The Ultimate HPTA Restart. Advice and Critiques?

Hey Guys,

I’ve been struggling to recover from my past steroid cycles and ive been suffering for almost 3 years.

I’m going to do an ultimate restart. I can’t live like this and i’ve exhausted most if not all my options.

I did a 2nd stint with trt just to make sure that i wasn’t suffering from testosterone depletion even though ive been able to get my natural test levels up pretty high.
Unfortunately it didnt really show any promising results going into the 6th week so I’m gonna cut it out and change course.

My restart will be as follows:
HGH 2iu for 3 months and then 3ius for them on out until i decide to stop
I’ll be just taking hcg for a few weeks at 1000iu twice a week, i need to save money for the hmg.
Ill be going to alldaychemist for hmg and will get 12 75iu vials and take them in a months span.
Once i have the hmg ill be using HCG 500iu M/W/F and HMG 75iu Tu/Th/Sat.
I have a Adex and Aromasin on hand. I’ll be using Adex to start off with at .5mg EOD and adjust as needed. i’ll save aromasin most likely closer to the conclusion of the nolva and clomid portion of the pct.

Afterwards ill be using nolva and clomid at 20/20/20/10/10/5 and 25/25/12.5/12.5 respectively.

This isn’t set in stone. I may choose to increase hgh dose sooner or later, Im still deciding if i should use only 1000ius instead of 1500 of hcg with hmg and i could possibly extend my nolva and clomid use. We’ll see.

If anybody has any critiques or ideas on how to improve this protocol, Im all ears.
Ill also be logging my progress as time goes on for those of you who are interested and for those who are in a desperate situation like mine trying to find solutions.

One last word, I kindly ask that you please keep the negativity to yourself. This process has caused me a lot of pain and i’m already feeling down as it is about this.

please comment if have positive advice or takeaways you’d like to make, thats all.

Thank you.

PS: I’m day 6 into hgh injections and i feel decent. I dont know if its a placebo effect but i feel like theres a tiny bit more life in my member and my energy isnt as terrible as its been, however its still early so i have my fingers crossed.

Result for TRT isn’t measured in weeks, it’s measure in months (6-12) and you’re not expected to show results after only 6 weeks on TRT. A lot of men have unrealistic expectations, they want immediate results and they want it yesterday.

At 6 weeks I didn’t know if it was in my head or if I was actually starting to feel good again, that’s how subtle and slow the process was for me. I didn’t start to feel good until 2 months later after starting TRT.

You tapped out too early and you didn’t give yourself a chance. Failure to respond to TRT could mean your protocol is in need of adjustment. What was your protocol?

It take 6 weeks just for your testosterone levels to stabilize, longer to see results.

Onset of effects of testosterone treatment and time span until maximum effects are achieved

i fully comprehend what you mean dude.

I did trt twice. i last 8 weeks the first time and i tried it again for 6 weeks this time.

When i did cycles in the past, I was always a quick responder to test and i noticed the enhanced libido and such after 2 week.

I noticed that this time on test it wasnt the case. When i did my first stint. i started to feel good 2 weeks in per usual and then it plateaued. Same thing the 2nd time. Maybe i had an increase of estrogen or something to that affect, but Ive also had naturally high testosterone before trt so I’m not quite sure test was always the problem.

i did 200mg first time around and it rose my test too high into the 2000s. 2nd time i did 100mg per week the 2nd time and my levels werent bad, more or less the same when i was on natty test but nothing really.

Honestly if i can avoid trt then id love to. There is probably something faulty in my system so im hoping the hgh will provide some benefit. i could always go back on trt if anything, i have plenty of test.

The key to the restart is hgh and hmg. i’ve never used either of them before. Ive read hmg is more potent then hcg so the combination of the 2 could be fruitful. Plus hgh has a bevy of benefits including of course mood boosting effects, libido, etc.

I gotta and want to give this a try. I think this could work, ill keep you guys posted.

I’ve been on for about 10 weeks now and I feel better than I ever have. Socially, emotionally, strength and physical appearance, libido etc. But I am getting off within the next 2 weeks. I realized TRT is a great thing and high T levels make life great however at this point in time in grad school it has been a MAJOR source of distraction, impulsivity, dopamine seeking behaviour. I cannot for the life of me sit down and read a book anymore my mind and body is flying at 100miles/hr I just want to live life and do enjoyable things. With all of high T’s benefits it does have its drawbacks, it’s defintely an obstacle in academia. It’s no wonder high T guys barely make it out of high school (generalizing) the distraction of a high libido in itself is destructive enough in profession life. I have another year of grad school I will use Enclomiphene 25/25/12.5/12.5 along with diet and exercise change and zinc,magnesium and some other precursors to bring my natty levels back to their 350ish at least then I can sit and read a textbook without the caveman impulses. After graduation I will definitely get back on TRT this time properly knowing my body better now and doing it right to live life to its fullest.

What about your thyroid? Whenever the body goes through stress, Reverse T3 can increase and would be a reason why TRT would see no results.

Ahh i shouldve mentioned this in the initial post.

I’m currently dealing with non thyroidal illness. My t3 and free t3 is low but my tsh and t4 are fine. Ive exhausted all reasons for what it could be and my only options were really to take t3 for a peroid of time or growth hormone.

Endos dont believe that this could be the cause of my issues but since thats the only thing that is truly off, i feel like it has to be, especially since t3 is important for fueling all the other cells in your body.

Ive read that treating with t3 is 50/50 and even if it works it might not hold once treatment stops.

I thought why not GH? it increased t4-t3 conversion plus it could heal tissues in the body. What if this is the defacto kickstart i need and i can continue my life as planned once off GH.

I need to restart anyways since I’m getting off test, but at the same time i though GH could be effective for t4-t3 and could be an unconventional approach to curing my low t3.

Considering Free T3 being the only active thyroid hormone while T4 is inactive and TSH isn’t a thyroid hormone, I would say that is your problem as well as your doctors chasing reference ranges and ignoring symptoms because that’s what medical schools teaches.

You need to advocate for yourself in a world were doctors fixate on labs ranges.

The reference ranges are bogus and include those with thyroid dysfunction if your case has anything to say about it.

The evidence for a narrower thyrotropin reference range is compelling.

Reference ranges for TSH and thyroid hormones

After seeing the amount of doctors I’ve seen this past year, I completely agree.

Whether I’ve been on test or without, I’ve had my levels in PERFECT ranges before and nothing changed in terms of my symptoms.

A few months later a doctor finally tested t3 saw that it was low. I tried a homeopath to get it up but that was a waste of 2000 bucks. At least I learned a lot about nutrition and diet and can say that would bode most useful when doing this HGH.

I don’t know why doctors want to tell me that can’t be the reason when it’s literally the ONLY outlier left! If my free t3 and t3 are low that is a problem! That has the be the only thing in the way of me being better.

I’m blessed to have a source that pretty much has almost everything under the sun I can get get good quality hgh.

I’m going to take it and increase my t3 that way while hopefully healing whatever ailments that could’ve caused my low t3 in the first place. Hopefully it’s that simple but we’ll see.

You actually reminded me that low t3 was certainly a problem. I might hold off the on HMG and just use Hcg 1500iu weekly for awhile. It’ll cost $400 to get hmg for a month and if I don’t have to spend the money then I’d be happy with that. I’ll get blood work and reevaluate my status early in the new year. Hoping I see some decent changes after a month of hgh.

@mike12 good luck man.

Taking HGH to increase free T3 seems like a very expensive way to go. You could just take cytomel (T3 hormone). I have to imagine it is probably a tenth the cost of HGH, and probably more likely to actually work to increase you free T3, and reduce RT3.

Cytomel does not increase t3 production it replaces it

Im not merely doing GH as a means to increase t3 solely, trust me id save the money if that were the case.

I want to heal my t4-t3 conversion. Ive done every test and seen every corresponding doctor but nothing fits as to why Im not converting t4 to t3. The only thing i didnt try is GH which if one is deficient in, they will have the same problems im having. However my igf-1 numbers are fine, and i dont know if its possible to have good igf-1 and low gh pulses and vice versa, but i know that this is worth a shot.

Im hoping hgh indirectly or directly heals whatever might be causing to conversion issue since nothing jumps out. By all logic this should work but ill keep everyone posted month by month.

Google: Chris Kresser he had an interesting article on this on his site.

Thytrophin PMG - bovine glandular extract with the DNA removed. You apparently take it orally and once the body senses it it redirects the thyroid antibodies towards this new target leaving your thyroid alone to heal. Worth looking into if your thyroid issue is caused by antibodies.

Hey guys got some updates.

TOTAL T: 837 (250-827)
FREE T: 114.8 (46-224)
ALT: 35 (9-46)
AST: 43 H (10-40)
TSH: 0.48 (0.40-4.50)
TOTAL T3: 77 (76-181)
T3 FREE: 3.2 (2.3-4.2)
T4 FREE: 1.8 (0.8-1.8)
LH: 0.2 L (1.5-9.3)
FSH: 0.7 L (1.6-8.0)
IGF-1: 362 (63-373)
Insulin: 1.8 L (2.0-19.6)
E2: 33 (<39)
HbA1C 5.2 (<5.7)
SHBG: 34 (10-50)

I recently tried trt 1 last time in early november because i saw a doctor who was well meaning and said that MAYBE testosterone would be better than hgh. I knew that my test has been high before and i knew i had a low t3 problem for awhile now but this was going to be my last attempt at trusting a doctor before going on my own path to recovery.

After 6 weeks having good test levels per usual, nothing really showed promise as i suspected and decided to do a huge restart with HGH.

Its been 4 1/2 weeks since on hgh and i thought i was almost out of the woods between weeks 2 and 3. it was then that my erections and libido were improving and i thought it was only a matter of time!

But once again like ive had happen in the past, i get better a little bit and then i regress for god knows what reason. I was taking arimidex throughout and thought i may have dropped e2 too low so i stopped for a weeks waiting for it to rebound.

Safe to say that e2 has rebounded but nothing has changed as of yet. I got HMG in the mail and will be headed to my Uro Monday to get pharma hcg since the generic ive been getting from a friend is garbage apparently.

I know its early in the GH supplementation so things can definitely still get better in the next few months, however why did i get better then stop all of a sudden?

I took my first hmg shot yesterday and got a decent boost in libido and mood but nothing crazy, I have 5 shots left so hopefully, in conjunction with good quality hcg, is a sign of things to come.

One question i do have is why is my test high normal but my lh and fsh are low? Since this is endo and not exogeneous production, could that mean i need to get those in optimal ranges to experience the benefits from my natural testosterone?

My t3 has been improving and i may add 23mcg t3 along with my 100mcg t4 to help speed things along. I’ll be getting proviron as well in the near future to help keep shbg low and raise my free t a bit more.

I also see that my insulin is low and is that a contributing factor?

Any ideas of what to do and where to take it from here? I’ll be doing a hcg & hmg blast for the next 2 weeks so I’m hoping that things show promise from there.

If theres anything i should do?

Your Free T isn’t great below midrange, I feel bad when below the top of the range.

Your SHBG is very sticky, meaning it behaves as though it’s much higher and therefore Free T suffers. There is a variability in the stickiness of SHBG from person to person.

You really never gave TRT a solid chance to work.

I understand what you mean in terms of trt and sticking it out.

But if my endogeneous production can reach top ranges, why am i to assume exo would provide much benefit.

When i used to cycle it was very common for me to feel all the benefits after the second week. Taking trt and knowing that I’m not feeling it is a sign, in my opinion, that test isnt exactly the answer.

I could always go back to trt but id like to avoid it if possible, especially if i can get my test to the up ranges on my own.

I’m going to give proviron a shot and hopefully that provides some relief. Also i have hgh to rely on in the meantime.

Also waiting to see how the hmg and hcg combination works out is going to be telling.

If anything ill be back to post progress in late January, fingers crossed.

how long did it take before you had all the benefits kick in?

So I’m taking your words into consideration and doing trt again and giving it a real shot.

How long was it for you personally until you reaped the benefits of trt.

What protocol adjustments did you do if and when you encountered down periods in your protocol?