Originally Posted by
Westsidex
Heres an interesting read for you. Dont ask the name because im not saying.
Westside.
First of all. I am not a doctor. I just play one on Outlaws. I can only offer you my personal experience, my experience dealing with many lifters over the years, and the words of paid advice given to me by a specialist in male endocrinology. If you don't agree, that is fine. Do what floats your boat.
To understand whether or not PCT works, you should understand the feedback loop.
Every brain is wired to maintain equilibrium of hormones in the body. This is regulated by a feedback loop. When the brain senses testosterone under a certain level, it will send a signal to the testes to produce more. The testes respond by increasing production.
Every body is calibrated differently. This is why levels are different for different people. Also, this number is always in flux and is never static. Measure your serum test levels 2x in one week and they will be different.
When a person ingests exogenous testosterone (or another chemical which binds to those receptors), the brain responds by cutting off the signal to the testes to produce. Again, this is feedback. Think of balancing your pool. Shit out of whack, add chemicals, re-measure. Repeat ad-nauseum.
When signal is permanently suppressed to the testes, they atrophy. The mechanisms of why/how atrophy occurs are beyond this but we can all agree your nuts shrink (a lot), especially on long-term. My nickname at home is raisin. You figure out why.
Anyway, the longer and more your nuts atrophy, the longer they will take to return once the signal is given. Think of it just like your muscles. You stop lifting and lose 30 lbs... you can't just put that back on overnight. It is the SAME thing with the testicles. When they receive the signal from the brain to ramp up, it takes time for them to be able to produce.
Another analogy: Factory makes cars. Orders stop. Factory lays off. Economy recovers. It takes time to re-hire and kick out cars again. Same thing in the body.
There is NO arguing these basic facts.
Here is where the disagreement starts. What is HCG's role?
HCG is often touted as the missing link. It is used in the treatment of hypogonadal men. However, there is an important distinction. With some hypogonadal males, the problem is not in the testes. It originates in the brain and is do to the fact that the brain is not sending the proper signals. Here is what was explained to me (and it cost me a lot of money out of my own pocket to finally hear this so listen up):
Males who take testosterone usually do NOT have any problem whatsoever sending the signal. Read this again please. In fact, the signal skyrockets as soon as your brain detects you have stopped hormones. This was proven to me via a test which measured my level of the signalling hormone when i was 4 weeks off. It was WAY high, indicating that my brain was indeed working properly.
The problem is in fact with the atrophied testicals. No matter how much signal your brain (or you through HCG) sends, your balls simply cannot produce yet. The longer you are off, the longer it takes to recover. Period. Same reason you can't rush those 30 lbs back on in a week by training more. Takes time to respond to the stimuli.
So, does HCG work during a cycle? This is *highly* debatable. In one theory, if you are taking just enough hormone to not cause a complete shutdown and atrophy, sending this signal could artificially amplify the signal that tell the balls to continue producing. But the FACTS do not bear this out. Most people on a cycle take far too much testosterone to be able to override the body's feedback mechanism. Dumping this chemical in the body simply does not cause it to respond.
There are no clear studies on this. It is all hearsay. A lot of people, including HRT clinics are making money off unproven pseudo-science. In addition, HCG has other effects, such as raising estrogen, which you then are told to combat using an estrogen-blocker, which is also ridiculously expensive nowadays. In fact, your body is quite good at balancing itself out. You are probably not going to outsmart it. In my opinion: just get off, take your lumps and be done with it. Stop pouring money down the drain.
Some guys are completely sold on PCT, and that is fine. If it makes you feel better, that is 1/2 the battle to post-cycle blues. Personally, I used prescription HCG a few times and got absolutely nothing beyond what I did without it. But, then again, I am old and cynical and not easily fooled anymore.
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