Intro to Beekay’s HPTA restart protocol - journal entry # 1
“Victorious warriors win first and then go to war, while defeated warriors go to war first and then seek to win”
― Sun Tzu, The Art of War
This quote actually inspired me to undertake my upcoming HPTA restart and recovery protocol… after learning alot from my numerous failed attempts (although the last actually recovered me upto a point!)… I’ve finally come up with an all-inclusive plan… I have so much confidence in what I am about to partake in that I wish to share this journey with you in the hope that you too can recover or even provide me feedback where my knowledge is seemingly lacking and where you and I (my fallen brethren!) can help each other out with knowledge to share!.. Although I cannot claim victory as yet, I am going into this one with a heap of confidence and no fear of the results… only observations of them! I will explain my reasoning later…
Fellow PFS sufferers… After having dealt with this dreaded condition for 1.5 years now I have gone through hell and back trying to fix this thing and failed over and over (had a bit of success and learning on the last attempt though, so I am psyched for what is going to be attempted next). I have tried everything from Tongkat Ali, Multi-vitamins, MACA blah blah blah!!! Unfortunately for us who have been hit pretty hard (where your actual HPTA has been fucked with), there is only 1 way out IMO. That is, as our friend and predecessor Oneday once did with his protocol… fight fire with fire! We have all been duped to some degree into believing Merck’s and the general medical industry consensus that Finasteride symptoms will subside once you discontinue the drug. Unfortunately - as we have found out the hard way, this does not seem to be the case with some of us (the cursed unlucky ones lol!). As we all have a very different hormonal system, it can sometimes be extremely difficult to pinpoint exactly where that imbalance lies especially due to the out-dated reference range system that the medical community use to assess if we are “normal”. We do have one thing in common though, Hormonal Imbalance! The really unlucky ones such as I, are actually dealing with something much more severe – Finasteride Induced Secondary Hypogonadism (Hormonal Imbalance with Nut shrinkage… FML!). These imbalances can be blindingly obvious from our lab results or hidden beneath the eye of one not so knowledgeable to find it. I believe every restart protocol or regime needs to be tailored to your specific imbalances, therefore it is imperative you get full bloods to figure out what the fuck is going on in your system (more on this later). I have like many of you, seen doctor after doctor, endocrinologist after endo, urologist after urologist… and I have but only this to say about all of them.
“This shit is not in my head! This happened to me because of Fin… No I dont need nor want your F#cking happy pills! My life is pretty awesome barring this one unfortunate turn of events! and if you are not going to help me… then F$CK YOU! I will take matters into my own hands!! Same clowns that prescribed us these fucking meds without knowing full well what the risks were are now bailing us out? Yeah right!”
I have already tried 3 protocols for recovery, the 1st was to watch and wait (fail!), the 2nd was supplements and training (slight improvement but ultimately fail!), after failing at the first 2 attempts I decided to kick it up a notch on the 3rd attempt (Will explain the 3rd attempt in 2nd entry what i attempted). After countless hours of research and contacting key knowledgeable Dr’s from across the globe, It was obvious to me that I needed to get a hold of certain meds, 3 key meds (and another 2, I will be employing on my next restart as supporting aides) that are the key to unlocking this riddle… and one hopes, in recovering completely/to an acceptable level and regaining our livelihood & health. Actually getting a hold of these meds can be quite a challenge in and of itself, especially if you live in Australia as I do. If you require these meds and are having a hard time finding them, private message me… I will show you the way!
Medications – the cornerstone of any nutritious HPTA restart:
3 Key Meds:
- HCG (Human Chorionic Gonadotropin)
- Nolvadex (Tamoxifen)
- Clomid (Clomiphene)
The other 2 being:
- HMG (Human Menopaulsal Gonadotropin)
- Arimidex (as Aromatase Inhibitor)
HCG & HMG to kickstart your balls!! Oh how we miss them so!
Now the way it was explained to me was like this… HCG is used to kick-start your nuts into action via stimulation of the leydig cells (testosterone producing cells) by acting as an analogue to LH (Leutinizing Hormone). LH is a hormone produced by your Pituitary Gland that signals the leydig cells in your balls to start pumping out endogenous Testosterone. Once this mechanism kicks into action Testosterone is then broken down via the enzyme 5alpha-Reductase into DHT (the very hormone we were inhibiting with Finasteride usage) and to E2 or Estradiol (a type of Estrogen) via the enzyme Aromatase. Now this poses a problem! The problem is that for us PFS sufferers, the large majority of us have had a DHT/E2 imbalance whilst taking Fin, for whatever period of time we were on it, so our bodies (some more so than others) have become natural Aromatizers.
HMG on the other hand is actually a half LH/FSH mixture. FSH (Follicle Stimulating Hormone) acts on the bulk of the mass of the Testes, namely those involved in spermatogenesis the Sertoli/germ cells. HMG can be used as a support tool for recovery, for those who are shutd-own hard in the sperm producing department. It is also used to keep HCG working optimally!
One thing we have to be very weary of when using HCG is whats called “leydig cell desensitization”. This essentially is when the leydig cells that produce test no longer respond to an LH signal and become saturated with it and down-regulation or LH receptor sites occur. Although this has been debated somewhat in circles, Still it is better to be safe than sorry! If we stick to 3 simple rules, we can prevent this from occuring and we will be in the clear. 1st rule, running 20mg Nolvadex ED alongside HCG for however long HCG is administered. 2nd rule, Limiting how many iu’s we administer on any given injection day (less than 5000iu’s!) and limiting the 3rd being usage of HCG to no more than 2 continuous months.
Enter the AI’s and the SERMS…
Nolvadex and Clomid are what you call SERMs (Selective Estrogen Reuptake Modulator), they work by acting as a synthetic Estrogen and essentially binding to Estrogen receptor sites and restricting the work of Estradiol on tissues sensitive to E2. For a restart for PFS dudes like you and me, this is critical, especially in the HCG blasting phase of our restart where there will be a high level of Aromatase activity, as your body starts to pump out its own Test. But this is not the sole reason we are using the SERMs. Their primary reason for use is to get the Hypothalamus to start pumping out higher pulsatile rates of GnRH (Gonadotropin Releasing Hormone) signalling to the Pituitary via blockage of negative feedback of E2. This in turn tells the Pituitary that more Testosterone is required to be produced as it believes E2 (and hence Testosterone) levels have fallen. At this point in time the Pitutary starts pumping out higher rates of pulsatile LH and FSH. Arimidex or any type of AI (Aromatase Inhibitor) works in a very different way to restrict E2 activity than the SERMs described above. The difference is the AI’s actually bind to the enzyme Aromatase and stop the conversion of Test to E2 via deactivation of the enzyme itself, much in the same way that a 5alpha-Reductase Inhibitor such as Finasteride/Dutasteride does with DHT.
Outro to Journal #1
On that note it is time for me to get to fucking bed! Tomorrow I will be discussing Doses and Scheduling over a 2 month period, Diet / Training and Supplements… and another critical factor… Stress, Cortisol and your Mind!!! (and no im not fucking kidding how important your clarity of mind is in recovering fully… tune in tomorrow to hear why!)
Signing off… Wish me luck
Beekay!
