Posts: 1,245
    edited August 2010

    you don't need to have zero estrogens (estradiol, estrone, estriol) estrogen dominance only means that your estrogen is out of balance with your progesterone, you estrogens can be high, as long as your progesterone is higher, the ratio should be approx 300 to 1.

    L

  • Luna5
    Luna5 Member Posts: 738
    edited August 2010

    Which is the 300 and which is the 1?

  • dlb823
    dlb823 Member Posts: 9,430
    edited August 2010

    For what it's worth, I was listening to a couple of womens health docs discussing hormones on Dr. Radio (Sirius) recently, and they said that any estrogen test you have only shows your estrogen at that particular time -- that our estrogen levels fluctuate a lot throughout the day, so 20 minutes later, the reading could be totally different.  Doesn't that make testing somewhat pointless?   

    Interesting, they also both wholeheartedly endorsed estrogen rings for low estrogen dryness, including for women who have had bc.  They said they're perfectly safe for us.  The host docs on this station are out of NYU Medical Center, and sound pretty top notch to me.  After listening to them, I wondered if the reason most oncs won't RX an estrogen ring might have more to do with liability fears than any real risk.   Deanna

  • BarbaraA
    BarbaraA Member Posts: 7,378
    edited August 2010

    So Fairy, in my case, I need to up the PR. I have been dawdling about ordering the cream. Deanna, I told my onc Wednesday that I still have a lot of sex left in me and don't want vaginal atrophy. He said it would happen anyway with old age. OLD??? I'm not OLD!!! I plan to ask my new holistic GYN about this when I see her for the first time on the 25th. I will let you know what she says.

  • fairy49
    fairy49 Member Posts: 1,245
    edited August 2010

    Luna!  The progesterone should be he highest, so the ratio should be 300 to 1 progesterone to the estrogens, so if your estradiol/estrone etc is high, as long as your progesterone levels are higher it should be ok.  For instance, my latest saliva tests showed that my estradiol was still pretty high, however my progesterone had gone from almost zero to almost 3 times the level of the estradiol, so the doc was ok with the higher estrogen. Its also so flippin complicated in my opinion.  I still think that the more important indicator is the 2:16 ratio, I prefer to look at that.

    L

    ox

  • Luna5
    Luna5 Member Posts: 738
    edited August 2010

    Thanks!  I will do the math and see how bad mine is.  We have increased my progesterone to 1 1/2 pumps twice a day because I had only brought it up to .9 and I think I remember my estradiol was 15.  I will re-look.

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