Switching doctors confused about HCG dosing

[snkloverpgh]

My current doctor has me on 250iu of HCG ONCE per week. Says every 8 days is the magic number but once per week will cut it. I don't understand if this is an old protocol or what but I'm switching clinics and my new doctor told me this is really low and they recommend their guys go 500iu 2X per week. Said it will stimulate ITT and raise my total test # (I'd rather just inject more test if I want a higher # - it's cheaper). I don't really know what the pros/cons are of either approach. Why was/is once weekly a thing if the half life of HCG is closer to 3 days? I don't have any testicular atrophy that I can notice after 1 year on TRT, I'd just maybe say I want a better sex drive. On my current protocol of 80mg E3.5D test cyp and 250iuHCG 1X per week I have days where my sex drive is really thru the roof and then other days I don't care. I don't take an AI and my TT is 900+ FT 30+ and E2 30. I'd really rather optimize my sex drive to be closer to the high end and I don't know if looking at my HCG protocol is the pathway. Any ideas? I read the entire thread from Dr. Sada.

 

[Vince]

I inject 500 IU of HCG twice a week.

HCG doses under 300 IU along with TRT may not normalize intratesticular testosterone since 250 IU produced an ITT 7% below baseline. 500 IU produced ITT 25% above normal.

 

[Cataceous]

The problem with hCG is that a hormone with a 36-hour half-life is being used to replace a hormone with a half-life of less than an hour. No matter how you dose it, hCG is never going to be a perfect replacement for LH.

In any case, if you have no complaints about testicular atrophy with the current 250 IU hCG per week then I would stick with it and try to better understand the influences on your libido that are under your control. It's not easy to quantify something this subjective, but it could be useful if you can establish a pattern: Do you feel better earlier or later in the testosterone injection cycles, on average? What about in the hCG injection cycles? Your testosterone is considerably higher than necessary. Some find that libido is actually better at lower, more physiological levels. This is another variable to work with.

 

[madman]

My current doctor has me on 250iu of HCG ONCE per week. Says every 8 days is the magic number but once per week will cut it. I don't understand if this is an old protocol or what but I'm switching clinics and my new doctor told me this is really low and they recommend their guys go 500iu 2X per week. Said it will stimulate ITT and raise my total test # (I'd rather just inject more test if I want a higher # - it's cheaper). I don't really know what the pros/cons are of either approach. Why was/is once weekly a thing if the half life of HCG is closer to 3 days? I don't have any testicular atrophy that I can notice after 1 year on TRT, I'd just maybe say I want a better sex drive. On my current protocol of 80mg E3.5D test cyp and 250iuHCG 1X per week I have days where my sex drive is really thru the roof and then other days I don't care. I don't take an AI and my TT is 900+ FT 30+ and E2 30. I'd really rather optimize my sex drive to be closer to the high end and I don't know if looking at my HCG protocol is the pathway. Any ideas? I read the entire thread from Dr. Sada.

Really!

Most men are injecting 250-500IU twice weekly or EOD.

Libido/ED is far more complex than just achieving healthy TT, FT, estradiol, DHT, prolactin.

Regardless not everyone is going to have a strong sex drive let alone raging libido on trt.

Pros and cons of using TRT vs HCG for treatment low-t symptoms

Human chorionic gonadotropin treatment: a viable option for management of secondary hypogonadism and male infertility (2020) Julius Fink, Brad J. Schoenfeld, Anthony C. Hackney, Takahiro Maekawa & Shigeo Horie Abstract Introduction: Low testosterone and its symptoms is a condition affecting...

www.excelmale.com

 

[madman]

hCG

post# 6/7

HCG Monotherapy Risks

Hello, I am a 29 year old male, fit with low bodyfat and decent muscle mass (if that matters). I have a prescription for HCG Monotherapy that I am still deciding whether or not to use. Before anyone asks, I have no desire for TRT at this stage in life due to it permanently shutting down...

www.excelmale.com

 

[snkloverpgh]

Really!

Most men are injecting 250-500IU twice weekly or EOD.

Libido/ED is far more complex than just achieving healthy TT, FT, estradiol, DHT, prolactin.

Regardless not everyone is going to have a strong sex drive let alone raging libido on trt.

Pros and cons of using TRT vs HCG for treatment low-t symptoms

Human chorionic gonadotropin treatment: a viable option for management of secondary hypogonadism and male infertility (2020) Julius Fink, Brad J. Schoenfeld, Anthony C. Hackney, Takahiro Maekawa & Shigeo Horie Abstract Introduction: Low testosterone and its symptoms is a condition affecting...

www.excelmale.com

They are a rather large clinic from my understanding and this is their standard protocol. For sure libido seems to be complex.

 

[antelopers]

The problem with hCG is that a hormone with a 36-hour half-life is being used to replace a hormone with a half-life of less than an hour. No matter how you dose it, hCG is never going to be a perfect replacement for LH.

In any case, if you have no complaints about testicular atrophy with the current 250 IU hCG per week then I would stick with it and try to better understand the influences on your libido that are under your control. It's not easy to quantify something this subjective, but it could be useful if you can establish a pattern: Do you feel better earlier or later in the testosterone injection cycles, on average? What about in the hCG injection cycles? Your testosterone is considerably higher than necessary. Some find that libido is actually better at lower, more physiological levels. This is another variable to work with.

Aside from the half life issues, what about strength itself? Is hcg more potent as far as activity on the leydig cells than LH? Maybe it's possible to achieve benefits from hcg at much lower doses than we've all been using.

 

[Cataceous]

Aside from the half life issues, what about strength itself? Is hcg more potent as far as activity on the leydig cells than LH? Maybe it's possible to achieve benefits from hcg at much lower doses than we've all been using.

I found this to be a tricky issue. In this set of slides by Filicori he says 1 IU hCG = 6-8 IU LH. So you can use this figure and some hCG dose-response data to get a rough sense of the equivalencies. I ran through the numbers in a post not too long ago. However, when I dug into the subject a little further I found there's research suggesting different relative strengths in different tissues/organs. This complicates the comparison and means you can't distill it to a single number.

 

[footnfan]

Wow, I read about these large doses and it amazes me, but I am a nube. I have been on TRT for about 5 years, I do have atrophy, not terrible, but they are smaller, and my MD has me on 30 Iu, 3 times per week. That seems to be VERY conservative as opposed to what I read here about HCG dosing.

 

[antelopers]

Wow, I read about these large doses and it amazes me, but I am a nube. I have been on TRT for about 5 years, I do have atrophy, not terrible, but they are smaller, and my MD has me on 30 Iu, 3 times per week. That seems to be VERY conservative as opposed to what I read here about HCG dosing.

30iu, or 30 units on the insulin syringe?

 

[footnfan]

30iu, or 30 units on the insulin syringe?

30 units on an insulin syringe.

 

[snkloverpgh]

30 units on an insulin syringe.

Thats 300iu or 30 units. your dose is 50iu higher than mine per injection.

 

[antelopers]

30 units on an insulin syringe.

Units on a syringe are different than iu of the medication. When hcg is mixed, typically 30 units on an insulin syringe would be 300iu of actual medication.

 

[footnfan]

Thank you