Hi!
Been on TRT for four months. 200mg Test E per week with no AI pinning twice per week.
I am 35, 5,11", 190lbs, about 10% bodyfat, long time lifter and martial artist with a clean (paleo style) diet.
I feel great. Mood is stable, lifts going up steadily, more energy in the afternoons even after a big morning training session.
The only issue is boners and sex drive have decreased massively. I would guess this is due to high E2 but I live in the third world and don’t have access to a sensitive E2 test. I have no other symptoms of high E2 other than the libido issues. I am very reluctant to take an AI as I know dosing can be difficult and when I otherwise feel so good I don’t want to risk lowering E2 too much.
I was thinking of changing my protocol to 170mg test and 30mg Mast per week in order to get some of the libido boost benefits as well as estrogen management. I am not interested in mast for cutting or any of the aesthetic benefits that apparently require higher doses.
Has anyone done something similar and if so can you please share your experience?
I also know that lowering the test dose is an option and I will take that into consideration too.
I will get labs done as soon as I’m able to get a better idea of numbers but that won’t be for a couple of weeks. In the meantime, based on the info I’ve provided (and assuming it is high E2 causing the issue) does what what I’ve suggested seem reasonable? Or even better have you done anything similar yourself?
This way when I do get bloods back I can have some options in my back pocket to deal with it.
Personally, instead of guesstimating mast substitution to find a dialed in balance, I would probably take .25mg of arimidex and see what it does for me.
Worse case you’ll drop e too low for a couple weeks and have cranky knees, but it will rebound. Most likely you’ll get closer to a libido supporting range.
Check your blood volume too. If there’s too much it could be causing artificial problems.
Can you order mail-in tests online to be more precise in general? Seems it would be ideal.
I have used very low dose anastrozole as needed to handle the rare high E symptoms I get. I’ve never felt any different taking it.
My main symptom is I get very emotional where it takes very little for me to start to tear up/cry, but never anything too crazy like uncontrollable sobbing.
I start by taking 1/4 tablet (0.125mg/tablet) and wait a day or two to see what happens. I’ll take another 1/4 if I think I need it. I’ve never needed more than 3/4 to resolve. But everyone is different so you could need more or even less.
Starting with a very low dose and going up as needed is probably the best approach.
Where are you getting 0.125 mg tabs? I have some compounded capsules that are 0.125 mg each. Never seen low dose tabs. I believe they should be a common product though.
Unless you have elevated C-reactive protein, the non-sensitive E2 test is perfectly fine. As far as sexual function and libido, too much T can be as bad as not enough.
This is what I would do if I had no access to blood work. At 200mg of test per week, .25mg of arimidex won’t crash your e2 (unless you are one of the rare hyper responders). However, I don’t see how you can’t get blood work done sooner. Even if you do live in a third world country there must be private clinics where you could get some semblance of your hormonal values.
However, the first thing I’d do if I were you would be to take a week off of training and strict paleo diet, and treat myself to some Netflix shitcoms, chocolate and peanut butter.
there is no guarantee that e2 plays a role in your case. my e2 sensitive runs at 70-80 and my libido is great.
next thing I would add is 3x1000IU HCG/week. that did wonders for me. reliablerx sells it cheap and ships worldwide