Post-Cycle Therapy

Post-cycle treatment (PCT) is often overlooked as just another nuisance, but it is a very important aspect of a steroid cycle. In men, anabolic steroid administration produces a predictable, dose-dependent depression of luteinizing hormone (LH) and follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) via the negative feedback loop of the hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal axis (HPGA/HPTA). There is no point in spending your money on steroids and many hours in the gym only to lose it all at the end of a cycle because you didn’t recover your endogenous hormone production afterward. PCT with chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) and anti-estrogen drugs will speed up recovery by stimulating LH production.

I’m going to skip the scientific explanations of all the different components used during PCT and get straight to the business end, which is determining which PCT protocol will work best for your cycle/stack.

Fortunately, there are people with extensive knowledge regarding the effects of steroids on the body and, in this case, particularly the effects on the HPTA axis. One such person is a well-known South African doctor who writes under the nickname of Doctari. After a lot of research and tests, he developed a PCT protocol that demonstrated outstanding success in reversing the negative effects of steroids on the HPTA axis.

To date, I doubt there is another PCT protocol capable of matching the effectiveness of “Doctari’s PCT protocol.” However, this PCT is not really intended for low-dose beginner cycles, so I will break this section down into three separate PCT protocols, from least to most effective.

Before we discuss the protocols, you need to know when to apply the PCT protocol after your steroid cycle has ended. Timing is very important because if you start too soon, the PCT will not restore the HPTA axis to natural levels. This is due to the steroid compounds still being active in your body and continuing to apply negative feedback to the hypothalamus and pituitary glands. If you start too late, you run the risk of losing muscle mass and also suffering more severely from estrogenic side effects like depression, erectile dysfunction, and even fat gain.

To get your timing right, you need to know the half-life of your longest-acting steroid in the stack. You can use the chart below to find the half-life of common compounds.

Once you have determined the half-life of the longest-acting compound, you can use the following formula to calculate the time you need to wait before starting PCT:

3 x tHalf-Life = Time to wait

For example, if you stacked Sustanon with Dianabol, you would wait 3 x 18 = 54 days before commencing PCT. This is considerably longer than what most other sources might tell you, but they never considered that traces of a steroid will stay active in your body for up to 7 x tHalf-Life. So even if you wait slightly longer than 3 x tHalf-Life, the chance of significant muscle loss is minimal.

Now that you know when to start your PCT, we can finally look at the protocols.

NO 1:
The first PCT protocol is suitable for simple beginner cycles containing only one or two compounds used for short periods at low dosages. An example of a cycle this PCT is intended for would look something like this:

Week 1-4: Dianabol at 30mg per day.
Week 1-8: Testosterone Cypionate at 200-250mg per week.

This PCT cycle will start 36 days after the last Testosterone Cypionate injection.
You will need the following: 15x Clomid 50mg, 30x Nolvadex 20mg

Instructions:
Day 1-7: Clomiphene citrate is used as 50 mg twice daily for a full 7 days.
Day 8-37: Tamoxifen citrate at 20mg per day for a full 30 days.

NO 2:
The second PCT protocol is intended for slightly stronger cycles. An example cycle can look something like this:

Week 1-3: Anapolon at 100mg per day.
Week 1-10: Sustanon at 500mg per week.
Week 6-12: Anavar at 60mg per day.

This PCT will start 54 days after the last Sustanon injection, even though Anavar was used up to week 12. The Anavar is ignored in this situation because the Sustanon is still the last compound to clear the body.

You will need the following: 15x Clomid 50mg, 1x HCG 5000iu, 30x Nolvadex 20mg

Instructions:
Day 1-7: Clomiphene citrate is used as 50 mg twice daily for a full 7 days.
Day 8-37: Tamoxifen citrate at 20mg per day for a full 30 days. HCG 5000 comes in a single-unit vial, multi-dosed, at 5000IU. The vial is accompanied by 2ml sterile water for mixing. This is what should be done. Draw up the 2ml ampoule provided with the HCG and mix it into the powdered bottle. The HCG is now used from day 8 onwards at 0.2ml drawn into an insulin needle and injected as a single injection every second day. In other words, it is used one day on, one day off.
It is important to note that PCTs NO 1 & 2 are not effective against highly suppressive compounds like Nandrolone or Trenbolone, and whenever they are used in a cycle, you should skip straight to PCT NO 3.

NO 3:
This is the PCT I recommend above any of the previously mentioned ones.

You will need the following: 15x Clomid 50mg, 1x HCG 5000, 30x Aromasin 20mg, 30x Nolvadex 20mg

Instructions:
Day 1-7: Clomiphene citrate is used as 50 mg twice daily for a full 7 days.
Day 8-37: Tamoxifen citrate at 20mg per day for a full 30 days. Exemestane at 20mg per day for a full 30 days. HCG 5000 comes in a single-unit vial, multi-dosed, at 5000IU. The vial is accompanied by 2ml sterile water for mixing. This is what should be done. Draw up the 2ml ampoule provided with the HCG and mix it into the powdered bottle. The HCG is now used from day 8 onwards at 0.2ml drawn into an insulin needle and injected as a single injection every second day. In other words, it is used one day on, one day off.