Why you should NOT use aromatase inhibitors while on TRT

Hi, I am Dan Reznicek from Pacific Northwest Urology, today we are going to be talking about aromatase inhibitors drugs sometimes referred to as estrogen blockers. We are going to discuss their use in men who are on Testosterone replacement therapy. There is a lot of mis-information online and in other youtube videos online out there claiming the benefits of these drugs. Often the muscle building “bros” talk about “balancing your estrogen”or optimizing the level. But it isn’t just misinformation online. I have also been getting a lot of men coming to my practice that I see from testosterone clinics who are on the drug. Doctors are prescribing them these medications that we are going to find out later, cause men erectile dysfunction and decreased libido. I ask them why they are on the medication. They say they want to normalize or balance their estrogen levels. They want me to check their estrogen levels if the are o testosterone replacement therapy even if they are doing well overall to make sure they aren’t getting too much estrogen. So unlike other videos that just give opinions on these medications, I am going to review the science and clinical trials that actually tested these drugs. I am going to show studies on how we are learning more every year about the physiology of estrogen in men and find that the hormone is essential to many tissues in the body. We are then going to review studies on the use of aromatase inhibitors. These will demonstrate clearly that taking these medications while on testosterone therapy has been shown to cause a host of medical problems from decreased bone mineral density to low libido and erectile dysfunction. That is right, it sounds crazy but the hormone estrogen is essential for male libido and erectile function. Even just a slightly lower level of estrogen can cause a problem.