In the past 5 months I have had a lumpectomy, mastectomy and chemotherapy. I am now in menapause and I am a little confused about the levels that determine menopause.
The most recent blood test I had was 12th June and the results show
S FSH 64.84 IU/L
S LH 22.67 IU/L
S OESTRADIOL <44 pmol/L
Are these result a guarantee that I am in menopause or could it just be a result of the chemotherapy. I am certainly having hot and cold flushes. I am 46 years old and had a routine mammogram which showed one lobular carcinoma, when in fact there were 3 once the breast was removed and the slicing of the biopsy revealed 3.
I am a fitness instructor so I have got through this reasonably well.
Your comments would be appreciated.
Thank you
Thank you so much for your help.
I forgot to mention that I was taking as much as 10 mg of Cortef per day to support my low adrenal function.
Would Cortef interfere with the FSH and Estradiol situation??
I had a Salvia test done a couple weeks befoe the serum testing and the testosterone was slightly above high normal above and DHEA was double the high normal range. Estradiol and projest were normal on the salivia test.
I appreciate your help very much,
Sue T
Your blood test values for FSH and estradiol can be normal if you are still ovulating. However, the FSH being only 5.2 is rather low for a woman who is 52, even if she is still ovulating. Estradiol does make FSH values lower, so if your estrogen is high enough (264 pg/ml is roughly at the level of its peak value at a normal mid-cycle) it could be a normal situation making the FSH 5.2. Again, that is an unusually low FSH for a 52 year old woman.
There is also the possibility that you are making estrogen from another source. Sometimes an ultrasound of the ovary is helpful as it would pick up any cysts or tumors on the ovary that could be making estrogen.
Thyroid usually makes estrogen values lower. It increases a protein (TEBG) in the blood that binds up the estrogen, and that makes the net amount actually lower.
Machelle Seibel, MD