TRT Protocol Advice/Insight

Pharma / TRT Testosterone Replacement
1

Gentlemen what’s going on, long time lurker, finally made an account because I’m at a crossroad in my protocol and could not collect enough pertinent information reading around.

4 years on trt.
did 40mg m/w/f for 1.5 years alongside .25mg arimidex on same day of pin
following 1.5 year did 40mg m/w/f alongside 6.25 aromasin everyday

Now this year I have experimented due to the fact that A) aromasin is killing my hair
B) the reason I switched to aromasin was because arimidex was intolerable and I wanted to verify that to be true after my amazing experience with aromasin.

So at first I began pinning ~20mg everyday to upping administration frequency to create more stability with my estrogen and rbc and in hopes to allow me to drop the aromasin dosage to 6.25 3x a week rather than everyday, and it was highly successful, best i’ve ever been. However, hairs going still.
NOTE:( I am extremely estrogen sensitive and aromatize with little doses, high e symptoms come fast with big jim downstairs taking the first blow, then bloat, then bloodpressure, and then my pubertal gyno waking up from its slumbber)

Substituted the aromasin for arimidex to .25mg 3x a week
and my hair stopped going, even regrew.
But arimidex sucks, idk what it is but my body and arimidex are rivals. My stomach feels and looks pregnant, farts that could clear a colony of dung beetles, tired and lazy, breathing even feels heavy as if it requires conscious thought, bloat water retention. just sucks, all irrelevant of my e levels, I do thorough and consistent labs between change in protocols.
And this particular protocol brought my e to the same level as it was on aromasin (25-27)
but feel disgusting, but my hairs coming back.

To confirm once more my findings, went back to aromasin, back to feelings like a million bucks, stomach tight, vascularity back, jawline chiseled, but the hairs going.

So here’s my conundrum
aromasin= perfect world at cost of hair
arimidex= sickly and bloblike but keep hair
NO AI= tits and bloodpressure and moonface

My brainstorming thinks its a good idea to cut the trt dose in half so 10mg everyday and try no AI, see what happens. Keep the hair and due to lower dose and adminstration frequency possibly not need ai, or atleast be manageable, and rely on trtplus for the gains( sporatic low dose anavar/primo cycles for the summer or reverse diet)

Any insights, any clues, any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Does arimidex suck for anyone else?

Thank You

2

Heya,

Have a friend who I turned on to TRT years ago who had similar issues, frequency and sub pinning (10 mg ed) led to only slightly elevated estrogen at first, with levels falling eventually to normal.

Known issue for many, some take supplements or use treatments for their hair for dht issues, please do your research before using some known fairly toxic options. (Finasteride) Some have no effects, others have DRAMATIC negative effects.

Good luck.

3

Thank you,
Yeah I think that will be my next course of action , going with 10mg ed instead of the 20mg I’ve been using and opt for no ai.

Hair and dht managing products will
Not even be needed, I believe Eliminating Aromasin alone is enough.

4

What are your T levels here? This would typically happen if your T levels were too high. Keep it reasonable and 90% of men don’t have an issue.

I would discuss with your doc but cutting in half seems extreme. Lowering the dose to a level where no AI is needed is logical. This would take some experimentation.

5

Levels around 1000

Figure half the dose , at 20mg Ed I’m using more ai than the avg person at equivalent dose to keep it where it’s perfect.
What would be alternate path , 15mg Ed instead of 10 Ed.

Discussed with doctor, it’s up to my discretion to experiment.
I’ve been dialed in for years now perfect bloods, if it wasn’t for exemestanes adverse affect on hair wouldn’t be a discussion. so I guess truly dialed in would be to find a way to not need ai.

6

Agree with blshaw. Halving dose is extreme.

Yeah 15mg a day might be worth a go.

2 Likes
7

If he’s open to it then I would say a 25% drop is an ok place to try first (15mg/ed). Just tell him what you are doing and make sure he is in the loop since its his treatment plan.

1 Like
8

Finasteride reduces dht which is ultimately just another androgen, unless you are dht dependent with low testosterone you are very unlikely to have side effects.
Given you are on a decent dose of TRT you will be sufficient in androgens so will a properly managed test to estro ratio and sufficient androgen level you should be fine. Dht is not special.

If androgens are low, libido and erectile quality will go down.

If estrogen is too low or too high, libido and erectile quality will also go down.

When enough androgens are present as well as enough estrogen, libido and erectile quality will be supported.

Testosterone administration restores libido because it not only provides a sufficient amount of Estrogen, but it also 5-alpha reduces into DHT.

However, the 5-alpha reduction of DHT isn’t what facilitates the restoration of libido, its the sufficient serum concentrations of bioavailable free testosterone in

conjunction with a healthy level of Estradiol.

The 5-alpha reduction of DHT certainly helps, but its not necessary for achieving satisfactory levels of androgens.

The only scenario in which injecting straight DHT could restore sexual function and maintain it long-term is if it was used in conjunction with exogenous Estradiol.

However, that would then make you Testosterone deficient and cause muscle wasting because DHT has such poor anabolic activity.

The only way you ensure that all pathways are fulfilled is by injecting Testosterone and monitoring your Estrogen, SHBG, DHT, total

Tand free T levels

Hope this helps :slight_smile:

A lot of people will say fin destroys you etc not with properly managed hormones and bloods !

9

A lot of these guys who were destroyed by fin were never on hormonal therapies, their fully functioning normal HPTA manages their hormones.

Fin can destroy certain people upon taking only one pill whether on TRT or not, fin doesn’t discriminate, Fin has the potential to disrupt hormonal pathways and can lead to gyno among other things.

I wonder, have you taken the time to read all the side effects listed for fin?

When you start messing with hormonal pathways, all sorts of unexpected consequences can arise.

Lots of similar accounts from accutane users, another DHT endocrine disrupting medicine.

This isn’t an opinion, it’s based off Merk’s own data they tried to hide.

In a 2016 deposition Reuters reviewed, former Merck marketing executive Paul Howes testified about the business risk posed by Propecia’s possible side effects.

image

11

Thank you yes, a lot of information.
However finasteride was not a variable in the equation in my OP.
More so of a hormonal balance equation on trt,
One ai makes me sickly (arimidex)
And the other is god tier(aromasin) but ( hairloss) assuming through dht pathways and the drug itself seems to be known for hair thinning even in woman on cancer treatment, so two pathways of destruction.
Cessation of aromasin begins restoring hair and stopping further loss, so is finasteride even a variable to discuss yet.

Furthermore my understanding finasteride pathway creates higher t levels and higher estrogen , so now I’m faced with one more variable to juggle my estrogen sensitivity