Will my natural testosterone come back after TRT?

Will my natural testosterone come back after TRT? It definitely can, but that depends on a few things.

Let me show you how quickly and what will determine your recovery.

Will my natural testosterone come back after TRT?

What we’ll be discussing:

• Why do we want to be an alpha energy male?
• Will my natural testosterone come back after TRT?
• #1 Type of TRT used that will determine when your testosterone will come back after TRT
• #2 TRT dose used
• #3 Duration of use
• #4 Baseline testosterone before starting TRT
• #5 Health after TRT
• #6 Other steroids while using TRT
• Use TRT to kickstart natural testosterone production?
• How to get off TRT easy
• Summary – will my natural testosterone come back after TRT?

#1 Type of TRT used that will determine when your testosterone will come back after TRT

Your recovery will be influenced based on the type of TRT you used, namely oral, topical, injection, intranasal or pellet. This matters because this will determine the half-life. Your natural testosterone production can only come back when exogenous testosterone has been removed from the body.

Oral, topical and intranasal testosterone have a short half-life, which is why it’s best to use them 1-3 times daily. This means that after 24-36 hours, all of the testosterone will be out of your body. As exogenous testosterone drops, LH will start to increase.

Intranasal testosterone half life and suppression

The shorter the half-life of testosterone, the faster LH will come back. With intranasal testosterone, LH hardly drops. Some men even remain fertile while on intranasal testosterone. As you can see in this graph, testosterone is already on the decline after 60 minutes on intranasal testosterone. LH is already on the increase at 120 minutes.

🏊 How to stay fertile on TRT with intranasal testosterone

Topical testosterone half-life and suppression

Topical testosterone has a little longer half-life than intranasal and it also depends on the dose used.

Here you can see that 12.5mg of scrotal testosterone is out of your system in 14 hours, 25mg for nearly 24 hours and 50mg around 36 hours (R).

Oral testosterone half-life and suppression

Oral testosterone (usually Jatenzo^®) stays in your system for about 6-8 hours. This means that you have to take a cap 2-3 times daily to keep your levels stable. This also means that once you quit, the testosterone will be out of your system quickly and your LH will bounce back quickly.

💊 Oral testosterone: good or no?

Injectable testosterone half-life and suppression

The half-life of injectable testosterone varies a lot based on the ester used. Here’s the breakdown:

• Testosterone propionate (TP): ~20 hours
• Testosterone enanthate (TE): ~4.5 days and a mean residence time of 8.5 days
• Testosterone cypionate (TC): ~8 days. However, TC is extremely comparable to TE and hence essentially the same. As such, testosterone cypionate and testosterone enanthate are considered to be “functionally interchangeable” as medications.
• Testosterone undecanoate (TU): elimination half-life is 20.9 days and its mean residence time is 34.9 days in tea seed oil, while its elimination half-life is 33.9 days and its mean residence time is 36.0 days in castor oil.

If you use TP, your LH should be back to normal in 2-3 days. With TE and TC it should be back to normal after 8-14 days. With TU, it should be back to normal after 4-6 weeks.

However, everyone’s recovery will differ. In this study, men received TRT for 8 months from either testosterone undecanoate Nebido^® or testosterone enanthate Jenasteron^® (R). After stopping, it took them between 2-11 months to recover their testosterone. The men using testosterone enanthate probably recovered closer to 2 months whereas the men getting testosterone undecanoate recovered closer to 11 months.

#2 TRT dose used

The bigger the dose, the longer it will stay in your cycle. As you can see from the scrotal testosterone example, 50mg of testosterone stays in the body much longer than 25mg.

Similarly, a weekly TRT dose of 100mg will be out of your body faster than 200 or 500mg.

This means that your natural LH and testosterone will be back to normal faster after low-dose TRT compared to high doses.

Testosterone can improve your Leydig cells

Some people are concerned that being on long-term TRT will kill their Leydig cells and they won’t be able to produce testosterone naturally anymore.

However, let me show you something that will put your mind at ease.

Testosterone (even from exogenous sources) enhances Leydig cell health by reducing oxidative damage (R, R). This is confirmed by increased oxidative stress induced by low testosterone in the Leydig cells (R).

Also, this study found that putting the Leydig cells in “hibernation” with TRT actually improves their function after coming off TRT (R). 🤯

Here are the details. Young rats produce more testosterone than old rats (as you can see in the columns on the left in the graph). The middle columns are their own testosterone production while on TRT (abysmal as to be expected). The right columns show that the (now even older) rats are producing more testosterone after TRT than before TRT due to healthier Leydig cells (R).

So chances are that your testes might be healthier after TRT compared to before TRT!

#3 Duration of use

You might have heard that the longer you use testosterone, the less likely you are to come off without problems. I don’t think that’s true. It’s only true for abusing steroids.

This study included men who used TRT for an average of 32.9 ± 17.9 months, which means some men used it for up to 50.8 months (4.2 years). After which they wanted to become fertile again to have kids.

They were placed on intranasal testosterone and within 1 month all 27 men had:

• An average LH of 4.6
• restoration of spermatogenesis with a mean sperm concentration of 50.7 million/ml (considered within the fertile range) (R).

In summary, even while still on TRT (Intranasal T), they were producing normal LH and enough FSH for normal fertility. If these men could recover in 1 month, so can you.

#4 Baseline testosterone before starting TRT

If your baseline testosterone was 400ng/dl, your testosterone will likely go back down to 400ng/dl after quitting.

A lot of people say that their symptoms worsen after stopping TRT, but this is only because they’re going back to baseline. And few people remember how bad baseline felt.

Here are some tips on how to increase your baseline.

#5 Health after TRT

If you’ve been focusing on improving your health while on TRT, you’re much more likely to have high testosterone after stopping TRT. Let’s say your testosterone was 300ng/dl before TRT. Then you jumped on TRT and at the same time improved your diet and lifestyle.

1 year after starting TRT, you’ve lost 50lbs, walk every morning, sleep better, exercise regularly and eat a balanced diet. It would not be unreasonable to expect your testosterone to be 500-600 (or even higher) after stopping TRT.

However, it’s key that you continue these healthy habits after stopping TRT otherwise it would be very hard to maintain the benefits of TRT.

#6 Other steroids while using TRT

This section might not be applicable to most men, but some men do decide to use performance-enhancing doses of TRT (250-500mg weekly) and add other steroids (deca, tren, Anavar, etc.) on top to speed up the transformation.

However, this is more risky when it comes to Leydig cell damage.

“Healthy” steroid practices

Use doses on the lower end of normal. TRT doses are typically 100-150mg per week. Bodybuilders use 500 to 1500mg (or even higher) of steroids per week). To play it safe, stick to lower doses, e.g. 250mg of testosterone per week with 200-300mg of another steroid. This is more than enough for aesthetic purposes. The higher doses of synthetic compounds that you use, the more likely it’s going to harm your testes.

Don’t stack too many steroids together. The more steroids you stack, the bigger the risk of side effects.

Cycle frequently. One cycle should be 12-16 weeks before stopping for 12-16 weeks.

Unhealthy steroid practices

Using large doses of steroids. 1g+ testosterone

Stacking many steroids together: 1g testosterone + 600mg tren + 600mg deca + 600mg Masteron + 100mg Anavar. (unhealthy AF)

Never cycling. Blast large doses for years in a row.

The more someone does these unhealthy practices, the more likely they are to suffer permanent gonadal dysfunction.

How long does it take to recover after taking steroids?

Depending on the dose and duration of use, testosterone is usually back to normal after 3 months (R).

The bigger the doses and the longer the steroids were used, the longer recovery will take. This 2017 meta-analysis found that LH and FSH gradually returned to baseline values within 13-24 weeks, whereas serum testosterone levels remained reduced at 16 weeks following discontinuation of AAS (anabolic androgenic steroids) (R).

When big doses were used for long peroids of time, these men could end up with impaired Leydig cell capacity despite normal testosterone levels (R, R).

This study found that men who used steroids for at least 25 weeks (vs 17 weeks) at average weekly doses of 1448mg (vs 977 mg) had lower natural testosterone than those who didn’t (R).

Also, former AAS abusers with lower baseline T (14 vs 18nmol/L) had a higher risk of depressive symptoms, erectile dysfunction and decreased libido (R).

In terms of fertility, 67%, 90%, 96%, and 100% of men recover enough to be fertile at 6, 12, 16, and 24 months, respectively, after discontinuation of testosterone exposure (R). Fertility often takes longer to normalize compared to testosterone.

Use TRT to kickstart natural testosterone production?

You can optimize your testosterone by eating the right foods, avoiding the bad ones and adopting certain lifestyle habits. However, most people with low testosterone have chronic fatigue, decreased physical strength and depression.

These symptoms make it hard to have the motivation and energy to do the right things. This is where TRT comes in. TRT can be used as a temporary catalyst for more effective adoption of dietary and lifestyle habits.

This is a double win, because on TRT, you feel motivated to do the right things and you have more energy to do it. Then once you’ve implemented all the right things and have lost excess weight, getting off TRT is much easier because now your body will automatically be producing more testosterone.

This study has found that doing moderate-intensity exercise >3 times a week for at least 20 min resulted in significantly higher testosterone after stopping TRT. These men also maintained most of the benefits they got while on TRT! Group 2 is the guys who exercised while on TRT. Group 1, which didn’t exercise while on TRT lost all their gains after stopping TRT.

Use TRT as a catalyst to help you on optimize your own natural testosterone production.

Tweet

How to get off TRT easy

Switch to a shorter ester/half-life temporarily

The longer half-life the compound has, the longer it will suppress you. If you’re using testosterone undecanoate, it might suppress you for at least 2 months (up to 8 months) after stopping.

Whereas on transdermal testosterone you might only be suppressed for a few days or a week at most.

On intranasal testosterone, you will only be suppressed for a few hours.

I do think that intranasal testosterone is a good way to transition while still maintaining the benefits of testosterone. After 1 month on intranasal testosterone, you can either just quit cold turkey and your own T should be back to normal the next day.

Use PCT (Post cycle therapy)

PCT includes the use of a compound that stimulates the Leydig cells in one way or another to produce testosterone naturally. HCG mimics LH and will enhance your own natural synthesis.

Clomiphene blocks the estrogen receptor in the pituitary and increases your natural LH levels.

Gonadorelin mimics GnRH, which stimulates the pituitary to release LH.

All of them have their own advantages and disadvantages. HCG and gonadorelin need to be injected whereas clomiphene can be taken orally.

Exercise (lift weights)

Regular exercise can lead to a 10-fold increase in the probability of maintaining the benefits of TRT after quitting TRT.

Doing moderate-intensity exercise for 20 minutes >3 times per week results in significantly higher testosterone after stopping TRT (pre: 325, on TRT: 713, after TRT: 505ng/dl). (R) Group 1 didn’t exercise, whereas group 2 did, which shows that exercise can help to keep testosterone higher after stopping TRT.

Summary – will my natural testosterone come back after TRT?

Your testosterone should be back to normal after 1 week or 8 months depending on the kind of TRT used and/or depending on how healthy you are.

If you want to quit TRT mainly for fertility reasons, you can either switch to intranasal TRT or add HCG to your regime. Both of these should be enough to restore fertility.

Additional content to take your testosterone to the next level:

• The complete guide on how to maximize your testosterone
• How to increase your free testosterone
• How to increase androgen receptors
• How to lower excess estrogen
• How to maximize DHT

Please share so that others can also benefit from this content! 🚀 With just a click, you can spread the word and make a big impact.💥 Your support is much appreciated! 🙏