How many of you use an AI with your therapy

How many of you use an AI with your therapy?

If you do at what dose?

I typically use a little more than the average TRT patient.

Prior to my current cycle i use .5mg EOD Adex for 200mg/wk. However, on cycle (Tren, Test, Tbol) i use upwards of 2-3mg/day in the beginning when E levels skyrocket. Then reduce to .5-1mg ED when levels taper off.

TRT for three years and no AI or any type of anti-estrogen of any kind. This is on a total test dose that has ranged from 150/wk to 200/wk. In either case, my estrogen levels do not move much and any AI would only drop them lower than they should be.

There's no doubt about it, AI's can be very useful on a TRT plan but many people as well as doctors miss a few things. Physicians - some physicians don't understand the need and the guy's estrogen levels become too high creating another problem other than simply suffering from low testosterone. Patients - many men spend a lot of time trying to self-educate themselves on the topic of TRT, which is a good thing. However, there are so many articles and well meaning threads on numerous message boards that many tend to assume an AI is a must. What many forget is that everyone is different, aromatase activity does not occur at the same rate in every man. Things like body fat can greatly affect this, but it's hardly the only factor. It's often assumed by many that if you're body fat levels aren't low you will absolutely need an AI, but once again this isn't true. Everyone responds a little differently.

Here's a good real world example: Another guy here in the office and myself are both on TRT. His dose of testosterone is a little less than mine and I'd say his body fat is also a little lower. Our testosterone levels are about the same but he requires an AI and I don't.

So I started using a-dex early on when I started TRT at another clinic about 9 months ago. My E levels started climbing, I could tell something was up b/c I didn't notice any positive difference in how I was feeling and I was starting to retain water...rings were fitting tighter. So the PA put me on a-dex, one pill a week, same day as my injection. Couple of weeks went by and subsequent BW showed I had knocked my E levels down below the bottom of the range for men it was read around 5 pg/ml (range for males 14-55 pg/ml). PA suggested I cut that down to half a pill per week (can't remember what that dosage was, and I didn't really pay as close attention as I should have).

Just to bring up the point men are supposed to have a certain level of estradiol for healthy functioning...so knocking it super low isn't a good thing either, keeping it in the proper range is. My observation was that it can be tricky to figure out what the right dosage for an individual is, especially if you are only getting BW down every month or longer.