Muscle insider - Ask the Doc

[macmathews]

I enjoy following this guy on youtube and feel he has alot of good information.
But something that surprised me was how he's "aggressive with AI's "
I believe he recommends for a TRT dose to start at 1mg anastrozole EOD..

Watch the second question starting
at 15:50 and the AI part is at 19:40..

Youtube Video..

Can the side effects of a heavy steroid cycle be reversed?

See link below..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ObZZPDNoVjM


There seems to be so much opinion in this field..

[Mr.BB]

He starts his clients with 1mg anastrozole EOD, probably selling the pills, then after a month of client feeling like shit and more costly bloodwork charged he reduces the dosage.

Its a business...

[Youthful55guy]

There seems to be so much opinion in this field..

The root of most of the variability in AI recommendations is variability of the goals of testosterone supplementation. If one is supplementing T for legitimate medical purposes with the goal of achieving stable free T levels that are within normal physiological ranges, there is little need for AI use. Some guys might benefit from very small amounts, but in general, the body converts T to E following mass-action kinetics. The more you feed the aromatase enzymes, the greater the conversion to E. Therefore, if you use frequent, small doses to always stay within normal physiological ranges for T, you should also stay within normal physiological ranges for E.


The controversy starts with guys who call non-medical uses of testosterone TRT. Many are using "Blast and Cruise" methodology and many are additionally stacking it with other anabolic steroids. This IS NOT TRT, and requires protocols for dealing with the side-effects that come with it.

So, my suggestion to the community is to call it what it is so to end the confusion.

[Fred40]

The root of most of the variability in AI recommendations is variability of the goals of testosterone supplementation. If one is supplementing T for legitimate medical purposes with the goal of achieving stable free T levels that are within normal physiological ranges, there is little need for AI use. Some guys might benefit from very small amounts, but in general, the body converts T to E following mass-action kinetics. The more you feed the aromatase enzymes, the greater the conversion to E. Therefore, if you use frequent, small doses to always stay within normal physiological ranges for T, you should also stay within normal physiological ranges for E.

Well another problem is "most" people on TRT are not injecting multiple times per week like you recommend. The original protocol was starting guys out on 200mg once every two weeks!! And I would hazard that most guys on TRT are injecting 1x/week these days. 1x/week can still throw your levels high enough to cause a spike and throw your E out of range. I know I get elevated E on just 100mg 1x/week. I have just recently switched to a smaller dose E3D and have a blood test coming up next month. I stopped taking my AI on my new E3D (every third day) injection routine so I'll see what's happening.

[Youthful55guy]

Well another problem is "most" people on TRT are not injecting multiple times per week like you recommend. The original protocol was starting guys out on 200mg once every two weeks!! And I would hazard that most guys on TRT are injecting 1x/week these days. 1x/week can still throw your levels high enough to cause a spike and throw your E out of range. I know I get elevated E on just 100mg 1x/week. I have just recently switched to a smaller dose E3D and have a blood test coming up next month. I stopped taking my AI on my new E3D (every third day) injection routine so I'll see what's happening.

Very true, we need to separate medically necessary TRT from non-medically necessary anabolic steroid use.

Then, we need to also separate old school TRT from newer and more optimized protocols. Yes, there are still pre-historic dinosaur docs out there prescribing 200 mg every 2 weeks. There are also stone age docs out there still prescribing 100 mg per week. Both of these protocols will spike T at about Day 2-3 post-injection and send it out of normal physiological range. This in turn will drive a faster rate of E conversion which follows the release and metabolism of T over the prescribed 2 or 1 week protocol.

My experience is that by dividing that dose up into E3D injections of 40-50 mg (93-117 mg/week equivalent), E conversion will not be a problem. I am attempting to optimize E using the "Vodka/Eye Dropper" method (https://forums.steroid.com/hormone-r...astrozole.html). I started out at about 0.057 mg anastrozole per day (0.4 mg per week equivalent) and this was pretty close to ideal. I bumped it up to 0.071 mg/day (0.5 mg/week equivalent) and this was too much. I'm now trying 0.043 mg/day (0.3 mg/week equivalent) to see where that gets me. I'll run new labs in about more 6 weeks.

Bottom line is that if you optimize the injection schedule with frequent small amounts of T, very little (if any) estrogen control is necessary.

[ScotchGuard02]

Very true, we need to separate medically necessary TRT from non-medically necessary anabolic steroid use.

Then, we need to also separate old school TRT from newer and more optimized protocols. Yes, there are still pre-historic dinosaur docs out there prescribing 200 mg every 2 weeks. There are also stone age docs out there still prescribing 100 mg per week. Both of these protocols will spike T at about Day 2-3 post-injection and send it out of normal physiological range. This in turn will drive a faster rate of E conversion which follows the release and metabolism of T over the prescribed 2 or 1 week protocol.

My experience is that by dividing that dose up into E3D injections of 40-50 mg (93-117 mg/week equivalent), E conversion will not be a problem. I am attempting to optimize E using the "Vodka/Eye Dropper" method (https://forums.steroid.com/hormone-r...astrozole.html). I started out at about 0.057 mg anastrozole per day (0.4 mg per week equivalent) and this was pretty close to ideal. I bumped it up to 0.071 mg/day (0.5 mg/week equivalent) and this was too much. I'm now trying 0.043 mg/day (0.3 mg/week equivalent) to see where that gets me. I'll run new labs in about more 6 weeks.

Bottom line is that if you optimize the injection schedule with frequent small amounts of T, very little (if any) estrogen control is necessary.

The half life of Test Cyp is 8 days and the initial 100% up take is about 2 to 3 days. If you time the shots every 3.5 days your blood concentration is pretty consistent. However, most guys don't want to or can't inject twice or three times a week. The simple method is to pin once a week with an ester like Cyp and inject a dose low enough to avoid AI's but high enough to register in the upper 1/3 of the "normal" Test chart. This is where some TRT tuning needs to take place with quarterly bloods to see where you're at until your TRT dose is nailed down. You use this dose as the base and run your cycles on top of your base dose.

[macmathews]

The half life of Test Cyp is 8 days and the initial 100% up take is about 2 to 3 days. If you time the shots every 3.5 days your blood concentration is pretty consistent. However, most guys don't want to or can't inject twice or three times a week. The simple method is to pin once a week with an ester like Cyp and inject a dose low enough to avoid AI's but high enough to register in the upper 1/3 of the "normal" Test chart. This is where some TRT tuning needs to take place with quarterly bloods to see where you're at until your TRT dose is nailed down. You use this dose as the base and run your cycles on top of your base dose.

Make's sense to me.. I just wonder how many men need an AI partly because bodyfat is higher than ideal ?

[kelkel]

Then, we need to also separate old school TRT from newer and more optimized protocols.

We can separate it. It's the majority of doc's who can't, unfortunately.

[EDCG19]

He starts his clients with 1mg anastrozole EOD, probably selling the pills, then after a month of client feeling like shit and more costly bloodwork charged he reduces the dosage.

Its a business...

That's what happened to me, its truly a good business to be in. Hell I'd love nothing more than open up a TRT clinic

[Quester]

I really like Randy Mclain's information but I think, in this singular instance, AI dosing, reflects the TRT/Endo medical community. He liberally distributes his understanding of TRT related issues to the public in a pro bono type fashion and does so without ever plugging his office/practice or his ego.