So this is something I've been thinking about alot lately and another post today made me wanna go ahead and start a discussion on the topic of pct and serms. So before I get into that I'm just gonna briefly explain the chain of events that lead our bodies into producing testosterone naturally, as this is what we all strive for during pct. Just so anyone who's not fimilar with it can still understand and join in the the discussion. And this is just a generalized version of the process, its a little more complicated then how I will explain it.

So this process is just not one step, its a chain of events that occur. The hypothalamic–pituitary–gonadal axis, is responsible for the production of testosterone. But like I said its a chain reaction that occurs and the end result is the production of testosterone, and some estrogen. So the first part of this process is the hypothalamus creates and releases gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH). When the hypothalamus releases GnRH this signals the pituitary gland to release Luteinizing-hormone (LH), and follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH). After the pituitary gland releases LH it travels through he blood stream down and tells your leydeg cells in your testes to produce and release testosterone.

So what that being said we have these different pct drugs that basically cut out different steps in this process. The first ill talk about is human chorionic gonadotropin or HCG. HCG is basically a synthetic form of LH. When you inject it on cycle it mimics the effects of LH. Whether you actually release a tiny but of testosterone while your on cycle I don't know, but the benefits of using it on cycle n boosting testosterone. We have plenty of it with all the test were injecting lol. In my opinion the best way to use it is throughout your entire cycle. There have been a few studies on recovering test levels after discontinuing the administration of exogenous testosterone, and the problem with recovery was due to desensitization of leydeg cells. The studies showed that the LH levels returned to normal after about 3 weeks when they stopped testosterone injections but test levels took many more weeks to rise. This is due to the fact that when you're on cycle your entire HPTA is shutdown. So your leydeg cells (which are responsible for producing testosterone) lie dormant for many months. So as I stated before HCG mimics the effects of LH, so by using it on cycle your leydeg cells will still be getting that LH signal a few times a week and remain awake and active for the duration of the cycle. By doing so we should be able to avoid the desensitization that will occur and in turn make for a faster and easier recovery. The other method of using hcg is for the last few weeks of a cycle and attempt to "wake up" your lydeg cells and testes and reverse atrophy. That way when you start pct your testes are already at full size and the SERMS can help kickstart your natural test as fast as possible as opposed to waiting for your balls to plump back up during the first few weeks of pct. This is beneficial because you will not produce test at optimal rates with raisin size balls, I'm not sure if you'll produce any test until there close to full size. But like I said before I believe you should use hcg on cycle to prevent this from occurring in the first place. It's never easy to try to explain to a girl why she's able to fit both of your balls in her mouth at the same time. That is unless you wanna tell every girl you bag that you're on steroids. I don't know about you but I'm trying to avoid that conversation. So use hcg to prevent this from occurring. Just my opinion, but that's a discussion for another day.

The next drugs we use are the selective estrogen receptor modulators or SERMs. There are many different ones available but I'm just gonna talk about most commonly used ones and that's tamoxifen citrate or brand name nolvadex and clomiphene citrate or brand name Clomid. Clomids great for pct because it stimulates LH. So since you know understand the important role of LH in this processs you can see why clomid is a great pct drug. It stimulates the pitutary gland to produce LH which in turn will signal your testes to produce and release testosterone. And Nolva exerts it's test boosting effects in some of the same ways as well as through some other pathways through feed back loops with associated with estrogen, but I will not get into as that's not the point of this post.

And the last one is triptorelin. Think of triporelin as a synthetic form of GnRH. Its basically the same concept as HCG. It mimics the action of GnRH, so when you use it it stimulates the pituitary to release LH, and blah blah blah you should know what happens next by now.

So whats the problem here? Well lately I've been thinking and Ive realized we keep skipping one very important step in all this. And thats the most important step, the first one. This entire process is not gonna work once you come off the SERMs if the hypothalamus is not producing GnRH. The serms make it possible to skip the first step, the trip makes it possible to get the pituitary to release LH without the hypothalamus producing GnRH, and the hcg makes it possible to skip both the hypothalamus releasing GnRH, and the pituitary releasing LH
So thats why these are beneficial during pct, you come off gear and you have the clomid and nolva stimulating LH so you don't have to wait for the hypothalamus to start producing GnRH first. So the clomid and nolva will raise your test a bit so you're not spending a month with literally zero test in your body. Thats a great way to lose all your gains.

So now what Im thinking here is why don't we have a drug that stimulates GnRH? We have drugs in triptorelin that mimics the actions of GnRH, but it doesnt stimulate the hypothalamus into actually producing it, We have the serms that stimulate LH, FSH, and we have a drug in HCG that mimics the actions of LH. So I want to find a drug that stimulates GnRH, its the first step in this chain of events, and the most important if you want to naturally produce testosterone. Without the hypothalamus producing GnRH, the pituatiy will not release LH and FSH, which means the testes will not produce testosterone.

So I have been doing a little research about this lately and I have came across a class of drugs that actually stimulate the hypothalamus to produce GnRH. They are called GnRH agonists , and I'm sure you can guess what there used for, the same thing all of our pct drugs are used for and thats fertility. There are currently two of these drugs available, the first is called and Zoladex, which are injected sub q, and the second is Synarel, which is a nasal spray. I havent finished reading about these drugs enough at this point but i will continue to do so over the next few weeks. But if these really work like they are designed to it could be a big breakthrough in pct. Instead of just bypassing steps these drugs will actually start from the very first step of the process. They should stimulate the release of GnRH, which will signal the pituitary to release LH and FSh, which will trigger the testes to produce testosterone. Overtime pct protocols have evolved alot. Back in the early days they didnt even do pct, then the next belief was pyramiding the doses and tapering off. Then we got into the protocols and our current methods with the serms. But we need to continue to improve these methods. I don't know about you guys but I'm all about having the smoothest pct and having the highest chance of recovery possible.