Degree of Inaccuracy of Standard Estradiol Tests Vs Sensitive Estradiol Test

[vibnad]

Hi Guys,

I am from the UK and unfortunately do not have the luxury of getting a sensitive estradiol test. The company i use to test my blood is Medichecks and they use chemiluminescence immunoassay testing for estradiol. I know its difficult but can someone give me a sensible estimate of the degree of inaccuracy of these tests when compared to their sensitive counterparts. Obviously individual with higher CRP are likely to have a greater inflated e2 figure on the standard test but assuming healthy males what would you guess?

 

[Vince Carter]

typcially the sensitive is ~15 points lower that's a kind of rule thumb but that never applied to me as my sensitive numbers have been consistently higher than the ECLIA method on the same blood draw.
One is right and one is wrong but given your situation it's all you have and you'll have to be more on top of the symptoms.

 

[HealthMan]

Tough to tell. Last time i ran both they were pretty much about the same. So like everything in TRT it might very individualized and difficult to come up with any rule of comparison.

 

[Nelson Vergel]

If the degree of inflammation as shown as C reactive protein (CRP) is low in your blood, then the difference between the two test methods is negligible.

 

[vibnad]

Thank you gentleman.

Based off your knowledge is CRP the only hormone to cause interference in the standard estradiol test?

If that is the case i can measure my CRP and make sensible estimates with regards to the deviations in accuracy of my estradiol tests. ( not accurate but the best i have).

 

[ndifp3]

My doc has drawn for assay and run simultaneously ECILA and sensitive. I've posted the results here before. No consistent correlation at all. CRP was not discussed here at the time of posting. I will now retrospectively look at CRP because this assay was also run.

 

[j4ever]

i have had both run from the same blood draw, sensitive has only been 1 point lower, CRP 0.3

 

[TC]

what was the difference between the two E tests Ndifp3?

 

[HoustonTX]

My doc has drawn for assay and run simultaneously ECILA and sensitive. I've posted the results here before. No consistent correlation at all. CRP was not discussed here at the time of posting. I will now retrospectively look at CRP because this assay was also run.

I’m so glad to see others have had the same results. I had both the sensitive and regular run from same time blood draw twice. On one it was a point or 2 difference and on the other it was only 3-5 points difference. It makes me wonder if it’s really worth it and why so much hype over the sensitive test on this forum. The cost doesn’t bother me, but it’s the wait time for the results. Waiting a week to find out that your estradiol is high just the way you thought it was is aggravating. The regular test take 1-3 days at most

I’ve posted my results in the past as well

 

[HoustonTX]

I know that Defy has done some small studies with their patients. This would be a perfect study and should be fairly easy with a larger number of patients than what they’ve used

 

[Dr Justin Saya MD]

The most significant cross-reactant with the immunoassay is CRP. However, let’s not forget about biotin. The LC-MS/MS is quite a bit more expensive (though the negotiated price is much lower for our patients/discounted labs). In order to accurately calibrate the standard estradiol RIA one would need to order the CRP concurrently with the standard E2 test, which would effectively offset any savings. Thus, the sensitive E2 is the preferred route and is undoubtedly the most accurate.

 

[Gman86]

My insurance covers my labs 100%. So I'm in a rare position where I can get a bunch of different blood tests that normally guys on TRT wouldn't be able to get, due to the expense of it all. I also can get labs done as frequently as I'd like, which is another luxury men here usually don't have. So I've made it my personal responsibility to take advantage of being in this rare situation, and accumulate all the data I can, in the hopes some of it can help answer questions other member's here might have. One of the things I've been doing for a little more than a year now is getting both the ultra sensitive and standard E2 tests done. Here are some of my results where I've gotten both tests done in the same blood work. All my blood tests are with Quest btw.

Sensitive - 8 Standard - 13 Free 0.28 (<0.45)
Sensitive - 9 Standard - 13 Free 0.28 (<0.45)
Sensitive - 73 Standard - 59
Sensitive - 46 Standard - 27 Free 0.58 (<0.45)
Sensitive - 57 Standard - 56 Free 1.35 (<0.45)
Sensitive - 58 Standard - 68 Free 1.48 (<0.45)

As you can see, the differences between the two are all over the map. There's no formula where if you add or subtract a certain number to one, you can basically guess what the other would be. Sometimes my sensitive test has been lower than the standard, and sometimes higher. Sometimes there's a small difference between the two, sometimes there's a big difference.

So to me, this just goes to show that the best thing to do is what Dr. Saya said, and just get the sensitive E2 obviously, which is what everyone pretty much knows at this point. If that's not an option, just get the standard E2 test I guess, and stay consistent and just get that one only.

 

[fifty]

Now you need to start getting FreeE as well

 

[Gman86]

Now you need to start getting FreeE as well

Just added it for ya

 

[DragonBits]

So how does CRP affect the RIA E2 test?

Like a 1, 2 or 3 CRP has what sort of effect?

Say you measured a non-sensitive E2 of 40 and a CRP of 2.0, what would your sensitive E2 be?