Nothing to worry about. Almost everyone here is using anastrozole.
This is easy. The -ve side effects that you find are:
- From body builders who take E2 to extreme lows which creates adverse lipid profiles.
- From dosing literature from use in females where the objective is E2–>zero.
In males were are modulating E2 to get to near [normal] E2=22pg/ml or 80 pmol/L. The negative effects associated with the above section are not in any way from the drug directly itself, but from very low E2 levels.
E2= 50pg/ml, this can be from:
- T dose too high, not your case.
- Impaired liver clearance of E2, some meds can do this or an outright liver problem. AST/ALT clear?
- LH receptor over stimulation
-Too much LH from SERM’s
-Too much hCG - you
250iu hCG subq EOD is a LH replacement dose. 500iu may be too much for you, there is variability in how this happens from one guy to the next.
Split your T dose to two injections per week. If you inject subq T levels will be steadier. Use #29 1/2" 0.5ml [not 1.0ml]. Try over upper leg, pinch up skin and inject into end of fold with needle parallel to muscles. Avoid obvious surface veins. - yes that syringe is slow to load.
Take 0.5mg anastrozole at time of injections. Should feel major gains in 7-10 days. Takes 3 doses to get steady state anastrozole levels. So do not mess with dose making short term changes.
Some are anastrozole over-responders [not rare] who crash E2 levels on the expected doses and crash E2 and feel horrible. In that case, stop anastrozole for 5-6 days and resume at 1/4th the dose. This info re over-responders is not in any medical literature or drug info. Probably differences in enzymes.
Please read the stickies found here: About the T Replacement Category - #2 by KSman
- advice for new guys - need more info about you
- things that damage your hormones
- protocol for injections
- finding a TRT doc
Evaluate your overall thyroid function by checking oral body temperatures as per the thyroid basics sticky. Thyroid hormone fT3 is what gets the job done and it regulates mitochondrial activity, the source of ATP which is the universal currency of cellular energy. This is part of the body’s temperature control loop. This can get messed up if you are iodine deficient. In many countries, you need to be using iodized salt. Other countries add iodine to dairy or bread.
Test E2 in two weeks. If you get E2=30 and target is 22, modify dose by 30/22. That is the beauty of a competitive drug.
It can take 4-5 weeks before you stop feeling progress with proper T levels. Depends on how long you were suffering with high E2. Gene expression, tissue changes and new patterns in brain activity.