What's his bloodwork look like? If he hasn't had his estrogen levels checked, he need to, or it's like trying to fly a plane in a hurricane with a blindfold on.
I doubt 'your buddy' cares about how this works, so if he just wants a prescription I'm sure someone else will chime in and say something like take letro 2.5mg ED until gyno is gone. But there's a good chance that won't do a damn thing. I'd reccomend getting some raloxifene and taking 60mg a day. If you want to know why, read on. If not, don't complain to the board when letro doesn't work.
Here's how gyno works.
- Your body converts testosterone to estrogen, all the time. It has enzymes that do that. testosterone + enzyme = estrogen. Let's generalize that since your body also converts prohormones to estrogen: prohormone + enzyme = estrogen. So let's say 'steroid' + enzyme = estrogen.
- You normally have about 20 'units' of estrogen in your body, and that's fine. Normal levels of estrogen don't cause gyno.
1. When you inject, or take a pill, of a steroid (including prohormones) you have extra steroid in your body. Duh.
2. If you increase 'steroid' and have plenty of 'enzyme' you end up with more estrogen. 'steroid' + enzyme = estrogen. With a prohormone, you might end up with 100, 200, 300 'units' of estrogen. 5-15 times the normal amount!
3. Having a shit ton of extra estrogen makes tits grow. Extra estrogen attaches to the breast tissue and signals it to get bigger. That signal = breast growth = gyno.
4. Buddy stops taking prohormone. Now you have less 'steroid' in your body, so you have less estrogen. Remember, 'steroid' + enzyme = estrogen. After a few weeks, he's back to normal estrogen levels, and the gyno stops growing.
5. Your body doesn't have a way to SHRINK gyno. Extra estrogen will cause it to grow, but too low estrogen doesn't always cause it to shrink. So now you're stuck with gyno.
What letro does is kill the enzyme mentioned above. So... first thing you need to do is check his estrogen levels. It's easy, cheap and legal to do this.
If his estrogen is still high, OK, cool, take the letro to stop the body from converting the 'steroid' to estrogen. Since 'steroid' + enzyme = estrogen, and letro kills 'enzyme', if you take it you get less estrogen. BUT - if he's been off the prohormone a while, his estrogen is in normal range. Normal range estrogen doesn't cause gyno growth. So taking letro isn't going to do a damn thing.
So thats how letro work - 'steroid' + enzyme = estrogen.
But remember in (3) above I mentioned estrogen attaches to breast tissue? And that attachment causes the growth? OK, cool. So what if we can prevent estrogen from attaching to the receptor? Well, we can. Tamoxifen (Nolvadex), Clomid and Raloxifene all do that.
So there's always two ways to combat gyno:
1. Stop 'steroid' + enzyme = estrogen by killing enzyme with letro, arimidex or exemestane
2. Stop estrogen from attaching to the breast tissue.
How do you know which to use?
If you're using a steroid, you probably want to start with (1). Having estrogen too high causes other issues. So, you take steroid, get bloodwork, and if estrogen is too high you add in something to kill some of the enzyme. Repeat until you are taking steroid and estrogen is normal.
Some people also do #2 when taking steroid (or just #2). If you have too much estrogen, but it can't attach to the breast tissue, you don't get gyno.
For your buddy: assuming he's not using the PH right now, (1) probably isn't an issue, and letro will probably just make him feel like shit and not do much else. But he might have hope with #2. Even if estrogen is at a normal level, taking tamoxifen/raloxifene/clomid can cause it to shrink. These things are called SERMs if you want to look them up.
Fire and fury approach is just to blast both for a while and pray. But taking letro off cycle is miserable, and probably unnecessary.
Personally I get gyno flare ups every cycle, even though I use arimidex to kill some enzyme off and raloxifene + tamoxifen to stop the estrogen attachment. I run raloxifene for 8-10 weeks post cycle and it gets rid of the gyno. I use 60mg a day.
GET BLOODWORK.
Also... you can always see a doctor and just say you've had the gyno since puberty. They'll prescribe what you need an work with you. You don't need to admit steroid use.
