Post Cycle Therapy (PCT) After a Prohormone Cycle

The proliferation in the use of prohormones in the bodybuilding world has meant that trainees are able to acquire levels of muscularity and strength previously out of the reach of many. Prohormones have allowed even those with relatively deficient training and nutritional programs to make rapid gains. However, there has not been a concomitant awareness of the necessity to restore a homeostatic environment in the body, such that while many make rapid progress while using prohormones, many users experience a crash familiar to steroid users who use powerful ergogenics without the ancillary products needed to protect their gains. This article will cover strategies aimed at restoring normal hormonal function via the use of post cycle therapy, or PCT, supplements, with the aim of allowing trainees to maintain a greater proportion of the gains elicited by the use of prohormones.  

How prohormones work

Without going into too much detail, prohormone use will cause the body to recognise that an exogenous substance has been introduced into the body. With that substance being an androgenic hormone, a process called negative feedback takes place whereby the body will reduce its own production of testosterone, the naturally occurring androgen made in the body. This is to counteract the influence of the exogenous hormone that has been introduced. While the user is on his prohormone cycle he will not be too alarmed in most cases by the fall in his own natural testosterone levels because he is taking a substance which is working via similar mechanisms, to provide many of the anabolic functions of testosterone such as increased muscle mass and strength.

Androgenic functions of testosterone, related to characteristics we consider as being associated with males such as aggression, and sex drive, can either be magnified by the use of prohormone supplements, if the substance taken has these characteristics, or else, stay stable or possibly even fall. It is quite common for substances which are very “dry”, that is, lower estrogen in the body, to cause a reduction in sex drive whereas those compounds which allow for some estrogen formation, tend to increase the prevalence of androgenic traits such as sex drive and aggression.

Regardless of whether the user takes something that increases androgenic characteristics or not, ALL users of prohormones will expect to increase muscle mass via the anabolic characteristics of these compounds. So towards the end of a typical 4-6 week cycle a user will have gained considerable muscle mass and strength via the anabolic actions of these products while his male traits such as sex drive, and aggression will have varied depending on the nature of the supplement taken. In most cases, the user will have congratulated himself that he has done very well from the cycle, assuming adequate nutrition and training. So what happens next?  

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Ending a Prohormone cycle

This is where some users come unstuck. Inexperienced trainees tend to run a cycle of a powerful supplement like Nanodrol or Havoc, which will cause a great increase in muscle mass and strength, but not take into account what happens next.... Once the cycle ends you may think your body will carry on like it was before you took the hormonal product. You may even be delusional enough to think the gains made while “on” were all down to you, but you would be very wrong indeed. After a cycle is discontinued, the exogenous substance (the prohormones used) rapidly leave the body, usually in 24-48 hrs at the most. At this point, you can no longer rely on them for either anabolic or androgenic effects.

So this is where your body’s own testosterone production picks up the slack right? Wrong. Remember, during a cycle your body will gradually shut down production of its testosterone to try to maintain what it considers a normal hormonal milieu. The stronger the prohormone taken and the longer you remained on, the greater the degree to which normal testosterone levels will have been shut down. So when you come off the cycle your testosterone levels are very low. At the same time, estrogen levels tend to rise in response to low testosterone, so post cycle you are not in a very favourable place for muscle building and strength. Instead you are well placed to lose size, strength, gain fat, and, horror of horrors, if you do not take steps to counteract it, the estrogen could even cause you to gain actual breasts! This is known as gynecomastia, or gyno for short. That’s not all either. During a cycle, levels of the catabolic hormone cortisol are reduced, but once the cycle ends, levels of cortisol slowly rise, usually after about a week or so. This cortisol rise will cause you to lose muscle and strength very quickly, as well as cause you to gain body fat.

Clearly then, our novice user who failed to consider what would happen once he ended his cycle is in a very bad position of having low testosterone, high estrogen, and high cortisol levels. This is some place you definitely don’t want to be in for long, but without the use of ancillary supplements (PCT) it is something from which the body will only recover very slowly, at which point you may have lost all your gains from your prohormone cycle. What can we do to accelerate recovery then?

What are prohormone PCT supplements?

Prohormone PCT supplements are over the counter supplements designed to restore normal, healthy levels of testosterone and oestrogen following a cycle. These help 'kickstart' endogenous testosterone production and control the conversion of testosterone to oestrogen to avoid any rebound and the related oestrogenic side effects.

Post Cycle Therapy Supplements

Fortunately, we have some methods by which we can restore your body’s pre-cycle environment, while protecting your gains while “on”. Generally speaking for your post cycle therapy you need to consider the following factors:

1. Testosterone recovery
2. Estrogen inhibition
3. Progesterone inhibition
4. Reducing cortisol
5. Increasing libido and mood
6. Enhancing workout performance
7. Restoring health
8. Minimising fat gain
9. Natural Anabolics

Sometimes trainees may focus on only one or two of these methods, but a comprehensive approach will lead to far superior results than a narrowly focused approach. We will go through each in turn and explore possible options in each.

1. Testosterone Recovery

This is the most important part in most peoples’ eyes and the one that most people will usually make some effort in addressing. A slew of products/ingredients are promoted to boost testosterone levels. There are far too many to mention but they include Anacyclus Pyrethrum, D-Aspartic Acid, Divanil, Icariin, Indole-3-Carbinol, Zinc, Resveratrol, Vitex Agnus Castus, Epimedium, and many, many more. We have noted that individual responses to testosterone boosting ingredients vary significantly so we would recommend finding an ingredient you respond well to and sticking to it and note that just because one test booster did not work for you, it does not mean none of them will.

 An important point which should be made is that while estrogen blockers will both reduce estrogen AND increase testosterone, the reason you would want to include a supplement which purely focuses on testosterone enhancement alone is that such products can help in areas such as increasing bioavailable testosterone in the body (free testosterone) as well as providing much needed support to mood and libido.
 

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2. Estrogen Inhibition

Related to testosterone recovery, we must also look to drive down estrogen levels at the conclusion of our prohormone cycle. The sooner this is done the faster we get our testosterone levels back to normal, and the sooner sex drive rebounds especially if we combine an estrogen blocker with a test booster which is the classic way to maximise testosterone, free testosterone, mood and libido, as well as limiting the potential for any unwanted estrogenic effects caused by the rebound effect seen at the end of a prohormone cycle.

This rebound effect can occur for example, when a non-aromatising prohormone is used on cycle meaning a compound that drives estrogen levels way down. However, once you remove the exogenous prohormone, the body has a tendency to overshoot estrogen production above baseline levels and if testosterone is also not recovered, this is a classic cause of post-cycle gynecomastia.

A number of products have been specifically designed for the purpose of reducing estrogen, with some adding additional ingredients to facilitate other effects we desire such as not only increasing testosterone but variable such as controlling cortisol and bodyfat or increasing performance – all key facets of an intelligently constructed PCT regimen. 

Favoured ingredients include 7-hydroxy-4-imidazolyl-flavan, pZole , ATD, Formestane, 6-Bromo and Chrysin. 

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3. Progesterone Inhibition

Occasionally you hear reports of users reporting issues with gyno from compounds that do not directly agonise the estrogen receptor such as methasterone (super-drol), 19-norandrostenediol or dienolone focused products in particular. In this situation the culprit is more than likely a related steroid hormone called progesterone. To inhibit progesterone during both the cycle itself and during post cycle therapy is therefore a wise move for people who wish to cover their bases during a prohormone cycle and afterwards. 

Compared to estrogen lowering ingredients there is a relative paucity of options for those seeking to control progesterone. The primary ingredients used to lower progesterone include the herb vitex agnus, Pyridoxal-5-Phosphate and mucuna pruriens in the product. This is one case where propietary blends are best avoided in our view as the dosing is very important. Fortunately, both of the options include all three ingredients and disclose the dose in each.

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4. Reducing Cortisol

Failing to address rising cortisol levels post cycle can crucify training gains as well as help cause the fat gain typically seen post-cycle. Similar to the situation described for estrogen, it is important to understand that one of the ways prohormones exert their muscle building benefits is the reduction in cortisol and consequent enhancement of anti-catabolic processes. In short, as much as prohormones are anabolic (directly increase the rate at which new muscle is formed), they are also very much anti-catabolic (reduce the loss of muscle). By both reducing muscle loss and increasing muscle gain the net effect is obviously vastly superior muscle gains.

Unfortunately, once you remove the prohormone from the equation there is a rapid rise in cortisol and this happens at a time when anabolic hormones such as testosterone (or similar androgens) are not only down from their peak on cycle, but below the baseline level they would be before you took the prohormone. This means you have a situation where you go from vastly inflated anabolic and anti-catabolic effects to one where anabolism is minimal and catabolic actions leading to muscle loss are very high.

If you ever wondered why so many prohormone users lose so much muscle so quickly at the end of their cycle then this is a clear consequence of failing to take action to remedy this type of situation.

The use of ingredients such as 5-AT, Phosphatidylserine, 7-OXO, Dehydroabietic Acid,  Vitamin C and Ashwagandha are commonly used to address the problem of high cortisol among many others with more ingredients being discovered all the time to help modulate cortisol.

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