First Cycle, 4th/5th wk. Libido and Estrogen. Ancilliaries Dosages Help

Pharma / TRT
1

hey everybody

I started my first cycle a few weeks ago. I started really low as to carefully understand how each substance affected me. I’m injecting 250mg test-e each 6 days. the first 2 weeks were pretty good, effects were mostly mental. I felt more alert and motivated, and less prone to negative thoughts. As far as strength, I didn’t go up by much, I wasn’t looking for that, just a leaner physique without losing muscle, which I did achieve (by the 5th week), hence I didn’t increase my calorie intake. My recovery time was minimal though, as my joints (felt absolutely perfect)

I was worried by estrogen side effects and started running anastrazole (arimidex) during week 3. some people told me to not even do it, that the test-e dose was low enough. In fact, I wasn’t having any side effects, but I still took by week 3 thinking ahead about PCT. I was taking 0.125mg EOD. The last few days I have bee feeling a bit more “sensible” emotionally speaking. Also, my libido has gone to jack shit from sky high the first few weeks.

I’m away from home and can’t get bloodwork in a reasonable amount of time. Do you believe I should drop the arimidex completely? Up the dosage? I have nolva on hand, too.

any input will be appreciated.

thanks

2

Given the low dose of test I would drop the arimidex and see how you feel in a few days. It if solves the issue you know the dose was wrong. Some are overresponders to arimidex. And fine tune it with bloodwork.

3

In the TRT forum we have guys reporting how they feel with lab work. We know that most taking 100mg T eth/cyp per week will have elevated E2 that robs energy, creates mood and libido problems. We see this strongly much of the time with E2=35 pg/ml and up.

Most guys on 100mg/week need 1mg anastrozole per week in divided doses.
Because anastrozole is a competitive drug, if you double serum T levels, you need to double anastrozole to keep E2 unchanged.

Most have optimal mood, energy and libido near E2=22 pg/ml

The idea that guys can take gear level dosing and not needing an AI is insane.

A few are anastrozole over-responders who need around 1/4th of the expected dose.

Your symptoms are just like many TRT guys who have benefits taken away at week 5-6.

You should try more anastrozole.

Injecting every 6 days makes T levels move too much and you anastrozole can never match your T levels.
Try injecting every 3 days and take .5mg at time of injection. Expect to need 1mg at time of injection if you are a normal responder.
Half life of anastrozole means that it takes 6 days for a given dose to reach steady state serum levels. Do not make short term adjustments.
After a week you should definitely know if you are on the right path.

This bro-science attitude that you don’t need an AI is bogus.

4

thanks to both of you for the replies.

KSman post sounded a bit more solid. I added a bit more anastrazole (0.25mg) EOD as of now, and see how this goes in a week. Thanks a lot for the input

best,

Mark

5

There are two possibilities, both related to E2 as I see it, and as KSMan has determined. One is that you are an over responder and you crashed your E2. The other is that you haven’t taken enough Anastrozole and your E2 is too high.

Either way, I think it is your E2, and I’m not really sure how you can tell whether it’s too high or too low without a blood test. I was on cycle with .25 E3D of Adex and post cycle my E2 was 4 (four weeks post cycle, no adex for four weeks). I actually felt pretty good on the test date, but began to feel a little funky afterwards and it’s just now coming back (six weeks later).

I only have anecdotal experience, but I think you need some advice with respect to whether you should cut the adex or increase the adex, but it seems to be estrogen related.

I’d listen to KSMan.

6

[quote]Mark_T wrote:
thanks to both of you for the replies.

KSman post sounded a bit more solid. I added a bit more anastrazole (0.25mg) EOD as of now, and see how this goes in a week. Thanks a lot for the input

best,

Mark
[/quote]

I listen to KSman so you should too lol. I just know with my body I would more likely be in the too low E2 category. Let us know how it goes. You will figure it out pretty quick one way or the other.

7

Well, quick update, for the sake of science and knowledge.

I listened to KSman advice and upped the anastrazole dose to 0.25mg EOD. The results were pretty quick (I felt them in a day) and by the second dose, I definitely began feeling like the first few weeks of using test-e. My libido went through the roof (literally: I had to fuck my gf thrice and have a wank later on, it was a bit frightening, to be honest. In a good way), I feel calmer, sharper, etc. etc.

So far so good then. I’ll keep this dosage for the whole week and see if I need some more the next one, maybe applying KSman idea of dosing 0.5mg on injection day.

I definitely will get bloodwork done as soon as I get home.

Thanks a lot for the good info.

8

That is about as good as it gets!

I wish that there was some way to make the BB/gear community aware that E2 management is important and should be more than a symptom/bloat/gyno driven event.

9

A little update to share my experience so far, and some things I have learned on this cycle so far, so as to promote and confirm good quality knowledge (KSman advices, for example).

upping the anastrazole dosage from 0.125 EOD to 0.25 EOD made a lot of difference for me. I wasn’t experiencing estrogen side effects that I noticed up to the 5th week into the cycle, but they were there nonetheless, and anastrazole took care of that. So, next time, I would run anastrazole right from the start. Not everyone gets gyno, or bloated, but the estrogen is there. In my case, I got a bit more emotional, and the anastrazole helped with that, and it dried me up a lot, too, which is good. I always had a bit of a bloat due to water retention, even before cycle. this got rid of it.

Injecting test-e once a week is definitely a stupid idea if you’re looking for stable “mental” effects. Halving the dose and injecting every 3 days sounds a lot more logical now. I will, however, stick to this once a week regime up to the end of my cycle so as not to add even more changes so far into it.

steroids won’t make you grow, food will. I haven’t upped my calorie intake since I wasn’t looking for adding mass. I ended looking a lot stronger and leaner, but haven’t really grown much. It has to be said, however, that I hit the gym/cardio/calisthenics a bit less than off cycle and I still look much better now, so they absolutely have an effect even if you don’t take too much action.

I now completely understand why everyone says “you never do just one cycle” which was my initial idea. this is addictive in its own particular way. However, having to inject hcg so often to keep my testicles working does not sound appealing at all for now if I wanted to cruise for life.

now the idea of PCT time sounds dreadful, but hopefully it won’t be traumatic since the test-e dosage was so low (250mg/week).

Thanks again for the anastrazole tip, a lot of people elsewhere were absolutely convinced that I shouldn’t take it at 250mg/week unless I run into serious problems, such as gyno.

10

I am glad this worked out for you. I gotta say though if you had such issues with 250mg/wk and if I have it right were only on for 4 weeks, the hormonal swings and “mental” issues things may get much harder for you and larger doses and real cycles and PCT. I mean, you basically took a TRT dose for a few weeks. You seem pretty sensitive to these changes.