I stayed on HCG for about 9 months. I started taking it 3 months before we started trying. Then we figured out later that my wife’s progesterone levels were too low and that she needed to supplement. Once that happened she got pregnant right away. I felt like crap the entire 9 months so, safe to say, I gave it enough time. The second she was pregnant I stopped taking it and everything improved across the board. My aches and pains vanished, the acne it caused went away, erections came back, libido came back, energy came back.
Some guys feel great on the stuff. The vast majority I’ve spoken to don’t This is why I can’t recommend it for guys starting off on TRT, who don’t need to be fertile, who are desperate to feel good as soon as possible.
I thought I felt good on it but always kind of knew something was off. Felt 1000 times better off of it and the drop in bp was awesome. I’m secondary for what it’s worth.
Have a post about it here, but basically wanted to see if a restart would yield any better natural T levels since I was overall healthier, long story short… didn’t work.
Not really sure, never made the effort to figure it out. If testes respond to HCG by increasing in size, wouldn’t that make me secondary because they are responding to what is essentially LH, meaning they are working?
Man, I am tempted to do the same, just based on all the negative things I’ve heard about HCG. I wonder if I’d feel better without it. What makes you confident the risk of infertility is low? Seems like the evidence is mainly anecdota from forums, right?
Agree completely. I could care less if my balls shrink to the size of a pea as long as the main part still works. My interest in this experiment is outlined in my opening post.
Very true. Just wonder what other things I might notice if I lift the HCG. Plus IMO, the fewer medications the better. Just makes life simpler. But you make a valid point!
Funny thing is on the flip side many doctors strongly advocate for HCG because of its ability to mimic LH and goes into depth of the various LH cells in the body, including the brain that the HCG helps to preserve balance and centeredness. I read about Dr Crisler’s protocol with it last night. Seems a lot of people in the TRT world contradict each other.
In that case I would check out the Crisler protocol with it, he advocates small daily injections. And describes the potential benefits and draw backs of doing larger more infrequent dosing.
Not sure I’m convinced of the frequency. It doesn’t make sense any more frequently than eod based on the data, but then again neither does dosing test in that frequency, but some people swear by it. If this experiment goes well I may switch for the last 6 weeks to see if I feel any difference.
Lots of reputable guys are. That’s why I’m theorizing, and would like to see it actually studied some day, about whether the root cause of a mans hypogonadism has anything to do with how they react to HCG. I would really love to get down to brass tacks on WHY some feel great on it, and others not so well.
so you tried a restart?
I just got done doing a varicolcel surgery and talked to my doctor about doing a restart.
He wants me to do 2 weeks of HCG with no testosterone then 2 weeks of just clomid and then do labs and if I feel fine he wants to eventually take me off the clomid