accutane protocol questions

[john123321]

Hello, I have been an avid PEDs researcher and I cannot wait to start. However, I do have a predisposition to acne that doesn't seem to go away so I will be running Accutane on a very high caloric deficit to both get lean and reduce the size of sebaceous glands. Also theres the benefit of looking good too

Please criticize my protocol as harshly as you can. I would rather hear mean words than make terrible mistakes.

Target cumulative dose: 10,000mg
Dosing/Titration: 20mg daily for the first two weeks, then 40mg daily for the next two, and 80 for the rest of treatment.
Bloods: Probably going to do one blood test before, and one three months in
Time frame: I would say it would take about five months or so
Ancillaries: 5g combined EPA + DHA, Glutathione, TUDCA (have to figure out the dosing), 100mg melatonin nightly. I have to do more research but if BDNF/CREB signaling is impeded I might add in ACD-856 for cognition
Other compounds: I am currently on 2.5mg of retatrutide every 5 days (will move up to 5 soon), 25mg of exemestane every day, and I will be starting telmisartan soon.

I have seen nothing but kindness on this forum and I am very grateful, this is my first "real" post

 

[Psy-chonaut]

If you want to educate yourself in what peoples practice/protocols are (higher dosing), anecdotes, side effects etc...

This is a rather good thread about the subject:

Thread 'Accutane permanent cure?'

May 3, 2024

I've read one or two 6 month courses of Accutane can permanently cure acne in a lot of cases.

Has this worked permanently for anyone with steroid induced acne?

I suspect a permanent cure isn't for the steroid induced type, but I'd like to know if it's worth a try given the nasty sides or just stick to Doxycycline, which is effective and no sides but temporary.

• Ghoul

• 

 

[synthetic_juggernaut]

"100mg melatonin nightly" "25mg of exemestane every day"; the accutane protocol looks reasonable, but these 2 jump out. Why so high?

 

[BigDadd7]

"100mg melatonin nightly" "25mg of exemestane every day"; the accutane protocol looks reasonable, but these 2 jump out. Why so high?

Say goodbye to e2 instantly

 

[BendigoShafter]

What is your weight and why are you shooting for 10,000mg cumulative?

 

[IndividualMan]

What is your weight and why are you shooting for 10,000mg cumulative?

10k cumulative dose is the point where you get pretty permanent changes with accutane. 20k is probably better if the acne is real bad,

nothing but kindness on this forum

seems you have not read enough

Btw, the 25mg exemestane are very high, usually people on 2-3g of test dont take that much. get a high sensitive E2 test with your bloodwork, crazy low E2 might be a reason why your skin is crap.

100mg melatonin is also pretty high, but if you dont feel groggy/sleepy all day its alright.

Tudca you can run anywhere from 250mg/day to 3-4g, as much as your digestion allows really. overdoing it just burns money, so only up the dose if you think it is needed.

also: stats? height, weight, lifting experience, age, etc.?

 

[BendigoShafter]

10k cumulative dose is the point where you get pretty permanent changes with accutane. 20k is probably better if the acne is real bad,

Yeah that's why I asked about his weight. 10,000mg is a conveniently round number.

From my notes, usually cumulative dose for facial acne is 120 to 150 mg/kg of body weight. For body acne, cumulative target is 220 mg/kg.

 

[synthetic_juggernaut]

"body acne, cumulative target is 220 mg/kg" - yeah, that's what I'm shooting for. Makes sense to hit the high end so you for sure only have to do it once

 

[Trenunaki]

Hello, I have been an avid PEDs researcher and I cannot wait to start. However, I do have a predisposition to acne that doesn't seem to go away so I will be running Accutane on a very high caloric deficit to both get lean and reduce the size of sebaceous glands. Also theres the benefit of looking good too

Please criticize my protocol as harshly as you can. I would rather hear mean words than make terrible mistakes.

Target cumulative dose: 10,000mg
Dosing/Titration: 20mg daily for the first two weeks, then 40mg daily for the next two, and 80 for the rest of treatment.
Bloods: Probably going to do one blood test before, and one three months in
Time frame: I would say it would take about five months or so
Ancillaries: 5g combined EPA + DHA, Glutathione, TUDCA (have to figure out the dosing), 100mg melatonin nightly. I have to do more research but if BDNF/CREB signaling is impeded I might add in ACD-856 for cognition
Other compounds: I am currently on 2.5mg of retatrutide every 5 days (will move up to 5 soon), 25mg of exemestane every day, and I will be starting telmisartan soon.

I have seen nothing but kindness on this forum and I am very grateful, this is my first "real" post

I know a chick who took 65mg of accutane for a year and she was like 110lb and suffered nothing but thr typical sides of dryness. Bodybuilder fear of accutane will never not be the goofiest shit ever.

 

[john123321]

"100mg melatonin nightly" "25mg of exemestane every day"; the accutane protocol looks reasonable, but these 2 jump out. Why so high?

Yeah, I knew this seemed irregular to most but its for a reason.

going "too high" in melatonin doesn't really cause side effects worse than grogginess, and its a potent antioxidant with a wider range of action than glutathione. "What about reductive stress" I would be fine with a little bit of reductive stress if it means I stay healthy; with the compounds I am taking (accutane for now) oxidative stress can get pretty bad

so the high dose in exemestane is because one of my goals is to grow taller. a reduction in e2 will delay growth plate closure (and it will slightly increase test and LH but I don't expect anything from this). theoretically I don't need the exemestane as I will soon use compounds like abalo and other stuff influencing the pth1r to stop senescence in my growth plate, which is downstream from e2 signaling, but you know better safe than sorry. "your going to crush your estrogen" so exemestane is interesting it is a suicidal inhbitior, but most people dont know it CANNOT reduce e2 in men by more than 60% so no unless my e2 is extraordinarily low to begin with, it will not fall under 10pg/ml

anyway yeah I feel like a lot of bodybuilders should employ both melatonin and glutathione for oxidative stress if they are already not doing so, and AIs are very fear mongered except for in combination with things like EQ and some dht derivatives I don't know about those

 

[john123321]

Say goodbye to e2 instantly

60% Max reduction even if I took a gram of exemestane a day

 

[john123321]

What is your weight and why are you shooting for 10,000mg cumulative?

I'm going by the 150mg/kg model which at 70kg is 10500

 

[john123321]

10k cumulative dose is the point where you get pretty permanent changes with accutane. 20k is probably better if the acne is real bad,


seems you have not read enough

Btw, the 25mg exemestane are very high, usually people on 2-3g of test dont take that much. get a high sensitive E2 test with your bloodwork, crazy low E2 might be a reason why your skin is crap.

100mg melatonin is also pretty high, but if you dont feel groggy/sleepy all day its alright.

Tudca you can run anywhere from 250mg/day to 3-4g, as much as your digestion allows really. overdoing it just burns money, so only up the dose if you think it is needed.

also: stats? height, weight, lifting experience, age, etc.?

my acne was bad before and after I had started exemestane, I have heard accutane goes by kilogram so I'm not sure where you got this figure from, but I'm sure I'll hear about it from someone else.

yeah again I'm aiming for my e2 to be from 10-15pg/ml, exemestane might not even cut it to be honest, its a maximum 60% reduction in estradiol

thanks for the info on tudca

 

[john123321]

Yeah that's why I asked about his weight. 10,000mg is a conveniently round number.

From my notes, usually cumulative dose for facial acne is 120 to 150 mg/kg of body weight. For body acne, cumulative target is 220 mg/kg.

yeah it was 10500 actually using 150mg/kg
I have never had body acne, do you think I should do 220 anyway? or will doing 150 in one treatment and then 75-80 in another treatment if body acne becomes a problem later on. thanks for the info

 

[john123321]

I know a chick who took 65mg of accutane for a year and she was like 110lb and suffered nothing but thr typical sides of dryness. Bodybuilder fear of accutane will never not be the goofiest shit ever.

what you say seems consistent with my all my friends who've taken it say. I guess the internet just amplified the worst 1% of situations

 

[synthetic_juggernaut]

"do you think I should do 220 anyway" - I would - might as well go all out and get it over with. Given your other dosages, you seem like somebody who is not shy about pushing the envelope

"I'm aiming for my e2 to be from 10-15pg/ml" - that scares me, but I understand that you have your reasons. With exemestane, if you get bad sides from that, it'll take weeks to resolve and those weeks will suck unimaginably. Good luck. I gather from your desire to prevent/delay growth plate fusing that you are a teenager trying to get taller. Honestly, from a harm-reduction perspective, I feel like blasting Growth Hormone would actually be safer means to that end than lowering e2 that dramatically

 

[BendigoShafter]

yeah it was 10500 actually using 150mg/kg
I have never had body acne, do you think I should do 220 anyway? or will doing 150 in one treatment and then 75-80 in another treatment if body acne becomes a problem later on. thanks for the info

I would do the whole 220 initially. Otherwise, the recommended re-treatment is to start over and do a full 220 (obviously this will be slightly affected by the amount of lapse between cycles). Alternatively, do 150mg/kg and then drop to 5-20mg per day once you reach that level and see how you do.

I shake my head any time there's mention of growth plates so I won't engage with any of the rest of that.

Good luck.

 

[john123321]

"do you think I should do 220 anyway" - I would - might as well go all out and get it over with. Given your other dosages, you seem like somebody who is not shy about pushing the envelope

"I'm aiming for my e2 to be from 10-15pg/ml" - that scares me, but I understand that you have your reasons. With exemestane, if you get bad sides from that, it'll take weeks to resolve and those weeks will suck unimaginably. Good luck. I gather from your desire to prevent/delay growth plate fusing that you are a teenager trying to get taller. Honestly, from a harm-reduction perspective, I feel like blasting Growth Hormone would actually be safer means to that end than lowering e2 that dramatically

yeah I guess I saved up and I have been doing all this stuff with topical tretinoin, all these acne creams, for years and my face still always looks like shit, not horrible life-altering acne but its there and its obvious

well I have been on exemestane for two weeks at that dose, no bad side effects. was it bunk? probably not but I'll know when I get my first blood test

new aromatase synthesis reaches full concentration in a week, so I don't really understand where this weeks of bad side effects come from

brain issues will not occur; in monkeys, there was no change in e2 in the hippocampus and frontal cortex on 2.5mg of letrozole which is not a substrate of pGp and is still permeable to the BBB, so it should be the most detrimental to the brain but there was no effect. only in the amigdala did it change, likely due to e2 effect on emotions

so yeah exemestane is pretty safe on its own, yes 10-15 is low but it wont harm development neurologically, and no I will not "blast" growth hormone if "blasting" means 20IU, I will stick with 10IUs

the end has multiple means, and theoretically I shouldn't need to even control e2 if I control the pth1r but you know theory isn't everything so Im controlling both

 

[john123321]

I would do the whole 220 initially. Otherwise, the recommended re-treatment is to start over and do a full 220 (obviously this will be slightly affected by the amount of lapse between cycles). Alternatively, do 150mg/kg and then drop to 5-20mg per day once you reach that level and see how you do.

I shake my head any time there's mention of growth plates so I won't engage with any of the rest of that.

Good luck.

thanks for the info, your solution sounds reasonable. I will probably do something like that, thanks again

 

[IndividualMan]

"do you think I should do 220 anyway" - I would - might as well go all out and get it over with. Given your other dosages, you seem like somebody who is not shy about pushing the envelope

"I'm aiming for my e2 to be from 10-15pg/ml" - that scares me, but I understand that you have your reasons. With exemestane, if you get bad sides from that, it'll take weeks to resolve and those weeks will suck unimaginably. Good luck. I gather from your desire to prevent/delay growth plate fusing that you are a teenager trying to get taller. Honestly, from a harm-reduction perspective, I feel like blasting Growth Hormone would actually be safer means to that end than lowering e2 that dramatically

ah shit hes a child, isnt he?

my .org radar has been getting worse and worse recently, but if you are a child, up your E2 to ~20 at least, otherwise you will likely have problems with bone density and will be very injury prone (weaker joints/tendons, possibly for life), possibly also messing with torso/limb ratios (skinnier arms, wider torso) which looks horrible.

I will stick with 10IUs

that is a dosage which can very much cause a good bit of acne during puberty.