9 Months Post-PCT Nightmare: HPTA Fully Recovered, but Libido is DEAD (SHBG 65 / Free T Crushed)

[Vaughn Padgett]

Hey guys,

Need some heavy hitters to look at a bizarre hormonal puzzle. I'm 39, 8 cycles deep. 9 months out from PCT, my HPTA is firing on all cylinders, but I have zero libido, total ED, and feel completely asexual. It’s ruining my marriage.

The Culprit Cycle:

• Test E + NPP (350mg/350mg) finished June 2025.
• Done a standard Nolvadex PCT.
• Right after PCT, ran Retatrutide for a cut. Crashed my weight too fast, lost muscle/fat, and put myself in severe starvation mode.

Daily Meds: Finasteride 1mg, Oral Minoxidil 2.5mg, Lurasidone 60mg (Ran these for 15 years with a high libido, no previous issues).

Recent Bloods (5 Months Post-PCT):

• Total T: 759 ng/dL (Pre-cycle: 693)
• Free T: 16 pg/mL (Pre-cycle: 93) [CRASHED]
• SHBG: 65.2 nmol/L [SKY HIGH]
• IGF-1: 79 ng/mL [TANKED]
• LH / FSH: 13.5 / 17.7 mIU/mL
• E2 / Prolactin: 29 pg/mL / 15.8 ng/mL

The Puzzle:My brain and balls are working (High LH/FSH, High Total T). But my Free T is nonexistent because SHBG is locking it up. I suspect the extreme Retatrutide deficit spiked my SHBG and tanked my IGF-1, and stacking Finasteride on top completely killed my DHT signaling. Boron/P5P did nothing.

Is this lingering NPP neurosteroid wreckage, or strictly an SHBG/starvation lock? Would a short run of Proviron to bind SHBG help, or will it mess up my recovered HPTA?

Hit me with your thoughts. Thanks.

 

[specter]

Hey guys,

Need some heavy hitters to look at a bizarre hormonal puzzle. I'm 39, 8 cycles deep. 9 months out from PCT, my HPTA is firing on all cylinders, but I have zero libido, total ED, and feel completely asexual. It’s ruining my marriage.

The Culprit Cycle:

• Test E + NPP (350mg/350mg) finished June 2025.
• Done a standard Nolvadex PCT.
• Right after PCT, ran Retatrutide for a cut. Crashed my weight too fast, lost muscle/fat, and put myself in severe starvation mode.

Daily Meds: Finasteride 1mg, Oral Minoxidil 2.5mg, Lurasidone 60mg (Ran these for 15 years with a high libido, no previous issues).

Recent Bloods (5 Months Post-PCT):

• Total T: 759 ng/dL (Pre-cycle: 693)
• Free T: 16 pg/mL (Pre-cycle: 93) [CRASHED]
• SHBG: 65.2 nmol/L [SKY HIGH]
• IGF-1: 79 ng/mL [TANKED]
• LH / FSH: 13.5 / 17.7 mIU/mL
• E2 / Prolactin: 29 pg/mL / 15.8 ng/mL

The Puzzle:My brain and balls are working (High LH/FSH, High Total T). But my Free T is nonexistent because SHBG is locking it up. I suspect the extreme Retatrutide deficit spiked my SHBG and tanked my IGF-1, and stacking Finasteride on top completely killed my DHT signaling. Boron/P5P did nothing.

Is this lingering NPP neurosteroid wreckage, or strictly an SHBG/starvation lock? Would a short run of Proviron to bind SHBG help, or will it mess up my recovered HPTA?

Hit me with your thoughts. Thanks.

Standard nolva pct is the first problem here, second running reta and crashing your body even more after etc you dug yourself down a big hole..
SHBG can be lowered with a high dose Boron 6mg morning and night that has helped several people before. What are your liver values ?

 

[Siggy]

Why are you still cycling on and off?

Do you want to have more kids in the future?

If not then its completely pointless.

 

[mexbeast]

Are you still using the finasteride and minoxidil? And yes i myself would use proviron, once in the morning should help and not effect your hpta!

 

[Flex500]

brother...lot of variables here. When I came off everything to have a second kid all my bloods rebounded and test got up to "normal" but I never got my libido back after a full year off and slamming HMG and HCG. It literally never came back. Maybe it would have after several years and yours may as well.

I'm kind thinking along the lings of @Siggy here though overall.

 

[LFG]

Maybe try out low-dose pregnenolone for neurosteroid support. Nootropics Depot sells a sublingual 5mg pregnenolone tablet. More is not better.

 

[2Bullkane]

This isn’t simple. At least we have good data though. Seems to me we could be looking at a confluence of background stress synergizing with low blood chemical levels and causing this temporary void. And my friend, it is temporary you’ll figure it out.

Not my place to investigate this publicly with you, but perhaps there is heavy stress, you mentioned your marriage, so take a look at that stuff and work it out. Sleep diet and stress can be in the background exhausting you.

Reta could be to blame, but it sounds like you stopped that a while ago. It takes about a month for me to fully unlock from its effects. It affects more than my appetite. It dramatically lowers my desires generally.

My prescription is ditch the NPP get on mast, primo, this sounds like decade to me. If you’ve taken finasteride for a long time and never had problems, I doubt that’s the culprit. But maybe discontinue it for now. Winstrol I am told is particularly good at lowering SHBG. PT 141 might help too.

 

[dieselbuilder]

Hey guys,

Need some heavy hitters to look at a bizarre hormonal puzzle. I'm 39, 8 cycles deep. 9 months out from PCT, my HPTA is firing on all cylinders, but I have zero libido, total ED, and feel completely asexual. It’s ruining my marriage.

The Culprit Cycle:

• Test E + NPP (350mg/350mg) finished June 2025.
• Done a standard Nolvadex PCT.
• Right after PCT, ran Retatrutide for a cut. Crashed my weight too fast, lost muscle/fat, and put myself in severe starvation mode.

Daily Meds: Finasteride 1mg, Oral Minoxidil 2.5mg, Lurasidone 60mg (Ran these for 15 years with a high libido, no previous issues).

Recent Bloods (5 Months Post-PCT):

• Total T: 759 ng/dL (Pre-cycle: 693)
• Free T: 16 pg/mL (Pre-cycle: 93) [CRASHED]
• SHBG: 65.2 nmol/L [SKY HIGH]
• IGF-1: 79 ng/mL [TANKED]
• LH / FSH: 13.5 / 17.7 mIU/mL
• E2 / Prolactin: 29 pg/mL / 15.8 ng/mL

The Puzzle:My brain and balls are working (High LH/FSH, High Total T). But my Free T is nonexistent because SHBG is locking it up. I suspect the extreme Retatrutide deficit spiked my SHBG and tanked my IGF-1, and stacking Finasteride on top completely killed my DHT signaling. Boron/P5P did nothing.

Is this lingering NPP neurosteroid wreckage, or strictly an SHBG/starvation lock? Would a short run of Proviron to bind SHBG help, or will it mess up my recovered HPTA?

Hit me with your thoughts. Thanks.

How long were the previous 8 cycles? What did you use and for how long in each cycle? What was your age for each cycle? Did you PCT the same way for each one and your libido came back? How was your libido before you started doing cycles?

39 years old and you have a history of using exogenous hormones so maybe try staying on?

 

[2Bullkane]

Hey guys,

Need some heavy hitters to look at a bizarre hormonal puzzle. I'm 39, 8 cycles deep. 9 months out from PCT, my HPTA is firing on all cylinders, but I have zero libido, total ED, and feel completely asexual. It’s ruining my marriage.

The Culprit Cycle:

• Test E + NPP (350mg/350mg) finished June 2025.
• Done a standard Nolvadex PCT.
• Right after PCT, ran Retatrutide for a cut. Crashed my weight too fast, lost muscle/fat, and put myself in severe starvation mode.

Daily Meds: Finasteride 1mg, Oral Minoxidil 2.5mg, Lurasidone 60mg (Ran these for 15 years with a high libido, no previous issues).

Recent Bloods (5 Months Post-PCT):

• Total T: 759 ng/dL (Pre-cycle: 693)
• Free T: 16 pg/mL (Pre-cycle: 93) [CRASHED]
• SHBG: 65.2 nmol/L [SKY HIGH]
• IGF-1: 79 ng/mL [TANKED]
• LH / FSH: 13.5 / 17.7 mIU/mL
• E2 / Prolactin: 29 pg/mL / 15.8 ng/mL

The Puzzle:My brain and balls are working (High LH/FSH, High Total T). But my Free T is nonexistent because SHBG is locking it up. I suspect the extreme Retatrutide deficit spiked my SHBG and tanked my IGF-1, and stacking Finasteride on top completely killed my DHT signaling. Boron/P5P did nothing.

Is this lingering NPP neurosteroid wreckage, or strictly an SHBG/starvation lock? Would a short run of Proviron to bind SHBG help, or will it mess up my recovered HPTA?

Hit me with your thoughts. Thanks.

Checkout 5AR Society. Some stuff you might benefit from.

 

[GeaRandSauCe]

Simplest explanation is the finasteride. That plus progestin like nor-19 like NPP can crush HPTA the hardest.

But if I had to take a stab at this, the finasteride is the culprit. Drop it and take some proviron. You'll probably lose your hair but your bird will work again

 

[mexbeast]

Simplest explanation is the finasteride. That plus progestin like nor-19 like NPP can crush HPTA the hardest.

But if I had to take a stab at this, the finasteride is the culprit. Drop it and take some proviron. You'll probably lose your hair but your bird will work again

If you read the post, he says he went off 9 months ago and he's fully recovered!

 

[LK3]

nolva by its self probably isnt sufficient for pct.
idk where people get these ideas of tiny doses of single compounds aside from hcg.
if you want to use one thing only or something that is user friendly use hcg.
i would use min 500mcg eod for some time. i find using hcg helps with mood and sex drive in general. did not use it when i was younger.
your lack of sex drive could be due to low estrongen.
i would choose between hair care and sex drive. the fina is a killer.
all that said there is much more to sex drive then just these sex hormones.
clomid is also really good at restoring things.
i used to run a high dose stack of clomid/nolva/ana.
i have used low dose clomid for a month or so and it helped a bit but not use much as blasting it first then continuing with low dose.
comid is a drug loaded with shitty side effects, i would say the stack i used to use is in no way user friendly, like know you will be mentally fucked up while on it and dont make any major life changes as you will be an emotional mess with painful bacne.
i never wanted to have kids so low/no sperm was always a good thing to me. that said having your hormones off feels terrible and can cause other health problems.
after suck a long time you probably should have recovered on your own. why someone that age wouldnt just be on perma trt is also a mystery to me. after time on them nans make me feel like shit mentally and take a long time to recover from.
just some thoughts.
good luck

 

[BauschPharma]

Honestly, this doesn't look like lingering NPP damage 9 months later. Your LH, FSH, and total testosterone show that your HPTA has recovered. What stands out is the combination of extremely high SHBG, very low free testosterone, low IGF-1, rapid weight loss from Retatrutide, and Finasteride reducing DHT signaling.

If this happened after the aggressive Retatrutide cut, I'd be looking at a starvation-induced hormonal adaptation more than post-cycle dysfunction. The first step would be getting calories back up, stabilizing body weight, and repeating labs in a few weeks. I'd also strongly consider a trial off Finasteride if possible, since DHT plays a major role in libido and erectile function. A short Proviron run could help symptoms by increasing androgenic activity and lowering the impact of SHBG, but it may be masking the problem rather than fixing it.

If I had to place a bet, I'd say high SHBG, low free T, low IGF-1, and Finasteride are much more likely culprits than NPP.

 

[LK3]

Honestly, this doesn't look like lingering NPP damage 9 months later. Your LH, FSH, and total testosterone show that your HPTA has recovered. What stands out is the combination of extremely high SHBG, very low free testosterone, low IGF-1, rapid weight loss from Retatrutide, and Finasteride reducing DHT signaling.

If this happened after the aggressive Retatrutide cut, I'd be looking at a starvation-induced hormonal adaptation more than post-cycle dysfunction. The first step would be getting calories back up, stabilizing body weight, and repeating labs in a few weeks. I'd also strongly consider a trial off Finasteride if possible, since DHT plays a major role in libido and erectile function. A short Proviron run could help symptoms by increasing androgenic activity and lowering the impact of SHBG, but it may be masking the problem rather than fixing it.

If I had to place a bet, I'd say high SHBG, low free T, low IGF-1, and Finasteride are much more likely culprits than NPP.

i agree with you 100%.
that said one can test positive for nandrolone metabolites for up to 18 moths after use.
just food for thought.

 

[specter]

i agree with you 100%.
that said one can test positive for nandrolone metabolites for up to 18 moths after use.
just food for thought.

the Nandrolone metabolites bind to the fat and get released over time..