Starting Arimidex (Anastrozole) Tomorrow, What Can I Expect?

[jonkobeck]

4 weeks ago Total T was 1050 and E2 went up to 95
This week Total T was only 450 and E2 was 60

Doc is putting me on Arimidex. He told me to take one pill (1 mg) 2 times a week.

I never took an anti estrogen before,
Is this a safe drug?
what can I expect?

Is that a good dose?

I was thinking of cutting the pill in half and doing a half twice a week to see how that works.

 

[foreveryoung]

a lot of people report that their libido disappears when taking arimidex, it is a tricky drug to figure out dosing, etc. I had no luck with it, but you might be different

 

[Structure]

Of all the typical TRT drugs we use, this one is by far the most dangerous. I'm not sure if you've read any of my posts regarding it (search for anastrozole, and you'll find them), but adex fucked me up pretty bad. I used it for a little under three months, and now, ten months after the onset of pain, I still haven't fully recovered.

My advice to you is: find another way to reduce E2.

If you decide to try it anyway, then at the very first sign of joint soreness (no matter which joint) stop the drug immediately. I kept taking it even after I noticed the pain in my wrists because there were competing explanations for the wrist pain (I was doing some wrist intensive labor). Biggest mistake I've ever made, without a doubt.

Be warned.

 

[pmgamer18]

I have used Arimide for yrs. the only thing you need to look out for is driving your Estraidol E2 down to low. When I started on Arimidex I was higher then you are it took me using .5 mgs every day for about 4 weeks to get this down. And the first thing to come back after not having time for many yrs. was Rem Sleep Wood after this we did labs I came down to 24 pg/ml.

Today I gage my E2 levels by how I am feeling and how good my wood is working I am 67 yrs old now been on TRT over 30 yrs.

One other thing if your on Pain meds doing Arimidex or Aromasin it will stop the med from working. It took me a long time to figure this out and with the help from Hardasnails we found out the CYP3A4 ermine will do this I was up to 4 one mg. pills per day to keep my E2 down on pain med the bad one was Norco.

Here is what I would do don't take 1 mgs try .5 mgs every other day going down to fast is not good you can get a bad rebound effect doing this.

Here is a copy of a file I made about taking Arimidex read this talk to your Dr. about it 1 mg at any time is to much.
=================================================
How To Take Arimdex and not go down on your Estradiol to Low.

What I found is if you go to low taking arimidex, it's the length of time your to low, if your too low say for 8 weeks it can take your body a longer time to make more Estradiol. Bottom line is to know how not to go to low. Keep a log on your dose and how you feel men going to low can't get it up taking Viagra. I went to low when I first tried Arimidex and did not know about going to low or how one feels to low, so I was low a good 8 weeks. I did not know I was low until my next labs.

The best gage I have found to control your Estradiol levels is to gage your night time and morning wood. At good levels or what I call the sweet spot you get your night time and morning wood back so strong it will wake you up and you can hang a coat on it.

Most men do good taking .25 mgs or 1/4 of a 1mg. pill, I use a pill cutter to cut the small pill in half then I stand it on the cut end and use a single edge razor to cut this in half. A good way to take arimidex is by how high your levels are. I tested over 90 pg/ml so we tried doing .5 mgs every other day after 8 weeks my next set of labs showed it did not move below 90, test said >90. So we did .5 mgs. every day in about 2 weeks I got some strong night time and morning wood back after not having them for many yrs.

I kept doing this dose and in 8 weeks my next set of labs said <20 back in the day labs were like this they did not have to good labs we have today they could not read lower the 20. My Dr. told me this looks to low to stop taking the Arimidex. The one thing I noticed was my wood stopped and stopping the Arimidex my wood came back in about 7 weeks my next test at 8 weeks was 24 pg/ml. So we went back on the Arimidex but the Dr. told me to take .5 mgs every 3 days I was on this dose not a week and lost wood. This is when I figured out going to low you lose wood. And the longer your too low the longer it takes to get levels back up.

I stopped the arimidex right away and got my wood back in 4 days. I then after playing with the dose for a time found the best dose is .25mgs every 2 to 3 days.

So lets say your labs are less the 50 pg/ml if your take .5 mgs you can go down so dam fast your miss the sweet spot of your wood and go to low. It's best with lower levels 50 and under to do less Arimidex .25mgs every 2 days if later your lose wood when it comes back go to every 3 days.

I have found estradiol is the hardest hormone to control, it goes up or down from month to month some times I need .25mgs every 2 days other times I need .25mgs everyday most of the time I do well on every 3 days.

So between wood and labs I do great and so do most of the men I have told this to. I keep a log on how much I am taking and how I feel. Doing this and reading back in my log I was able to tell when I was going to high or to low my Dr. lets me dose my arimidex by how I feel.

Over the yrs. I have posted this story until I am blue in the face.

4 weeks ago Total T was 1050 and E2 went up to 95
This week Total T was only 450 and E2 was 60

Doc is putting me on Arimidex. He told me to take one pill (1 mg) 2 times a week.

I never took an anti estrogen before,
Is this a safe drug?
what can I expect?

Is that a good dose?

I was thinking of cutting the pill in half and doing a half twice a week to see how that works.

 

[LW64]

4 weeks ago Total T was 1050 and E2 went up to 95
This week Total T was only 450 and E2 was 60

Doc is putting me on Arimidex. He told me to take one pill (1 mg) 2 times a week.

I never took an anti estrogen before,
Is this a safe drug?
what can I expect?

Is that a good dose?

I was thinking of cutting the pill in half and doing a half twice a week to see how that works.

It's a cancer drug and it can have some wicked sides and you've been prescribed a rather large dose for a TRT regimen. Your recent results with t-gel clearly indicate to me that your are not a suitable candidate for TDs. Your aromatase gets activated and your T gets converted.

The way to get around this is with injections. The T gets placed under the subcutaneous fat layer, so the effects of fat-layer aromatase are minimized. The T-spike your doctor is worried about can be managed by more frequent injections with a lower T dose. It's certainly worth trying before adding in such a powerful drug like Arimidex just to make TDs work better.

Please have a look at the thread "Should I take an AI".

My $0.02

 

[jonkobeck]

Tried the Arimidex t 1mg today for the first time. Im not sure is this is normal, but within an hour of taking the pill I felt very calm and relaxed, more-so then usual. I am usually anxious and have pane attacks.
Also, I notice my face isn't as red a sit normally is. Usually my face always feels a little hot like I got sunburned. Even before TRT, for years.

I am wondering if I have had an E2 problem all my life. I do have this gynocomastia since childhood

Does anyone know of a cheap pharmacy to fill the Arimidex at?
apparently Aetna will not cover it for men.

Im thinking Costco or Walmart

 

[WerewolfBaby]

Thanks for that info, and your story, starting out my E2 was 51. I now started micronyzed DHEA 25 mg, and now also doing HCG E3rd 250 iu with .25-j.30 of Liquidex e3rd same day which I think is about the right amount. I am not on Exo Test as of now. If you convert a lot, seems like a little AI is maybe ok....and if you are on a lot of Test and HCG you might need a bit more....but conservative is probably best until next set of labs I figure

 

[jonkobeck]

My doc said to take one pill per week (1mg)
He said most patients do fine with one one.
I feel better already

 

[jonkobeck]

I read this drug can cause a fatty liver. Anyone experience this while on Adex?

 

[biceps72]

as stated

ARMIDEX IS A POWERFUL DRUG

1. we have no idea if side effects in males
2, proper dosage is unknown
3. frequency of dose is unknown
4. we never always know where our E2 level is (unless your MD allow a lot of blood draws, mine does not!)

Having said that, low dose usage definitely works for a lot of men to control E2

0.25 mg/ every 3-5 days is the maximum dose I would start with-- start low and monitor how you feel etc before you increase dose or frequency.

to control E2
1. control testosterone doseage-- take less more freequently several shots/week
2. try DIM
3. lower % of body fat
4. reduce/eliminate alcohol consumpyion
5. increase cardio sessions, number/week and intensity
6. eat a lot of veggies, brocolli, cauliflower, etc.

Adex works but be very very careful!!!!!

 

[jonkobeck]

Yes I have been playing around with the dose. I notice that at 1/2 pill after about 4 days I start have sleeping problems and a little acne is appearing again.

Im going to try 1/4 pill every 3 days to see how that goes.

I am doing al the other stuff, loosing weight cardio, diet etc.
I just hate taking drugs,
thats the reason I discontinued the statin

I dont do the shots, I just started the pellets one week ago

 

[pmgamer18]

You might find if your on enough pellets say 15 to 20 75 mg pellets you might not need Arimidex most men I know on pellets enough to keep there levels up 3 to 4 months don't need Arimidex. The T going into there body is so slow Estraidol is not a problem for most men on pellets.

Your lucky you stopped Statin Drugs I had Heart Bypass Surgery and was put on them. I did not what to take them because I never had high Chol. in my life. I was told I had blockage from low Growth Hormone for over 30 yrs.

So I told the Dr. I will not take this Statin Drug meds because one of the sides is muscle damage and my joints and muscles were bad enough. So this Dr. told my wife and kids if I don't take them Statin Drugs I will not live out the yr.

So to stop my family from there worry I took them and from the first week on the I had pain. Yet Dr.'s kept telling me it's not the Statin Drugs. Until after about 2 yrs on them I could not stand up or walk anymore.

Now they take me off them and tell me what supplements I need to take like CoQ10 to fix this.

Let me tell you about being on pain meds and what it can do to your Arimidex or Aromasin if your on this. I went on pain meds about 16 months ago the first one Darvocet worked very well no sides.

But the FDA pulled it so I was put on Vicodin and this slowed down my Voiding yet I did not notice this. I ended up with a bad bladder infection that I must have had for over a yr. The Vicodin masked the pain of this infection.

So then I was put on Norco let me tell you from the first month on pain meds I found I needed more and more Arimidex to keep my E2 down.

It got the the point I was needing 2 to 3 pills / day. So I switched to Aromasin this worked good at one half a pill every 2 days.

But in a very short time it stopped working I was needing 4 pills / day.

I did not know what was doing this and after posting around I found out it was the pain meds AI meds due to the CYP3A4 enzyme it slows down meds that lower Estraidol.

I was doing some more research on CYP3A4 recently - very interesting. [ame=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CYP3A4]CYP3A4 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia[/ame] has a list of some drugs affected by this enzyme, but I wish I could find a site that lists all drugs affected. It seems that most of the info about this enzyme is pretty complicated, but there are three basic categories:
* Substrates - drugs that are metabolized by this enzyme
* Inhibitors - drugs that cause other drugs that are metabolized by this enzyme to be metabolized slower
* Inducers - drugs that cause other drugs that are metabolized by this enzyme to be metabolized faster

Of interest: Testosterone, Estradiol, hydrocortisone, caffeine, viagra/cialis, opiates, SSRIs, statins, tamoxifen, anastrazole, and many others are all listed as "substrates" - drugs that are metabolized by CYP3A4.

Some common antibiotics like Erythromycin and Cipro, some SSRIs, Ginko, and grape fruit juice are inhibitors - this means that these drugs cause the CYP3A4 enzyme to slow down metabolism so you can end up getting too high of levels of other drugs that are "substrates". I always wondered why so many drugs tell you not to drink grape fruit juice while taking those drugs...

Less common are the "inducers" - like St. John's Wort, hypoglycemics, and glucocorticoids. These drugs increase the metabolism of CYP3A4 which means that you need to take the drugs listed as substrates more often in order to keep the correct levels in your blood.

I suspect that there are more "inducers", but I haven't had enough time to do a lot of research.

Another interesting enzyme is CYP2D6. [ame=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CYP2D6]CYP2D6 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia[/ame] I haven't had a lot of time to research this one yet, either.

I am now off all pain meds high Estraidol gives me flashing and Panic Attacks so I am off the pain meds.

Still I need 2 to 3 pills / day of Arimidex to keep my E2 down and my Panic down. I now am told this can take 6 months to a yr. for my body to go back to normal and for Arimidex and meds like them to work again.

Yes I have been playing around with the dose. I notice that at 1/2 pill after about 4 days I start have sleeping problems and a little acne is appearing again.

Im going to try 1/4 pill every 3 days to see how that goes.

I am doing al the other stuff, loosing weight cardio, diet etc.
I just hate taking drugs,
thats the reason I discontinued the statin

I dont do the shots, I just started the pellets one week ago