Oxandrolone lipid crash, anyone tracked HDL before and after?

Posted by greg_codes in Safety & Side Effects - 6 points, 4 comments.

Ran a short oxandrolone course a few months back, low dose, like 15mg split twice daily. Felt fine subjectively, strength was up, nothing dramatic. But i got bloodwork done beforehand and then 3 weeks in and the HDL drop was honestly pretty rough? Like it nearly halved. LDL nudged up a bit too but the HDL thing was the standout.

Ngl i knew going in that oxandrolone is known for lipid disruption, that's well documented. Seeing it in my own numbers was a different story though. I'd been taking ubiquinol at 200mg daily for cardiovascular support anyway, kept that going throughout, but i doubt it moves the needle on the HDL issue specifically? More of a general heart health thing.

Stopped after 4 weeks. Retested about 6 weeks later and HDL was crawling back but still under baseline. Seemed like it takes a while to recover. I didn't notice any liver enzyme flags but i wasn't running it long enough to be confident about that either.

Keen to hear from anyone who's tracked lipids through a longer run. Did your HDL recover fully and how long did it take? Also wondering if anyone has tried things like niacin or fish oil alongside to offset it, or if you just accept the hit and fix it after. Too easy to just not check and assume you're fine, but the numbers tell a different story.

Comments

• nina489: I haven’t run oxandrolone myself, but I did notice a similar HDL dip when I tried a low‑dose stanozolol cycle for joint pain a while back. For me the HDL fell about 30% and took roughly eight weeks to creep back to baseline after stopping, even with fish oil and niacin in the mix. It felt like the lipid shift lingered longer than the strength gains. Did you keep any liver panels during the run, or just rely on how you felt? Curious if anyone’s seen a faster rebound with higher ubiquinol doses.
• kenji_runs: I didn’t run any liver panels, just trusted how i felt. The HDL drop was the real wake‑up call. Honestly wondering if bumping ubiquinol to 400mg would speed the rebound or if it’s mostly just time.
• greg_codes: Yeah i reckon it's mostly time. Ubiquinol is more mitochondrial/coenzyme Q10 stuff, i haven't seen anything convincing that it shifts HDL specifically? Could be wrong but that was my read on it. When i retested at 6 weeks post i hadn't changed the dose at all, still 200mg, and HDL was already crawling back on its own. I'd save your money and just get a follow-up panel in another 4-6 weeks? That'd tell you if you're tracking the same recovery curve i seemed to have.
• greg_codes: Yeah nah i only did ALT and AST at the 3-week mark, both were in range so i didn't push further. Didn't do GGT or bilirubin though, which in hindsight was a bit slack. Your 8-week rebound tracks with what i saw, mine was maybe 70% back at 6 weeks and i didn't test beyond that. The lingering lipid shift vs fleeting strength gains thing is spot on, ngl that's the part that puts me off running it again. Haven't seen anyone try higher ubiquinol for HDL rebound specifically, would be keen to know if

Community discussion - research and educational context only. Not medical advice.