This describes exactly what I’m seeing.
I’m holding fat on limbs- I’ve never ever held fat on my limbs in my life.
Last bloods showed E2 at upper end. It was mid range before I started TRT.
Before I got back into weights after my shoulder was fixed I ate good and was skinny but looked skinny fat. Once I added weight training even a few times a week the skinny fat started to fade and I looked lean and muscular.
If you want to get rid of the pudge start lifting a few times a week.
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Do you have any evidence for this? I’m asking genuinely because I’m considering starting a low dose AI myself.
All I’ve seen are papers showing that when you crush the estrogen of a post menopausal woman with breast cancer to 0 for years in end, she ends up having bone, brain and heart problems.
I’ve never seen any research showing that AI’s are inherently bad for you but I’d love to see it if it exists because it would definitely change my mind
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Did you feel better on Aromasin than Anastrozole?
I remember reading that 1mg of Anastrozole is equivalent to 25mg of Aromasin.
If that’s true your Anastrozole dosage is half of your Aromasin dosage. Maybe that’s why one feels better than the other?
Aromasin is also supposed to lower SHBG and increase free T in the process. Also supposed to be better for lipids
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Also does anyone know if aromasin is available in the UK?
What dosage would be equivalent to say 1/8mg Anastrazole per week? Basically a very very low dosage that hopefully doesn’t crash e2 but maybe drops it down to mid range not upper normal/a bit over range?
I base my aromasin dosage off of the results I’ve seen on my bloodwork.
I think you’re right that my aromasin dosage was considered stronger than the Anastrozole. But for me at that dosage, it gave me comparable results which I confirmed many times with bloodwork.
In my experience, aromasin has been much more forgiving. I’ve never crashed my estrogen while using it.
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There’s a reason for that, IMO. Studies on women who need ZERO e2 aren’t helpful to us guys on TRT. Long term SERM studies are apples/oranges. Studies of guys keeping e2 within a set range on a small dose of AI don’t exist. Yet, hopefully.
I’ve seen one doc say that he has a couple patients that just don’t respond well to anastrozole for some reason regardless of where their e2 lands
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Not everything is a study. We are the experiment. You can see it here in the forum or ExcelMale. AIs are blocking an enzyme that are necessary for certain functions. Even without crushing it, if you keep blocking it some men will simply begin to shutdown that specific function and end up with issues like No aromatase. It doesnt happen to everyone, its always someone who has Sexual issues and constant low to undetectable E levels. We’re seeing it in the forums. If you need a study to convince you of it, playing with fire should be as good, because you are the experiment, the guinea pig, and the instructor. Its your life.
Using a forum for basis isn’t great- inherently people come onto forums often when they have issues to resolve so you have bias straight away.
You say blocking functions… does aromatase have another function aside from converting T to E2?
Is there evidence out there that the aromatase blocking compounds affect aromatase function after they have left the body… as in not just blocking but actually kill off some of this function… Reading between the lines this is what you are saying with part of that post?
These are genuine questions. Theres definitely been an over subscribed amount of Anastrozole in the past for people thats not ended well… but the question still remains, is a tiny amount that keeps e2 im range safe?
You could come at it from another angle… is having raised E2 for years safe? From what I understand this can cause an enlarged prostate- also breast growth?
I’ve never used an AI, but it is becoming clear there are a lot of people apposed to it and it seems to be born out of people using larger dosages and ending up with issues.
I’m going to speak to my physician after my next bloods and get his proffesional opinion on this and what he’s seen in men using one longer term- that at least won’t contain forum bias (people coming onto a forum because they’ve got an issue).
My guess is that the guys who end up with 0 E2 took too much AI, which built over time in their blood and crushed their levels eventually. If you feel amazing 24 hours after taking some AI, chances are you’re about to overshoot big time; I think people forget that AI’s build in your blood over time also.
I doubt taking a small AI dose would make your body lose the ability to produce aromatase enzymes, but who knows. Maybe it’s the same as with natural production of Test, where eventually you might lose the ability to restart your natural production if it was shut down for too long.
Although for suicidal/steroidal AI’s, the mechanism is different; I don’t think it shuts down the body’s production of aromatase, it just destroys some % of the existing enzymes, which in theory shouldn’t affect production ability.
I agree with you that we are the guinea pigs and at this point in my HRT journey after trying the “No AI at any cost” road for 11 months straight, I’m very happy to run this experiment.
Exactly, that’s what I was getting at. I think Aromasin is better for a few reasons: No rebound, no messing with receptors directly, easier on lipids, and lowers SHBG.
I’m gonna try a low dose of Aromasin to bring my E2 from 2.5x the normal range down to just top of the normal range, and see how I feel.
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That’s good to know, thanks. It’s the feeling I’m getting also, I’m gonna go with that.
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I’ve never used it. The idea of a suicidal inhibitor was never appealing, but let us know how it works for you. I’m always open to new ideas with this, even if I’m fine with my tiny dose of anastrozole
Can anyone explain the differences between how Aromasin and Amrimidex work?
These are brands arent they- Arimadex being Anastrazole? Whats Aromasins drug name?
The mechanism of action is the same.
Aromasin is exemestane. These comparative studies were on women, but essentially, the differences were with individual tolerance.
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanonc/article/PIIS1470-2045(18)30116-5/fulltext
Just looked. UK prices… Anastrozole is 200x cheaper than the other one. Ouch!
I thought one was suicidal, in that it destroys the aromatase enzyme rather than just binding to it. Keeps an e2 rebound off the table, but sucks if you’ve managed to crash your e2 with overuse
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I can tolerate Aromasin, I can’t tolerate the sides from Anastrozole. Even breaking the pill into quarters and taking it one time messes me up.
I read more about the differences between Arimidex and Aromasin and I’ve actually decided to try Adex first.
Apparently Asin and Letrozole cross the blood-brain barrier and can affect neuro-steroid balance and whatever else is going on in the brain with regards to Estrogens. Adex doesn’t cross the blood-brain barrier, or at least not significantly so.
Tough call because Asin seems to have lots of advantages, so we’ll see. I might also not tolerate one (or even both) of them, so I’ll start with Adex and see what happens. I have 0.125mg tablets, I’m gonna take 1/2 a tablet every 48 hours and if that doesn’t crash my E2 and I feel better I’ll move to 1/4 tablet every 24 hours. The half life is only 50 hours, so ED administration is probably best for even E2 levels.
Since I’m doing ED injections with Test to have stable levels why not do the same with the AI.
I’ll update my log and this thread with my results. Anecdotally I can already feel a difference. Some of it could be placebo but my erections had been kind of soft lately with E2 at 2.5 times the range (I was much harder when I was natural), and 24 hours after taking my first Adex pill 2 days ago I woke up with a massive hard-on and was walking around with my dick parallel to the ground for 10 minutes straight before it even started going down. I don’t think that could be placebo, but who knows…we’ll see
How the hell do you break a tiny pill into 4 or some people even do 1/8???