Debating on Starting 1st Cycle

A little background on myself:
I’m 26. I started lifting a little over 3 1/2 years ago and have been consistent since the day I started. I’m 6’1" and I weighed 165 lbs when i started. I now weigh ~205 lbs. The last body scan i had done said i was at around 13% body fat.

My 1RM’s are:
Bench: 255
Squat: 275
Dead: 415
Overhead: 175

I’ve been debating starting my 1st cycle but am unsure what would be best to do. From what all i’ve read it seems like just going test only the first time is the way to go. Is this true? If so, what’s the reasoning behind it?

Also, as far as labs are concerned, how do you ask for one and does health insurance cover it? If not, how much do the male hormone panels usually cost? Is it sketchy to go back to the same place pre, intra, and post cycle?

Also, any comments on how to handle the post-cycle mental/psychology side of things? Is it still possible to make gains natty afterwards? Or do most people feel they need PEDs in order to gain afterwards? I want to avoid the latter.

Any other words of advice would be greatly appreciated.

Edit: My BP also runs a little high. Usually around 130ish/80 or so

You want to do test only your first cycle because test is going to be the base behind every other drug and you need to know the responses your body will give you on test only so you can determine what side effects you are getting from what drug if and once you start mixing compounds. Get some Test enanthate and do it every three days or twice a week, I do every three weeks because it keeps my blood levels stable. Only do 500mg per week. Very simple. Do this for 12 weeks with a 3500 calorie diet clean. Go to your doctor for labs and just ask all those questions. If your blood pressure is high you will want to monitor it throughout. Otherwise I would say talk to your doctor first before you do this.

Tell your doctor you’re exhausted and your dad and uncle have low T and you’d like to have a full lab done. Can say high cholesterol runs in the family too.

If your doctor is cool, he may be fine doing all blood work. My doctor now sucks and refuses. So I use discounted labs and pay out of pocket.

The other reason aside from side effects did just test is this … use as minimal as possible so you can bump things up for future cycles. If tf you run a bunch of stuff first time, are you gonna run even more each cycle following ? Keep it safe as possible and bump up each cycle slowly.

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Don’t use them. Too young. Lifts are still weak. Haven’t trained long enough.

What’s the chances of expedited hair loss when using Test E?

Thanks for your opinion.

Hair loss? Depends on genetics.

It was all going well until you told him how many calories to eat.

OP will know his own macros. He has some decent lifts and good stats. Therefore, OP, ignore this nutrition advice.

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Thanks for that. I’m still new to all this but I do know some of what I’m talking about. I guess for the individual dietary needs will be different for each person.

Can anyone point me in the right direction to find info on more “unspoken” stuff like: how to pin, where to order, etc. Or if anyone could PM me I’d really appreciate it. I feel like unless you have in-person relationships with people who have experience in this kind of stuff, it’s kind of hard to get started at first.

Go to Meso. Look at the Underground forum. Read what others are saying and ask questions. It’s wide open

How do you decipher between reliable and unreliable sources? Like you said it’s pretty wide open.

You read the source threads. You see how they respond the questions asked. You see what the test results are. And you use your best judgment.

Appreciate it