Methodology

How the engine uses your inputs

The calculator starts with a small set of inputs that change the recommendation directly.

Goal + intensity

Selects candidate compounds and sets titration aggressiveness.

Body data

Weight, age, sex. Used where the label or trial protocol specifies size-relative dosing.

Health-history flags

Blocks compounds whose contraindications match. MTC family history blocks the GLP-1 class. Melanoma history blocks Melanotan. Pituitary axis disruption blocks GH-axis compounds. The specific rule is shown when a compound is dropped.

Manual additions

Any compound from the guide, subject to the same checks.

Source lane

Where the vial or medication came from determines what the output means. The dose math can be identical across lanes while the source uncertainty is not. Each lane below names the fields to confirm before acting on the plan. The high-friction lanes label the on-screen output as a math preview until those fields are confirmed.

FDA-approved Rxlower risk

A labeled product or pharmacy-dispensed medication from a clinician-managed prescription path.

Use the labeled product instructions and clinician/pharmacist directions as the source of truth. Protoche is checking schedule logic, math, and plan coherence around what you entered.

• › Confirm product name, strength, and route on the pharmacy label.
• › Follow label storage and missed-dose instructions.
• › Bring the Protoche output to the prescriber if you are changing dose timing or combining compounds.

Compounded Rx vialmedium risk

A prescription vial from a compounding pharmacy or telehealth program.

Compounded vials are not the approved-brand product. Confirm mg/mL concentration, units, BUD, lot, pharmacy, additives, and refill timing before relying on any dose math.

• › Confirm whether the label expresses dose in mg, mL, or syringe units.
• › Check beyond-use date, storage, additives, and lot number.
• › Do not reuse a brand-label titration schedule if the vial concentration or salt/form differs.

Research-only vialhigh risk

A lyophilized vial or kit sold outside an approved human-use pharmacy path.

This lane has high source uncertainty. Protoche can check math and internal consistency, but it does not verify purity, sterility, legality, identity, or whether the vial is appropriate for human use.

• › Match vial label, compound name, lot number, and COA before mixing.
• › Check identity, purity, endotoxin, sterility, and lab verification fields where available.
• › Treat missing or mismatched documentation as a hard reason to pause.

Vendor blend or kithigh risk

A named blend such as Wolverine, GLOW, KLOW, or another kit where ratios may be locked.

Blend ratios lock the dose of every component. Protoche needs the exact composition and vial mass before the output can be interpreted cleanly.

• › Verify the full ingredient list and ratio, not only the blend name.
• › Do not combine a blend with standalone ingredients until duplicate components are checked.
• › Treat "units" claims as meaningless until reconstitution volume and concentration are known.

Not sure yethigh risk

You do not yet know whether this is approved Rx, compounded Rx, research-only, or a blend.

Source is unknown. Use this output as a question list and math preview only until the vial label, route, concentration, and documentation are clarified.

• › Identify the exact source lane before mixing or drawing a dose.
• › Find the compound name, vial mass, concentration, lot number, and expiration/BUD.
• › If any field stays unclear, treat the plan as incomplete.

How recommendations are chosen

The engine runs four steps in order. The same inputs always produce the same protocol. No random sampling, no LLM generation in the dose-math path.

Evidence match

Each compound's dose, schedule, and cycle length comes from one of five evidence tiers. Sources are linked per-compound on the guide.

FDA-labeled

Tirzepatide, Semaglutide, Tesamorelin, PT-141, Melanotan I, bac water. Engine mirrors the DailyMed titration and ceiling.

Trial dose

Retatrutide (Phase 2 obesity trial; Jastreboff et al., NEJM 2023), Cagrilintide (CagriSema). Published Phase 2/3 schedules.

Ex-US label

Thymosin Alpha-1 (Zadaxin), Selank, Semax. Labeled doses in the approving jurisdiction.

Community

BPC-157, TB-500, GHK-Cu, CJC/Ipa, and others without label or trial dosing. Flagged research-only in the guide.

Extrapolated

Amino-1MQ. Doses extrapolated from rodent studies. The weakest tier.

Safety screen

Each candidate compound is checked twice. First against hard blockers from FDA labels or trial exclusion criteria. Then against cycle-level interactions: GLP-1 stacking, IGF-1 alongside GH-axis stimulants, copper load from GHK-Cu blends, and blend overlap when a standalone compound is also present in a multi-compound vial. Compounds that fail either check are dropped from the protocol with the specific rule named.

Dose & vial math

Final doses are matched to real research-vendor catalog vial sizes so a planned cycle uses the right number of vials. Reconstitution and per-shot volume are computed from the concentration the user reconstitutes to.