We are all entitled to our own opinion and views on how all this stuff works. At the end of the day, it is your decision, your body, and only impacting you. As you navigate through all of the articles, forums, comments, etc. it is important to learn how to balance "bro-science" with actual "science". I say balance, because you do need both. Bro-science is important because it typically involves real world, hands on experience with actual humans that we can converse with and ask questions. However, your best approach is to focus on the real resources. Read the medical journals, read the clinical trials. All of these steroids and drugs were developed for an actual reason. And in the true medical research, you can find out exactly "why" they were developed, what happens in your body when you take them, and what the negatives are. In doing that you are going to see that pretty much all steroids, even orals, are going to shut you down. Maybe not completely but they will certainly suppress your body's own production of testosterone. So on an oral only cycle, if you are going to suppress or shut down your testosterone and not introduce and external source of the hormone into your system, how great do you really expect your benefits or your gains to be on the cycle when you have little to no testosterone in the body? Maybe you are not looking to get huge, but you still need to weigh the pros and cons. Keep in mind that testosterone is one of the primary hormones associated with being able to grow and maintain muscle. So if your oral steroid suppresses your own level to a non-beneficial range, you are limiting any type of growth potential when not reimbursing that hormone with exogenous supplementation. Therefore, maybe you can gain 2-5 pounds on an anavar only cycle. But at what expense? Your going to suppress your testicular function and put your organs through some stress, for 2-5 pounds? You won't see any really positive change to your physic, and anything you experience from this will certianly be lost once you stop taking the oral. Testosterone injections are the base to any steroid cycle, oral or not, because you need to make up for the fact that you are shutting off (or significantly reducing) your body's own natural production of it while on cycle.
I am not arguing in anyway, but in regard to the comment above by Nac - If anyone thinks that you can run an anavar only cycle and not need PCT after, you are asking for issues. Even though it is mild and generally "user friendly" it still puts stress on your bodys own production of test and therefore it is hands down in your best interest to run PCT after to help your chances of recovering to as close to your pre-cycle levels. If you run oral only cycles with no PCT, you better expect that down the road you are going to find yourself on TRT anyways.
Bottom line, running an oral cycle, regardless of how mild the drug may be, is going to put your natural test levels in the gutter. Each and every person on this forum tries to increase their test levels because we all know that with optimized/higher levels, it will help in getting stronger and making gains. So wouldn't it be in our best interest to run test along side any oral compound? Shut your own self down but replace it with an exogenous source so your levels are still at the minimum "optimal" range so you can reap the benefits of whatever oral compound it is that you decide to take? You can put the most expensive, best oil in your car but if it has no gas, it isn't going to work any better.. (corny?)
Like I said, its your decision only. And again, I do not say any of this to argue, I am just sharing it and getting as passionate about it in my responses because I was 110% in your exact same spot for a long time. Wanted so badly to take it to the next level, just was not 100% sure I could do injectibles just yet. When I was in that position it was almost like I didn't want to listen to anyone who said something "against" what it was that I wanted to hear and I dismissed most of it, I was just fishing for somewhere to show me some kind of sign that said "yes, its ok and yes it is going to provide you the benefits that you want". But I never found that. Remember, everyone is different. One person may take anavar only and change their physic for the better and not have too hard of a time recovering back to normal levels. Doesn't mean it will be the same for you, or for me, or for the next guy. Read the true medical literature, understand why the drug exists to begin with. Everything else is just an opinion.
