Another HCG Post, but Have to Take It

Hey guys, I’m on week seven now of trt. I had ups and downs of feeling ok early on. But I found that after hcg injections every week I’d tend to feel worse. I’ve spent the past two weeks on just my T injection and no hcg. I have started feeling better. The problem is my wife and I have been trying to have kids and she has an auto immune disorder so we have been doing IUI. My plan was that even if I stopped the hcg it would be months before the T lowered my counts. It made sense to me, but now the coronavirus has thrown a wrench in that. Fertility clinics are closed and not seeing patients for the next couple of months. Now with the time frames I’m facing having fertility issues myself. I have signed up with a mail in company to freeze a couple of samples to be safe but I don’t want to rely on two samples being enough to be successful, so long story short I guess I’m going to have to start hcg again for a while to make sure I don’t go completely infertile until we can try a couple more rounds of iui. I was hoping for suggestions on the lowest dose for this and best protocol. I was taking 300iui 3rd and 5th day every week. It affected libido, election quality and just made me feel like shit. I’m thinking about a single dose of 150iu a week but will that be enough to keep testacles stimulated? Just trying to be smart about it without screwing all my progress up.

Use 150 EOD. Otherwise deal with it for a few weeks. Your wife is probably going through a tough time herself. Youre only into this week 7. Im sure you will adjust.

I have no problem dealing with the bad feelings a few weeks. I’m just worried it can cause long term negative effects? I’m as only taking twice a week so not sure I need to do it eod do I?

I guess hoping for input oN The lowest possible dose to help

@unreal24278
Any idea on most effective minimal HCG dose for fertility while on TRT?

I wouldn’t know what the absolute minimum dosage is, we don’t have literature pertaining to what the absolute minimum effective dose would be.

I know one study indicated 500iu eod to be efficient regarding fertility maintenance… That’s quite a bit, the study is from like 10+ yrs ago.

I appreciate everyone responding. Last month when I was taking 300iu twice a week my count was 250million so I think that was plenty but ofcourse had all kinds of side effects

@markc2008
Like anything hormone related I would think after a certain period of time you’d get used to HCG to a certain extent. Maybe not to a point where you feel as good as without it but definitely better than initially.

Doc told me to do 500iu’s 3x a week when it was fertility time so I’m fairly certain that would be enough to do the trick

If less works then even better

For maintaining fertility, the minimum dose I’ve seen recommended is 250IUs three times a week or 350IUs twice a week (so I suppose that’s the minimum). Most of my guys are not interested in conceiving, but I’ve had a couple dozen patients that did with 250IU x 3, with a couple of them not planning on it…opps. I do have a couple having difficulty, but their wives have issues, so I’m not sure why.

By the way, several taking only testosterone have conceived.

Perhaps you could look into FSH injections?

Can you tell me more about fsh injections? Does that help? Also are there side effects?

FSH bypasses a few processes and goes straight to stimulating sperm production.

HCG stimulates Leydig cells, which produce testosterone. The increased intratesticular testosterone levels then stimulate Sertoli cells. Sertoli cells create sperm, i.e. spermogensis.

so, HCG → leydig → testosterone → sertoli → sperm

FSH skips all that and goes straight to stimulating Sertoli cells which produce sperm.

FSH → sertoli → sperm

The upside is there should be fewer potential side effects compared to HCG with increased E2 or whatever it is that causes people to feel like crap, more acne, etc. I’m trying to avoid saying “e2 spike” for fear of it turning into an e2 debate.

The downside is it’s expensive as f. Like, $150 a WEEK if I remember correctly.

2 Likes

Great thanks for the input… I wander if it’s something you could take like once a month? It if it would have to be weekly

It sounds like it accomplishes the same thing but with less side effects

it has to be taken several times a week from my understanding. That is, assuming you are trying to be fertile right now. The whole making usable sperm process takes 2-3 months from what I understand, so it takes time on either before you really get the fertility benefit.

But yeah, side effect wise it does sound like pretty good stuff. It’s not used that often though because of the cost.

ncsugrad covered it.

1 Like

So I’m fertile now, I’ve only been on trt for six weeks. My count last month was 250 million so I’m good. But trying to preserve it

So $150 a week man that’s high…I’ll check my clinic and see if they get it and what price

Yeah I mean it depends on the dose obviously but at the dose my doc was recommending for fertility that’s what it came out to. It’s known for being expensive but hopefully you can get it for less than that

Have you had issues with HCG?