Probably because of a relationship of estrogen:SHBG?
I believe shbg plays a role we don't fully understand. Seems most guys like myself that absolutely struggle to get dialed in, have low shbg, last tested, mine was a 21 or 22, low on lab was 18. The protocols I used to run when I started 7 years ago don't work for me anymore. I used to kind of maintain, I crossed through my sweet spot, never found a way to stay there, pretty amazing feeling when you find it.
My main issue could possibly just be water retention wearing me down. Little brainstorming here. Low shbg, high free test. High free test, more conversion to estrogen. Take ai to reduce estrogen, further reduce shbg, increase free test more. Now to lower free test, body converts more test to dht. As I've recently learned, high dht can or does cause sodium retention, sodium retention = water retention and bloat. Mistake water retention and bloat as estrogen still being elevated, crash estrogen. Now with crashed estrogen, really dry and dehydrated, while still retaining water. Solution? Diuretic, in this case, hctz, reduces sodium retention, reduces water retention but further increases dehydration. Dht blocker? But don't those come with their own set of issues?
I do have a receding hairline because of steroids, mpb doesn't even run in my family. I have stopped an ai on 125mg, 250mg, 500mg test/week and within 5 weeks, have watched my hair start to grow back, become softer, less coarse, etc. Now, on 250mg and 500mg with no ai, super bloated and more water retention, more tired. I'll hold 10lbs additional water on 500mg with no ai than I do on 250mg. On 125mg test and no ai, I hold about 25lbs less water than 500mg amd 15lbs less than 250mg. The kicker, on all three of those doses with no ai, little to no sex drive. At first introduction to an ai, sex drive spikes, strength spikes, water starts to drop and before I ever find a sweet spot, my estrogen seems to go to low or my dht goes to high and gives me winstrol like sides.
Every time I think I'm getting close, it falls apart, and seems like if I try the same thing twice, I end up with a little different results.
I agree with the member that says we should debate the hell out of these kinds of threads. We don't have studies that apply to us, we are the study.