That said, I wouldn't treat any specific numbers in this thread as a fixed protocol. Response varies a lot person to person depending on thyroid, liver clearance, existing hormone levels, etc. If you're totally new, I'd start smaller than anything mentioned above, go slow, and ideally get some baseline labs so you're not just going off how you feel. Source quality matters too, worth doing some digging before committing to a supplier long-term.

@Peat-OPeat-O said:
the more exogenous hormone you'll take the less your own body will produce?

"Hormone replacement therapy" is a linguistic trick that really only exists in English. When people take testosterone, a lot of it it aromatizes (converts to estrogen) and so you'll see the pip squeak voice or small balls in roiders. Was it the hormone that suppressed your own synthesis, or the stress reaction from the inappropriate amounts people take? Ray had recommended 1-4mg ORALLY of testosterone if your thyroid and other markers are good. Roiders take about 150mg via injection.

In general, upstream hormones are safe and downstream hormones are not. What I mean is that pregnenolone is the first line hormone made out of cholesterol. Pregnenolone metabolizes into progesterone. A more specific, downstream hormone (it gets made later down the line) like androsterone would be less safe to take.

Pregnenolone is unique in being able to take extreme amounts of it being safe. They essentially took some rats and stuffed like 10 grams of pregnenolone powder in them with their tummies being bloated (and I think they induced some kind of stress reaction/injection in them). The pregnenolone metabolized wsa proportional to the stress reaction, but the rest wasn't used, so it was pissed out. In other words, no matter how much you take, you're seemingly only using what you need. Your body also knows how to make proportions out of these things much better than anyone.

Some people have said that taking pregnenolone made them fatigued or stressed out in higher dosages. This is completely the fault of the manufacturer. Trashcan manufacturers have certain excipients that end up in their products and it does affect the quality. Finding high quality pregnenolone is of utmost importance, you're always taking a risk ordering from amazon. Ray had 3-4 grams of pregnenolone daily straight out of the factory (I've only taken 500mg) and everything was fine, someone getting estrogenic symptoms from 50-100mg of pregnenolone should never happen

Progesterone is also safe, but you ought to limit your intake to maybe 15-30mg every 2 weeks as a male.

In regards to feedback loops:
Pregnenelone has a hard time entering the mitochondria after it has already been synthesized so it has little possibilities to interact with the enzymes that cause its own synthesis. From what I’ve seen in studies pregnenolone can be suppressive but only at dosages far beyond anything that anyone would use, upwards of grams a day if I remember correctly.

Progesterone can actually increase it’s own synthesis in lower dosages through non-receptor mediated pathways but once the dosages get high enough to get meaningful progesterone receptor (PR) activation it can suppress its own synthesis. But I think your main concern, if you’re male that is, would be its anti-androgenic effects which also only become apparent when you reach sufficient PR activation. Progesterone can also compete for the 5-alpha-reductase enzyme.

TLDR: These steroids are definitely safe and protective in lower dosages, for higher dosages your mileage may vary.