Femara pros/cons?

**Lord Humungous** · 02-19-2004, 11:04 PM

Hey bros, I've been doing a lot of reading on anti-Es. I currently run Nolva at 20mg per day, but my body is especially sensitive to water retention. I'm talking 6-7 lbs of water. But it's like that on or off cycle, just more sensative on cycle. I'm running a simple cycle of prop at 100mg ED for 12 weeks, and I'm in week 4. I'm loving the gains so far.

I am familiar with the effects of liquidex and I understand that it helps more with that aspect of estrogen control.

Now to the point. I've read the profiles carefully about letrozole (femara), and I already know that this+nolva is a no no.

What I am wondering is if running fem by itself might work better, since I don't seem to be especially sensitive to gyno. I'm sure most will say "just add L-dex" and that's cool. But I want to know more about femara itself. I want to know why it's not that popular, and if it works well, etc.

Any of you bros have any experience with femara? Judging by the profile, it SEEMS like it MIGHT be a better choice during a cycle of prop/tren .

I dunno, just looking for input/debate/opinions/experiences etc. Whatcha think bros?

-LH

**Rhino58** · 02-19-2004, 11:08 PM

I like femera. By itself is ok. What ever anti-e i have on hand is what i use for each cycle.

**Lord Humungous** · 02-19-2004, 11:48 PM

Bump

See? It's like the red headed step child of anti-Es. And I am wondering why? I searched and read until my eyes bled, I'm now wondering if it's just not that well known, or if Nolva and Ldex is just that popular.

-LH

**macrophage69alpha** · 02-19-2004, 11:57 PM

femara is much newer.

its stronger. its more likely to be too strong than dex or exemestane.

**Shortyrock13** · 02-20-2004, 09:20 AM

I know that with the prolifiration of l-dex from liquid sites on the net that proviron is kinda getting phased out, but I like provi with nolva personally.

**groverman1** · 02-20-2004, 11:33 AM

FYI, get if my memory serves me well I remember Pheedno saying it has negative effects on your LDL levels. I used it last cycle though and liked it. I got blood work done mid cycle and all was well.

**IGOTJUICE007** · 02-20-2004, 12:31 PM

i used femara alone last cycle and had good results, however, all AI's will have negative lipid effects, however, with femara, it seems to be more pronounced. That being the case, one would want to run a serm with an AI, but this cannot be done with femara as was stated in the begining of the thread. This is why l'dex is the more preferred option, becuase one can coutneract the negative lipid effects by adding a serm. I just began using l'dex yesterday along with nolva, so I will be able to compare my results.

***Pheedno*** · 02-20-2004, 01:11 PM

Both L-dex and Femara have the possiblity to effect HDL. I get no adverse effects from L-dex which is one of the two reasons I use it.
Femara has dropped my HDL into the teens.

The other reason I do not use, nor recommend Femara is I feel a SERM is a necessity to run during ones cycle, and Nolva in conjunction with Femara, reduces Femara blood plasma levelsby 37.6%. No studies have shown this to e the case with anastrozole(L-dex)

***asymmetrical1*** · 02-20-2004, 01:14 PM

good thread

***Pheedno*** · 02-20-2004, 01:41 PM

The study on this:

Impact of tamoxifen on the pharmacokinetics and endocrine effects of the aromatase inhibitor letrozole in postmenopausal women with breast cancer.

Dowsett M, Pfister C, Johnston SR, Miles DW, Houston SJ, Verbeek JA, Gundacker H, Sioufi A, Smith IE.

Department of Biochemistry, Royal Marsden Hospital, London, United Kingdom.

This study examined whether the addition of tamoxifen to the treatment regimen of patients with advanced breast cancer being treated with the aromatase inhibitor letrozole led to any pharmacokinetic or pharmacodynamic interaction. Twelve of 17 patients completed the core period of the trial in which 2.5 mg/day letrozole was administered alone for 6 weeks and in combination with 20 mg/day tamoxifen for the subsequent 6 weeks. Patients responding to treatment continued on the combination until progression of disease or any other reason for discontinuation. Plasma levels of letrozole were measured at the end of the 6-week periods of treatment with letrozole alone and the combination and once more between 4 and 8 months on combination therapy. No further measurements were done thereafter. Hormone levels were measured at 2-week intervals throughout the core period. Marked suppression of estradiol, estrone, and estrone sulfate occurred with letrozole treatment, and this was not significantly affected by the addition of tamoxifen. However, plasma levels of letrozole were reduced by a mean 37.6% during combination therapy (P<0.0001), and this reduction persisted after 4-8 months of combination therapy. Letrozole is the first drug to be described in which this pharmacokinetic interaction occurs with tamoxifen. The mechanism is likely to be a consequence of an induction of letrozole-metabolizing enzymes by tamoxifen but was not further addressed in this study. It is possible that the antitumor efficacy of letrozole may be affected. Thus, sequential therapy may be preferable with these two drugs. It is not known whether tamoxifen interacts with other members of this class of drugs or with other drugs in combination.

**IGOTJUICE007** · 02-20-2004, 03:52 PM

great post pheedno!

**daem** · 02-21-2004, 05:19 PM

i have ran it two different times and i like it. kept the water off of me and also prevented any estrogenic sides.

i wish i had done some blood work prior to the first time i used it to see the actual effect it had on my lipid profile.

i agree with pheed though...i will stick with liquidex from here on out because it is just as effective for me with less complications.