Im 21 been training for 3 years consistently diet and sleep in check i have been thinking about running my first cycle but im honestly still confused about some things and dont want to mess up my health long term. I was thinking about getting test e and tamox.
What bloodwork should i get and people who did a cycle around my age are there any regrets or long term consequences for you
I’ll share my experience as I started unnecessarily young (18, hadn’t dialled in sleep, nutrition etc.), and I’m 41 now and have some realisations and regrets.
Firstly, I’d ask what is your goal, though this can change over time. For me, I wasn’t big to begin with. Started at 62kg at 16, ended up at 110kg ten years later.
Enjoyed the process of getting bigger and stronger, but wasn’t completely confident in myself until I started getting really lean. Finally found endurance sport nearer my forties, and that was driver to come down in overall weight and muscle mass too.
Ultimately, realised I was happiest when my bodyweight wasn’t so much away from my natural, but still strong. And I found more enjoyment in other sport, though building/maintaining muscle is still supportive. And I definitely neglected mobility for too long.
A bit of ramble, but I guess a takeaway so far is you’re young. Have you tried enough and do you know yourself thoroughly to be confident in diving deeply into this one area, that you’re planning to manipulate your hormones, which may never recover.
I didn’t use PEDs nor was I training through much of my thirties due to work, travel schedule and family commitments (not an excuse, I just didn’t make it work for me personally at the time).
I thought I felt normal, but never fully recovered, and realised that I existed a large portion of that decade with low testosterone, and more so estrogen, which would have impacted my health at the time, and likely still now.
*so side note, get bloodwork before (baseline), during (understand effects when compounds are at their peak), and after (recovery - compare to baseline). Useful to get bloodwork when you’re young for comparison later to support general goals either way.
Anyway, I’m on TRT at the moment, and feel great, but the realisation is that you may be signing up for a life long commitment already, in that if you decide to start, when you stop, you may need this intervention indefinitely to manage my your health going forward.
My approach to cycle design would be completely different too, but knowing what I know now, I’m unsure if I would have ever of started, as my ultimate personal goals are just not extreme. Though I’m sure I would still have considered TRT and peptides later in life to maintain my semblance of youth.
Hope some of this helps and wish you well
