Anciliaries 411

redspy

Anciliaries 411

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So, first things first. Some steroids convert to estrogen. This is through the aromatase enzyme, and is called (duh) aromatization. When this happens you can get side effects associated with having too much estrogen, including bloating, gynocomastia, acne, and so on. Some steroids on the other hand, have progesteronic activity (deca, for example actually fits into the progesterone receptor with 20% the efficiency of actual progesterone!) (Cancer Res 1978 Nov;38(11 Pt 2):4186-98). The symptoms (acne, etc...) are the more or less the same for progesteronic and estrogenic effects. Note that I didn't say that these other steroids convert to progesterone, but rather that they have progesteronic effects. That's because the steroid is able to act on the progesterone receptor without conversion to another substance. Hence, on my old bulking cycle of 600mgs per week of Deca and my 750mgs per week of Test, anti-estrogens would only help with the aromatization of the test and not the progesteronic activity of the Deca I'm was taking. Know what else? Here are a bunch of other compounds that don't aromatize significantly (thats good news) activity and hence don't need any amount of anti-estrogens: Methenolone, Stanozolol, Dromostanolone, Oxandrolone, Mesterolone, Stenbolone, and Trenbolone (though it acts on the Progesterone Receptor with 60% the efficiency of progesterone itself, according to the last study I cited). Taking a big dose of any of these? Anti -estrogens won't help much if at all, per se, but keeping estrogen levels low is still a good idea. Remember, estrogen still has a role to play, even sides, in ways we don't fully understand yet. Not only that but if you take progesteronic gear and use nolvadex, you may be at an increased risk for progesteronic sides, as nolvadex may increase progesterone receptors (Gynecol Oncol. 1999 Mar;72(3):331-6.).

What can you do?
Well, the easy answer is to take bromocriptine (parlodel) at 2.5 to 5mg every day. Bromocriptine is one of those drugs that the life-extention crowd were very big on a few years ago. It is an anti-parkinsons medication which causes higher levels of the neurotransmitter dopamine, with side effects being an increased sex drive, possible curbing of appetite, possible stimulation of CNS, and fat loss. It's also indicated for some forms of male hypogonadism (yeah, so it may increase test levels on its own!). However, what we're interested in here is that it can be used to lower prolactin and progesterone. [Side note: A few tabs of Cabergoline per day will also lower prolactin and improve sexual function. I just couldn't figure out where else this would fit into this article.] Back to Bromo...it sounds almost perfect, right? Well, unfortunately, bromocriptine is also used to treat acromegaly (too much GH produced by the pituitary), and ergo may lower GH levels in your body! Fortunately, the dosage needed to halt overproduction of GH in your body is 10-20mgs/day, so we're safe with our amount necessary to stop from growing breasts from too much deca.and yes, all the cool fat burning, sex drive, and nootropic "side effects" happen at 2.5-5mgs/ day doses. As a side note, taking 25mcg of T3 or maybe 50-100mcgs of T4 may be effective for eliminating some if not all of the chance of getting gyno from tren. And yeah, I have the research to back that statement up, but it involves another page of reading about TRH, TSH, the negative feedback loop involved with low levels of T4 stimulating TRH, blah blah blah. Trust me, you don't care about the reasons why this works, just that it does. If you're doing tren, take some T3 and you'll get increased fat-burning, no gyno, and more maybe even anabolism. So if I were cutting up, tren, T3 (25mcgs), and bromo would all be part of my stack , and I'd expect to get really cut really fast (of course, there's other cool drugs I'd add into that mix.clen, test, etc.but this is about anciliaries, not a cutting cycle).

Another idea to reduce progesterone is to take RU486 (yeah, the pregnancy drug). This drug has anti-progesteronic effects, and in women 600mgs totally plocks progesterone. Don't even think about taking this dose, though.I'd reccomend taking around 50 mgs a day and working your way up. Remember, cortisol is also decreased with RU486, so sore joints may be a problem. Considering this, bromo's cool secondary effects, and price, I'd consider bromocriptine a better choice.

So what steroids do aromatize? Here some offenders: Testosterone, Methandrostenolone, Fluoxymesterone, (only in high enough doses).I'm sure you see a patern and you get the idea..And Deca...yeah it even aromatizes, besides being a progestin, though not much.

Everyone still with me?

Okay, so what are some drugs that inhibit aromatization? Cytadren (aminoglutethemide), at 250-500mgs per day will do the trick, as will Arimidex at .5-1mg per day (more about Arimidex later, and remember, this is all dependant on what doses of aromatizing drugs you're taking). Cytadren also limits the conversion of test to DHT, which may help eliminate any hair loss during a cycle. [Finesteride (Propecia = 1mg tabs, Proscar = 5mg tabs) has similar effects with regards to halting some of DHT's negative effects.]. Cytadren may also slightly inhibits test production, so that kinda turns me off to it. Especially when other drugs actually increase test production and will prevent side effects more effectively. Unfortunately, cytadren has a really short life, and it ideally should be taken 2-3x a day. That plus its cortisol inhibiting effects (and the sore joints you get from that) don't make it really ideal for me. On the bright side, Cytadren may (theoretically) improve blood lipid profiles. Finasteride, can be compared with cytadren, as it also has the added benefit of eliminating some 5-AR (5-Alpha Reductase), which can cause both male pattern baldness as well as acne. Reducing 5-AR will reverse 5-AR inspired hypertrophy of the sebaceous glands and cause a reduction in acne (Skin Pharmacol. 1997;10(5-6):288-97.), as well as help with hair loss caused by the conversion (via 5-AR) of testosterone to DHT (Expert Opin Pharmacother. 2004 Apr;5(4):933-40). I would never take this stuff without another ancillary, as it can also (rare) cause gyno.

What else can we do to avoid side effects? Well, we can block the receptors that the estrogen attaches itself to, thus causing the side effects. Clomid (Clomiphine Citrate) and Nolvadex (Tamoxifen) will do this. As these drugs are selective in their activity, they are estrogenic to certain receptors (blood lipid profiles are favorably enhanced by the estrogenic action of these drugs), and antiestrogenic to others (they are anti-estrogenic in terms of their action on breast tissue, for example.and yes I know that Nolvadex is actually a weak estrogen that blocks out the competing stronger estrogens with regards to attaching to the receptors in breast tissue.I'm trying to keep things relatively simple, though). Generally Nolvadex is cheaper than Clomid, and thus more often used.

Now dig this: According to William LLewellyn, studies conducted in the late 1970's at the University of Ghent in Belgium used Nolvadex for 10 days at a dosage of 20mg daily, which increased serum testosterone levels to 142% of baseline, on par with the effect of 150mg of Clomid daily for the same duration! Depending on what you read into this, I'd say that Nolvadex is a superior buy for post-cycle recovery. That being said, Nolvadex is good, but not quite perfect, as it lowers IGF-1 levels. Post-cycle, though, when I'm worried about returning test-levels to normal, I'm not too worried about IGF-1 levels. Though, personally, I've found testicular atrophy during a cycle is attenuated to a greater degree by Clomid. So besides competing with estrogen at the receptor, these drugs both increase serum test levels, and both drugs may also alter blood lipid profiles. I couldn't find the studies W.L. mentioned, but still found that 20mgs of tamoxifen is equal to 150mgs of clomid for purposes of testosterone elevation, FSH and LH, but tamixifen did not decrease the LH response to LHRH (Fertil Steril. 1978 Mar;29(3):320-7.). Thus, I'd still reccomend Nolv over clomid. Actually, I think nolvadex is far superior to clomid for most purposes.