Why is Post Cycle Needed After Steroids?

Steroids can help people gain muscle, lose fat and enhance the strength. But undeniably it could throw the natural workings of your body out of whack. That’s why, after a cycle of steroids, you need a "cooling-off" period. This is where post-cycle therapy (PCT) comes in.

What is PCT?

When you take steroids, you’re artificially increasing your strength and size. During a cycle, your body goes on cruise control and stops producing hormones naturally. That’s why you need PCT.

Post-cycle therapy is an essential process that people go through once they’ve finished a cycle of steroids. The objective is to get their body back to its normal state so it can start naturally producing hormones again. Once a run of steroids is over, a user will start their post-cycle therapy, which can last anywhere from 30 to 45 days.

There are a variety of different drugs that can be utilised for PCT. That’s where SERMS and HCG come to the table.

SERM #1: CLOMID

What is Clomid?

Clomid is a drug that’s primarily used to boost fertility in women, and works to induce ovulation. However, it also has a variety of off-label uses, including helping to increase sperm count and improve motility in men.

These off-label uses make it a useful to drug to include as part of a post-cycle therapy plan. When used after steroids, Clomid helps to fire up your testes to start producing testosterone again.

SERM #2: Nolvadex

What is Nolvadex?

Clomid is often used in conjunction with Nolvadex during post-cycle therapy. Known generically as tamoxifen, this drug is mainly used for breast cancer treatment in women.

In the bodybuilding world, Nolvadex is used during post-cycle therapy to help suppress estrogen, much like Clomid. Guys coming off a steroid cycle often use Clomid and ‘Nolva’ together to get their body back to homeostasis, and get their T-levels back to normal.

HCG

HCG stands for Human Chorionic Gonadotrophin and is not a steroid, but a natural peptide hormone which develops in the placenta of pregnant women during pregnancy to controls the mother's hormones. 

Its action in the male body is like that of LH, stimulating the Leydig cells in the testes to produce testosterone even in the absence of endogenous LH. HCG is therefore used during longer or heavier steroid cycles to maintain testicular size and condition, or to bring atrophied (shrunken) testicles back up to their original condition in preparation for post-cycle Clomid therapy. This process is necessary because atrophied testicles produce reduced levels of natural testosterone, this situation should be rectified prior to post-cycle Clomid therapy.

Therefore, PCT is extremely important after a cycle of steroids.