How long does it take the body to recover from steroid use?

I thought this topic would be worth a thread because I often notice people having a wrong idea. I also had to learn this the hard way.

How long it'll take you body to recover depends on various factors. Of course genetics and age but also what, how much and how long you are on will make a big difference.

I want to use myself as an example.
I was a competing athlete and heavy user. The last 5 years before retiring from competing I was on non-stop with dosages at the end in the range of 2-3g/week.
After I retired from competing I thought it was a good idea to get off the juice completely to let my body heal.
First it took about 4-6 weeks for all the accumulated gear to leave my system. Then I started feeling not well. Low energy, depression you name it. Nasty but not unexpected. The lowest point I'd say I hit after about 3 months off. I felt shit in any way you can imagine.
Then things slowly started to improve and about 6 months after I stopped I felt quite OK again. My body was functioning again although there was for example no way I could get a pump when training.
Over the months that came my well-being improved slowly and I thought I'd made a full recovery. About 1,5 years after I stopped my training was going really well. I was in good shape with low bodyfat and quite strong considering I was natural. Could benchpress 160kg and squat 200kg. Many guys at the gym didn't believe me I was natural.
Also my libido was nothing to complain about. Everybody happy.

2 years after I went off I thought it'd be a good idea to see the doctor and have a check up although I was 100% sure I was all good. I took blood samples and then came the surprise - I had testosterone levels like a little girl!

Wow! How could that be. I felt good, looked great and didn't show any signs of low testosterone! My doctor offered to put me on TRT straight away but I said no. I asked him instead to give me a prescription for some clomid and we would repeat the blood test after a few weeks. The clomid didn't do any good for me. Suddenly I experienced problems in the bedroom I didn't know of before. The next blood check showed that my testosterone had increased a little bit but at the same time my estrogen had skyrocketed. OK, no clomid for me.

Then I decided to see an endocrinologist (hormone specialist) who was specialized in working with former steroid users. I told him what I had been through and he said this was completely normal and that it can take a long time for testosterone production to come back to normal. He said I'd have to be patient and that at this point it was too early to say if my body would recover or not. At least 1 more year I should wait until I give up and go on TRT was his advice.
And that's what I did, I waited. It wasn't hard for me since I felt good. Before I got the blood test I thought I had recovered after all.
And the months went by and we did a new blood test every 6 weeks, First happened nothing but after about 6 months my levels slowly started to rise. So he was right!
3,5 years after I went off my levels stabilized. They always stayed in the lower 25% of the normal reference interval but they had doubled compared to what they had been when I first time took the blood test.

So this is my story. I don't want to scare anybody. Finally I only really felt bad the first 6 months but the lesson to be taken is if you push hard the body needs time to recover. No amount of PCT will change this.

Another point to think about is the following. Nowadays are people are so fast to say "I'm fatigued, I need TRT". I had very low levels of testosterone (that even made my doctor suggest I should consider TRT) but felt good and was stronger and in better shape than 90% of the other guys in the gym.
Of course taking some testosterone will make you feel better but maybe there are other reasons for you feeling fatigued...
Going straight on TRT is maybe hitting a mosquito with a sledge hammer if you get the picture.