Men vs. Women?

[Mufasa]

Since men are often the one's "advising" women on cycles (and often poorly)...I thought that his would be a great place to pose this question to the experts on this Forum.

1) What do you consider (or at least SHOULD be) the fundamental differences between a "male" and "female" cycle?

2) What is (are) the most common mistakes that you've seen...the ones that made you shake your head and say "A guy must have put together this cycle..."


Thank you.


Mufasa

[sassy69]

The fundemental difference between "male" and "female" cycles is the dramatic change in proportion of male to female hormones.

For men, the predominant hormone is supplemented, which actually cuases the natural source to shut down after a short period of time. Thus the imporantance of keeping cycles shorter & runnign PCT. The secondary effect is the increase in estrogen levels as a result of aromatization that can produce unwanted effects like gyno.

For women, estrogen is the predominant hormone. The addition of even a small amount of anavar is orders of magnitude more than what is naturally produced. The effect is "desired" but it demonstrates how little is needed to produce more testosterone-ish effects. Because this isn't shutting down the primary hormone production, women can run much longer cycles and not worry about shut down or PCT. But w/ the amounts and the duration of the compound in the system (esters), the balance of keeping masculine effets under control is the challenge. The issue w/ longer esters, and thus those AAS that aromatize, tends to keep women from using high water retention compounds, and the less desireable estrogen issues are not as a big a deal.

Most common mistakes are the assumption that what works great for a guy would work great for a girl, but w/ smaller doses. Its not just the amount, but the duration of the compound in the system (esters) can also produce problems.

The other problem is where most men are coming from vs where women are coming from. I'm drawing this observation from muscle boards - but guys who are into steroids have already probably established a pretty good history of training, whereas most women are just forever looking for the ultimate 'tone up & lose weight" fix w/o establishing the good history of training. Its a lifestyle, not a pill. Given those two different contexts, the result is that women see that steroids "lean guys up" and fixate on that one result, and skip everything else.

The two things that should happen before either men or women use steroids, is 1) establish a diet & training program that produces the results you want and stick to it consistently so its your LIFESTYLE and 2) look at steroids from the standpoint of what they are relative to your own dominant hormone. You HAVE to work with that because what works for guys doesn't translate to women. It just doesn't.

[s2h]

Well put Sassy...coming froma guy who has a BB wife and alot of experience with women and supps....most guys dont know crap about women and supps....or women in general.....i have seen more top male BB's screw up a women ie;there looks,there endo system etc....than i could imagine....word to all "studley supplement guru wanna be's"...don't give women advice unless you really..REALLY...KNOW WHAT YOUR DOINg...and

[s2h]

continued...and even then you still my make a mistake....when it comes to women take it very slow on the supps.......

[sassy69]

The big challenge is that women see what it does fo rmen & want to know why they can't "just do that". Just like men are "visual" and want to fuck and women are "emotional" want to hug, straight translation just doesn't work.

[cat]

I'm a female and I don't like hugging ;)

Point being that just like there are differences between how men respond to different compounds there are significant variations amongst how women respond individually to compounds.

I've known women who get virilization from v. small amounts of var and those who don't. That's why the advice of "take it slow" when taking a stroll to the dark side, is even more pertinent for females.

[Mufasa]

Sassy:

When I went to work; I was HOPING you had replied when I got back!

Thank you for the insights! While I "knew" about the difference in proportions of both male and female hormones...I never quite had the perspective that you just presented!

Great stuff!

It really seems "almost" like night and day when you consider the management of male and female cycles...yet there are still people who think that what "works" for one sex will "work" for the other.

That simply is not true.

s2h: You reminded me of something. It was about 2-3 years ago. There was this "it" young woman, barely in her 20's, who was showing up on the Forums, in the mags, at contest, etc. and was being billed as the "next thing" in Bodybuilding/Figure. Supposedly at the height of her popularity, she became "managed" by her "boyfriend/(dealer?) who placed her on what some felt were disasturous cycles. When she showed up at an expo, and the pics ended up on line...people originally didn't even know who she was. (Sorry...no names...I leave it up to others to guess and speculate on the name).

I would imagine that this scenario has played out more than once.


Mufasa

[sassy69]

Its sort of a funny thing - fitness, relative to men & women. For ex, when women come looking for "how to train" questions (or a guy asking for them), the perception is that it has to be a certain way that is "less" and "special" for women. Same w/ diet. Its the same, but scaled down. But w/ steroids, its just not the same because in the once case you're working w/ the primary hormone, whereas in the other case, you're working w/ the secondary. This makes it so you really can't just work w/ someone who has experience in the one (men) and then scale it back. There's more stuff going on.

[s2h]

yeah..you dont see guys jamming a bunch of estrogen in themselves....more is not better for women....there are so many more factors that effect women...age,pre/post menupause,estrogen the list goes on and on.....