In the long complicated process of involved research studies to identify the most appropriate medications for certain types of conditions, some drug medications ultimately prove themselves to be excellent cures of specific conditions. For instance, through trial and error, drug medication anastrozole has been deemed appropriate for the treatment of breast cancer in postmenopausal women and attainment of muscle mass and athletic performance in men albeit not legally.

Some specific features of anastrozole (Arimidex) to know

  • When Arimidex is used for the treatment or prevention of hormone receptor-positive breast cancer in women known to be postmenopausal, the drug is normally taken once per day.
  • Arimidex ma also be used by bodybuilders to decrease or stop the production of estrogen generated by bodybuilders who take anabolic steroids to boost their achievement.
  • Arimidex can also assist in preventing side effects such as gynecomastia (enlargement of breast glands in men which occurs as the result of the aromatization of anabolic steroids.

What is aromatization?

Aromatization can be defined as a natural process which acts to maintain a balance between the levels of testosterone and estrogen in the body.

While it can be said that testosterone is regarded as a male hormone and estrogen as a female hormone, this is not strictly correct because both hormones are found in male and female bodies.

There’s little doubt though that testosterone is the most profound hormone that exists for the proper development and function, another special type of estrogen called estradiol is also crucial for the sexuality that is found in men.

If estradiol is found not to be in balance with testosterone, strange things can start happening to your sex drive, urge or libido, the ability to attain and keep an erection and of course sperm production.

The higher the level of estrogen in males the higher the risk of getting other side effects, such as cancer and diabetes.

It’s medically known that in males nature dictates that testosterone levels decline with age while estrogen levels increase. One of the main causes for high changes in the production of testosterone is when anabolic steroids is injected into the bloodstream.

What this does is it creates an imbalance of hormones in the body, which in turn triggers the process of aromatization which attempts to balance the new testosterone level with a higher amount of estrogen.

  • When the purpose for using Arimidex is for countering side effects, it needs to be added during the second week of the cycle and taken for the whole stretch of the cycle at a twice weekly dose of 0.5mg.
  • Arimidex has been approved by the FDA only as a drug medication for the treatment of breast cancer. Taking the drug medication for bodybuilding isn’t recommended for the reason that many of the side effects of anabolic steroids naturally dissipate when treatment stops.
  • Arimidex (anastrozole) is used mainly as a drug medication for treating hormone receptor-positive breast cancer in menopausal women and should be taken from the second week of a complete cycle of 5 years duration. However, some women opt to take the medication for a shorter period in combination with other medications.
  • As has been pointed out earlier, Arimidex can be used by bodybuilders albeit illegally so they can reduce the high levels of estrogen that occur due to the aromatization of anabolic steroids.

The normal estrogen levels in men

Essentially, two main types of estrogen are present in adult males and these are estradiol and estrone. Both are mostly invisible in males before and after puberty despite the fact that their levels can be as high as 60 picofgam/mL for estrone or 40 picogram/mL for estdradiol as below:

  • Esrone: 10-60 picogram/mL
  • Estradiol: 10-40 picogram/mL
  • Desired estradiol levels in bodybuilders falls between 20-30 picogram/ml.

The symptoms of high estrogen levels in men

Some of the symptoms that show men have high levels of estrogen can include the following:

  • Erectile dysfunction
  • Difficulty focusing on something
  • Decrease in muscle mass.
  • Fatigue or tiredness
  • Slowdown in growth and short stature
  • References
  • Infertility
  • Hot flashes
  • Fluid retention
  • Gynecomastia
  • Hair loss
  • Reduced sex drive
  • Osteoporosis (reduction in bone density)

More general medical information about Arimidex

When your stop taking Arimidex

Even after you stop taking this drug medication, its protective strength continues to remain active if you have continued to take it for about 5 year.

The latest findings on the effectiveness of Arimidex for the treatment of breast cancer show that the drug medication has greatly reduced the incidence of breast cancer for a minimum of 5.9 years. Needless to say, the trial is a non-stop treatment.

It has been found that some of the Arimidex side effects such as fatigue, reduced libido, dried out eyes, chest discomfort, pain, hot flashes and nausea should resolve themselves during several weeks after you stop taking Arimidex.

Nevertheless, side effects such as vaginal dryness, osteoporosis, lymphedema and high cholesterol may persist even though you discontinued taking Arimidex.

Discomforting bad sleeping habits caused by Arimidex may also take several weeks to normalize

  • You should talk to your doctor if the side effects from Arimidex continue after you stopped taking the drug medication.

A lot of women are concerned that to stop taking Arimidex after five years may cause their cancer to re-emerge. On this, the International Breast Cancer Intervention Breast Cancer Intervention Study II (IBIS-II) Prevention reported that:

  • the incidence of breast cancer among postmenopausal women has greatly been reduced has greatly been reduced to 5.9 years following cessation of taking Arimidex.
  • a total of 3,846 postmenopausal women were enrolled in the IBIS-II Prevention trial from 2003 to 2012.
  • Among those enrolled, 1,920 were given anastrozole for five years and the rest were randomly given no drug medication.
  • After five years, the results showed 74.6 percent of those treated with Arimidex and 77.0 percent for those not given Arimidex passed the test which showed no significant difference.
  • It should be noted that once the team decides that you stop taking the drug, you can stop taking it without gradually decreasing the dose.

On how long Arimidex lasts in your body

Generally speaking, given that the half-life of Arimidex is 30 to 60 hours, it would take about 150 to 300 hours for Arimidex to be totally eliminated from the body. This would represent about six to twelve days when Arimidex is no longer present in your body.

How Arimidex works

Estrogens are directly responsible for stimulating the growth of cancers. The work of Arimidex is that of lowering estrogen levels lowers estrogen levels by preventing the synthesis of estrogen from adrenal androgens (mainly testosterone and androstenedione).

It prevents the enzyme aromatase from converting androgens into estrogen which stops the further growth of tumors which need estrogen for their growth. Arimidex is also very selective by only affecting concentrations of blood estradiol and having no effect on the formation of adrenal corticosteroids or aldosterone.

Conclusion

There’s not a great deal of difference between drug medications in so far as their nature and their use as well as how they work and the side effects that they cause. This is one of the reasons why it’s necessary to identify the two or three main functions which a drug medication has for successfully dealing with a condition. Arimidex (anastrozole) has two main functions for treating breast cancer and for achieving muscle mass and improving athletic performance.