+ 1 Some Cautious Thoughts On LETROZOLE...
Just wanted to provide some thoughts and observations on Letrozole from a personal perspective for those curious or already familiar with this powerful anti-estrogen / aromatase inhibitor.
First off, I am currently on a staggered dose schedule to combat a recent gyno flair up on my right pectoral area. Even though I have now scaled back on my cycle, and am only running a low dose of Test Enth @ 325 mgs / week - it still blew up on me unexpectedly. I have had past gyno in that same area that I previously treated with a letrozole protocol.
My schedule looks as follows:
Day 1: .50mg Letro
Day 2: 1.0mg Letro
Day 3: 1.5mg Letro
Day 4: 2.0mg Letro
Day 5: 2.5mg Letro **
**After day 5, I start tapering down by the same method back to .50 per day until all symptoms completely subside.
Now for the ramifications and side-effects:
Well because I literally detonated a neutron bomb on my estrogen, I feel slightly disorientated with an "off" sense of equilibrium. Quite often I feel flushed and jittery. Lethargic as well. No interest in sex whatsoever - libido is crushed. My joints ache and hurt from the absence of any estrogen cushioning. Training at the gym is difficult and at times grueling. I don't feel as mentally agile either.
This leads me to another point that I feel is important. For those guys out their that are using letro for gyno / pct purposes and have pregnant wives or girlfriends PLEASE research how the transmission of this stuff is so potent that it literally is in your seminal fluid! Not sure on what kind of repeated dosage or duration of exposure would cause birth defects, but the manufacturer of Femara (Letrozole) plainly states that clinical studies upon pregnant rats proved birth defects as rampant. There is an outright WARNING to use condoms if engaged in any kind of sexual intercourse, alongside minimizing ANY exposure to bodily fluids. I mean, imagine what havoc this shit could potentially wreak upon a pregnant woman's body - not to mention an unborn fetus! My wife and I are currently in baby mode, and as much as it sucks, I stopped any and all sexual contact while running letro - just not worth the risk.
Secondly, this stuff chisels away at ANY kind of secondary growth. For instance, I was just amazed to wake up and look in the mirror this morning and realize that a small sty in the corner of my eye that had been there for about a year has completely disappeared! Like, GONE overnight! I was planning to go to the doctor and have it removed, but the usage of letro saved me a trip.
Lastly, I have found the toleration of Letro's effects to be a sliding scale of awful. I'm currently on .50 mg's daily, but am about to decrease this to .25 mgs every other day so I can at least get some relief from insomnia and SLEEP. I'm sure my cholesterol is all fucked up as well from this stuff... again, long term use can't be conducive to sound health. Get on it when absolutely necessary, then get off it as soon as you can!
In sum, treat Letrozole with caution and as a last resort to gyno or aggressive pct.
Hope this helps shed some light on the subject for anyone interested...
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Tapering up and down like you do is textbook. The sides I get: sores/knots(that go away) libido goes down a little. Only start my letro when my nips get sensitive and it's usually if I pass 500mgs a week of test. It also happens when I I drop my test to like 300 mgs a week. Never had trouble sleeping. We're all different bro
While we are not the majority, realize that there are guys like myself that genetically produce an abundance of the aromatase enzyme such that Letro becomes our base AI. Nothing else controls my E2 on a high test cycle or a high use of any aromatizing compound for that matter like Letrozole. We have already had our family so I'm not troubled by the birth defects issue but I feel dumb as a rock if that stuff could cause harm to my wife and of course to myself as well. I've always bought UGL letro from the same lab and it has always worked but obviously it didn't come with the package insert with all the info and warnings. Thanks bro.
Ya, this part got me on hyper alert:
What should I avoid while taking letrozole?
This medicine can pass into body fluids (including urine, feces, vomit, semen, vaginal fluid). For at least 48 hours after you receive a dose, avoid allowing your body fluids to come into contact with your hands or other surfaces. Patients and caregivers should wear rubber gloves while cleaning up body fluids, handling contaminated trash or laundry or changing diapers. Wash hands before and after removing gloves. Wash soiled clothing and linens separately from other laundry.
Body fluids should not be handled by a woman who is pregnant or who may become pregnant. Use condoms during sexual activity to avoid exposure to body fluids.
This medication may impair your thinking or reactions. Be careful if you drive or do anything that requires you to be alert.
http://www.drugs.com/mtm/letrozole.html
Skip the ramp up next time. Aggression is key. 2.5 right from day 1. Think about it, what's the benefit of ramping up? You're gonna end up at 2.5 anyway eventually and its still gonna suck dog nuts. So cut the process by 4 days. And the staggering process is silly too, just attack the shit out of it and get it done fast.
Plus I don't see any mention of a serm here? Where's the Nolva? You'll rebound hard once you cut letro and then POP, titties all over again.
Letro @ 2.5mg 10 days or until gyno dissipates.
Nolva @ 40mg 15 days then 20mg 15 days.
The extension of Nolva past letro is the most vital part of this protocol.
i believe the ramp up is to insure tolerance is ok?
i ran his protocol with blood work in start, even ran it 1 week after and at end. i had a flare up on a cycle where i was running 750mg of test. my body is highly sensitive to estro. naturally my base readings are low estro wise and my test is also low (on hrt now)
so i find if i run 500mg test i can do 2mg adex per week. 750mg i run 3.5mg per week and if i get any sensitivity in nips i run 1mg ED for 5 days then back and im fine. there are cycles where i have gotten blood work every 2 weeks. i felt it important to really see where my estro was and needed to understand it so i dont run into issues.
but back to letro. when it had gotten bad and i didnt fully realize how sensitive my body is i would stop adex, ramp up in letro run the full 2.5mg for a week and taper down. when i was almost done tapering i start adex again. works well.
i also carry nolva and i would use that at first signs of trouble.
its hard to give advice on AIs, estro, etc cause we are all so different sometimes just blindly following advice can hurt us.
endrant. ;)
True everyone us different, but gyno is gyno. In my opinion, when you're growing tits... tolerance is the least of your worries. In fact one should hope that they aren't very tolerant to letro during this time, if you have a high tolerance to it, it'll be harder to kill the gyno. Feel me? That's why I say no taper, just full blast carpet bomb that shit and kill it.