Exploring The Hormonal Route. Hair=life.

[Obsessive]

Yes Ever since I started estrogen my veins are visible everywhere now. Under my eyes on my face It drive me crazy. I knew it was because of the e because it started right after. Ive resorted to wearing make up to cover it up but that only works a little bit. The thin skin combined with the water retention giving me a bloated face Estrogen has definitely mad me look worse.

So going by what that study says should we lower our estrogen? maybe it's all ready way too high for us. Bridgeburn I have been meaning to ask you abut this for a long time. Do you have any idea what we can do?
The only thing I can think of trying is upping my cypro and lowering my estradiol. Maybe taking some estriol would help?

Ugg-I wish I had known about this possible side effect. When I first started noticing unsightly veins I thought the estrogel would only help since everybody raves about how it improves skin, and collagen, and appearance, blah blah blah. But a blue vein starting to run from temple to right underneath eye is unsightly (I've been putting estrogel on may face), and veins in hands, arms, and legs are showing more and more since starting my E regimen.

 

[nWo Wolfpac]

Ugg-I wish I had known about this possible side effect. When I first started noticing unsightly veins I thought the estrogel would only help since everybody raves about how it improves skin, and collagen, and appearance, blah blah blah. But a blue vein starting to run from temple to right underneath eye is unsightly (I've been putting estrogel on may face), and veins in hands, arms, and legs are showing more and more since starting my E regimen.

Yeah it f*****g sucks It's incredibly disappointing. I would definitely stop putting the gel on your face. Are you having sleeping prolems as well?

 

[Obsessive]

I've always had off/on sleep issues so cannot attribute it to E. Sleep certainly hasn't improved though. If I decide estrogen is causing this, I'm done...in fact stopping immediately until I am able to do more research. I was willing to make a lot of compromises, eg, low libido, risk of gyno, extra body fat...but this vein sh*t is a deal breaker for me.

 

[nWo Wolfpac]

I've always had off/on sleep issues so cannot attribute it to E. Sleep certainly hasn't improved though. If I decide estrogen is causing this, I'm done...in fact stopping immediately until I am able to do more research. I was willing to make a lot of compromises, eg, low libido, risk of gyno, extra body fat...but this vein sh*t is a deal breaker for me.

I now how you feel. as if we didn't have enough sh*t to worry about all ready. I'm hoping that I can just stay on this crap long enough to regrow enough hair that I can take 6 month breaks from it without losing too much and then only go back on for a month or 2 a year as a sort of band aid.

 

[Obsessive]

I now how you feel. as if we didn't have enough sh*t to worry about all ready. I'm hoping that I can just stay on this crap long enough to regrow enough hair that I can take 6 month breaks from it without losing too much and then only go back on for a month or 2 a year a a sort of band aid.

Haha-It's definitely a roller coaster ride: 3 days ago I noticed regrowth starting after 9 months of loss and disappointment. Literally that same day heart palpitations are too intense so I quit oral minoxidil and switch back to topical. Now this.

The confusing thing is that there are multiple studies about estrogen enhancing collagen synthesis so I'm wondering if I'm blaming estrogen when oral minoxidil is the culprit. Although that wouldn't explain your experience.

 

[nWo Wolfpac]

Haha-It's definitely a roller coaster ride: 3 days ago I noticed regrowth starting after 9 months of loss and disappointment. Literally that same day heart palpitations are too intense so I quit oral minoxidil and switch back to topical. Now this.

The confusing thing is that there are multiple studies about estrogen enhancing collagen synthesis so I'm wondering if I'm blaming estrogen when oral minoxidil is the culprit. Although that wouldn't explain your experience.

Its weird but estrogen Increases collagen and makes skin thinner at the same time. It's definitely the estradiol. I don't know how that works. What doses are you taking by the way? Im taking 2.25 mg estradiol and 12.5mg cypro.

 

[Obsessive]

Its weird but estrogen Increases collagen and makes skin thinner. I don't know how that works. What doses are you taking by the way? Im taking 2.25 mg estradiol and 12.5mg cypro.

I'm averaging about 0.5-0.75 mg/day. Blood levels are in range for menstruating woman. total E: 334 pg/mL, estradiol 61 pg/mL.
Do you happen to monitor your E blood levels?

Any idea what to expect with one suddenly stops taking E? Guess I'm about to find out.

 

[nWo Wolfpac]

I'm averaging about 0.5-0.75 mg/day. Blood levels are in range for menstruating woman. total E: 334 pg/mL, estradiol 61 pg/mL.
Do you happen to monitor your E blood levels?

Any idea what to expect with one suddenly stops taking E? Guess I'm about to find out.

That's very interesting and also very good news for me that you have the proper e levels on such low doses. You have convinced me to start taking much less estradiol which will help me because I have noticed that the more e I take the more bloated my face gets and the more visable my veins are. My veins are probably worse than yours they are not just under my eyes but on my neck chest hips and everywhere its awful so I should have some room for improvement which is encouraging. Unfortunately I don't monitor my e levels and for some reason my doctor never ordered any blood work so I don't really know.

I stopped taking E andy Cypro for 2 weeks straight and all I noticed was I started feeling better and my face started looking better. Less veins and water retention.

So are you really going to stop taking E? Minoxidil will only help for so long.

 

[Obsessive]

That's very interesting and also very good news for me that you have the proper e levels on such low doses. You have convinced me to start taking much less estradiol which will help me because I have noticed that the more e I take the more bloated my face gets and the more visable my veins are. My veins are probably worse than yours they are not just under my eyes but on my neck chest hips and everywhere its awful so I should have some room for improvement which is encouraging. Unfortunately I don't monitor my e levels and for some reason my doctor never ordered any blood work so I don't really know.

I stopped taking E andy Cypro for 2 weeks straight and all I noticed was I started feeling better and my face started looking better. Less veins and water retention.


So are you really going to stop taking E? Minoxidil will only help for so long.

Definitely. I'm just recently starting to deal with the 'expected' side effects of E and was somewhat prepared to tough those out. This new issue on top of the others is more than I bargained for I wish it was talked about more on this thread...strange that it hasn't been mentioned until now (or maybe I just missed it).
I suspect that many people are using way more E than necessary unless they for double or triple that of a woman. You should request bloodwork so you not only know your total but also what forms of E you have (my body is converting a lot of estradiol to other forms).
Hopefully finasteride will start doing some of the heavy lifting soon. Also just started adding dexamethasone to my topical minoxidil solution which may or may not help.

 

[nWo Wolfpac]

Definitely. I'm just recently starting to deal with the 'expected' side effects of E and was somewhat prepared to tough those out. This new issue on top of the others is more than I bargained for I wish it was talked about more on this thread...strange that it hasn't been mentioned until now (or maybe I just missed it).
I suspect that many people are using way more E than necessary unless they for double or triple that of a woman. You should request bloodwork so you not only know your total but also what forms of E you have (my body is converting a lot of estradiol to other forms).
Hopefully finasteride will start doing some of the heavy lifting soon. Also just started adding dexamethasone to my topical minoxidil solution which may or may not help.

That's too bad. Yeah the veins bother me more than the gyno does. I think its not talked about much because people who are getting it are assuming that its from something else. Your right I should get my blood levels checked and my estrogen is probably too high. It's funny because of my libido and a recent hair shed I thought that my testosterone was too high but I don't think that's the case anymore. Well good luck with the finasteride I hope that works for you. I am going to try lower doses of E and see if that helps.

And one last question, did you have higher levels of estrone or estriol than estradiol? or was estradiol still the highest form of estrogen you had?

 

[Obsessive]

That's too bad. Yeah the veins bother me more than the gyno does. I think its not talked about much because people who are getting it are assuming that its from something else. Your right I should get my blood levels checked and my estrogen is probably too high. It's funny because of my libido and a recent hair shed I thought that my testosterone was too high but I don't think that's the case anymore. Well good luck with the finasteride I hope that works for you. I am going to try lower doses of E and see if that helps.

And one last question, did you have higher levels of estrone or estriol than estradiol? or was estradiol still the highest form of estrogen you had?

Since I only requested b-E and total E, I know that:
-b-E is not the predominant form since beta level was 61 and total was 334.
-273 pg/mL of some mixture of estrone and estriol remains
-The most likely biochemical conversion would be b-E to estrone, so I'm fairly certain that much of the 273 is estrone, which isn't even good.

If you can, you should also request estriol and estrone levels so you have a clear picture of what is going on.
Who knows, it's possible that my estrogen experiment has been doing more harm than good due to all the estrone. I'll certainly keep this thread updated as to what happens after quitting.

 

[nWo Wolfpac]

Since I only requested b-E and total E, I know that:
-b-E is not the predominant form since beta level was 61 and total was 334.
-273 pg/mL of some mixture of estrone and estriol remains
-The most likely biochemical conversion would be b-E to estrone, so I'm fairly certain that much of the 273 is estrone, which isn't even good.

If you can, you should also request estriol and estrone levels so you have a clear picture of what is going on.
Who knows, it's possible that my estrogen experiment has been doing more harm than good due to all the estrone. I'll certainly keep this thread updated as to what happens after quitting.

Thanks for the advice and info. perhaps its the imbalance of estrone to estradiol that causes the vein problem. But how could we even change what our bodies do to estradiol? All we can do is apply the estro gel we have no control over whether our bodies turning it into estrone or not. Maybe bridge can help us out.

 

[Obsessive]

Thanks for the advice and info. perhaps its the imbalance of estrone to estradiol that causes the vein problem. But how could we even change what our bodies do to estradiol? All we can do is apply the estro gel we have no control over whether our bodies turning it into estrone or not. Maybe bridge can help us out.

Exactly, we cannot control how our bodies metabolize drugs. Estriol cannot be converted to estrone, so only using that form of E could be one way to avoid estrone.

 

[Father_of_Shiseido]

So it's become obvious to me now that my testosterone level is way to high. I smell like a man again, my hair is shedding and much more oily, I've been getting more acne and my libido is way too strong and has pretty much returned to what it used to be. I've been n denial for the past few weeks because I didn't want to up my cypro dose but it looks like I will have to. I'm going to go back to taking 25mg a day like I did in the beginning.

Better to have a blood test done. It's not a good idea to speculate on these things and changing your dose.

 

[nWo Wolfpac]

Better to have a blood test done. It's not a good idea to speculate on these things and changing your dose.

Yeah I have symptoms of high testosterone and high estrogen so I don't know what the hell is going on.

 

[Obsessive]

As close as 2 months ago hairline was sparse and much scalp could be seen.
8.5 months on finasteride, 4 months estrogen, 6 weeks oral min. Very happy with recovery and hope to maintain here. I’m not without a bunch of side effects.

 

[Ikarus]

View attachment 114821
As close as 2 months ago hairline was sparse and much scalp could be seen.
8.5 months on finasteride, 4 months estrogen, 6 weeks oral min. Very happy with recovery and hope to maintain here. I’m not without a bunch of side effects.

That is looking amazing!

I feel like when I start my journey, I should showcase it on this website...

 

[Guido]

[QUOTE = "Obsesivo, post: 1778763, miembro: 138005"] [ATTACH = full] 114821 [/ ATTACH]
Tan cerca como hace 2 meses, la línea del cabello era escasa y se podía ver mucho cuero cabelludo.
8.5 meses con finasterida, 4 meses estrógeno, 6 semanas oral mín. Muy contentos con la recuperación y espero mantener aquí. No estoy sin un montón de efectos secundarios. [/CITAR]



is very good your hair does not seem that you are losing hair ... very good recovery

 

[Obsessive]

[QUOTE = "Obsesivo, post: 1778763, miembro: 138005"] [ATTACH = full] 114821 [/ ATTACH]
Tan cerca como hace 2 meses, la línea del cabello era escasa y se podía ver mucho cuero cabelludo.
8.5 meses con finasterida, 4 meses estrógeno, 6 semanas oral mín. Muy contentos con la recuperación y espero mantener aquí. No estoy sin un montón de efectos secundarios. [/CITAR]



is very good your hair does not seem that you are losing hair ... very good recovery

I will post some before pics soon. But, I’ve had to just stop oral min and estro due to various side effects. I might lose everything but at least I know what to do to get it back and have a choice, I guess.

 

[Obsessive]

Before pics at my story:
https://www.hairlosstalk.com/intera...regimen-a-more-comprehensive-approach.118584/