r/MtF•
wirenerd

Estradiol high at trough, unsure as to why

Advice Question

Caveat: I know yall aren't doctors, just looking for ideas/reaasurance. I'll be asking my doctor about it next time I see him but he's not specialized in this and will likely not have an answer beyond "modify your dose" which is what I intend to do but I'm confused as that is what I did before now and got a super high reading.

Valerate injections are rough, the mood swings and energy swings hit me hard. Sometimes it's hard to know what high estrogen feels like vs low, and falling estrogen etc.

What I do know is that I feel best on days where my E is around 250 based on testing windows in the past.

I thought yesterday was my trough. To be honest though I can't remember if it was 3 days or 4 days, but that's because my levels were so high I'm hoping I misremembered?

I felt sluggish, anxious, irritable, weird all day at work. Very uncomfortable hard day. Went in for my appointment and 633pg/mL estradiol and <10 T. I knew right away something is off. Unfortunately, I took my next injection before seeing the results as I assumed it's the trough.

My injection schedule was averaging out to 3.5mg subq every 3 days, sometimes 4, but usually 3. So if I injected Monday night I'd inject Thursday night, and so on. I've been doing this for a while now, possibly as long as a year iirc. I changed to this dosage and this frequency as I could tell physically by my features my estrogen was high, I'd have a more femme appearance and I liked that. Maybe foolish of me but you know how dysphoria can be.

About 3 weeks ago I changed my frequency and dosage to lower because I felt high estrogen might be impacting my ability to do manual labor, so I changed to 3mg every 3.5-4 days, but now I plan to stick exactly to 3mg every 4 days.

My results a year and going back have always been around 200-250 and I was never good about testing in the trough.

I guess I'm looking for some advice or reassurance here as I am feeling this estrogen heavily in ways that are uncomfortable. I'm tired, I'm anxious, I'm retaining water, less tolerant of heat, body just feels buzzy sometimes which I know is usually anxiety.

The only differences in me physically since now and back then are
* I've returned to work after bedrotting with no physical activity at all for 6 weeks. Just something I did, felt good to do nothing at all but watch TV and play games. I work construction though, these past 4 weeks coming back have been brutal. No stamina, every day is a struggle just to get through. I'm 40 years old, to say that this bedrotting deconditioned me would be a massive understatement. It was foolish and I'm paying the price now.

* I take in a lot more vitamins now. I started taking Omega 3's, I drink a Boost everyday, and I take vit D supplements, I take in a ton of protein as I am trying to recondition. This supplementation has caused noticeable differences as my hair has gotten longer than what I thought for 10 years was terminal length.

* The test was done after a hard work day in the heat. There is a chance I was mildly dehydrated but I can't be certain of that. Either way I was extremely worn down physically when I tested.

So what do yall think? Personally I'm upset that I took another injection last night, if my test results hadn't come in so late I would have waited 2 days at least to dose again to try and "restart" things. Now I feel I've compounded the problem.

I plan to drop to 3mg every 4 days but I wonder if even this is too high. Also I know that <10mg T (all my test shows not exact number) is "suppressed", but I greatly prefer to be operating in the higher range of 30-40, I just have had those results in the past and felt better that way. More energy.

Is it possible that with my previous dosing of 3mg/3.5avg days over time caused a steady ramp up of estrogen in my system, or could my lifestyle changes like physical stress or supplements affect this? And finally, aside from feeling lethargic and shit, am I not safe with levels this high? It scares me, I don't wanna have an incident at work, I work my body hard in the heat.

I really don't even know how to get back on the right track, and I'm extremely frustrated that in 10 years not once have I seen a medical provider no matter how experienced who understood trans endocrine health well enough to have actual helpful answers.

Posted Sep 5, 2026, 3:55 PM UTC

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