Anastrozole response time question

Hi,
I'm an older guy at 54 and have been on TRT 13 months. We've not been able to really dial things in so my question (and answers) hopefully will help. Currently on 250mg cypionate per week and .25 Anastrozole 2x per week, once the day of the shot and the other 2 days later.

A few months ago, the doc was working with me on dialing things in and then the clinic had a shuffling of docs where I dealt with several over the course of a month. They all seemed to have different ideas.....go figure. My bloodwork came back with high E and the guy put me on 1mg Anastrozole eod. At my next visit, he was gone and the doc who is actually in charge of many 'T' clinics said it wasn't right. He asked me if I had any sides of high E and I didn't so he took me off it. I felt good at 200mg and no AI.

Looooong story short is I'm wondering how long it takes for Anastrozole to counteract sides. I'm thinking of going off it but having it handy. I'm guessing I will either be ok or that I will need some on day 2 or 3. If I find that I do indeed need some, I'd like to try cutting the pill down even further to basically at .125 and doing it on day 2 and 4. Thoughts?

Anyway, thanks for considering my issue and for any assistance.

After some reading, I wonder if my E was fine but registered high because of the test. I may in fact have my E too low? Bloodwork a week ago was 27.9.

Please post your labs - including the reference ranges associated with each test. An AI should never be a routine part of a TRT protocol - never. It is only prescribed when one has both elevated estradiol, as measured by the sensitive, LC, MS/MS, lab test, and symptoms associated with elevated e2.

Was the appropriate test run? What side effects were you dealing with? One milligram of anastrozole every other day is an excessive dose - how long were you on it?

I was on it for only one week and stopped entirely for 3-4 weeks as the new doc said the same thing.,My next test result was 60.6, Labcorp range is 7.6-42.6. We then started Anastrozole as indicated above, .25 twice per week. Now, my E is 27.9.
I've never had any physical symptoms with nipples and if anything, maybe some moodiness. The doc noticed I was gaining weight but I was bulking at the time; she still didn't get it I think.

oldnbig said:

I was on it for only one week and stopped entirely for 3-4 weeks as the new doc said the same thing.,My next test result was 60.6, Labcorp range is 7.6-42.6. We then started Anastrozole as indicated above, .25 twice per week. Now, my E is 27.9.
I've never had any physical symptoms with nipples and if anything, maybe some moodiness. The doc noticed I was gaining weight but I was bulking at the time; she still didn't get it I think.

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Consider your health where in you're being overdosed (severely) by one Dr, changed by another, and I'd feel pretty confident that none of these Drs is using the correct for males Estrogen test which should be the UltraSensitive LC/MS/MS, test. This is for males. Any other E test is for females and should not be being used. So long as they're shotgunning things from one Dr to the next on this goofy protocol, you'll never be successful.

To provide a full picture, this was 4 months ago. Since then, we've tried to be methodical and steady in our approach. At this point, I'm interested in fine-tuning dosages and whether or not I even need anastrazole. When I go back in, I will ask about the ultrasensitive test and see where that tells us.
The reason I ask about response time is that I'm thinking of stopping the anastrazole. If symptoms flare up, I can take 1/8 of a pill and see what happens, add another 1/8, etc. This of course depends on the response time; if it takes several days, I will merely drop the dosage instead of stopping.

Wlell my knowledge is that it goes to work right away and has a 50hr half-life. It's awfully hard to dose something on how you perceive you feel on a day-to-day, good on you getting the correct test but things just don't work this way with much success.

Please don't dose and schedule anastrozole on the basis of symptoms only. It far too easy to misjudge what it is that's going on. We've had members convinced they were presenting with elevated estradiol - the sensitive test showed things were at a comfortable level. We've had members certain of a high reading who turned out to be very low. Use the appropriate test and act on the basis of labs and symptoms - that's the only sure way to proceed.

1/8th mg of Anastrozole! I applaud you seeing that this drug is no joke. You'll feel a dose even that small. Anastrozole goes to work almost immediately in me. Agree with the guys above not to take the AI based on symptoms alone. Some guys do, and I have, but you've got to have some experience to do that. One of the good docs chimed in a while back and said...especially with the once weekly injection guys... you can have high E2 symptoms simply from the fluctuation of E2 in your system, and not necessarily from high E2 labs. Think about it, if you're injecting once a week, you should have higher E2 symptoms (and likely labs) mid week. And by the next injection day (a week after your 1 time a week injection) you may take labs and by that time, your E2 is far lower than it wold have been had your taken labs mid week. This of course is one of many reasons for twice weekly, or more, injections. The numbers with a once weekly schedule are not representative of what you felt during mid week. My best example of feeling high E2 symptoms without high E2 was when I made the mistake of taking DHEA. I felt horrible but yet E2 labs showed it being actually on the low end of normal.