Hi 2 cats & Estelle
In UK oestradiol is usually measured in pmol/l
On a recent post of Estelle's I gave a link to the reference ranges for oestradiol throughout the menstrual cycle and thought I commented on this too. Here it is again (scroll down):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EstradiolI use 50 mcg Estradot and when mine were last measured Nov 2012 (think I also had them earlier this year but can't find what they are!) were 212 which is very close. You will see from the reference range that this is well within the range for 95% of fertile women in the follicualr phase of the menstrual cycle (Day 5). The point is whether you feel well on this? The actual levels at which symptoms will be eliminated will vary from woman to woman. As Dancinggirl says the levels will often need to be higher than the minimum for women to feel really good. When mine were measured in 2007 just before I went onto HRT and experiencing bad symptoms - they were only 65 which was very low - and I was not yet post-menopausal as had period 5 months previously so would have been likely to go even lower!!!
Estelle - as I said before that reading is again well within the range for the pre-ovulatory peak when oestrogen levels are at their highest. The point in your case is - firstly I don't know whether you are actually peri-menopausal or have always suffered low oestrogen which is now being treated ( a different issue). Secondly if you are still having a cycle a single reading is meaningless. However we do not normally experience very high oestrogen levels all the time except when pregnant so if this level was found on Day 3 for example - I wonder what it would be like on Day 12-13 ( the pre-ov. peak?).
I think I mentioned that there are some occasions when women experience supra-physiological levels and suffer from tachyphylaxis and it stops working, but I understand this mainly occurs with oestrogen implants, and may not occur in situations like yours Estelle. If your levels are at least 1000 and more all through the cycle I would suggest this might be too high?
The difficulty is getting the levels right so that you feel good - the HRT levels is supposed to be an average over the menstrual cycle. One paper I read gave this as 370 (pmol/l).
Hurdity x
