alt Hacker NewsThis is anecdata, but as someone who has used exogenous testosterone for the past 10 years, I feel significantly better with low T + high E2 than high T + low E2.
I've had E2 levels as high as the low end of female ovulatory range (see attached image at bottom) and felt fantastic, though personal response varies.
I stopped using aromatase inhibitors after the first few years due to having a worse sense of wellbeing compared to using none at all.
Now, I typically let my E2 sit around 60-90pg/mL (roughly x2-3 upper end of male reference range), which is where lands on 200mg/wk Testosterone, when doing TRT.
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Same here. My cis-male body and brain really does strongly prefer high E2 levels. Just below “growing breast tissue” seems to be the sweet spot. Testosterone / DHT levels matter much less.
Raising E2 a bit basically cured lifelong suicidal ideation and major depressive disorder for me overnight. And it’s been working for 6 years now.
Libido is still fine - my girlfriends are satisfied unless i’m having a very stressful week.
That image you linked shows a testosterone level 9X higher than the upper limit. I'm assuming that's unrelated to the values in your post because there is no way that 200mg/week produces those numbers.
Given that those levels are crazy high, you should probably mention that your experience is in the context of a lot of extreme hormone manipulation. Who knows what your body's baseline even is any more. I wouldn't expect your experiences to extend to normal people. I also really, really would not recommend that any men try to keep their E2 at 3X the upper end of the reference range.