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How to run a proper PCT

JL23

New member
Hey guys I see too many people either not knowing how to run a proper PCT or just not running one at all. Either way is not good, so I figured I would make this post. Hope this helps

Post Cycle Therapy
A post cycle therapy plan or “PCT”, it’s a phrase that’s often thrown around inappropriately on many steroid message boards. In many cases, people expect way too much out of post cycle therapy, and others won’t give it a chance based on a lack of understanding. With this in mind, we want to explain the purpose of post cycle therapy, what you can actually expect and the best way to implement it. Further, we want to discuss when it should be implemented; in some cases, a PCT plan will be followed when it shouldn’t have been; don’t worry, this will all make sense.

What is a PCT Plan?
When we supplement with anabolic androgenic steroids, our natural hormone levels are altered. Most anabolic steroids suppress our natural testosterone production to one degree or another, and if we’re not careful our estrogen and progesterone levels can increase beyond a healthy range. Of course, estrogen and progesterone can both be controlled while on cycle with proper supplementation practices, but the testosterone suppression will remain. Then we reach the point where our cycle has come to an end; we have discontinued the use of all anabolic steroids, and as a result something must be done. When we discontinue our steroid use, our testosterone levels are still in a suppressed state, and it’s often recommended you stimulate natural production and let your body normalize. While testosterone stimulation is the primary purpose, the normalization factor of a post cycle therapy plan is greatly important. Of course, as eluded to early on, sometimes implementing a PCT isn’t the best idea, and will delve into that shortly.

What to Expect
The primary purpose of post cycle therapy is to stimulate your natural production of testosterone and shorten or enhance the total recovery process. Understand this here and now; there is no post cycle therapy plan on earth that can return your natural testosterone levels back to where they were prior to anabolic steroid use. Further, if you supplemented with anabolic steroids improperly and caused severe damage to your HPTA there’s no PCT plan that will help you. In any case, assuming your cycle was of a responsible nature, a post cycle therapy phase will by design stimulate your pituitary to release more Luteinizing Hormone (LH) and Follicle Stimulating Hormone (FSH) which will in-turn stimulate the testicles to produce more testosterone.Post Cycle Therapy
A post cycle therapy plan or “PCT”, it’s a phrase that’s often thrown around inappropriately on many steroid message boards. In many cases, people expect way too much out of post cycle therapy, and others won’t give it a chance based on a lack of understanding. With this in mind, we want to explain the purpose of post cycle therapy, what you can actually expect and the best way to implement it. Further, we want to discuss when it should be implemented; in some cases, a PCT plan will be followed when it shouldn’t have been; don’t worry, this will all make sense.

What is a PCT Plan?
When we supplement with anabolic androgenic steroids, our natural hormone levels are altered. Most anabolic steroids suppress our natural testosterone production to one degree or another, and if we’re not careful our estrogen and progesterone levels can increase beyond a healthy range. Of course, estrogen and progesterone can both be controlled while on cycle with proper supplementation practices, but the testosterone suppression will remain. Then we reach the point where our cycle has come to an end; we have discontinued the use of all anabolic steroids, and as a result something must be done. When we discontinue our steroid use, our testosterone levels are still in a suppressed state, and it’s often recommended you stimulate natural production and let your body normalize. While testosterone stimulation is the primary purpose, the normalization factor of a post cycle therapy plan is greatly important. Of course, as eluded to early on, sometimes implementing a PCT isn’t the best idea, and will delve into that shortly.

What to Expect
The primary purpose of post cycle therapy is to stimulate your natural production of testosterone and shorten or enhance the total recovery process. Understand this here and now; there is no post cycle therapy plan on earth that can return your natural testosterone levels back to where they were prior to anabolic steroid use. Further, if you supplemented with anabolic steroids improperly and caused severe damage to your HPTA there’s no PCT plan that will help you. In any case, assuming your cycle was of a responsible nature, a post cycle therapy phase will by design stimulate your pituitary to release more Luteinizing Hormone (LH) and Follicle Stimulating Hormone (FSH) which will in-turn stimulate the testicles to produce more testosterone.

Steroid CleanseWithout such a PCT plan, it could easily take a year or more for your natural levels to recover, and this is not only stressful to the body, it can lead to numerous low testosterone symptoms; not to mention it is extremely unhealthy. Conversely, when you implement your post cycle therapy treatment, you will significantly cut down your total recovery time, but there’s something more important. While your natural levels will not be fully recovered, you will have ensured your body has enough testosterone for proper health and function while your levels continue to naturally rise. Sure, you can forgo such a plan if you like, but you’ll only be causing more stress to your body over the long haul, and limiting stress is in part how we define successful performance enhancement; after all, if you’re stressing your body post cycle, this means your steroid use has not be as successful as it could have been.

When to Implement a PCT Plan
It should go without saying; the time to implement post cycle therapy is when all anabolic steroid use has come to an end; this is a given; however, it’s not quite that black and white. If you’re going to be off-cycle for only a short period of time, a PCT plan can be counterproductive and cause even more stress to the body. Remember what we said above; limiting stress is extremely important. If you’re only going to be off-cycle for a short period of time, there’s no reason to stimulate your natural production when you’re going to immediately shut it down again; talk about a shock the body does not appreciate. For this reason, a post cycle therapy period should only be implemented when we’re going to be off-cycle for an extended period of time; meaning, no anabolic androgenic steroids will be present in our system. Of course, the next order of business is to define an extended period of time, and twelve weeks is a good place to start. If you’re going to be off-cycle less than 12 weeks, while you will lose some of your gains they will come back shortly once you go back on-cycle. Conversely, if you’re going to be off-cycle longer than 12 weeks, it’s time for a PCT plan for the reasons discussed above. It must be noted; this time frame of “off-cycle” does not include the PCT period; off means off everything.

Post Cycle Therapy Options
Now that you understand what a post cycle therapy plan is and when and why you should implement it, you need to understand how to implement it and the options you have. How you cycled your anabolic steroids will play a role, but regardless of your steroid use your PCT plan will always include a Selective Estrogen Receptor Modulator (SERM), and Tamoxifen Citrate (Nolvadex) and Clomiphene Citrate (Clomid) will always be your best options. Recall what we discussed above in-regards to LH and FSH stimulation; it will be the SERM you use that causes such an action. It really doesn’t matter which SERM you choose, both can get the job done equally as well; simply pick one.

Beyond SERM use, which is essential, we have a few additional options; primarily Human Chorionic Gonadotropin (hCG). hCG is an extremely powerful peptide hormone that can be used to prime the body for the SERM therapy to come due to its LH mimicking effect. Of course, hCG abuse can be very dangerous as it is potentially damaging to your HPTA if you use too much or for too long; if you do, your body may become dependent on the mimicked LH. Beyond hcg, another option can be Human Growth Hormone (HGH) as this will greatly protect your gains made while on-cycle as well as limit body-fat gain that can easily occur post steroid use. While HGH can be useful, you will only be using it if you were using it on-cycle; HGH is something that must be used for extended periods of time, and there’s no point in adding it into a PCT plan that’s only going to last a few weeks.

Now that you understand your options, you need to understand how to implement them. As for HGH, if you used it on-cycle, simply continue with it in the same manner post cycle; nothing changes. Then we have SERM’s which are a must, and the possible addition of hCG. This is where your actual steroid cycle will affect your post cycle therapy plan, and this affect surrounds what types of steroids you used; specifically large and small esters; let’s start with large esters. If your cycle ends with even one large ester anabolic steroid, if you’re only using a SERM you will begin SERM therapy approximately 14-18 days after your last injection. If you’re going to use hCG, you will begin hCG therapy 10 days after your last injection, complete it for 10 days and then begin SERM therapy. As for small esters, if your cycle ends with all small ester based anabolic steroids and you’re only using a SERM you will begin SERM therapy approximately 3 days after your last injection. Conversely, if you’re using hCG, you will begin hCG therapy 3 days after your last injection, complete it for 10 days and then begin SERM therapy.

Now you understand what you need to do and how you need to do it, but you still don’t have the proper doses or full time frame for your post cycle therapy treatment and that’s the final point of our discussion. While Nolvadex and Clomid can work equally as well, they will only work equally as well if they are dosed properly. This is where many fail when they use Clomid as Nolvadex is much stronger on a per milligram basis. For example, with 40mg of Nolvadex, for Clomid to match it you need 150mg. As for hCG dosing, 500iu to 1,000iu per day every day for 10 straight days is your plan and implemented precisely as discussed above. Once the hCG therapy is complete, you will start your Nolvadex therapy at 40mg per day or Clomid at 150mg per day; whichever you choose, you will continue it for two weeks. Once the two weeks is complete, you will complete two more weeks this time with a Nolvadex dosing at 20mg per day or a Clomid dosing at 100mg per day. No, you’re not done yet, you will complete one more week at 10mg per day for Nolvadex or 50mg per day with Clomid and add in an additional week at the same dose if you feel it is necessary.
 
HCG is what I've been leaving out of my research -- perhaps that's why I've not held on to gains like I want to and maybe why it's been so difficult to rebound after shutting down. If I can find some, I'll add it in. I think it will help.

Thanks for this post. This is the second strong confirmation I've gotten in the past couple weeks confirming that I need to add hCG to my PCT.


————————————————
Age: 27
Height: 6'1"
Current Weight: 195 lbs
Body fat: 6.6% bf

2016 GOALS: 225 lbs, 4.5% bf
 
I still stand by if you are having fertility issues and are trying to have a kid that is when hcg works well. It is also prescribed off label for weight loss.

The only purpose I see for HCG in pct is if you got shut down so hard you are not responding even after your LH normalized. As HCG is suppressive to LH itself and can desensitize you to LH. 2 things you don't want your pct to cause unless you have no other option as both those need to then be corrected before you can be considered complete with your pct.
 
I still stand by if you are having fertility issues and are trying to have a kid that is when hcg works well. It is also prescribed off label for weight loss.

The only purpose I see for HCG in pct is if you got shut down so hard you are not responding even after your LH normalized. As HCG is suppressive to LH itself and can desensitize you to LH. 2 things you don't want your pct to cause unless you have no other option as both those need to then be corrected before you can be considered complete with your pct.


Hmm. So would hCG be best maybe a month after PCT, if blood work is still showing effed up LH levels?




————————————————
Age: 27
Height: 6'1"
Current Weight: 195 lbs
Body fat: 6.6% bf

2016 GOALS: 225 lbs, 4.5% bf
 
Hmm. So would hCG be best maybe a month after PCT, if blood work is still showing effed up LH levels?




————————————————
Age: 27
Height: 6'1"
Current Weight: 195 lbs
Body fat: 6.6% bf

2016 GOALS: 225 lbs, 4.5% bf

no as hcg mimics LH and doesnt increase it making hcg itself actually suppressive!

hcg should be used imo opinion as follows

pct starting day after last pin

days 1-20 500iu hcg eod
then wait 5 days
then follow with typical clomid and nolvadex pct of
clomid 50 25 25 25
nolva 40 40 20 20 10

i have a mate who recovered well after 18 months of b and c with 19nor steroids throughout using this protocol
 
no as hcg mimics LH and doesnt increase it making hcg itself actually suppressive!

hcg should be used imo opinion as follows

pct starting day after last pin

days 1-20 500iu hcg eod
then wait 5 days
then follow with typical clomid and nolvadex pct of
clomid 50 25 25 25
nolva 40 40 20 20 10

i have a mate who recovered well after 18 months of b and c with 19nor steroids throughout using this protocol


You don't run pct right? Because of your trt? Because I don't.. lol I was just making sure that's right... You just go back to your regular trt dose right? That's what I do and I've been fine.. Also, does your doctor prescribe you hcg too? Just wondering...
 
You don't run pct right? Because of your trt? Because I don't.. lol I was just making sure that's right... You just go back to your regular trt dose right? That's what I do and I've been fine.. Also, does your doctor prescribe you hcg too? Just wondering...

yes i dont pct and no i dobt use hcg, but i have done plenty of reading on pct to help people around and for when the Children time comes
 
IMHO hcg should be used on cycle and not for pct. 250 iu 2x per week keeps your LH working and the dose is not enough to drastically increase your estrogen levels.
Taking hcg i pct is counter productive. Pct you are trying to get your natural functions back to normal. Hcg does just the opposite and it the dosis recomended will increase estrogen in pct. exactly what you are trying to avoid.
 
thats just it though, hcg mimics LH it doesnt "keep it working" i believe hcg should be used to kick start the testes before starting a pct with the protocol i outlined in a previous post
 
thats just it though, hcg mimics LH it doesnt "keep it working" i believe hcg should be used to kick start the testes before starting a pct with the protocol i outlined in a previous post


Have you ever came off your trt for any reason?
 
no! my levels were 175ng/dl before trt and id never touched any aas or anything that could shut me down, i have zero hope off coming off trt


Damn mine was at like 480 something but I sure do love this shit haha I haven't really gotten any test recently I'm scared I'm going to be to high and doctors going to cut it down 😨... never!!! Lol
 
no as hcg mimics LH and doesnt increase it making hcg itself actually suppressive!

hcg should be used imo opinion as follows

pct starting day after last pin

days 1-20 500iu hcg eod
then wait 5 days
then follow with typical clomid and nolvadex pct of
clomid 50 25 25 25
nolva 40 40 20 20 10

i have a mate who recovered well after 18 months of b and c with 19nor steroids throughout using this protocol

If your choice is not to run low dose hcg on cycle this is, IMO, the best protocol to go with. HCG itself IS suppressive so it should not be run DURING your pct. There is also a phenomenon with HCG that is dosage dependent called Leydig Cell Desensitization. That is why it is important IMO not to exceed doses of 1000iu's of HCG/week. In fact I personally prefer 500iu's/week split into 2-250iu doses.

Now here is where I stray from the above and I will share my belief and experience as to why I do what I do.
When we go on cycle LH (as well as FSH) production ceases as part of being "shut down". The goal of PCT is in fact to resume lh & FSH production as quickly and effectively as possible. Here is the other part of that equation however. In order for LH to be converted into testosterone it has to act upon the Leydig cells in the testis. HCG is a LH mimetic that is, in fact, many times more potent than LH itself. This is where the issue of "blasting" hcg post cycle can become an issue. HCG is in fact so much more potent than LH you can in fact desensitize the leydig cells to endogenous LH by taking too much HCG. Obviously a bad thing.
Now the goal of PCT is to resume full HPTA function as quickly and efficiently as possible. By using HCG at low doses on cycle you have the ability to maintain leydig cell function the entire time you are shut down. Why would you not prefer to maintain leydig cell function your entire cycle as opposed to allowing leydig cells not to function and try to coax then into functioning post cycle by using HCG then? It is like knowing you are going to have a tire that will go flat but rather than change it before hand you wait until it is flat to try to fix it.
The goal is to recover as quickly as possible, in my experience the best means by which to accomplish this is to utilize HCG at a low dose your entire cycle, ceasing use 3 days pre start of you proper serm based pct. BY utilizing a very low dose (250-500iu's-2x/week) you avoid any potential Leydig cell desensitization, you maintain leydig cell function, and upon the start of serm therapy the immediate increase they will cause in LH will in turn translate into an immediate increase in testosterone. This is the quickest. most efficient way to ensure this occurs and rather than gamble on not letting leydig cell s cease to function in the HOPES that full functionality will return post cycle, you can ensure it never ceases by the prudent use of HCG on cycle.
Also worth noting there are other benefits to HCG use on cycle such as backfilling hormonal pathways which is reported to improve things like your sense of well being as well as sleep by helping to prevent the disruption of circadian rhythm. These benefits are so real in fact that you will find many TRT patients, who have no NEED for leydig cell function still take HCG as a part of their protocol.
Bottom line for me: HCG on cycle, at a low dose, ceased 3 days before I start my serm based pct offers me multiple benefits, ensures the fastest, most efficient and effective restoration of HPTA function, resulting in the best gains retention as well as minimizing the potential for emotional and physical issues associated with a non effective or less effective pct. Its a no brainier for me. If you dont utilize this method I strongly encourage you to try it.
 
^^ I agree, although i typically rec it the last 4-5 weeks of cycle, during is fine also depending on wants/needs. but low dose during or slightly higher dose at end of cycle is the way to go over HCG at end and then PCT. dont use HCG AS a pct or in PCT. use it as jimmy stated, during or atleast the end of cycle but NOT into pct and NOT at high doses. 250-500iu 2x a week is enough IMO

I still see soo much misinformation on hcg and it concerns me..
 
yoi are covering all your bases by using both, for those of you who cycle off you really can't afford to skimp on pct.
 
I see some ptc brotocols (pun on protocol) using both clinic and nolva together, is there an advantage to this?

Yes there is. Dr Scally has gotten into this quite a bit. It is very likely that the estrogen agonist and antagonist effects of clomid when combined with nolva used alongside it improve the impact on LH & FSH.
The combination seems to be superior than either one (clomid or nolva) on its own when it comes to restoring HPTA function more quickly and more effectively.
 
^^ I agree, although i typically rec it the last 4-5 weeks of cycle, during is fine also depending on wants/needs. but low dose during or slightly higher dose at end of cycle is the way to go over HCG at end and then PCT. dont use HCG AS a pct or in PCT. use it as jimmy stated, during or atleast the end of cycle but NOT into pct and NOT at high doses. 250-500iu 2x a week is enough IMO

I still see soo much misinformation on hcg and it concerns me..


I agree about the misinformation of hcg. Has anyone seen the reasoning given for using hcg PCT? I was always taught the use of Hcg on cycle and cannot understand why so many want to use hcg pct.
 
if you notice i seperate hcg in my pct from serms as it is suppresive. i believe it is counter productive to run the entire cycle however hence why i reccomend the last 20 days of a cycle before starting a SERM PCT and have seen this method work first hand for people who have been on for over a year.
 
1-20 hcg 500iu eod
5 day break
then typical serm pct of
nolva 40 40 20 20 10
clomid 50 25 25 25
 
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