Update: still completely recovered, raging libido for the last four years

Hi, I was cured four years ago and I wanted to give an update and add some missing information that I discovered, sorry I have not been here to help, I was banned four years ago and was just reinstated.

I am still cured, everything is normal, my libido is good and if I go for a few weeks without ejaculating then I get erect really easily again and have spontanious erections thoughout the day and can last really long, which would happen to me before finasteride if I went for a few weeks without an ejaculation. I am sleeping well, and my cogntion is back and the light sensitivity is gone, my skin is oily, my eyes are wet, my stomach and digestion are normal, and the tinnitus is gone. My mustache still has a bit of blonde in it, but it got darker with each cycle of tribulus.

After crashing, I had complete impotency, I could only sleep a few hours at a time, I had constant muscle twitches, tinnitus, my skin was dry, my eyes were dry and sensitive to light, my stomach was extended, I had digestion issues, I had cognative problems, I had panic attacks, my penis was numb and narrow, I could only get my penis slightly larger but not erect, if I tried to orgasm it would happen when my penis was flacid and felt almost painful, and my testosterone was in the 100-200 range.

I seemed to have a permenantly more resiliant libido that can handle more ejaculations each time I took a new cycle of tribulus.

A few things I have noticed about taking tribulus:

STARTING OUT AT A HIGH DOSE OF TRIBULUS OR INCREASING THE DOSAGE TOO QUICKLY WILL CAUSE THE TRIBULUS TO BE LESS EFFECTIVE

I think this is why my protocol might not have worked for people

When starting the tribulus only build up to two or three pills a day for the first few cycles, each cycle I did lasted about a week or two with a brake in between. It took several cycles before I felt anything, and then a few cycles of higher doses until my penis started becoming responsive.

EJACULATING WHEN YOU ARE FIRST STARTING TRIBULUS WILL CAUSE THE TRIBULUS TO BE LESS EFFECTIVE

Before I got cured I had not ejaculated in months, however if you have not done it in a few weeks I’m sure it would still work, and did not have an ejaculation until after my penis started to come alive again, I am sure if somone ejaculated when they start the protocol they will not get very far, even after my erections started to return an ejaculation would set me back, and I limited my ejaculations, but did not stop them entirely. At first I did not ejaculate at all, I waited until after my ibido thawed out and I started to really feel sexual desire and then I did ejaculate so that when I finally did, it would not shock my system, but I ejaclated rarely. I did not ejaculate the first time I could feel a tiny change in my libido, I waited for my first ejaculation until after there was a significant change in my libido.

USE THE BRAND I TOOK SINCE ALMOST ALL TRIBULUS BRANDS ARE NOT MADE OF ONLY AERIAL PARTS AND WILL BE INEFFECTIVE

I took MediHerb tribulus by Standard Process, most tribulus brands use either a mix of aerial parts (leaves and stems) and stamens (flowers) or they only use stamens, some also use fruit, protodioscin is the active ingredient in tribulus and it is only found in any significant amount in the aerial parts of the plant, I did a lot of research on tribulus brands trying to find one that was only made of aerial parts and I eventually found Standard Process which was the highest quality tribulus that I could find, only aerial parts and only harvested from the Balkans.

Here is a description from their website about their harvesting process:

https://www.standardprocess.com/Products/MediHerb/Tribulus#.XGL6GHROnqA

I first realized tribulus could be a cure after I found a study which demonstrated that protodioscin increased the density of androgen receptors in the hypothalamus, protodioscin works by causing the body to produce more androgen receptors so that your body is more responsive to male hormones like testosterone and dihydrotestosterone, PFS has two causes first it causes low testosterone, and secondly it caused an epigenetic change that makes the body produce fewer angrogen receptors on its cells, which is why people still have PFS when taking testosterone shots, as a side note since tribulus cured me of the light sensitivity and muscle twitches and tinnitus and the other non androgen related symptoms, protodioscin must increase the density of the other non-androgen receptors effected by pfs by interacting with 5AR directly.

Here is the article I found demonstrating protodioscin increases the density of androgen receptors in the hypothalamus:

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S037887410400426X

NOT WEANING OFF WILL CAUSE YOU TO LOSE THE EFFECTS OF THE TRIBULUS

You have to taper off at the end of a cycle it should take a few days to go from two pills to one pill to a pill every other day then nothing. I did not keep a journal while I was getting cured but my cycles lasted between one to two weeks. Two weeks should give someone plently of time to build up to a high dosage and slowly taper off. I took one to two weeks off. The most important thing is to note how your body feels, if you increase the dosage and you feel a slight decrease in your gains, then slow down on the rate you increase the dosage a bit, or if after you wean off you start to feel a significant drop (there is usually a tiny drop when you wean off) then take another pill and try weaning off a bit slower.

Here is a typical schedule of the dosages I took:

I remember I only did cycles for about a week in the beginning

After the first several cycles instead of only taking one pill at a time and spacing them out throughout the day, I took multiple pills at once usually two to four sometimes five or more at time, I am not sure if that is the most efficient and quickest way to do it, since I have noticed that taking too much tribulus too quickly makes the tribulus less effective, it may have worked since I had already build up a high enough tolerance to take high doses

FIRST SEVERAL CYCLES
Day one: one pill
Day two: one pill
Day three: one pill in the moning one pill at night
Day four: one pill in the morning one pill in the afternoon one pill at night
Day five: one pill in the morning one pill at night
Day six: one pill
Day seven: no pill
Day eight: last pill

NEXT SEVERAL CYCLES
Day one: one pill in the morning one pill at night
Day two: one pill in the morning one pill in the afternoon one pill at night
Day three: two pills in the morning one pill in the afternoon two pills at night
Day four: one pill in the morning one pill at night
Day five: One pill
Day six: One pill
Day seven: No pill
Day eight: Last pill

After going for one week cycles for a while, I sometimes would try two week cycles to see if I could improve faster, keep in mind that I remember two week cycles being more difficult to wean off of smoothly, they might give you faster gains but you may need to take a pill every other day for a few extra days before you can stop, and be careful not to ejaculate at the end of the cycle when you are weaning off.

I do not remember if I ever took a low dose two week cycle, but if I did it would look like this:

LOW DOSE TWO WEEK CYCLE
Day one: one pill
Day two: one pill
Day three: one pill
Day four: one pill in the morning one pill at night
Day five: one pill in the morning one pill at night
Day six: one pill in the morning one pill in the afternoon one pill at night
Day seven: one pill in the morning one pill one pill in the afternoon one pill at night
Day eight: one pill in the morning one pill in the afternoon one pill at night
Day nine: one pill in the morning one pill at night
Day ten: one pill in the morning one pill at night
Day eleven: one pill
Day twelve: one pill
Day thirteen: no pill
Day fourteen: last pill

Then a week off

This would be a typical two week cycle:

HIGH DOSE TWO WEEK CYCLE
Day one: one pill
Day two: one pill
Day three: one pill in the morning one pill at night
Day four: one pill in the morning one pill at night
Day five: one pill in the morning one pill in the afternoon one pill at night
Day six: two pills in the morning one pill one pill in the afternoon one pill at night
Day seven: two pills in the morning one pill in the afternoon two pills at night
Day eight: two pills in the morning two pills at night
Day ten: one pill in the morning one pill at night
Day eleven: one pill
Day twelve: one pill
Day thirteen: no pill
Day fourteen: last pill

Then a week off

Some weeks I took up to 10 pills a day, a few times 11 or 12, usually I only took 6-8 a day when I was taking my highest dosages.

TRIBULUS MAY WORK A TINY BETTER WHEN TAKEN WITH FATS

Something I forgot to mention was that I thought I might have noticed a slight increase in the speed and effectivness of the tribulus when I took it with faty foods, so I began taking it with almond butter and honey.

A review of what I did four years ago:

I took a 100mg shot of decapeptyl which is brand name triptorelin made in a pharmacy before starting tribulus. Triptorelin is bioidentical gonadotropin releasing hormone or gnrh, which is the agent released by the hypothalamus that tells to pituitary gland to send signals to the testicles to make testosterone. If you take more then 100mg it will not work since if the pituitary senses too much gnrh it will not send the sigal since it is a feedback loop that regulates how much testosterone the body will make, if you take more then 100mg it will not harm you it just will not work. A few weeks after taking the decapeptyl my testosterone was in the 800-1100 range. However although I felt somewhat better I was still impotent, my penis only felt softer and wider when flacid, until I started taking tribulus, as a side note if you take testosterone or any other hormones it will interrupt your androgen feedback loop and will cause the triptorelin to be ineffective, you should discontinue any hormones for long enough for them to return back down to your baseline prior to taking triptorelin in order for it to be effective, it seems to me taking the triptorelin was necessary since protodioscin, the active ingredient in tribulus, works by causing the body to produce more androgen receptors so that your body is more responsive to male hormones like testosterone and dihydrotestosterone, and without taking the shot of triptorelin, the increase in androgen receptors might not have cured me if there was not enough testosterone and dihydrotestosterone to interact with, Decapeptyl is actual gnrh made by Ferring a German pharmacutical company, I orded it online here:

I took MediHerb tribulus by Standard Process which is an expensive high quality brand of tribulus from the Balkans made from only leaves and stems of the plant (aerial parts) which is the only part of the plant that contains any significant amount of protodioscin (almost all brands are made from the flowers (stamens) or the whole plant) in cycles, I would start off on a low dosage and work up to a high dosage and then wean off and wait and then do another cycle.

Here is the brand of tribulus I took:

http://www.herbalist-medicine.com/herbal-medicine-store/store/details/33/12/problems-with-erections---natural-health-supplements/mediherb-tribulus-forte.html

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First of all appreciate the update man and glad to hear you’re doing well. My question is that I think one of the studies proved that we actually have an upregulation of Androgen receptors not less. So I’m not sure if this protocol would benefit us.

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Is Tribulus made using leaves and stems better than other Tribulus?

Thanks lostinaustin, I was impotent until I did this, and now my libido is back to normal, and if I take tribulus now I get an ultra high libido

The theory is that an upregulation of androgen rectors is what causes the crash however it is downregulation that occurs as a result of the crash, which is what PFS is, an insensitivity to testosterone.

We all had a super high libido a few weeks after stopping finasteride, and then crashed after we ejaculated. This is partially what we know and partially me filling in the blanks, but what it seems like happens is while people are experiencing low libido on finasteride, since they are creating such little DHT, their bodies produce an unusually high density of androgen receptors to try to detect the low levels of male hormones, ejaculations cause a huge spike in DHT which is why there is recovery time after an ejaculation, because the body senses the increase in male hormones and realizes that you just had sex and you do not need the effects of androgens at the moment so it down grades your androgen receptors temporarily.

With PFS there are so many extra androgen receptors produced while the person was taking finasteride that when DHT floods back the system thinks there is way too much DHT present and so it down grades the androgen receptors to an extemely low density in response to what the cells incorrectly percieve as an excess of DHT, as the cells try to regulate the androgen receptor feed back loop. The result is the body is stuck in a state of cells stripped of nearly all of their androgen receptors, which is why testosterone shots do not cure PFS

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Ginge- yes, the other parts of the plant do not contain significant levels of protodioscin, its only found in high concentrations in the leaves and the stems

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Hey apr, what other symptoms did you had aside of the ones you mentioned above?
I personally think even tho our main problem from the surface it seems to be the androgen count and our androgen receptors sensitivity, the first thing to tackle first should be our HTPA functioning.

PD:I’m happy you are doing well man (:

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Wetaka- I also had muscle twiches and light sensitivity and cognative problems and trouble sleeping and panic attacks. People with just androgen problems should not have muscle twitches for example, those are caused by the fact that 5 alpha reductase creates an entire cascade of hormones, not only the androgens, for example it creates dihydrocortisol which is responsible for building the aqueous humor of the eye, which is what causes the light sensitivity, the same problem must occur with the receptors of these other non-androgen hormones, which is why the body responds as if they are not present, although tribulus has only been investigated for its upgrade of androgen receptors, its mechanism of action must take place at the enzyme level and act upon 5 alpha reductase directly, like saw palmetto except with the opposite effect, which is why it cured me of those symptoms as well.

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Read the Thread bucko

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@Apr1989 could elaborate on the cycles, how many days on tribulus and how many days off?

Roughly how much were you taking a day and at the beginning of the cycle and how much at the end?

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Lostinaustin- MediHerb

This. Can you please give more specifics?

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are your claims scientifically proved ? so when i wouldnt have ejaculated the first weeks after stopping i would be okay now ? or what ?

i have searched everywhere but havent found anything. ejaculation does NOT rise dht levels …

How long was one cycle? And how did you adjust the dosage?

Yes I have similar questions. I have some VemoHerb Bulgarian Tribulus around which is supposed to be good so I will try to use that.

  1. You said the cycle should not be built up too quickly but also that the cycle lasted 1-2 weeks. Let’s say it last one week and I want to start off by building up to 2 caps, can it go like this:
    DAY1 - 1 cap
    DAY2 - 1 cap
    DAY3 - 2 cap
    DAY4 - 2 cap
    DAY5 - 2 cap
    DAY6 - 1 cap
    DAY7 - 1 cap

Does it need to be tapered off like that or can I just continue taking 2 cap until the last day and then quit?

  1. Did you have brain fog and this did improve or not?

  2. How many pills did you build up to in the end (what is the max amount of pills you took in a day at any point?)

I’d like to see some kind of recommended protocol for someone who is just starting out like, how long the cycles should be and how much break in between. Also doesn’t the amount of capsules depend on the strength of the extract you are using?

He said you should taper it off. And he also said that you should take up to 7 pills. All of the info is there and his original thread which he opened years ago. :slight_smile: please read all and you will see the answers.

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Who wants to make a summary for us lazy folks?

Just kidding, kind of. I’ll check out the older threads once I’m at a computer and not on my phone

I just completed my first cycle of Tribulus with the dosing I proposed above (only got up to 2 pills for the middle 3 days of the 7-day cycle). Now taking a week break and then on the next cycle I will go up to 3 pills. I am using Vemoherb Bulgarian Tribulus which should be decent quality.

It’s my first day off the Tribulus so I do not know how much of the effects will stay but while on it I noticed increased motivation and interest in things (I spent an entire day playing a video game I really liked which used to be my passion but since getting off Finasteride I was very anhedonic and had zero interest in anything in life).

I also notice slightly increased penis sensitivity which is a miracle as nothing worked for this before - it was like a numb piece of rubber. I hope this stays as this is a huge issue for me.

Not much improvement regarding brain fog just yet, unfortunately. Still hard to think and slow mentally, walking around like in some kind of half-asleep state. I hope the next few cycles bring even better results.

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Sports Food Tribulus Terrestris - 95% Saponins, 80% Protodioscin - 1000 mg x 90 Capsules Bulgarian Extract - Natural Testosterone & Libido Booster for Men - High Strength Herbal Extract https://www.amazon.com/dp/B009WUK1D0/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_jKXwCbKXV7TGN

What do y’all think about this brand of tribulus? Hoping to try cycling it soon as well

I would only trust the ones coming from actual Bulgarian companies - VemoHerb, Sopharma… who knows where that one comes from. It might say Bulgarian but not really be. I have used Tribulus from MyProtein before (called ‘Tribulus Pro’) and it is nowhere near effective as the VemoHerb tribulus that I am taking right now.

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