Does anybody find it completely impossible to gain any kind of muscle since PFS? My theory is that we lost a bunch of collagen in our bodies which is prevalent in muscle, but it’s just a theory. Does anybody else have any speculations?
It’s been written about many times around here.
I think it’s to do with the lipotractic system.
BTW, the lipotractic system doesn’t get written about very much because I just made it up.
That might seem flippant or annoying but I don’t mean it to be. A lot of theories that have been posted here essentially lead us to weird places where people become invested in a particular idea and begin trying to treat themselves based on a guess that someone made about what happened to them.
I’m a little worried that the community, which has made great progress recently might end up slipping back into making theories and guesses part of the daily conversation.
No offence intended, I think I’m a bit triggered when I see “my theory is…” 
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Have to echo what Greek says. It doesn’t matter what’s causing these symptoms because it’s clear by now we aren’t going to be able to remedy them unless we address the root cause of PFS. People have wasted countless hours on these subjects with no effect.
Focus our energy on uncovering that rather than trying to find bandaid solutions to individual symptoms.
Just from a speculative point of view, if we have some issue with the activation or transcription of AR it would greatly diminish our ability to build muscle (main theory).
Also it’s been shown that one difference between people who are good or bad responders to hypertrophy are that in the good responders they have an increase in 5AR activity post workout, while the low/non responders didn’t have this.
Low DHT in the brain have been consistent in all PFS studies. This is either because 5AR is less active or that some enzyme downstreams of DHT is extra active (the latter have been shown to be an effect from SSRI use).
I would not be surprised if this is the case in muscle tissue (and possibly some other tissues as well) in PFS patients.
My situation could be different as I have PAS, not PFS(the symptoms are pretty much the same though).
I don’t observe muscle wastage, my muscle mass could even be improved due to regular exercising.
But I surely lost collagen in my skin, it was rather rapid and noticeable change.
I don’t seem to have a problem putting on muscle. I have no experience with going to the gym before PFS, I did all my sports outside. But since starting to test the heavy resistance training theory the last two months I am getting more muscular.
Important notice is I am still on hCG 200-300 IU every 3 days, so available testosteron is in the higher range (probably 25 - 35 nmol/L). Which plays an important role in building muscle.