Many a time, an athlete or a gym rat will hop on an anabolic steroid cycle without fully understanding how to come off it.
Granted, blast and cruise seems to be the new buzzword in fitness. But even then you have to consider that, someday there will be an end to the cruise.
When steroid related complications start to arise, you can no longer continue to pump exogenous hormones into your body.
Post cycle therapy, called PCT for short, a brief course of remedial action where you can reset your bodies and allow it to function normally without depending on hormones.
PCT is typically applied when people do steroid blasts for short periods of time. If you are cruising on testosterone forever, then the information in this article does not apply to you.
But if you are like the rest of the mortals and would like to discontinue steroid usage at some point of time, then this guide will help you understand how PCT works and how to use it to safely come off anabolics when you wish to.
What is PCT?
When you use anabolic steroids for predetermined time periods, like 12-16-weeks and then stop cold turkey, your body goes from a huge influx of hormones to an abrupt stop.
During the exogenous steroid supplementation, your body shuts down its own hormonal production to create a balance.
PCT or Post Cycle Therapy is a recovery phase during which your body’s endogenous hormonal production is restarted.
Without PCT, the endogenous hormonal production may take much longer to restart.
On an average, it takes one year for your body to recover from a basic 500mg/week Test-E, 16-week cycle.
When you add more compounds to it, like 19-nor steroids, this recovery period keeps getting extended further.
PCT speeds it up and allows your body to recover fully within 4-8-weeks.
What are the advantages of doing PCT?
Apart from massively reducing the time that it takes for your body to restart its own hormonal production, there are many other advantages of PCT.
- It prevents a low testosterone environment: The word ‘suppression’ is often loosely thrown around on messaging boards, which has diluted the gravity of the situation somewhat. Testosterone suppression is a terrible condition in which your body’s endogenous
testosterone production is limited or stopped completely. The severity of suppression depends on multiple factors. Your age, the number of compounds and the doses that you used and the total duration that you were on steroids, are some of these factors. If you were to not use PCT and allow the body to recover on its own, you will be exposed to a low testosterone environment for months. During this time frame, you will feel like a deflated tire. You won’t have libido. You won’t have energy. Your mood will be horrible. PCT prevents this by kick starting your hormonal production instantly. - It ensures that your hormonal production restarts in the first place: Without PCT, there is a possibility that your hormonal production may never restart. Imagine living with no testosterone. That’s not only terribly unhealthy, it may even trigger a multitude of other
health complications that you can do without. - You can retain the gains that you make: No matter how much muscle mass you gain during a steroid cycle, without endogenous or exogenous testosterone, you cannot retain it. By restarting testosterone production, PCT allows you to retain most of the gains that you make by preventing cortisol from rising to unsafe levels.
How do you do PCT?
There are two prescription medicines that are primarily used for PCT after a steroid cycle.
- Selective Estrogen Receptor Modulators (SERMS): SERMS are the first choice of PCT drugs and these have a very simple action by which they reset the body’s natural hormonal production. They stimulate the pituitary gland to secrete more Luteinizing Hormone (LH) and Follicle Stimulating Hormone (FSH). These hormones are the precursors to testosterone. There are two SERMS that have attained cult status among steroid users. These are Tamoxifen Citrate (Nolvadex) and Clomiphene Citrate (Clomid). You will most likely need only one of these two drugs, but in case of prolonged and multi-cycle stacks, you might need both to recover completely. (1,2)
- Hormone Human Chorionic Gonadotropin (hCG): HCG is a peptide that is produced in the female body during pregnancy. While it is not a hormone per se, it is exactly identical to LH in chemical structure. This tricks the male body into thinking that it is in fact LH being produced and LH is the precursor for test. So, magically, you have more testosterone when you use HCG. HCG is more commonly used throughout the steroid cycle to prevent testicular atrophy and to keep the testes functional. (4)
The normal PCT plan
In case of a basic Testosterone steroid cycle you will need a 4-5-week PCT cycle.
In ideal circumstances, your body’s testosterone production will be restarted completely by then.
Here’s what a normal PCT schedule looks like.
Nolvadex – 40mg/day for weeks 1-2. And 20mg/day for week3-4. Blood work after week 4 should give you a fair idea of how close or how far your hormonal levels are to baseline. Use 10mg/week for week 5 only if required.
Or
Clomid – 150mg/day for weeks 1-2, 100mg/day for weeks 2-4. Blood work after week 4 should give you a fair idea of how close or how far your hormonal levels are to baseline. Use 50mg/day for week 5 only if required. (3)
You should begin PCT depending on the type of esters and compounds that you ran during the cycle. If you have used any large ester, then PCT should be started 18-days after your last injection. If you are also using HCG during the cycle, you can start PCT after 10-days.
If you have used only small esters, then PCT should be started 3-days after your last injection. If you are also using HCG during the cycle, you can start PCT on the second days post the last injection.
Does PCT have side effects?
Yes, there are some common side effects that are reported with SERMS.
But most side effects are mild and manageable.
Clomid tends to cause more side effects than Nolvadex in some people. In others it’s vice-a-versa.
So there will be some trial and error before you narrow down on the perfect PCT protocol for your body.
Some of the side effects that PCT drugs can cause are insomnia, low libido, mood swings and fatigue.
Ref:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5010627/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6174701/
https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT01340521
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5666719/