Quitting or Cycling Treatment?

[Aiku]

I started on TRT back in February of this year but I had to stop treatment after 10 weeks. My wife and I are trying to get pregnant. My doctor said it would be best to quit cold turkey, and so I did. I had actually heard that advice from another doctor as well (quitting cold turkey to become fertile once again), so I didn't question it much. It's been about 7 weeks and yes, I feel the difference. I have a few questions regarding quitting:

1. Will my test levels ever come back to what it was pre-therapy? I was low, for my age but not super low, around 550.
2. Some of the things I have read online about quitting TRT say that you should be on some kind of post cycle therapy. Should I be? I was taking HCG during treatment.

Then just a general question. Two of the doctors I had spoken with suggested that you when you do TRT you should cycle it. 12 weeks on and 6 to 8 weeks off was one doctor's suggestion. Another suggested 6 on 6 off. Can anyone confirm?

[Justin]

Your testosterone levels will recover to the prior level in most cases, but this can easily take 6 months or more. In some cases they could end up a little lower but being that you were only on treatment for 10wks there shouldn't be a big difference. But the best you'll recover is your previous low levels, not higher. Granted, you could test your levels here in a few months and you might be at 600 and the next day 540 and the next day 610 and so on but they'll still be in the same general range. That's the best possible outcome. Also, keep in mind your total testosterone doesn't mean much, Free Testosterone is the only number that really matters since it represents your useable testosterone.

HCG as part of testosterone treatment is often a very good thing. When you take testosterone this shuts down your body's natural testosterone production as you are now getting all you need from an outside source. As testosterone is made by the testicles, the testicles then atrophy to a degree. This does not present any physical damage but is simply a loss of fullness. Also, keep in mind, even though you are not making your natural testosterone anymore you weren't making enough to begin with. However, HCG will keep your natural production going, and a lot of guys like that because it will stave off testicular atrophy. More importantly, it helps maintain stable testosterone levels between your testosterone doses and greatly protects fertility. Most men are more fertile on HCG.

As for testosterone reducing your ability to have children, at one time it was thought to be a possible form of male birth control but this proved to be very unreliable. Many men on testosterone have children every day. Granted, there is a reduction in the odds but plenty of people still have children. Add in HCG, and the man should be just as fertile as he ever was. That said, if there are any other issues at hand, HCG will of course not counter those but it will counter the testosterone aspect.

PCT: There are some physicians (minority) that follow a PCT plan but it doesn't make a lot of sense. The idea behind PCT was developed by steroid users who are cycling steroids for the purpose of performance enhancement. Such cycles reduce natural testosterone levels; once the cycle is over, the PCT plan is put into place to stimulate and help speed up a better recovery. If you already have naturally low testosterone, all a PCT will do is stimulate your natural low level production. You may surpass your natural production while taking the PCT meds but as soon as you stop that will go away. So with TRT followed by PCT, this circle does nothing but produce an up and down affect; you're repeatedly increasing and decreasing your testosterone levels; your body never resides in a state of normalcy.

Lastly, some physicians (again, minority) say you need to take breaks from TRT to give your body a break from testosterone. This would imply that testosterone is something our body is unfamiliar with, that it is a stressful substance in our body when taking when in fact it's a hormone we've been making all our lives and essentially so. Yes, if you are taking abundant amounts of testosterone, such as in a performance enhancement based plan, you would need a break. But TRT is not designed for performance enhancement in that sense, nor is it even legal in the U.S. but rather it's purpose is to help you maintain proper and adequate testosterone levels that you should naturally produce but can no longer naturally produce.

I hope this helps.