HPTA Restart- Easy Guide

Pharma / TRT Testosterone Replacement
1

This post aims to be an easy guide to HPTA restart.

Part 1- Pre-restart (6-8 week duration)

This stage is only required if HCG is not currently part of your TRT protocol.

The purpose of this is to encourage your testicles to begin producing testosterone again avoiding unnecessary negative symptoms of low testosterone and low estradiol when you stop administering exogenous testosterone in the next part of this process.

Example Protocol

Testosterone 100mg per week
HCG 500 IU - Every 3 Days

Part 2- HCG Mono-therapy (4 week duration)

The purpose of this period is to reduce the levels of testosterone currently built up in your body that will provide unwanted feedback to your brain and could keep you suppressed hindering recovery during PCT. You will stop taking testosterone and continue with HCG. This HCG mono-therapy will continue stimulating the testicles providing you with testosterone and stopping/reducing symptoms of hormone deficiency.

Example Protocol

HCG 600 IU - Every Other Day

On completion of part 2 get blood work done including:
TT, FT, SHBG, E2

If TT is within reference ranges continue to Part 3 below. If TT levels are lower than this, it may be necessary to consider TRT again/ discuss with doctor.

Part 3- SERMs Only- 6 week duration

In the absence of HCG the primary goal here is to have the pituitary signalling the testicles again as quickly as possible.

Example Protocol

Week 1
Nolvadex(Tamoxifen)
20- 40mg - Every Day

Week 2
Nolvadex(Tamoxifen)
20- 40mg - Every Day

Week 3
Nolvadex(Tamoxifen)
20mg - Every Day

Week 4
Nolvadex(Tamoxifen)
20mg - Every Day

Week 5
Nolvadex(Tamoxifen)
20mg - Every Other Day

Week 6
Nolvadex(Tamoxifen)
20mg - Every Other Day

Get blood work 2 weeks after last tablet including:
TT, FT, SHBG, E2, FSH, LH

10 Likes
2

Thank you for the guide, Iā€™m about to get off after 2 years and needed something to follow.

Unfortunately I only have 1 bottle of 10,000 iu of HCG, but that wonā€™t be enough for this entire PCT. can you recommend how I could make this work. Do I shorten the amount of time I run HCG before stopping TRT or shorten the amount of time I run HCG after TRT, or reduce doses.

Would it be ok to do the following

4 weeks
TRT + 400iu HCG E3D (10 injections) = 4000iu

4 weeks
HCG 400iu EOD (15 injections) = 6000iu

4-6 weeks Nolvadex

thank you!

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Sure it is. 500iu EOD for 3-4 weeks should be fine. Then follow up with 4 weeks of SERM

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4

As @swoops39 has said 10000IU is plenty.

What you propose seems like a pretty good way of splitting the 10000IU.

There really is no rigid magical formula for a restart protocol from what I can tell. It is important to understand the purpose of the 3 parts though. Although Part 1 is not a necessity it will give you the best chance of avoiding unpleasant symptoms of hormone deficiency. If you jump straight to Part 2 then there may be some lag time as the exogenous Testosterone washes out of your system before your balls are adequately up and running again.

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Complete overkill. Managed to successfully restart after just 2 weeks of Tamoxifen after 2 weeks of HCG only.
You either restart or donā€™t, there is no half way and no point to do it for 6 weeks.

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Happy for you bro. Were you on HCG before your restart?

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This might be a stupid question, but Iā€™m eager to completely get off. Would it be a terrible idea to just stop the test now and immediately start the HCG at a higher dose. Like 650iu EOD for 4 weeks, then run nolvadex 20mg for 4 weeks??

Thanks

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Definitely not a stupid question. You could stop cold turkey and likely recover in a few months. Itā€™s more of a question of how soft do you want the landing to be when you jump off exogenous test.

This guide was written because there seems to be a number of members looking to attempt HPTA restarts for various reasons. I recently spent a lot of time researching what had worked for others along with relevant research etc. The approach in this guide is nothing new or ground breaking but an amalgamation of the best sources I could find. I personally tried this approach and it worked for me. Iā€™ve been off Testosterone for about 3 months now and feel great.

I would advise you to get on HCG ASAP if you have been suppressed for a while. If you have your mind set on stopping. Go for it. The symptoms I experienced were unpleasant at times, some anxiety and some sexual dysfunction for a couple of weeks but in all honesty not that bad.

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This is perfectly reasonable. Given that your exogenous Test levels will be quite diminished after a few weeks, there is a question whether your balls will be ready to take over after a few weeks of HCG. It will depend on the level atrophy, the severity of your hypogonadism etc. This restart guide includes the worst case scenario and aims give someone who is inexperienced and/or does not have the time or otherwise to design and plan a protocol for themselves a good shot at recovering after years of suppression without HCG.

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Great, thank you. Iā€™ll do the above and see how it goes. Iā€™m already 3 days in since my last test shot, I was on a ED protocol. Currently waiting on bacteriostatic water for my HCG. Hopefully will start with 650ius EOD sometime this upcoming week. Iā€™m 31 years old. Iā€™ve been on TRT for 2.5 years. My TT was 450 before starting. I now realize I should have just lost weight and tried other avenues before starting TRT. I was overweight at 245lb with sleep apnea, which both contributed to my symptoms. After 2.5 years I want to be done with TRT and give myself a year to fully restart my body. Iā€™ve lost weight and got a cpap. Iā€™ve always worked out and will continue with weight training consistently. Iā€™m 100% in on doing everything I can to recover. Even if I get back to 4-500 TT Iā€™ll be more than happy.

Diet will be focused on hormone optimization. Focusing on healthy fats/lower carb/higher protein. Along with intermittent fasting.

Adding the following supplements

Roman Testosterone Support (ashwagandha + zinc + copper + maca + d3)

Ginger powder

Tongkat Ali

Fadogia agretis

D-Aspartic acid

Prolactin control p-5-p (vitamin b6 )

Animal pak multivitamin

Fish oils

Lastly going to give icing the boys 2-3x daily a try since some reported good results with this.

Will check labs in 6 months. :+1:

Thanks!

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11

Quite similar age, time on TRT and natural levels to my own. I think you will restart just fine with your proposed restart protocol. I ran 300IU daily and felt great for 4 weeks before Nolvadex. I think your approach of 650 EOD is more optimal than daily.

Something that I would suggest and be interested in hearing the outcome of is starting Nolvadex 1 or 2 weeks earlier. Reason being, I felt quite shit the second week of Nolvadex when the HCG had worn off but the Nolvadex hadnā€™t fully reached steady state. I believe the half life is around 7 days. Theoretically it would take a month to reach steady state levels. Starting Nolvadex a bit earlier can only help smooth the transition in my view. At least logically speaking.

Good plan

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@Madagascarspirit

Happy to report that after 4 months natural test levels have returned to 515 right around the middle of the reference range, but free T is at 9 (9-30 range) which is still very lowā€¦ Following the above restart protocol, diet, supplements. Overall Iā€™m feeling 8/10, workouts are good, sleep is good, dick works :joy:. Iā€™m glad I made the decision to get off after 2 years and give this a try. Hopefully there is more improvement in the next year. Plan on getting labs done again at the 1 year mark.

Testosterone numbers are not everything when it comes to feeling good. Diet, sleep, stress/fatigue management, and lifestyle all play a major role.

Thank you

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Excellent! Glad to hear it, all the very best!

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Hello,

So, I abused steroids when I was younger which resulted in low TRT due to bad or no PCT. Have used TRT for 6-7+ years with varying degrees of succes and I want off it now.

Im 34, donā€™t drink and donā€™t smoke. Is the above protocol optimal for me aswell?

Are there any other stuff that can help me? I see Gman12 taking Tongkat Ali etc, would that be from the start of the HPTA restart protocol?

How about peptides - would they be good? And if, any specific?

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I donā€™t think thereā€™s a straight forward answer to that question @denmarkdude and if there is, itā€™s certainly beyond my understanding of the HPTA. With that being said, hormones arenā€™t fully understood by anyone yet.

Some have argued (Dr Rand of YouTube fame springs to mind here) that the HPTA is hardwired and will typically return to its pre-steroid setting given enough time.

The important thing to note here is that your natural levels at 20 years old probably wont be your natural levels at 34 years old. You might have always been destined for low T at 34 years old, so coming off TRT at such an age and not recovering ā€œfullyā€ isnā€™t necessary due to your steroid abuse it may have been in the pipeline for you regardless. I recorded a log of my HPTA restart on this forum, should be easy enough to find. Thereā€™s a YouTube video linked in the log, the guy restarted after heavy cycles for 10 years. Might be a similar case to yours.

Seems to work well for many. Personally donā€™t have much experience.

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Thanks for the reply.

I did read your post, but i got a little confused because you use clomiphene, but thats not recommended here.

Whats appealing to me is this very simple protocol, i feel like ive got nothing to loose and everything to win. I only sporadically experience the ā€˜sweetā€™ spot on TRT so its kinda frustrating. I live in Denmark where there is very little and un-educated medical knowledge on this subject, so im pretty much on my own. Are you still feeling good after your restart?

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I researched as much as I could but still made some errors with my restart. Some papers show Clomiphine slightly better than Tamoxifen in male fertility, thatā€™s why I chose it initially before switching to Nolvadex(Tamixifen). I had some anxiety with colmid and eventually gyno symptoms which forced me to use Tamoxifen to stop the gyno developing further. In my experience Tamoxifen has far less side effects and other claimed benefits like a lesser desensitising effect on GnRH receptors along with the gyno protection mentioned above. I was a doubter at first but see no reason to use Clomid over Tamoxifen now.

I wrote this guide after my own restart. Hopefully this is a refined version of what I used although the dosages and compounds are still very similar minus the Propionate which was unnecessary imo. You have got nothing to lose here, it will either work or it wonā€™t but if your balls worked before the chances are they will work again.

I now commit the cardinal sinā€¦ā€¦ I cycle on and off purely for aesthetics as medically I donā€™t need TRT, my levels are mid range. TRT was problematic for me, like many I had thick blood which gave me high blood pressure. Not good. I also want to preserve fertility but running HCG for long periods gave me uncontrollable e2 levels which also contributed to highe blood pressure.

While coming off, there was about 1 week where I felt a bit shit, perfectly adequate after that. I felt good after about 8 weeks and just back to normal after about 12 weeks where I noticed weight stabilising and gym gains coming back online albeit very slowly.

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Awesome thread. Thanks for this. Iā€™m doing this exact thing (currently on phase 2, dropped the test a couple weeks ago). Iā€™m still debating on the my nolvadex dosage though. I was thinking of running 10mg Ed for 8 weeks to avoid any ocular related side effects instead of 6 weeks. Reading lots of literature about low dosed nolva being just as effective with less potential sides.

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Nice write up @Madagascarspirit. Thank you for taking the time.

In case this is helpful to someone who may want to recover HPTA while continuing on physiologic levels of Testā€¦

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Glad youā€™re finding the thread useful! How are you feeling now?

It seems that issues with eyesight is more common following Clomid use and less of a concern with Nolvadex. The general consensus is that 20mg daily for 6 weeks is a happy medium. The higher 40/40/20/20 4 week protocol obviously works and seems to originate from bodybuilding cycle restarts. 10mg daily is typically on the low side but youā€™ve followed this plan and you balls should be well primed from the HCG meaning 10mg might be all that required to expedite the process. Iā€™d be tempted to start taking the Nolvadex during the last week of HCG to let it build up closer to steady state concentrations in your system so that when you come off HCG itā€™s already started doing itā€™s thing on the pituitary. HCG will be mostly cleared out of your body in less than a week.