1. Is there a difference between Estradiol Sensitive and Estradiol Ultra Sensitive? Mine was 45 on both of my tests this year. The Labcorp range is 8.0-35.0 and the Quest range is < OR = 29 pg/mL.
There are the same test. Quest chose to call theirs ultrasensitive. Lab ranges mean nothing for estradiol except for the lowest value which we know from studies should not be low (approx 15 pg/ml) due to bone loss.
For men with testosterone under 675 ng/dL (
NHANES cohort), these were median estradiol levels (measured by ECLIA, not sensitive test).
Source:
Age-Specific Serum Total and Free Estradiol Concentrations in Healthy Men in US Nationally Representative Samples
If we assume that sensitive E2 may be lower than regular by 20% in healthy men, then assume a max median E2 by LC/MS of 30 mg/mL for TT under 700 ng/dl.
This study also shows the predicted (ECLIA) estradiol for different T doses:
I was able to come up with a table using the predictive model equation derived from data in this study: The Effects of Injected Testosterone Dose and Age on the Conversion of Testosterone to Estradiol and Dihydrotestosterone in Young and Older Men Summary This video discusses a research paper...
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2. On the free Test, the Labcorp range is 6.8-21.5 and mine in January was 27.2. On the Quest test last week my result was 334.6 and the range is 35.0-155.0 pg/mL
Free Testosterone is about 2% of total. LabCorp and Quest ranges are derived from all men in their US database (men with low T , normal T and High T). Just multiply your total T by 0.20 to get to what your expected free T is.
I tend to agree more with Quest on this one. I had sent several emails to Labcorp to complain about their low and narrow range but they never addressed it.
3. My SBG went from 8 to 24. What are some things that affect that? And is higher better?
You probably lowered your T dose. SHBG level means nothing to me when free T is 2 %or above. Lean healthy men and women have higher SHBG. People with insulin resistance have low SHBG. Higher T doses decrease SHBG.