Post Cycle Therapy for Female Steroid Users

Even men are the most popular users of steroids, women also tend to use them, especially those women who are professional bodybuilders. There are more men than women in this sport so almost every research is based on men’s organism. But consequences that steroids can produce in a female body are bigger and more significant that one’s appearing with men. But, women, just like men, use steroids to gain body mass and strength faster than they would get it without using steroids.

How are steroids used?
Steroids are not used constantly, there are periods of usage and periods of resting. Your doctor should decide how long periods will be and how high dose you will take. There are no universal rules because there are no two same persons. One cycle can be 6-12 weeks long and it considers that you take steroids every day during those weeks. After each cycle you must make a brake, so your body won’t get used to steroids.

What is PCT (post cycle therapy)?
Post cycle therapy is something that started to be usual practice just recently. It’s very important not to avoid it if you are using or planning to use anabolic steroids. PCT is used to help you preserve effects you gained during the steroid usage period. Steroids have big effect on our endocrine system and it’s important to help him recover from such a big shock. When you suddenly stop using steroids your body will be in some sort of shock. In medicine it’s called hormonal crash or post cycle crash. PCT is different for a man and a woman.

PCT for women
There are so many post cycle therapies and so many people take it on their own, without knowing consequences they can have in the end. If you take PCT without consulting your doctor, you can make more damage than good to your organism.

With women it’s really important to determine their age and stage of life. Pre-menopausal females who have used anabolic-androgenic steroids (AAS) can gradually decrease amount they are taking as they come close to end of a cycle. Because steroids affect hormones, the best way that shows to a woman that her treatment is going well is her period return. Anabolic-androgenic steroids cause some kind of menopausal side-effects. It’s recommended to decrease AAS use until period appears. Also, women can do blood tests to see if her hormone levels are getting back to normal.

What PCT is not recommended for women?
Highly inadvisable post cycle treatment for women is SERM (selective estrogen receptor modulators) or ALS (aromatize inhibitors). These two kinds of treatments cause intense menopausal symptoms, so even very young women can face with that problem. They are literally pushing women into menopause. And menopause symptoms are really hard and strenuous even for women who naturally experience it. With men this is different, but women should avoid this kind of post cycle therapy.

SERM medications like Nolvadex and Armidex sometimes are use in breast cancer curing, so they have really large and massive effect on female body. A woman shouldn’t expose herself to so strong medications if she doesn’t have to.

What PCT women can use?
HPGA and HPTA are highly recommended for post cycle therapy for women. HPTA is the hypothalamic pituitary testicular axis and affects brain and helps your endocrine system to control production of testosterone, the male hormone. How your body will react of this treatment depends on:

    individual characteristics;
    anabolic-androgen steroids that you used;
    how long your cycle lasted.

Today everybody can find different types of recommendations for post cycle therapy on the internet, but you shouldn’t listen to them all. Many of those treatments are written for male users and that not even indicated in the text. It’s important to see how wrong post cycle therapy can have harmful consequences in a female organism and go and consult a doctor before deciding to apply some therapy on yourself.