I know many, many men who are on TRT take AIs. Doctors out there prescribe them right off the bat or freak out when E2 readings are “high.” I am no expert and have no credentials to tell anyone what to take or how to feel better, but this is just from my own personal experience that I would like to share because it was the scariest, most unpleasant months of my life. I listened to too many people while I was on T who said AIs are a must, and I crashed my E2 with .25mg twice a week. After my E2 came back up, Zinc knocked it right back down and I went through low E2 again, likely from not being fully recovered yet even though I was feeling better (I was unaware at the time tha Zinc caused an anti aromatase effect).
About 3 weeks into my 2nd crash, my nerves started tingling, my brain felt like I was going mad, anxiety was 10000x what I’ve ever felt before and I already have anxiety, fatigue was extreme, was having vivid dreams and nightmares on a daily basis, yet I was having many days where I was going hours of feeling “normal,” then crashing back down.Up and down up and down. It was a living hell. I even got tested for multiple sclerosis because my nerves had that numb feeling and I was having memory lapses. I came to learn all of this was simply from putting my estrogen through the ringer, and I needed patience to let things stabilize.
This is a link about PMDD, a more severe form of PMS. Out of the 18 symptoms listed, I had about 14 of them. Obviously men don’t have PMS, so I didn’t technically have the disorder, but I basically was a walking example of what it would look like in a woman and gives insight to what I was feeling, and I have never been more scared in my lifetime. I thought I was slowly dying. Just keep in mind that estrogen controls so many bodily functions from brain, heart, nervous system, immune system, joints, etc. and blocking it with AIs is tinkering with a hormone that when fluctuating can cause absolute misery. I know most people on this forum know this information, but it is just a fair warning based off my experience, and not everyone is the same.