Been quite a while since I frequented these forums. I was off put by the redesign but I am back now under a new alias. I thought it might be interesting to share my lab work with you all. I remember coming around this forum and seeing time and time again posters repeating their rhetoric as if it where the word of god.
So I just wanted to share my lab work, the labwork of someone who ran more or less a four month 750 mg a week cycle of test with orals and then cruised on 300 mg a week for over a year. I decided I was done pinning myself came off ran a half ass barely four week pct of Nolva. And started training wrestling/bjj and muay thai cause I needed to focus on something I knew wouldn’t suddenly decline after getting off. Anyways after three months of lay off from the weight room I got back into the gym having lost 30 lbs. Two months of lifting I have regained 25 lbs and at least 80 % of my on cycle strength . Definitely not as hard or full looking but not too far off from where I was.
So my labs were
Free test 15.2 pg/ml , Range : 9.3-26.5
Test serum 511 ng/dl , Range: 348-1197
LH 6.6 mIU/mL, Range: 1.7-8.6
FSH 5.1 mIU/mL Range: 1.5-12.4
Estradiol <5.0 pg/mL Range: 7.6-42.6
So I guess my point is you can recover your HPTA after using gear. And no your body wont go to shit. I know I am but one person and everyone responds differently but it is crazy how many times I’ve heard or been told that using gear is a life sentence if you ever want to be normal and that I should expect to be on for life because I will never be the same.
One interesting thing is my E2 levels appear to be tanked and for the life of me cannot figure out why. So I would love to hear some opinions or ideas if anyone got any.
You are quite fortunate to have not created more damage. We do not know your pre cycle levels.
Your testes seem a bit resistant.
When were labs done relative end of your PCT?
FT–>E2 is what happens. But FT labs are tricky as FT is released in pulses with a short half-life and lab timing effects rule. TT is decent. With low E2, SHBG should be lower and FT fraction good.
I had the lab done at 9 am after I woke up. I ran my PCT at least four-five months ago. I never tested my self pre cycle so you are right in that regard.
I was hoping Test serum would have been in the 700’s but I did cruise at what one could argue was a low dose cycle. I am happy to see that for all intents and purposes I appear to have recovered. I was expecting to Test to, FSH, and LH to all still be low based on the information I and general opinion I had received here a while ago.
Supplement wise I take creatine semi-regularly and I just started taking fish oil to combat joint pain. Perhaps thats related to the tanked E2.
Oh and I recently turned 27 years of age.
When I was cruising on 300 mgs of test a week my test serum was 1126 ng/dc, E2 was 22.6 pg/ml, obviously FSH and LH were <0.2 so I was still shut down but physically I felt amazing. Felt so good. I wasnt even taking an AI just one shot of Test E a week. It was my sweet spot. But like I said I got tired of pinning.
Now that I have been lifting again I am starting to feel a lot better but nowhere like I was before.
Nice Bro! And very encouraging. It’s of particular interest to me because I am attempting a second recovery after a SARMs cycle but my first PCT of Nolvadex failed (it could be I got bunk Nolva since it was from a research peptide company). I’m using HCG and will switch to. Serm soon. (I’m running a log of it in this forum to track the results)
How much Nolva were you taking and how old are you, if you don’t mind me asking?
I purchased liquid nolva from a research company as well. I think I went the standard route route of 20 mg a day for four weeks.
How do you know you are shut down? Did you get blood work. Because that is really the only way to know for sure. I wouldn’t stress it man I am sure you will recover given enough time.
I did get bloods and was definitely shut down. My pre cycle T was over 600ng/dl and I ended up at 70ng/dl. After 3 weeks on Nolvadex at 20/15/10 mg/day and then waiting another month I was 177 - so not much of a recovery.
Could be age(nearly 50) or bunk research Serm.
Youth was on your side too bro. Fwiw- when we cycled back in the 80’s no one PCT’d. We just dealt with the sides and recovered on our own. I don’t think that’s possible in middle age :-). Anyway, glad it worked out for you and thanks for sharing. I just ordered some legit Nolva to start phase 2 of my restart after running HCG
Before I forget - did your lipids come back too after the Serm? One surprising thing I noticed about my cycle was that it crashed my total cholesterol and good HDL immensely. It could coincide with the drop in testosterone as the two are related.
I didn’t look at my lipids at all. Probably would not have hurt to check. Your certainly right my age most likely played a factor in my ability to recover.
Nearly fifty man. Don’t even come off if you don’t have to. Stay on a low dose. But if you decide against that then best of luck with your recovery.
When doing labs in this context, you can test TT, FT, E2, LH/FSH when on a SERM. LH/FSH will indicate is SERM is good/bunk and LH/FSH will indicate if dose is reasonable. If LH/FSH is too high, T–>E2 inside the testes can lead to high E2 levels and anastrozole does not work inside the testes. SERM’s only work in selected tissues, so E2 exposure still has some receptor downsides and estrogens to interfere with T at T receptors. This is all in the HPTA restart sticky.