Why Did finasteride Crash My Estrogen? (bloods Included)

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FinePhotograph

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So my experience with finasteride is as follows: On for 3 weeks, stopped because of tingling/sensitive nipples and fear of gyno. Got bloods done a few weeks after stopping to establish a baseline. Total T 580, Free T, 11.23.

Stopped finasteride for a month, decided to start again at a lower dose. Again, hit with tingling nipples, decided to try and push through. After two weeks, the tingles didn't go away, so I decided to quit and take some raloxifene to undo any damage done by the finasteride. After about 3 days on raloxifene, and three days off finasteride, I went in to get bloods, with the rationale being that if finasteride was causing gyno, then my E2 would be high. The results were:

Total T -437 ng/dl
LH - 1.9 (Ref 1.7-8.6)
FSH - 3.7 (1.5 - 12.4)
E2(!!) - 6.9 (7.6-42.6)

So it seems like finasteride basically crashed my estrogen and lowered my LH,FSH. Does anyone know why this happened? I didn't have any joint pain (like low E2 people say they do). I thought finasteride increased E2?? And how should I recover from this? I'm gonna be off finasteride, but should I take something like low dose clomid to bring the other hormones back up?
 
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Btg

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FinePhotograph said:
So my experience with finasteride is as follows: On for 3 weeks, stopped because of tingling/sensitive nipples and fear of gyno. Got bloods done a few weeks after stopping to establish a baseline. Total T 580, Free T, 11.23.

Stopped finasteride for a month, decided to start again at a lower dose. Again, hit with tingling nipples, decided to try and push through. After two weeks, the tingles didn't go away, so I decided to quit and take some raloxifene to undo any damage done by the finasteride. After about 3 days on raloxifene, and three days off finasteride, I went in to get bloods, with the rationale being that if finasteride was causing gyno, then my E2 would be high. The results were:

Total T -437 ng/dl
LH - 1.9 (Ref 1.7-8.6)
FSH - 3.7 (1.5 - 12.4)
E2(!!) - 6.9 (7.6-42.6)

So it seems like finasteride basically crashed my estrogen and lowered my LH,FSH. Does anyone know why this happened? I didn't have any joint pain (like low E2 people say they do). I thought finasteride increased E2?? And how should I recover from this? I'm gonna be off finasteride, but should I take something like low dose clomid to bring the other hormones back up?
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just quit finasteride , some people get lower Testosterone because of finasteride , and it might take some time to go back to normal . You had better ask an endo before taking more medication
 
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Btg said:
just quit finasteride , some people get lower Testosterone because of finasteride , and it might take some time to go back to normal . You had better ask an endo before taking more medication
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I'm definitely quitting. Just wondering if anyone has had the same estrogen issue.
 
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abcdefg

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FinePhotograph said:
So my experience with finasteride is as follows: On for 3 weeks, stopped because of tingling/sensitive nipples and fear of gyno. Got bloods done a few weeks after stopping to establish a baseline. Total T 580, Free T, 11.23.

Stopped finasteride for a month, decided to start again at a lower dose. Again, hit with tingling nipples, decided to try and push through. After two weeks, the tingles didn't go away, so I decided to quit and take some raloxifene to undo any damage done by the finasteride. After about 3 days on raloxifene, and three days off finasteride, I went in to get bloods, with the rationale being that if finasteride was causing gyno, then my E2 would be high. The results were:

Total T -437 ng/dl
LH - 1.9 (Ref 1.7-8.6)
FSH - 3.7 (1.5 - 12.4)
E2(!!) - 6.9 (7.6-42.6)

So it seems like finasteride basically crashed my estrogen and lowered my LH,FSH. Does anyone know why this happened? I didn't have any joint pain (like low E2 people say they do). I thought finasteride increased E2?? And how should I recover from this? I'm gonna be off finasteride, but should I take something like low dose clomid to bring the other hormones back up?
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What was your estrogen before you started? If you just stopped taking it your 5-ar 2 would go about like normal and your estrogen would be working the same as it did before. Why take another drug to counteract the first one?
I would have just quit taking it. Also E2 levels are probably just systemic, it doesnt really account for what tissues its concentrated in. We dont know enough about gyno though to really say.
 
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abcdefg said:
What was your estrogen before you started? If you just stopped taking it your 5-ar 2 would go about like normal and your estrogen would be working the same as it did before. Why take another drug to counteract the first one?
I would have just quit taking it. Also E2 levels are probably just systemic, it doesnt really account for what tissues its concentrated in. We dont know enough about gyno though to really say.
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Thanks for replying. I've stopped taking it. As for low E2, some people said that DHT can prevent gyno at mammary glands, so its not so much an increase of E2 from finasteride causing gyno, rather a decrease in systemic DHT.

As for my estrogen, I'm not sure what it was before, which I guess is a mistake on my part. Maybe I've had low estrogen my whole life?(Sure doesn't feel like it) I guess I'm just really surprised it's in the low end, not the high end. Regardless, I'll discontinue it.
 
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Finasteride for whatever reason doesn't seem to have much rationale when dictating some peoples hormone profile. Some people react completely different to others. My estrogen was naturally very low before i started finasteride a few weeks ago so i'll be interested to compare my new bloods to yours in a few months.

Going forward though i dont think Clomid would be a bad idea. Should bring both your test and estrogen up hugely. Normally i would say nolvadex as well for the sake of preventing estrogen sides but with yours so low it would probably be wrong to use it.
 
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Ollie said:
Finasteride for whatever reason doesn't seem to have much rationale when dictating some peoples hormone profile. Some people react completely different to others. My estrogen was naturally very low before i started finasteride a few weeks ago so i'll be interested to compare my new bloods to yours in a few months.

Going forward though i dont think Clomid would be a bad idea. Should bring both your test and estrogen up hugely. Normally i would say nolvadex as well for the sake of preventing estrogen sides but with yours so low it would probably be wrong to use it.
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Ok, I've also heard nolva is pretty bad for hair. Also I wonder if these low estrogen levels have been raping my hair O_O. Haven't seem to have lost any ground but its concerning to say the least.
 
mojojuju224

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I'm confused, or maybe I'm not understanding something...You got off finasteride and on a SERM, but you're saying finasteride caused your estrogen to drop? Sounds to me like your dht went up a bit, which will lower your estrogen and then you took an estrogen modulator, which lowered your estrogen even more. Were you diagnosed with gyno? Sounds like you overreacted, and there's no reason for you to be on raloxifene. You should be fine, but I'd just stop taking the drug based on your post.
 
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mojojuju224 said:
I'm confused, or maybe I'm not understanding something...You got off finasteride and on a SERM, but you're saying finasteride caused your estrogen to drop? Sounds to me like your dht went up a bit, which will lower your estrogen and then you took an estrogen modulator, which lowered your estrogen even more. Were you diagnosed with gyno? Sounds like you overreacted, and there's no reason for you to be on raloxifene. You should be fine, but I'd just stop taking the drug based on your post.
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Thanks for replying. I got burning in the nipples and started to feel what might've been a lump. It mightve been harmless and or just paranoia, but people said that nipple pain was the one side you shouldn't be trying to push through. I didn't get tested for gyno.

Also regarding the serm, I thought serms just blocked estrogen receptors locally (i.e ralox blocks estrogen receptors in the breast) rather than lowering total estrogen. In any case I'll probably stop taking it.
 
michel sapin

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if it has always been like this then there is no issue with it !
btw 3 days of ralox is nothing ( this is not an AI such as letrozole or anstrozole which will reduce your E2 within 24 hours)
 
InvaderZim

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Finasteride didn't crash you, Crash Bandicoot did.

In all seriousness, you took an estrogen blocker...
 
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InvaderZim said:
Finasteride didn't crash you, Crash Bandicoot did.

In all seriousness, you took an estrogen blocker...
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a number of people have said that, but isn't ralox a serm, not an AI? Michael sapin uploaded a study saying it even increased serum estrogen.
 
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