I’m late 40s. Had testosterone tested many years ago. I was low, not off the charts low but probably sub 300 and that was 10 years ago. The doctor told me he could put me on test injections but then I couldn’t have kids. I know now that clomid/hcg would help with that. He may have been ignorant, not sure. One thing he told me upon seeing me (I’m relatively muscular, have a full beard, body hair) is that “testosterone is funny…you don’t look like you’re low, maybe you just don’t need as much”. No idea if this was just him covering up his lack of knowledge or whether that’s real. I definitely have some signs now though, lack of libido, poor recovery from workouts.
Anyway, I’ve read various things on a “clomid only cycle”. Some papers said this could be a new “protocol”, as it stimulates the H/P of the HPTA to secrete LH and FSH. On bodybuilding sites the reaction was pretty negative, with people thinking it was stupid, ridiculous, would lead to bad sides (moodiness/depression), etc, wouldn’t work. However they may have been talking about in comparison to an AAS cycle and not TRT. Some on those sites said that they did try it and their test did go up. I realize you have to have secondary hypogonadism, not primary. I was tested years ago and I have secondary, my testes work fine, for some reason the thermostat is turned down low.
Anyway, so question #1 is, “has anyone ever tried a clomid only cycle and been happy with it?” Some say it raised their test, did it seem to work in the gym as well? Higher test levels won’t mean much on paper unless they’re reflected in better workouts, etc.
Another aspect is that yes, some say it raised their test, but it will also raise estrogen, not sure if that means it will negate gains in the gym or whether that it just messes with their libido so much it makes it unpleasant.
And others say clomid only will raise SHBG which will bind test. It’s as though your body is saying “we don’t want all that test, so we’re just going to bind some of it up, so you can’t use it”. That seems strange, why wouldn’t test injections do the same thing? Maybe the higher LH and FSH from clomid stimulate SHBG?
One guy I know is on injectables and HCG. He only gets a shot once every 2 -3 weeks. I asked him and he said they would let him inject at home, he just doens’t. I thought HCG had to be injected at low levels every couple of days, I was surprised at them injecting hcg only once every 3 weeks. So I would be somewhat psyched if I could inject enough to put me mid range (say 550-600) or so, and do it every week to keep it level. Not sure about hcg or whether clomid at the same time would work as well as HCG (just in a different way, ie stimulate FSH and LH instead of the testes directly).
So that’s a side question: Does clomid during trt make sense to keep testes going? Or is it hcg only?
Also I’ve heard, mostly on here, about sub-Q injections. Is that still a protocol? Do you inject in the muscle or just in fat at the waist or somewhere else?
Thanks for any replies.