Notwithstanding the notion they ARE suppressive and relatively un-researched concerning the dosages you speak of. They harbour many of the same side effects colloquially associated with AAS, they’re no longer “legal” and they generally cost an arm and a leg.
Here’s how it probably works if you have secondary hypogonadism mediated by a pituitary tumour at baseline
you start the cycle
you gain 10 lbs
you go off, test levels are even lower than what might have already been a low baseline. Albeit when levels were crashed you had ostarine for anabolic support.
you PCT, but that doesn’t do much as you’ve potentially got a tumour interfering with LH/FSH release to begin with
you lose everything you’ve gained, perhaps you keep a fraction of the gainz
the allure of sarms for me at least is they are cheaper (as far as I am aware and in my location at least, I don’t really have a source for the true anabolics I would like, and tbh the people i could source from i don’t trust), i’ve had mine HPLC tested thrice, they are not AS suppressive as the the general steroids(still highly suppressive in many cases.), they are mg for mg more effective(eg 15mg of ostarine daily is more effective than 15mg test daily, however this can be a invalid argument to an extent similar to the redundant tonnage vs intensity argument), pct is more straightforward and they pair better with aromatase inhibitors(in general).
yes you are very correct, my initial bloodwork is sad, and best case scenario i keep some of the gains and go back to my crappy levels. that being said, as of right now I am gaining nothing, and i am not even able to keep my current gains and i view it less of a way to get ahead and more of a way to not lose everything ive built to this point. for pct/on cycle i considered hcg for the leutenizing hormone issue but im not educated enough to differentiate if hcg is just forcing your body to make more lh or it converts to lh or what. a lot of the research and or “facts” ive seen are conflicting and i dont want to run on an assumption in any circumstance.
Look at the clinical data regarding sarms and suppression. It’s like a 50%+ drop in test levels from say 3mg ostarine/day. HDL drops by like 50%, LDL increases etc
All of the sarms are similar in this retrospect. Effects on lipids being just as harsh as oral AAS (harshest on lipids to begin with) at seemingly lower dosages
Suppression mediated through low dosages would indicate full shutdown would occur if the suppression increases in a linear fashion, which studies appear to indicate may be the case.
Hepatotoxicity is also a concern. They are more potent than test on a mg/mg basis… They’re MUCH more potent on that mg/mg basis in terms of how much pure skeletal muscle they’ll add onto your frame
They also have very little clinical data backing long term safety profiles. Particularly at the dosages people take recreationally. Trials for ostarine are like 3mg/day, for LGD they’re like 1-2mg/day…
High school kids need to stop taking sarms thinking they’re some magical elixir that builds muscle rapidly without side effects. Reminds me of the DS craze, when I was like 14 kids on wrestling teams would take shit like msten. Msten is waaaaaayyyy harsher than almost all of the AAS typically available on the BM… Perhaps trenbolone outpaces it in terms of toxicity.
tiktok worsened it definitely, IMO it was youtube pushing it to highschoolers that popularized it initially. I remember in like 2016 when i started lifting diet exercise and whatnot they were being sold as “natural supplements,” “no pct required bc they are tissue selective bro,” “found this at the supplement shop and i gained 15lbs bro.”
i’m not too concerned about hepatoxicity because as far as im aware there is less methyl groups in sarms (or at least the ones i’d be taking). my hdl and test are already crushed so i’m running on empty at this point, and it comes from a place of not caring anymore not from being uneducated about the consequences of sarm usage. like i said the reason i am considering sarms is price, accessibility, less side effects comparatively(albeit still bad), and I have seen much anecdotal evidence IRL and online to support the legitimacy of sarms as a muscle building agent. funny you mentioned wrestling xD, that’s initially where i saw widespread sarm usage personally. i did wrestling for 10 years and i remember the last year i did it every single state placer in my weight division used rad140 xD
baseline HDL is 51 last checked, however it’s down from the mid to high 70s so I saw a significant drop in a few months. LDL is about 110. total test is 600, which isn’t bad considering circumstances but it is definitely a significant drop(i believe i was around 900+ when i got it tested a few years ago but i don’t recall the exact), ive never gotten my free t tested just because the doctor has only cared about total. next time i go in for bloods i fully expect my test to have dropped even more. my other stuff was pretty disproportionate and wack as well
600 is fine provided SHBG/albumin isn’t through the roof and you don’t have PAIS or MAIS (which you almost certainly don’t)
A drop in TT/ft would be understandable given your circumstances. Could your lucky stars you have what appears to be an acceptable TT/ft given your circumstances. Though I’m curious to see what they read now
That HDL is fine. Your lipids are quite a bit above average in proportion to the average American male
no idea on shbg or albumin but my leutenizing hormone was bad estrogen and prolactin were not good. I’m not worried about my bloodwork in comparison to others mainly compared to myself. the ranges doctors use are very outdated and tbh quite inaccurate so i only feel comfortable comparing it to the numbers i felt ok at.
Hard to say. I started them cos I was having symptoms of low T when I was 24, and I did grow using them, and I felt like crap when I stopped. But I started AAS shortly after and never looked back. Should have prolly gone to a doc to confirm, but oh well
thanks for shaming me out of sarms gentlemen. At the time of this post my outlook was pretty grim from what the doctors were telling me so I just wanted to be swol for the casket. fast forward to now, I look borderline dead with how the wasting has affected me but I am finally starting to feel better. If I had shot myself in the foot or the head pretty much by going through with peds I’d have likely killed myself or exacerbated my symptoms so much worse. I had some tests and procedures done this week and I should be getting better permanently now, or at least able to manage:)