HCG Along With TRT??

[dangeli]

Good morning. I'm new to the site as of yesterday and need some feedback seeing that I am brand new to this space.

I'm a 49-year-old male 6'1 195lbs and starting TRT for the first time. The doctor has suggested 160mg of Testosterone Cypionate along with HCG 500iu SubQ twice weekly. I'm seeing a lot of mixed reviews on HCG and I think it's the information overload that is causing me to second guess using HCG. I dought I'm ever having kids at my age, but I don't what to suffer shrinkage in my testis.

Any experience and feedback would be much appreciated.

Sincerely,
Danny

 

[Cataceous]

A suggestion unrelated to hCG is to consider a lower starting dose. The average guy in his prime naturally makes 6-7 mg of testosterone per day. Your doctor is proposing to start you with 16 mg per day. This is poor practice. A common expression we use in TRT is "low and slow", meaning you start with the lowest reasonable dose and only if needed do you increase in fairly small increments, allowing substantial time between evaluations. If you trim that starting dose to 50 mg of testosterone cypionate twice a week then that's an average of 10 mg per day of testosterone, still a little above the normal natural production range of 3-9 mg per day.

The pros of hCG usually outweigh the cons. It typically lessens testicular atrophy and may preserve fertility under TRT. The luteinizing hormone that hCG replaces may have other functions that have not been well elucidated. It's possible that maintaining those functions with hCG yields health benefits. On the other hand, hCG is an imperfect replacement for LH. It has a much longer half-life, which may result in excessive creation of estradiol. This can be problematic for sensitive individuals or for those who already have above-average estrogen.

 

[dangeli]

@Cataceous thank you for your input, much appreciated!

 

[Seth]

Good morning. I'm new to the site as of yesterday and need some feedback seeing that I am brand new to this space.

I'm a 49-year-old male 6'1 195lbs and starting TRT for the first time. The doctor has suggested 160mg of Testosterone Cypionate along with HCG 500iu SubQ twice weekly. I'm seeing a lot of mixed reviews on HCG and I think it's the information overload that is causing me to second guess using HCG. I dought I'm ever having kids at my age, but I don't what to suffer shrinkage in my testis.

Any experience and feedback would be much appreciated.

Sincerely,
Danny

I take both. Adding HCG definitely helped bring back some testicle size and it also seems to provide me with better erections. Also, I agree with Cataceous 160 MG is a lot. I inject 25mg of T twice a week and my total levels are very high.

 

[Phil Goodman]

I would 2nd others in that it may be better to start a little lower. Everyone responds differently, but for reference I’m similar in size(6’1” and 175) and started out at 120 mg/week. I thought it sounded low but stuck with the suggestion and it puts me at the very top of the range for free, total, and estrogen and I feel really good most of the time. Most here will suggest to start lower and work up instead of possibly starting on the high end and trying to adjust down, which I agree with. If you start out a little too low you just bump up a little after 6-8 weeks then give your body time to adjust and re-evaluate. In that scenario you are already closer to your sweet spot if/when you decide to bump up and it seems to be a smoother approach. For some reason, from what I’ve read, people who start too high then try to find the sweet spot end up bouncing around with lots of different doses and frequencies trying to pin down what exactly is causing the issues.

As far as HCG, I would recommend finding your ideal sweet spot with test alone before adding it. Similar to the point above, this will probably lead to a much smoother approach. Also, different people have different amounts of testicular atrophy, reduced load, diminished orgasm, etc. You could end up being someone who doesn’t really need or want it so that’s another reason to hold off until you get dialed in on test. Then if you decide down the road that you want to add it, you’ll know exactly how it is affecting you since you’ll already have your test protocol sorted out and can adjust as needed.

 

[Fernando Almaguer]

A suggestion unrelated to hCG is to consider a lower starting dose. The average guy in his prime naturally makes 6-7 mg of testosterone per day. Your doctor is proposing to start you with 16 mg per day. This is poor practice. A common expression we use in TRT is "low and slow", meaning you start with the lowest reasonable dose and only if needed do you increase in fairly small increments, allowing substantial time between evaluations. If you trim that starting dose to 50 mg of testosterone cypionate twice a week then that's an average of 10 mg per day of testosterone, still a little above the normal natural production range of 3-9 mg per day.

The pros of hCG usually outweigh the cons. It typically lessens testicular atrophy and may preserve fertility under TRT. The luteinizing hormone that hCG replaces may have other functions that have not been well elucidated. It's possible that maintaining those functions with hCG yields health benefits. On the other hand, hCG is an imperfect replacement for LH. It has a much longer half-life, which may result in excessive creation of estradiol. This can be problematic for sensitive individuals or for those who already have above-average estrogen.

Can we take super low doses of HCG with some amount of efficacy?

 

[Systemlord]

HCG 500iu SubQ twice weekly

You might feel better on HCG, then again you might not. HCG mostly causes issues.

Some men need HCG to make TRT work, or rather the sexual parameters.

I know Nelson Vergel tried (site owner/founder of Excel Male) it when he was younger and got sides, then later in life something changed and said he lost some benefits of TRT, tried HCG a second time and got all that was missing back.

Perhaps being almost fully suppressed long term has some consequences later down the road, something that HCG can help treat, restore.

 

[madman]

Good morning. I'm new to the site as of yesterday and need some feedback seeing that I am brand new to this space.

I'm a 49-year-old male 6'1 195lbs and starting TRT for the first time. The doctor has suggested 160mg of Testosterone Cypionate along with HCG 500iu SubQ twice weekly. I'm seeing a lot of mixed reviews on HCG and I think it's the information overload that is causing me to second guess using HCG. I dought I'm ever having kids at my age, but I don't what to suffer shrinkage in my testis.

Any experience and feedback would be much appreciated.

Sincerely,
Danny

post #19

Tips to Dial In Test C + HCG Protocol

I just had bloodwork done after 4 months on this protocol: 1) 45mg of test cypionate 2x weekly (90mg total per week) 2) 500IU of Pregnyl 2x weekly (1,000IU total per week) My labs are attached. The free T didn't show up on the PDF but it's 823 pmol/L, which is well above the reference range of...

www.excelmale.com

 

[locutus]

was on HCG for 6+ months. went of. I feel NO changes. no shrinkage.
only difference is 2 less injections per week.

 

[DannyLou2676]

I would consider getting properly dialled in on TRT alone first. You may not have much testicular shrinkage and you can always add in some HCG if you need to. I have been on TRT for 4 years and have had some shrinkage (don't want anymore kids!) so added in some HCG (500iu 3x per week) and the boys did come back to almost full size and I felt an increase in mood/wellbeing and ejaculation was better.