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Clomid is used as Post Cycle Therapy to quickly restart the body’s own testosterone production after a steroid cycle.
Clomid
In the articles I read for my pieces on steroid (ab)use and the conversations I had with users about it, I noticed that especially novice users often experienced unpleasant side effects from steroid use. Those with years of experience and using larger amounts also frequently experience complaints, often of a more serious nature, but this is not surprising due to the prolonged use and amounts involved.
I wondered why novice users had relatively more side effects. One of the possible reasons turned out to be ignorance regarding PCTs.
For clarity: As a natural bodybuilder, I will be the last one to promote the use of anabolic steroids. However, unlike the Catholic Church, I prefer to distribute condoms in Africa rather than simply proposing abstinence as a solution. The reality is that steroid use occurs in almost every gym while some of the users don’t even know what creatine is (as I have personally experienced).
What are PCTs?
PCT stands for Post Cycle Therapy, literally translated: Therapy after a (steroid) cycle, or “post-cycle therapy”. When referring to PCTs, it means all products that can be used for this purpose.
Why are PCTs necessary?
Why post-cycle therapy? Because of the process in the body called homeostasis. You’ve seen this term on this site before in relation to various topics. It basically means that your body doesn’t like big changes and wants to keep everything in a self-determined standard setting. If you lose weight too quickly, you’ll quickly gain it back. If you gain mass quickly, it’s difficult to maintain that mass. This also applies to steroid use. When you alter your hormone balance by, for example, injecting testosterone or other androgenic hormones, your body responds by lowering and eventually stopping its own production. When you then stop the steroid cycle and your body no longer receives testosterone, it may take some time for your own production to resume. How long this takes depends on what was used, how much was used, and for how long.
I’ve mentioned before the example of someone who “felt like a woman” for a year because he had been using Deca-Durabolin for a year. This is much longer than the usual 12-16 weeks, and as a result, it also took almost a year for his own testosterone production to resume. It’s logical that if increasing your own (anabolic-androgenic) hormone levels leads to extra muscle mass, the reverse is also true. If you follow a cycle for several weeks and then it takes several weeks for your own testosterone level to return to normal, you’ll see much of the muscle mass you gained during the cycle disappear. The so-called “post-cycle therapy” is therefore aimed at retaining as much of the gained mass as possible by quickly restoring the hormone balance to the old, normal level.
Which substances are used as PCTs?
There are many different products used as PCTs, from natural products like Tribulus Terrestris (whose testosterone-enhancing properties I strongly doubt) to prescription medications intended to improve ovulation in women and medication for breast cancer treatment. The most commonly used ones are Clomid, Nolvadex, and HCG. There is ongoing debate in the bodybuilding community about which (combination) works best. In this article, I will focus on Clomid.
Clomid: What is it?
Clomid is clomiphene citrate. This is a synthetic estrogen (female sex hormone). It is normally used to help with ovulation in women with low fertility. The most commonly used brand name is Clomid, other names include Serophene and Milophene.
How does Clomid work?
Clomid stimulates the hypothalamus, which in turn stimulates the pituitary gland to release gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH). This hormone then stimulates the release of luteinizing hormone (LH) and follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH). FSH stimulates the testicles to produce more testosterone, and LH stimulates them to release more testosterone. This is called the hypothalamic-pituitary-testicular axis (HPTA). However, it’s important how step 1 proceeds, stimulating the hypothalamus. This is because of estrogen. When at the end of a cycle the level of androgenic (masculinizing) hormones is very low (own production has stopped and nothing more is coming in “from outside”), the body compensates by producing extra estrogen. Because of the presence of this female hormone, it takes longer for testosterone to be produced because it contributes to the total amount of hormones, so the body experiences this to a lesser extent as a deficiency.
Clomid works as an anti-estrogen, reducing the activity (not the amount!) of estrogen, and the body determines that there are too few hormones and starts producing testosterone and estrogen (which is reduced in effectiveness by Clomid). For this reason, it is not useful to use Clomid as a testosterone booster (a means to increase testosterone) during a cycle. Your testosterone levels are already high due to the steroids, so the production of your own testosterone remains disabled.
Clomid works as an anti-estrogen because it binds as synthetic estrogen to the estrogen receptors in cells, preventing estrogen in the blood from binding to them. The amount of estrogen does not decrease, but its effectiveness does. This can reduce side effects caused by aromatase such as gynecomastia and water retention, although this effect is not very strong. Clomid should not be the first choice to counteract these kinds of side effects. As PCT either, but more on that later (see “Clomid or Nolvadex”).
When do you start Clomid?
Because it makes no sense to use Clomid (as PCT) during a cycle because the amount of androgenic hormones is still too high, the right time to start it depends on the ester of the steroids used and the amount used. The ester is a chemical compound with the molecule of the anabolic-androgenic steroid (AAS) that determines the half-life. The half-life is the time in which the AAS loses half of its effectiveness because the amount in the blood halves. Below is a table that only indicates for a few AAS when you could start with Clomid.
For testosterone, various esters are indicated, for nandrolone only one (decanoate, Deca-Durabolin). The longer the ester, the longer it takes for it to disappear from your blood, or at least to decrease in quantity enough for Clomid to be useful. So you see that in the case of Deca Durabolin, which has a decanoate ester (long ester thus still long in the blood) and Sustanon (which consists in part of testosterone with medium and long esters), it only makes sense to use Clomid after 3 weeks. In the three weeks, according to this table, the level of androgenic hormones (nandrolone in the case of Deca-Durabolin and testosterone in the case of Sustanon) is still high. If you start too early, Clomid will not help increase testosterone. If you have used a cycle of various AAS, you set the start of Clomid to the longest-lasting AAS in the cycle. If you start too late, you will have a low level of androgenic hormones in the meantime and your muscle mass will decrease.
The table below (translated) is one I’ve seen on various sites and is often referred to.
A major problem with this table, however, is that it does not take into account the amounts of AAS taken (bolded for those who want to immediately use the table and skip the explanation). Because Clomid only works when the amount of androgenic hormones in the blood, such as testosterone, returns to near and below the natural level, the correct starting point depends on the amount used in combination with the half-life.
Men produce an average of 7mg of testosterone per day (women 1-2mg) and their blood normally contains somewhere between 10 and 30 nmol/l (nanomoles per liter, mole is a defined unit for a quantity of substance) of testosterone. For example, consider the difference between using 50mg of testosterone suspension per day and 200mg. Testosterone suspension is testosterone without an ester and has a short half-life of about a day (depending on metabolism and other substances used). The table states that you can start Clomid after 4-8 hours. In the case of 50mg per day, from the first injection, there is still 25mg left after 1 day (“in depot” not necessarily in the blood yet), after 2 days 12.5mg, after 3 days 6.25mg, etc. For 200mg per day, this is 100mg after 1 day, 50mg after 2 days, 25mg after 3 days, 12.5mg after 4 days, and only after 5 days 6.25mg, etc. It therefore takes two days longer to reach the same amount. With longer half-lives, this difference in time is even greater.
Without going into too much detail about units of measurement and conversions and the eventual amount in your blood, you don’t have to be a genius to understand that this can make a big difference in the amount of testosterone in your blood and the time you have to wait to start Clomid. So, in fact, you have nothing to gain from the table except that it provides some insight into differences.
How much Clomid should I use and for how long?
There are as many opinions on the amounts to be used and for how long as there are steroid users. Moreover, some base this on the amount of androgens in the blood. This in relation to the amount of estrogen in the blood. However, since this is also a self-regulating process and there is therefore eventually a maximum of estrogen, it is questionable whether the amount of steroids used matters. What most people do is use more in the beginning and then use less later. This is based on the idea that estrogen decreases during use, so less Clomid is needed to lower the rest. Commonly mentioned amounts are:
Day 1: 300 mg
Day 2: 200 mg
Next 10 days: 100 mg/day
Next 10 days: 50 mg/day
or
Week 1: 100 mg/day
Week 2 & 3: 50 mg/day
Or the same as the latter but without the 3rd week. Others do 2 times 14 days of 100 mg/day and then 14 days of 50 mg/day.
Quite large differences as you can see. As someone who has never used steroids himself and therefore has never had to do post-cycle therapy, I cannot tell you from personal experience what I think the right amounts should be. However, I can refer to scientific studies that have been conducted on the effect of Clomid on testosterone.
For example, researchers from Brazil conducted a study on the effect of Clomid on the amount of testosterone in men suffering from chronic testosterone deficiency. These men often receive testosterone, but this also has, among other things, the disadvantage that it inhibits/stops their own production (in addition to not following the day/night rhythm of naturally produced testosterone, reducing sperm production, and causing large peak concentrations). The men had an average age of 62 years (± 11.2 years), which partly explains the low testosterone. The amount of testosterone in the blood averaged 310.27 (± 95.96) ng/dl (nanograms per deciliter). The range for testosterone is just over 200 to 1200 ng/dl, with anything below 300 ng/dl considered low and between 300-400 ng/dl considered low to normal. However, the desired value is between 500-600 ng/dl (University of Ghent).
In the Brazilian study, the men received 25mg of Clomid per day for 3 months. This is less per day than bodybuilders typically do, but for a longer period. The longer period can be explained because these men have a chronic deficiency while bodybuilders use it temporarily until their own production starts again. However, it is striking that 25mg per day already showed significant results, as the average increased by 115% to 669.03 (± 239.68) ng/dl. The younger the men were, the greater the result, but this was also to be expected because their normal testosterone production should also be higher (see “table 2”). Although the researchers would like to look at the longer-term effects as well, I find it especially unfortunate that there is no graph showing the results over the period from day 1 to the end of the 3rd month. It would be nice to know if the desired effect on testosterone at 25mg/day was not achieved earlier.
One injection or divided over the day?
Due to Clomid’s long half-life, the daily dose does not need to be divided over various moments. So, it can be done with a daily injection.
Clomid Side Effects
The most commonly reported side effect of Clomid is blurred vision. This varies from person to person and also depends on the amount used, although there are users who report this after taking only 25mg once. Much less than most people use. However, there are also others who use much more and do not have this problem.
Clomid or Nolvadex
In the next article, I will write about another drug that can be used as PCT, Nolvadex. Nolvadex and Clomid are often used for two different purposes and are therefore seen as two different products, although they are very similar. Nolvadex is more often used as an anti-estrogen and Clomid as PCT. Although it is true that Clomid is less effective as an anti-estrogen, the reverse does not apply. In fact, it is increasingly argued that Nolvadex is also much more effective as PCT.
