I will post cliffs first, then explain how I got to them, then summarize them again.
Cliffs:
-your free/active cortisol and thyroid hormones together determine your cell metabolism
-the speed of your cell metabolism determines how much testosterone the cells can take
-if the cells can't take all the free/active testosterone, the body takes action to 'dump' the testosterone either via increasing SHBG, or increasing conversion to estrogens and other androgens (E2, DHT, whatever) or increasing excretion from the body (liver, kidneys), or a combination of all 3 but the first two are most easily measurable
-taking exogenous androgens not only suppresses gonadotropins but also leads to a decreased production of substrates for testosterone, starting from pregnenolone all the way to androstenedione
Out of those, only the last conclusion is my own. I'll get to it at the end
The cortisol and thyroid metabolism (or turnover, or free/active levels of hormones) effect on everything else is not my idea, kudos goes to someone who goes by chilln at a famous male health forum. Just google "chilln pregnenolone" and read to your heart's content.
The observation is that as metabolism of cortisol and thyroid go down, so does that of all other hormones but we are mainly interested in testosterone and its metabolites. The reason for the decrease could be genetic, environmental, exogenously-androgenic
, anything really, and if you want to restore what he calls "youthful levels" of testosterone, you have to restore cortisol and thyroid first. If you don't, the test you inject or the test you force your body to produce via, say, a combo of a SERM and an AI, will not result in increased testosterone metabolism but instead the test would be dumped to E2 and/or DHT or it will be dealt with via an increase in SHBG.
What I think happened here is the first scenario. And why I think it happened is because cortisol metabolism was suppressed from androgen use (less conversion to pregnenolone etc) and is yet to come back. The giveaway from me is the lethargy and bloat the OP mentions. I read that as low cortisol and aldosterone, but maybe I'm biased
If read the cycle logs on here you'd see a lot of mentions of lethargy. That is also true on compounds that are not harsh on the liver. It is my personal conclusion that this is due to the drop in cortisol. Those who add Dermacrine get better, it has a tiny bit of pregnenolone but it maybe just enough to keep the boat from sinking.
With all that said, the OP may wait and see what happens, or try chilln's protocol for transdermal pregnenolone to boost his cortisol and therefore his cortsiol metabolism and (assuming thyroid is ok as I wanted to keep this short) as a result his testosterone metabolism which will remove the reasons for the body to get rid of the test it sees as redundant if not harmful by converting it to E2.
I wrote something up here:
http://anabolicminds.com/forum/supplements/261968-anxiety-how-help-19.html#post5099137
If you wanted to do that, start low, maybe 20mg a couple times a day and see how it goes without changing anything else! You can top off your pregnenolone and cortisol without causing suppression, very much unlike testosterone where any exogenous androgen you put in and you are shut down, it is only a matter of time, not amount. Once you feel so much energy you can jump over cars in motion, you know your cortisol metabolism is good. Good luck
