Hello everyone. Please, I need your help.
I'm 32 years old. Before the cycle, my weight was 73 kg. After the cycle, it was 86 kg, now it's 79.5 kg. The cycle lasted 16 weeks. I took 500 testosterone every week. At the end, I added 4 weeks of Anavar, but I'm not sure if it's real. Then I did my first PCT, which apparently involved counterfeit pills (I bought them from the same place I bought Anavar).
Now I'm already on day 20 of second PCT. I did not use hCG at all. I took Clomid 100 for 14 days, now Clomid 50. And the whole time PCT I've been taking tamoxifen 20. My testosterone levels are good, even above normal. 11.1 ng/mL (≈1110 ng/dL). Prolactin 10.9 ng/mL. Estrogen 55.1 pg/mL. But I have problems with libido, arousal, and erections. I'm very concerned about this.
Three photos, these are my tests before the second PCT.
Hope you understand what you got yourself into here.
As you would know cycling would be for someone abusing T/AAS for the sole purpose of gaining muscle/strength beyond or better yet well beyond one's natty genetic potential!
You know that chemically enhanced look that one could never achieve let alone maintain natty.
It's a dead end road in the long-run when it comes to possibly jeopardizing your long-term health and easily end up being a lifelong commitment if you plan on sporting/maintaining that fake build!
Body for rent!
All the weight you packed on was not quality gains as you will hold a lot of water bloat (extracellular) and you are also going to store more intracellular water due to increased glycogen storage in the muscle which would make up a component of the lean mass you gain when abusing T/AAS.
When you come off you are always going to piss out the water bloat and you are also going to lose some lean mass due to decreased intracellular water/glycogen storage.
You are always going to lose. size and strength even with a PCT.
Cold turkey you can kiss a big portion of those gains goodbye.
The incredible shrinking so called man at its finest.
This is a given!
The goal would be to retain or maintain the new myofibrils within muscle fibre which would be the contractile proteins (actin and myosin).
This would be achieved through the use of a PCT to speed up the recovery process (hpta, LH/FSH, ITT) and minimize/soften the crash one can experience as your T levels would plummet when stopping cold turkey throwing you into a whirlwind as you will be in a hypogonadal state which is a painful experience for one to endure especially when it can take months for the system to recover.
Your natty endogenous T levels are temporarily elevated due to the serm (clomid) and even then although you are hitting a very robust TT 1000+ ng/dL it means jack shit without knowing where your FT truly sits.
Although TT is important to know FT is what truly matters as it is the active unbound fraction of T responsible for the benefits.
Chances are with such a high TT your SHBG is elevated due to the clomid so your FT may very well be sub-par that is why you most likely still feel shitty and yes clomid in and of itself can make guys feel like garbage too.
You would need to test your FT to see where it truly sits let alone know if it is in a healthy range before stopping the clomid.
In order to know where your FT truly sits you need to use what would be considered the most accurate assay the gold standard Equilibrium Dialysis especially in cases of altered SHBG.
The most cost effective option would be using Nelson's
discounted labs which offers a panel that uses the most accurate assays for TT (LC-MS/MS) and FT (ED).
$49.00
If you do not have access to such which would be highly doubtful if you live in the US then you would need to use/rely upon the calculated the linear law-of-mass action Vermeulen (cFTV) which will give a good approximation.
You would need to plug in your TT, SHBG and Albumin to calculate your FT.
The calculator is available to the general public online for free.
Even then once you get off clomid you are still going to experience a bumpy ride as your T levels will eventually go back to baseline once your hpta has bounced back which can take 3-4 months and top it off that your fertility markers can take much longer to bounce back.
You should have never jumped on T/AAS if you had no clue how to implement PCT.
16 weeks is overkill for TC/TE and even then you should have never jumped on T/AAS if you had no clue how to implement a PCT or what would be expected during the recovery process.
For the majority of men you will just return back to baseline levels.
Some may be worse off but it is far from common.
Men who have abused testosterone/AAS for years can end up with a lower level TT/SHBG.
Some will never regain their fertility!
Would not fret over a one 16 week cycle especially if you are still young.
Even without the use of PCT as in cold turkey the crash would be harsh but you would still recover back to baseline 3-4 months.
Where that will be who knows as we have no clue where your TT and more importantly FT level sat at baseline before you took the plunge.
You need to understand how this works.
Even when implementing PCT the crash is inevitable and to what degree /length depends on many factors.
Recovery of the HPG axis will come down to dosage of T/AAS used, duration of use, type of AAS used whether T only or (T+AAS or T + multiple AAS), age of the individual.
Older men would tend to have a more difficult time recovering than younger men.
Higher doses and longer duration of use will have a greater negative impact on the recovery of the HPG axis.
Use of ND or Tren will have a greater negative effect on the recovery of the HPG axis.
Use of PCT (post cycle therapy) will in no way prevent the crash following HPG axis recovery it will just soften the blow and speed up the recovery process/minimize the length of being in a hypogonadal state.
The main goal of PCT is to not only increase LH production which will stimulate the Leydig cells in the testes to produce endogenous testosterone (ITT) but most importantly making sure the testes are responsive to the LH stimulation as in many cases when on trt or steroids if no hCG was used during this time than the Leydig cells become dormant and the seminiferous tubules shrink which results in testicular atrophy due to shutdown of the HPG axis and LH/FSH production. This results in the Leydig cells no longer producing endogenous testosterone and the Sertoli/germ cells no longer producing sperm.
Use of hCG when on trt or AAS should aid in the recovery process when coming off as it mimics LH and will keep the Leydig cells active (producing some degree of ITT).
Even without the use of a PCT, the natural production of LH will kick in fairly quickly but natural endogenous production of testosterone let alone spermatogenesis can take much longer as the critical aspect of the recovery process is the responsiveness of the Leydig cells in the testes to the LH.
No one can say exactly how long it will take you to recover let alone how you will feel during the transition.
PCT will make the transition much quicker/smoother but again everyone is different as there are numerous factors involved.
The only way to know where your baseline truly sits is to come off everything and give it time (3-4 months) then get a thorough panel which will include LH/FSH, TT, FT, SHBG, and estradiol.
Would need to have an SA done to see where your fertility markers sit.
