Still doing my Reddit research and one post I found regarded testing for DHT as well as T.
A post from an older thread I found said that DHT levels should be in the range of 5-20 if one wanted to avoid it's effects on hair.
If they really wanted to make sure, they should bring DHT levels down to <5, which is near undetectable. This post came to mind when one of the trans-women who had little success with HRT claimed that her DHT level was at 23 in another thread.
Anyway, I'm still plotting my course, as I have at least six months before I put everything into motion.
I feel like I should have more urgency, since a day lost could mean some more follicles that come closer to true death. I haven't been on Finasteride long enough to know if I'm a good responder or if it's good enough to preserve all of what I have when I started it. But if I am able to maintain, at least, then that means I'd be able to save the vast majority of my hair, like about 90 percent, with little to no hairline recession.
Reading through the thread and through Reddit, I see a lot of back and forth when it comes to anti-androgens. It seems there are about three different main opinions in terms of the place AA's serve in the HRT route. One is for AA monotherapy + (possible) finasteride/dutasteride. Two is AA + Estradiol. Three is Estrogen monotherapy. That's probably an oversimplification.
I am thinking that when I start, I may want to do an AA for the first three months to give the estradiol an edge over DHT and T before continuing with estradiol monotherapy, as well as continue use of Finasteride or get Dutasteride to better nuke DHT with. I'll incorporate minoxidil solution ingestion pretty soon. From what I've read on this thread one drop of liquid minoxidil is equivalent to about 1.25 mg oral minoxidil.