Q: “What steroid stack or combination is best to minimize acne? Trenbolone/dianabol? Deca/dianabol? Is Anadrol or Dianabol least likely to cause acne? Finally, why don’t pro bodybuilders have acne problems?”
A: I’m pretty strongly convinced that estrogen or SERMs are a bigger culprit for acne than is androgen level. Of course, the double whammy of high estrogen plus high androgen is worse yet.
At any rate, for any given amount of anabolic effect, the least acne will come when estradiol is kept low normal and a SERM is not used during the cycle. When that is done it may not be so important what the choice of steroid is, though testosterone will probably always be somewhat worse than most with regard to acne for given anabolic effect and nandrolone will probably always be somewhat better than most in this regard.
But, adding in more nandrolone will NOT reduce the pro-acne effect of say any amount of Dianabol, Anadrol, or trenbolone already being used. It’s just that it might aggravate it less (if estrogen level is kept the same) than using more of those drugs.
Why don’t most pro bodybuilders experience acne? It’s an interesting question — another interesting point with it is that it is NOT unknown for competitive bodybuilders to have acne off-season or even not very many weeks out of the contest, but have none at contest time.
Hypotheses?
Tighter control of estrogen as the contest approaches, but this would not explain that this phenemenon seemed to occur in the pre-AI era as well.
Perhaps driving bodyfat extremely low tends to cure acne? Don’t know.
About the author
Bill Roberts is an internationally-recognized expert on anabolic steroids and performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs). He received a bachelor degree in Microbiology and Cell Science and completed the educational and research requirements for a PhD in Medicinal Chemistry at a major American university.
Bill entered the nutritional supplement industry prior to completing his doctoral thesis but his education was invaluable so far as being able to design/improve nutritional supplement compounds, since it was in the field of designing drug molecules and secondarily some work in transdermal delivery.
His education was not specifically "geared" toward anabolic steroids other than expertise with pharmacological principles having broad applications. This has allowed Bill to provide unique insight into the field of anabolic pharmacology with knowledge of points which he would not have known otherwise.
I had decided to run a cycle. I had took dbol for 3 weeks without test. Big mistake it was my beginner cycle 20 days after taking dbol 50 mg a day. I took test Cyp and ran it with dbol for 1 more week. Then I was running testosterone alone for 9 weeks. My biggest mistake was not to pct. I’ve always had acne its prone to my family but wasn’t that bad my oldest brother had to run accutane and he was never on gear. So I had got off cycle thought I was gonna be fine and 1 month after cycle I started breaking out a lot on my face. 2nd month it got worst and I also had started accutane 2 months after my last shot. My acne was out of control I got much worst the 1 month of accutane and ending of 2. My chest had got craters of acne and my back as well. My face is clearing up a lot but my back and chest is super bad. It’s a night mare and painful when I take showers. I cry from the pain and is it the after effects of the dbol or test or was it me not taking PCT and due to hormonal imbalance. If I were to pct something like clomid and hcg would I have been better? It’s almost 4-5 months I’ve been off gear and it’s getting worst by the day and I’m running accutane. Tane is only clearing my face but my body not so much.