Do you know if there's a long-term downside of suppression or becoming reliant on the clomid.
I know if your low testosterone then you need to stay on the clomid to keep test elevated. But what if someone was middle of the road and decided to go on clomid for 6 months to try to stay high end normal. Is there any kind of suppression or negative feedback loop for someone using it extended periods of time.
Basically I'm saying if you use it long term and come off, will you go right back to your original number or is there a possibility you could dip down lower. It's not something I've ever seen brought up so I have no clue. I thought maybe with your medical background you might have seen this at some point?
This is a great question. And actually very important info that most even educated bodybuilders don't know.
I can tell you based on hundreds of patients what I saw.
#1- HPTA took about 2-12 months to return in patients. "If" it would return. Now that was tough to tell because we didn't always have a baseline. Most of the patients were hypogonadal naturally but of course I also have seen hundreds of clients over the years labs that are Anabolic users.
The variables that affected a returning HPTA were age, cycle history, metabolism, overall health and drug use and alcohol use. So in an older male that had cycled for years, of course it was going to take way longer to return HPTA. I see guys run PCT for 4 weeks, or even 8 weeks and that is dead wrong unless you are a novice.
Another thing, studies exist, anyone can find them on pubmed. Even one cycle, or HRT can strongly diminish your"future" or "permanent" functioning baseline.
So lets say you were 600 n/dL, then you ran a cycle. Now lets say you do your PCT, and even if you stay on Clomid for long term. You come off. Now you might be at 400n/dL as your "new" baseline. This does commonly happen. It DOES NOT always happen though. Another thing that can happen. I have seen a patient come in with say a 200 n/dL level (and Im only using Total T for basis of this discussion though I am very aware of Free T, DHT, LH, FSH's roll.) Im simply talking about Total T. So anyways I have seen patients come in low. Stay on clomid for a year say, then come off and then retest and have a consistent baseline of say 400n/dL. So I have absolutely seen Clomid improve a hypogonadal patients baseline figures.
The other thing is, clomid is always an elevated number. So I see guys run clomid and even if its 25 or 50mgs per day, they will give blood work the same day or even 24 hours later and then say "holy **** I am recovered. I have recovered my HPTA"
Well thats not true. What you are seeing is the elevated figure from the clomid etc.
It is for this very reason I have all my clients stay off clomid for 3-4 weeks before testing and I also do not let them workout for 3-4 days prior to labs, bc I want to see a truer picture of all their numbers, whether that be the T, or the CBC, RBC, liver and kidney functions you name it.
Another thing we used besides Clomid is HCG for a cycle. Studies show as little as 900iu per week total puts the average male in the average functioning range. You absolutely can use HCG as HRT. It will aromatize for many and so you very well may have to use an AI, etc, while on even just HCG. The mistake doctors do, is they give an HRT patient a fertility protocol.. They will blast their patient with say 5kIu per week total, or even 10kiu and they do it in one shot. I have seen that before. Causes massive side effects and fluctuation, not to mention this can and often permanently desensitizes and damages the testicles.
