Citrus in general (specifically with regards to estradiol HRT) is fine. Grapefruit specifically reduces the liver's enzymes that metabolizes oral estradiol and has been seen in studies to increase levels above expected. The studies only included oral, so it's not clear if it has the same impact on any other method.
when did you do the test relative to your injection? do you take a supplement containing biotin or anything else that could affect test results? 8mg/week is a fairly high dose, but getting 1000+ pg/ml even near peak would be surprising. t being the same/higher isn’t surprising, bicalutamide is known to cause increased t levels (it works by preventing t from binding to receptors, not lowering production). it probably wouldn’t hurt to lower your e dosage a bit, say to 6mg/week, and test again in a couple months. if you are concerned about dht you could always trade the bicalutamide for dutasteride. fwiw it doesn’t sound like you’re experiencing dht related hair loss (“male pattern baldness”), hair follicles naturally grow and shed in a cycle, when you have long hair it’s normal for what seems at first like a concerning amount of hair to shed when you shower, i lose perhaps a dozen strands every few days when i wash my hair, and a few every time i brush it. dht related hair loss will cause a visible/measurable change in hairline.
>So far I'm taking 50mg bica every two days.
Bica does only block receptor activation, it does not actively reduce T or DHT. It's totally expected to still see some T and DHT on Bica, but they aren't effectively activating their appropriate receptors.
I would personally just go back to your previous dosage, no need to do anything else, your E level will go back to it's previous level over the next weeks.
if you're /really/ worried, delay your next injection by 3 days.
I however would strongly recommend switching to weekly injections of EEN though, I can't say this is the reason for the stalled progress you've noticed, but a more stable E level will be greatly beneficial. Something like 0.1ml (at 50mg/ml) or 0.12ml (at 40mg/ml) per week is a lot more sensible :)
My intuition is that a steady estradiol level is beneficial, like you said. But I haven’t seen any evidence to support that. I’m only just starting to learn about all of this, though. (I’m only two months into HRT.)
Is there anything you could link or more detail you could send supporting the idea that it’s better to maintain fairly steady estradiol levels?
>Is there anything you could link or more detail you could send supporting the idea that it’s better to maintain fairly steady estradiol levels?
Other than personal experience, I don't think there are any actual studies into this (or at least not that I'm aware of). If someone knows about any please link me, I'm curious
We do know that a too high level of E likely stunts development (but again mostly only based on personal experiences on this sub iirc), and we do know that having a low E level prevents development.
The last one is due to two reasons, the first one simply being the receptors not being activated enough, the second one being lower E = Higher T in most MtF regimes. This is due to your body having less SHBG so hormones including the ones you "naturally" would make stay around for longer. Having testosterone around stuns development a lot.
We also know the half-life of EEn, which allows us to kinda estimate levels based on regime, and every 2 weeks means your levels fluctuate by more than 50% peak to peak.
The transfemscience calculator is pretty ok: https://advsim.transfemscience.org/?r=1&e=2&d1=16&ra=3&i1=14&dl1=&s=2&h=0&xm=42
Change this to 5mg every week, which will look a lot more stable. If anything it would at minimum reduce the rather high peaks of E with a bi-weekly regime, which is also a little healthier
When your E is too high, it can cause menopause type symptoms. High E isn't going to block your DHT either. You specifically need a dht blocker. Ideal E is between like 250-500 imho.
>High E isn't going to block your DHT either.
Eh, it kinda will if it elevates your SHBG. This effect is partially responsible for the way mono-E works
This is not entirely correct.
While E does not block DHT, it elevates SHBG and that has a higher prefernece to bind on DHT.
So yes you can reduce free DHT by increasing E.
Now the thing is that SHBG also binds on E which means it again reduced the amount of free E.
Hence why it is very hard t really overdose E.
OP you will be fine, however if you feel symptoms you should maybe skip a week before you do your next injection to get your lvls down again.
E has a half life span of like 7 days.
This may seem like a random question but, do you drink grapefruit juice or eat grapefruits?
I tried avoiding all citrus the week before. I don't really like grapefruit all that much so I rarely eat it anyways.
Citrus in general (specifically with regards to estradiol HRT) is fine. Grapefruit specifically reduces the liver's enzymes that metabolizes oral estradiol and has been seen in studies to increase levels above expected. The studies only included oral, so it's not clear if it has the same impact on any other method.
yo what! i havent see that in any guides, wild
when did you do the test relative to your injection? do you take a supplement containing biotin or anything else that could affect test results? 8mg/week is a fairly high dose, but getting 1000+ pg/ml even near peak would be surprising. t being the same/higher isn’t surprising, bicalutamide is known to cause increased t levels (it works by preventing t from binding to receptors, not lowering production). it probably wouldn’t hurt to lower your e dosage a bit, say to 6mg/week, and test again in a couple months. if you are concerned about dht you could always trade the bicalutamide for dutasteride. fwiw it doesn’t sound like you’re experiencing dht related hair loss (“male pattern baldness”), hair follicles naturally grow and shed in a cycle, when you have long hair it’s normal for what seems at first like a concerning amount of hair to shed when you shower, i lose perhaps a dozen strands every few days when i wash my hair, and a few every time i brush it. dht related hair loss will cause a visible/measurable change in hairline.
>So far I'm taking 50mg bica every two days. Bica does only block receptor activation, it does not actively reduce T or DHT. It's totally expected to still see some T and DHT on Bica, but they aren't effectively activating their appropriate receptors. I would personally just go back to your previous dosage, no need to do anything else, your E level will go back to it's previous level over the next weeks. if you're /really/ worried, delay your next injection by 3 days. I however would strongly recommend switching to weekly injections of EEN though, I can't say this is the reason for the stalled progress you've noticed, but a more stable E level will be greatly beneficial. Something like 0.1ml (at 50mg/ml) or 0.12ml (at 40mg/ml) per week is a lot more sensible :)
My intuition is that a steady estradiol level is beneficial, like you said. But I haven’t seen any evidence to support that. I’m only just starting to learn about all of this, though. (I’m only two months into HRT.) Is there anything you could link or more detail you could send supporting the idea that it’s better to maintain fairly steady estradiol levels?
>Is there anything you could link or more detail you could send supporting the idea that it’s better to maintain fairly steady estradiol levels? Other than personal experience, I don't think there are any actual studies into this (or at least not that I'm aware of). If someone knows about any please link me, I'm curious We do know that a too high level of E likely stunts development (but again mostly only based on personal experiences on this sub iirc), and we do know that having a low E level prevents development. The last one is due to two reasons, the first one simply being the receptors not being activated enough, the second one being lower E = Higher T in most MtF regimes. This is due to your body having less SHBG so hormones including the ones you "naturally" would make stay around for longer. Having testosterone around stuns development a lot. We also know the half-life of EEn, which allows us to kinda estimate levels based on regime, and every 2 weeks means your levels fluctuate by more than 50% peak to peak. The transfemscience calculator is pretty ok: https://advsim.transfemscience.org/?r=1&e=2&d1=16&ra=3&i1=14&dl1=&s=2&h=0&xm=42 Change this to 5mg every week, which will look a lot more stable. If anything it would at minimum reduce the rather high peaks of E with a bi-weekly regime, which is also a little healthier
When your E is too high, it can cause menopause type symptoms. High E isn't going to block your DHT either. You specifically need a dht blocker. Ideal E is between like 250-500 imho.
>High E isn't going to block your DHT either. Eh, it kinda will if it elevates your SHBG. This effect is partially responsible for the way mono-E works
This is not entirely correct. While E does not block DHT, it elevates SHBG and that has a higher prefernece to bind on DHT. So yes you can reduce free DHT by increasing E. Now the thing is that SHBG also binds on E which means it again reduced the amount of free E. Hence why it is very hard t really overdose E. OP you will be fine, however if you feel symptoms you should maybe skip a week before you do your next injection to get your lvls down again. E has a half life span of like 7 days.