I have to own up to being in my mid-forties, so I’m more worried about aromatisation than perhaps many of the younger guys in this forum. As a result I’ve reached deeply into my wallet and ordered some Arimidex and some Clomid (not available locally) from a web pharmacy. My intention is to do an 8-10 week cycle (my second ever) of 500mg Sustanon and 400mg Deca per week. My previous cycle of half these dosages worked well for me. During that cycle I used Novaldex as estrogen protection and Tribex as a nut-kicker at the end (because I couldn’t get the recommended Clomid). For the rest of the background I should say that I’m 220lbs and about 14% bf. My objective is to add mass to areas of my physique that I feel are lacking.
OK, enough background. Given my age and the doses, I thought that I ought to consider prostate protection as well. I show no signs of any problems and I want to keep it that way! Now the protection on this cycle is costing me a shitload (Arimidex $177 for 28 x 1mg, Clomid $12 for 5 x 50mg) and so when I saw the price of Proscar ($135 for 30) I nearly fell off my chair. Serious bucks as well (by comparison the gear is dirt cheap - 5 pounds UK for the Deca and 6 pounds for the Sus (around $8 and $9.6 respectively)! So after the long preamble my question is this. Is Saw Palmetto a viable alternative to Proscar, or should I just bite the bullet and dig into my wallet again? If Proscar is the answer, what are the recommendations for dosage and frequency? I have no idea how susceptible I am to BPH problems - I don't show any now, although I'm relatively young for the natural onset of such things - but as far as male pattern baldness is concerned it's too late - I'm already fairly shiny on top.
All opinions welcomed, but especially those from our good friends with pharmacology backgrounds (hint, hint!). Thanks in advance.
Based upon my research on prostate protection,
I would say that saw palmetto is at least as
good, and may actually be better than
finasteride (Proscar). Proscar would be much
better for hair protection, however.
I think the best product on the market right now for
prostate protection is a product from the
Life Extension Foundation called
"Natural Prostate Formula" which contains not
only saw palmetto, but also pygeum and nettle
root extracts. Both of those compounds have
also been found to be beneficial for prostate
protection. Although I don't have any evidence
to back up this claim, I think that that
combination is actually superior to proscar
alone, and definitely less expensive.
DHT by itself is not too terrible for the
prostate, but the combination of high DHT and
high estrogen is bad news. Since you’re using
the Arimidex, effect on the prostate would
be moderate from just one cycle even if you
did nothing else.
I can’t really comment on whether saw palmetto
is effective or not in the context of minimizing effect of
supraphysiological levels of testosterone.
Whether you should get the Proscar or not
really depends on your financial situation:
if the money is really going to hurt I would
skip it; if the money won’t be noticed that
much then I would use it. (My solution is
simpler: I just don’t use T so as to avoid
these problems (and also because no matter
what I do T gives me acne worse than anything
else does, but for most users acne is not a big issue.))
Bill - many thanks for your response. I guess that I don’t want to take any unnecessary risks, so I’ve found another source of Proscar on the web which is MUCH cheaper and ordered about 3 months supply at the full dosage. Saw Palmetto is an interesting option but your point regarding its unknown efficacy against supraphysiolical doses of T is well taken. On the subject of (Proscar) dosage, as per my initial posting, I presume that you’re going to say to use the full 5mg/day dosage - or do you have any reason to believe that less would be sufficient please? BTW, I intend to use 0.5 mg Arimidex per day based on comments in this forum, including yours. I do not have access to blood testing, so I cannot calibrate my dosage that way. You have previously said that this is normally OK for T doses around 500mg/week. I presume that there is no age-related factor involved in deciding on this dosage. I don’t want to overdo the Arimidex, which I understand is a possibility. Any comments you have on this would be most gratefully received.