How "bad" is my kidney function? Safe to continue cycle?

[LoremIpsum9921]

Keep in mind all androgens are kidney toxic. Testosterone being the least because the estrogen it is a prohormone for is an antioxidant and helps with the ROS produced.

This is why in all animals males have worse eGFR later in life...

Vigorous Steve covered an interesting study where stanozolol was actually less kidney toxic than boldenone in rats.

ive found out that GH could raise cystatinin c without dmg. i did not dig more into this topic, i stopped all the drugs.

hopefully it will be okay. i plan to do
ultrasound of kidneys to check if im good for another round. wont be takin tren for sure... i would like to use var but... i can live without that.

but with gh use, my cystatinin c rise.

That would correlate with the mouse study. I did not put much work into reading about HGHs effect on cystatin c, maybe it's obvious that it raises it and well known. Maybe someone knows more about this. Im curious.
How do you know that no damage was done?

But if we ignore HGH effect on cystatin c, even normally an increase in cystatin c means that damage did occur. Let's assume the pressure in the nephrons did not change.

Your other nephrons can compensate quite well lost ones. So I'm not sold on the idea that if cystatin c goes back to normal, that no damage was done. Only if it's really because cystatin c synthesis was somehow increased by e.g. hgh.

I hope everything will be okay for you

Keep in mind all androgens are kidney toxic. Testosterone being the least because the estrogen it is a prohormone for is an antioxidant and helps with the ROS produced.

This is why in all animals males have worse eGFR later in life...

Vigorous Steve covered an interesting study where stanozolol was actually less kidney toxic than boldenone in rats.

Do we know something about the mechanism?

 

[bananafeet]

That would correlate with the mouse study. I did not put much work into reading about HGHs effect on cystatin c, maybe it's obvious that it raises it and well known. Maybe someone knows more about this. Im curious.
How do you know that no damage was done?

But if we ignore HGH effect on cystatin c, even normally an increase in cystatin c means that damage did occur. Let's assume the pressure in the nephrons did not change.

Your other nephrons can compensate quite well lost ones. So I'm not sold on the idea that if cystatin c goes back to normal, that no damage was done. Only if it's really because cystatin c synthesis was somehow increased by e.g. hgh.

I hope everything will be okay for you


Do we know something about the mechanism?

Reactive oxygen species I presume. I think the thick blood and blood pressure is secondary. With tren at higher doses there is vascular constriction I think.

My GP saw my cystatin C and creatinine which are similar to OPs and wasn't concerned. Unless you get an AKI it's usually chronic exposure that causes it from what I could find. There is a post in the men's health forum about kidneys by a doctor who used to post on here.

 

[LoremIpsum9921]

Reactive oxygen species I presume. I think the thick blood and blood pressure is secondary. With tren at higher doses there is vascular constriction I think.

My GP saw my cystatin C and creatinine which are similar to OPs and wasn't concerned. Unless you get an AKI it's usually chronic exposure that causes it from what I could find. There is a post in the men's health forum about kidneys by a doctor who used to post on here.

Okay makes sense. I guess besides tren these effects can be managed quite well.

I would also not be concerned about creatinine.
My cys c was always quite stable, doesn't matter if on cycle (always just test and some pre workout anavar) or off cycle. Even with rhabdo and AKI my cystatin c contrary to creatinine did not raise during my stay for a couple in the hospital. So I'm curious how cys c can raise significantly without implying any damage. The reason we pay a lot of money for cyst c is that it's not really influenced by non nephrotic factors (ignoring hgh) unlike creatinine.

AKI is also normally defined by means of a cys c or creatinine rise. So elevated values over a short period above a given percentage are acute kidney injuries by definition. Of course additional secondary markers like proteinuria or blood in the urine would give even a better picture.


Lets say someone blasts and cystatin c increases from 0.8 to 1.1, than stops, and it goes down to 0.9. if now the guy thinks "I'll need to get my cystatin c in check for my next blast" and takes astragalus for a while until cys c hits 0.75, he could come to the conclusion that everything is back at baseline and he's perfectly healthy to blast again.
But that's not the case. Each subsequent blast will destroy more nephrons, and his attempts to control cyst c are merely masking the underlying damage.

 

[bananafeet]

Okay makes sense. I guess besides tren these effects can be managed quite well.

I would also not be concerned about creatinine.
My cys c was always quite stable, doesn't matter if on cycle (always just test and some pre workout anavar) or off cycle. Even with rhabdo and AKI my cystatin c contrary to creatinine did not raise during my stay for a couple in the hospital. So I'm curious how cys c can raise significantly without implying any damage. The reason we pay a lot of money for cyst c is that it's not really influenced by non nephrotic factors (ignoring hgh) unlike creatinine.

AKI is also normally defined by means of a cys c or creatinine rise. So elevated values over a short period above a given percentage are acute kidney injuries by definition. Of course additional secondary markers like proteinuria or blood in the urine would give even a better picture.


Lets say someone blasts and cystatin c increases from 0.8 to 1.1, than stops, and it goes down to 0.9. if now the guy thinks "I'll need to get my cystatin c in check for my next blast" and takes astragalus for a while until cys c hits 0.75, he could come to the conclusion that everything is back at baseline and he's perfectly healthy to blast again.
But that's not the case. Each subsequent blast will destroy more nephrons, and his attempts to control cyst c are merely masking the underlying damage.

Yes which is why I said urine ACR and a proper kidney calculator is the only proper measurement.

eGFR Calculator

www.kidney.org

 

[Photon]

There's a thread here about kidneys..my kidney markers keep going up despite having a really good ALT..worrisome

N

Post in thread 'what significantly improved your kidney health markers?'

Dec 29, 2025

Where can you find that? I don't understand Barlow's

Urolithin A

Urolithin A is a naturally occurring postbiotic compound formed from the metabolism of polyphenols found in pomegranates, walnuts, and certain berries.

barlowesherbalelixirs.com

• nullandvoid

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I bought the Astragalus extract mentioned by @oldage, not sure if it helps yet, too early to tell.

Someone also mentioned Urolithin A but i can't find much info about it. the bioavavility is low tho, might be able to make it an injectable..Either way i'll take a closer look after seeing if there;s any changes on the astragalus extract