Progesterone vs Arimidex to deal with E2
Hi all,
Does anyone have any info on the relative benefits of progesterone vs arimidex to treat high estradiol secondary to trt?
I am in the process of fine tuning my trt program. I started off 4 months ago with low T, low Free T, low estradiol and lowish LH, so I think that means I was hypogonadotropic? (maybe I could have gotten away with just hCG at that stage?) I started on test E 250mg IMI 1x fortnightly with good effect for the first 6-8 weeks or so despite some nipple sensitivity. After this I dropped back to 125mg test E IMI 1 x weekly, my balls shrank, and returned to almost like I was prior to trt (flat, lethargic, irritable etc). My initial bw results were (sorry, SI units):
IGF-1 19 nmol/L (11-31)
TSH 1.3 mU/L (0.3-4.0)
Total PSA 0.71 ug/L (0.25-3.0)
Cortisol 333 nmol/L (160-650)
Oestradiol LOW 44 pmol/L (55-165)
DHEAS 4.6 umol/L (1.2 9.0)
Testosterone LOW 9.3nmol/L (11.0-40.0)
SHGB 25 (11.0-70.0)
Calc free Test. LOW 206pmol/L (260-740)
LH 2 U/L ( <9 )
I don't have my latest exact bw numbers to post yet, but Estradiol (>165), Total T (>40) and free T (740) are all now HIGH (again in SI units). My doc has put me on 50mg pregnenolone + 25mg DHEA and asked me to dial back the test E injections to 100 mg weekly and is considering hCG as well in the near future.
He's also putting me on 100mg daily of progesterone to deal with the high estradiol. His opinion on dealing with high E2 is:
(a) if I took zinc, the amount needed to be effective as an AI would be too high for long term use and would stuff up other mineral levels,
(b) chrysin is too unpredictable and not really effective.
(c) he uses Arimidex more as a last resort, so we went with:
(d) the progesterone caps.
He says that it's not really an AI but tends to favour conversion of T to estrone (I think) rather than estradiol and it's also quite good for a sound night's sleep. I was a bit freaked out when I read that it was also used by M2F transgender people to grow tits, tho WTF!!!
So I'm interested in any thoughts or experiences that you may have on the pros and cons of Adex vs progesterone?
thanks