Effect on Cycle
Clomid for Gynecomastia:
When estrogen levels rise too high in a man’s body, one distressing side effect is the development of excessive breast tissue in a condition called gynecomastia, a.k.a “man boobs” or just gyno for short.
Along with water retention, gyno is the worst things that can happen to your physique as a result of using steroids. If left for too long, gyno can keep developing until you reach a point where it’s no longer treatable by medication – and here, surgery is the only option you’ll have to get rid of that breast tissue.
So, you will want to completely avoid gyno rearing its head while you’re on steroids, but if it does start up then getting on top of it with Clomid and other drugs can ensure that all symptoms will disappear.
While Clomid is a tried and tested drug for preventing gyno, aromatase inhibitors (AI) are often the first choice these days over SERMs for preventing this and other undesirable effects during a steroid cycle.
Water retention is the other main estrogen related side effect we dread with steroid use. New steroid users can make the mistake in thinking that SERMs can also effectively eliminate water retention, but this is not the case.
Clomid and other SERMs more actively target the breast tissue and while Clomid might have some slight benefit in reducing water retention, it is rarely enough to not warrant the use of other drugs to target that specific problem.
Clomid does not directly reduce estrogen levels, which is what is needed to combat water retention. This makes Clomid very useful for preventing gyno as its main inclusion in a steroid cycle.
Clomid for Post Cycle Therapy (PCT):
When you’re on a steroid cycle using synthetic versions of testosterone or derivatives of the hormone, your body is running with much higher testosterone levels than you’d normally be able to produce. The body knows this, and as a result simply halts the production of normal testosterone, or at least decreases it to a very low level.
When you stop your steroid cycle, the sudden end to synthetic testosterone going into the body can cause a massive crash and serious low T side effects.
The purpose of PCT then is to wind your body back up to normal hormone function, and for this reason post cycle therapy is a critical part of your steroid use. Without PCT, you would be on a very slow uphill battle to wait for your T levels to get back to normal, if they ever do.
Clomid is beneficial when included in a post cycle therapy plan after a steroid cycle when testosterone levels will have been suppressed to a very low or even non-existent level because of the way that many anabolic steroids signal to the body to cease testosterone production when synthetic testosterone is being used.
The goal of PCT is to increase endogenous testosterone back to normal levels so you can avoid the serious effects of low testosterone. These include low libido, loss of muscle mass, gaining body fat, low mood, decreased energy and strength, poor mental concentration and more.
The timing of the start of your Clomid use will depend on which steroid compounds you’ve used in your cycle and what the active life of each steroid is.
Steroids with a short life can have you needing to start PCT within just days of finishing your steroid cycle, while some other large ester steroids can require you to wait two weeks before starting post cycle therapy as the steroid effects continue to remain active for some time after your last dose.
Depending how heavy your steroid use is, it can take many weeks or even several months to recover your normal testosterone function and restore levels to what they were before your steroid cycle. Clomid then is one powerful, but not necessarily the only tool in the box when it comes to effective post cycle therapy.