Here are my low e2 and high e2 symptoms. I pay very close attention to how I feel and very closely monitor my mental health, so I feel pretty confident with the explanations below. Also, historically I have tried countless times to dose an AI based on a predicted schedule of when I "should" need it, and I almost always ended up in low e2 territory. You will see that a lot of advise from people says to "monitor how you feel and when you know your e2 is high, you take an AI". I find that advice to be the most appropriate for me. I don't have endless money and time and schedule flexibility to just keep going to get an ultra-sensitive e2 test every 2 weeks.
Slightly/moderately low E2 symptoms:
1. I get more laser focused at work and I am able to concentrate on discrete tasks better. I don't laugh as often and jokes are more difficult to find funny. I am more serious and people are likely to ask me why I look so serious or angry. I can sustain my concentration better.
2. I wake up with more frequent and stiffer morning erections. In the past I have chased this as a metric, but I have learned this is not super valuable information to me as far as how well my actual sexual performance will go.
3. My elbows and knees may start to have some stiffness and I'll definitely be more aware of my joints during a workout
4. Thoughts will start to enter my mind that don't usually, and they are usually trending negative. Whatever problem is going on with me (particular if I'm in a relationship), my mind will find a reason to focus on that and see the bad outcomes or feel anger and resentment towards it.
5. I'll drop a lot of water and find myself peeing a lot more frequently. Visually I'll look dramatically better than I did a few days ago, because I'm suddenly very dry. I see veins on my abs more prominently. I look at myself and think "see why can't I look like this all the time? this is the way I'm supposed to look."
6. My appetite tends to go down
7. My workout endurance goes down and I find that I'm not as strong on max effort sets
8. I don't sleep as long
9. I'll have more acne that appears in the usual cystic acne spots (around my neck/shoulders/back/hips/chest)
Very/extremely low E2 symptoms:
1. Don't ever get to this point. If you experience the slightly/moderately low E2 symptoms, and you take more aromatase inhibitor before those symptoms have reversed course, you are going to regret it.
2. My mental health is the worst it's ever been. I hate everyone, even the love of my life. I can't stop the stream of unending bad outcomes and terrible bitterness or anger and resentment that has appeared out of nowhere about literally everything that bothers me.
3. I can't stay awake at all, but not because I'm lethargic (like a high e2 symptoms); rather, I can't stay awake because I feel physically exhausted by simply keeping my eyes open. Like I've run a marathon on 3 hours of sleep and 10 cups of coffee and no food. When I take anything with a stimulant, it doesn't work. At all.
4. My dick doesn't work entirely. Unlike the high e2 symptom where it becomes less hard during sex but generally still works, this is something else entirely. I've literally had a woman who I found very attractive give me oral for 15 minutes and my dick stayed small and flaccid. And I was filled with all sorts of unhealthy emotions when that happened because as you can imagine, I wanted it to work, but didn't understand why.
5. Furthermore, if you are extremely low E2, even taking Cialis or Viagra won't do anything. You need some estrogen for your dick to function, and if it's crushed, no amount of PDE-5 inhibitor will save you. Learned that one the hard way too.
6. You have almost no workout endurance at all. We're talking like, one hard set and you're done. You won't even want to train.
7. You will be peeing constantly and each time you feel like you have to piss, barely any liquid will come out.
8. Joints that you forget you have will start to hurt and pop, including your toes, the heels of your foot, and your hips and sacroiliac area. You will be very aware of your spine during all lifts and you may have generalized low back pain from simply sitting down.
9. I'll look in the mirror and look very small, and generally be disgusted with how I look, even though I am the driest I have ever looked. I will not be happy in any way/shape/form with anything regarding my appearance.
10. I'll have no new acne that appears
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Slightly/moderately high E2 symptoms:
1. I'll start getting more acne in the usual spots, but it's usually not cystic.
2. My face will look slightly more oily
3. My body will appear like I gained more bodyfat rather suddenly, and my stomach will appear like I'm bloated for a very long time after I've eaten anything. Even when I wake up in the morning, I'm very aware of how fat my face and neck look, and it makes me question whether or not I'm truly eating like garbage.
4. I generally feel mentally pretty good. I don't really focus hard at work, but I tend to enjoy my life outside of work a lot more. I enjoy playing with pets more, and I am much more forgiving when shit goes wrong or things happen unexpectedly. I am more calm and more patient.
5. I'm feeling pretty lethargic and feel like I could have slept about 4 more hours after I got enough sleep. Coffee still works, but I need more of it than usual.
6. My dick still works, and during sex, it feels great, but I tend to finish faster than usual.
7. Really, overall, the main tells that I am at this point and I don't want to increase it further are the water retention and lethargic symptoms I describe in #3 and #5. Once these bother me enough, I'll take the smallest dose of AI I have and wait.
Very/extremely high E2 symptoms:
Everything described in the slightly/moderately list of symptoms, PLUS the following:
1. I have a high likelihood of crying during a sad movie, or when I think about my parents, or contemplate being alone. I feel like crying is a possibility during most things, and can't understand why I can't keep it together.
2. I have a very high likelihood of being triggered in my relationship by what my partner does, which will lead to feelings of jealously, irrational anger, rumination, and projecting things that my partner is thinking, when she isn't.
3. I don't feel like I have any self-confidence, and feel very needy and clingy with my partner, in a negative way. For example, during this time, the thought of my partner going off to hang out with her friends alone terrifies me. I get a range of thoughts such as "does she hate me? is she going to cheat on me? why do I always put her needs before mine when she doesn't do the same for me? why doesn't she love me the way i love her?"
4. My dick will still work, but unlike the low e2 symptoms, I don't have any sexual desire. It's sort of the inverse of the low e2 dick problem. In the low e2 scenario, I have a ton of mental desire for sex, but my dick WILL NOT move. In the high e2 scenario, I have very little if any sexual desire, but my dick could become hard if it was mechanically stimulated and/or I took Cialis and got oral. It just wouldn't be as hard as it could be, and the second after I finish, it's gone back to flaccid incredibly quickly.
5. I don't look like I work out at all because I am so oily and bloated and watery. I can barely see my abs unless I flex them hard, and I can't see the veins in them at all.
You will need to spend a lot of time going through the range of low and high e2 symptoms on your own personal journey over a long period of time to be able to understand what your own unique signals are. I'm still learning mine and I've been doing this for over 8 years now.
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