Your age; I would prefer it a few years older but you are old enough to make your own possibly bad decision. You could potentially short change yourself on some natural development yet to come but you are basically on the line of potentially being done developing. (There is no way to know if you are done or not that is why they say 25 as a general rule) I just had to put that in for the 17-21 year olds that think they are done developing.
Ok first the PCT timing. I get long winded but I do it so there is very little chance of misunderstanding. Let’s say you do two equal shots per week, Sunday and Wednesday. You take your last shot Wednesday week 12. You need to wait at LEAST two weeks. I always count week 12 as “on” then start my count Sunday week 13. Then on Sunday week 15 I start. So depending on what you meant in your timing lay out you might want to add a week before you start.
You commented on the “step down” week on 250 mgs. This period you are trying to create where there is a gradual reduction in testosterone so your body reduces it’s aromatase enzyme and thus less estogen, well that time frame is already built in with the enanthate ester. If you are doing this to lower estrogen I will cover that part later with AI (aromasi ) protocol. Basic half life goes like this, you pin 500 mgs then 10 days (enanthate s half life) later you still have 250 mgs left in your body. So as the cycle progresses by week 5 you still have a few mgs left over from your first shot plus all the mgs left over from all subsequent shots. So by the time you get to week 12 you have a very nice build up, remember we keep pinning well before the half life so technically our levels just keep rising throughout our cycle. (To a point, depending on length and what not) We could even wait three weeks after last shot of enanthate to start PCT, depending on dosage per week and how long we ran that. So once you stop pinning you have a relatively significant drop by ten days but then it’s like a drawn out tapering down lowering testosterone level. If we have lowering testosterone levels then we end up with lowering estrogen levels that is if we are not blocking the aromatase process with an AI. It’s during that drawn out taper we get our boys back on with PCT by using Nolvadex or Clomid. They trick our body into thinking it needs to tell itself to make more testosterone, they don’t actually tell it to make it that’s HCG and we don’t use it during PCT as it is counter productive. We time like this so we never get a point of NO testosterone be it synthetic or natural.
You have Aromasin with your PCT, that will crash your estrogen and you will be tired, irritable, and have dry joints. Any dose by week two of PCT will tank your estrogen. Your stated dose of 25mgs a day is WAY to high for even on cycle estrogen control. Depending on how well your body aromizes testosterone I would think 12.5 mgs EOD or every three days aka twice a week would be ok to run the week after you stop pinning. Depending you might want to lower the dosage strength for the second week after you stop pinning. If you are just super sensitive to estrogen and your body just aromatizes test from you thinking about a cycle then you could continue to run it at a very low dose twice a week for the first week of PCT but that’s it! Don’t worry about the tiny bit of estrogen you will have once you stop for PCT, the SERM Nolvadex will keep you from getting gyno. You actually need the Estrogen, we just worry about too much but by PCT you will be totally fine without it especially since you have Nolvadex.
Aromatase Inhibitors like aromasin or arimidex block the enzyme from breaking down testosterone into estrogen. You have stated you are thinking about just waiting to see if you have issues with estrogen, that is fine some of us dont ever have issues. Then again some grow gyno from looking at a bottle of test. With your test dosage I don’t think you would ever need to go over 12.5 mgs twice a week or maybe as much as EOD. Keep in mind everyone is different and if you are using UGL brand (assume it is if you didn’t buy it YOURSELF from a pharmacy, they make good fake brand names) if it is UGL keep in mind the stated dosage level is probably not 100% accurate but as long as it does have Aromasin in the tablet you can play with how much you need to keep the sides down. With my brand of aromasin at 400 mgs per week of test I need 12.5mgs EOD but I can take it just about every day and not have dry joints, I aromatize more than the next guy, everyone is different.
Go look up the side effects of having to MUCH estrogen and NOT ENOUGH estrogen so you know what to look for. If you take too much aromasin you should be able to tell, you will get tired and have dry creeking popping joints. Still know the other signs so you can self monitor.
If your estrogen goes too high you should bloat and retain water along with high blood pressure. Since I have experience I know I retain water in my legs first when my estrogen goes up. I use athletic socks at the gym, if after a workout I see the fabric in print stuck in my skin after I take my socks off, then I know I have higher than desired estrogen.
Ultimately the only way we KNOW if our estrogen is high is through blood work. Chances are you don’t have to resources to do weekly blood work on cycle but you should try to get at least one on cycle so you know where you are at with your given dosages of everything. I am going to say it again, go read up on all the signs of high or low estrogen. I only tend to comment on the ones I know I show.
If you do end up using aromasin on cycle please keep in mind that you need some estrogen to gain muscle. I am not sure how but it does regulate some part of the process of growing new muscle. I have heard of pros intentionally “over dosing” the AI so that no natural estrogen occurs then using synthetic Estrogen to exactly control the ratio or level.
You have a six week PCT, typical is four but six is totally fine. I would change the dosage strength. The first two weeks you typically see guys going to 40mgs per day the the second two weeks at 20 mgs per day. If you are going to go all the way to six weeks then the last two I would drop down to 10mgs per day. If you have a limited number of tablets and getting more is not doable and you want six weeks then you could do 40mgs per day week 1, 20per day 2-4, and 10per day weeks 5-6. The added length over standard PCT might offset the lower than typical dosage of week 2. Keep in mind I am not a doctor. I have read that in a study that Nolvadex worked at increasing natural testosterone production for up to 3 months. I don’t know if these were regular healthy men, men with low testosterone, or guys that run gear. However I would think for our purpose going past six weeks would not be advisable unless a doctor was involved.
I know I went overboard with my response but I just have no idea what you do or do not know. I tried to include the stuff I wish I knew for my first cycle. And if anything came across as me being a dick, that was not my intention. I have a girlfriend who has English as her second language so I tend to over do my comments in hopes that it’s message doesn’t get lost in transmission.
One last thing. You didn’t include your height or rough body fat precentage. The body fat actually aromatizes test itself so that comes in to play when dialing in your aromasin dosage.