HCG: Storage, Travel, Potency

[tonyfr]

Hi,

I've just started taking HCG. It's rather obnoxious that you get it in large vials whose efficacy starts to go downhill the moment its mixed. And its so delicate: it needs refrigeration after it's reconstituted and should not be disturbed much to avoid breaking up the delicate protein bonds.

First question: can it be frozen? Opinions are all over the place. Some people pre-fill syringes and freeze them. This sounds great, but no one seems to worry much about maintaining sterility.

Then there's traveling with HCG. I'm not worried about keeping it refrigerated, but the shaking and vibrations incurred in travel by car or air would seem destined to destroy the HCG. I haven't found anyone worried about vibration damage—most people seem to worry just about refrigeration.

Any thoughts? Is there any reasonable way to test a vial of HCG to see how potent it remains?

I am taking it mostly to make sure my natural T production systems stay active. I've spent about 9 months on T therapy without it (different doctor) and didn't notice any testicular shrinkage, so I'm not sure I could tell if it was working or not without a lab test.

 

[Vince Carter]

Hi,

I've just started taking HCG. It's rather obnoxious that you get it in large vials whose efficacy starts to go downhill the moment its mixed. And its so delicate: it needs refrigeration after it's reconstituted and should not be disturbed much to avoid breaking up the delicate protein bonds.

First question: can it be frozen? Opinions are all over the place. Some people pre-fill syringes and freeze them. This sounds great, but no one seems to worry much about maintaining sterility.

Then there's traveling with HCG. I'm not worried about keeping it refrigerated, but the shaking and vibrations incurred in travel by car or air would seem destined to destroy the HCG. I haven't found anyone worried about vibration damage—most people seem to worry just about refrigeration.

Any thoughts? Is there any reasonable way to test a vial of HCG to see how potent it remains?

I am taking it mostly to make sure my natural T production systems stay active. I've spent about 9 months on T therapy without it (different doctor) and didn't notice any testicular shrinkage, so I'm not sure I could tell if it was working or not without a lab test.

This subject and all your points have been beat to death on this forum and no new conversation can be had. Search...your concerns are nothing new.

 

[tonyfr]

Actually, I spent a few hours on web searches, so I did skip the forum search. Some of the issues I mentioned were not covered in any of the discussions I saw.

For instance, there is a lot of discussion about freezing HCG, but not much discussion of sterility.

I decided to search this forum specifically.

Regarding freezing HCG, Dr. Saya (DefyMedical) says: "Once reconstituted, the general recommendation is to NOT freeze, however damage to the peptide likely increases proportional to the number of freeze-thaw cycles. In other words, if you are keeping it to only ONE freeze-thaw cycle there should be far less potential damage to the peptide than for more/repetitive freeze-thaw cycles."

Which leaves the question open whether it would be better to freeze HCG and thaw 3 weeks later or just refrigerate for 3 weeks (e.g. you go on vacation for 3 weeks and leave the HCG behind). In both cases, some degradation will occur. It's clear no one will be able to answer which method results in the least degradation.

Regarding pre-filled syringes, I've found only one comment addressing the sterility issue (from Jasen Bruce, moderator): "It is not recommended to pre-load syringes for storage. To preserve potency and sterility during storage the syringe needs to be loaded in a sterile environment, such as under a hood. Contamination occurs when you are transferring within a non-sterile environment which then reduces the shelf-life/stability of the medication." I am surprised at the general lack of concern for sterility.

Regarding vibration damage during travel, well, the only post I could find even mentioning vibration is mine. I tried other searches and found this comment by Super Moderator Gene Devine: "Fellows - The online concept that HCG is "fragile" and can damage the drug if shaken excessively is lure! If you knew the brutal process of how the drug is manufactured you wouldn't believe it...and guess what? When you get it and reconstitute it...it works! Don't worry about the shaking it will go through when traveling as it will not hurt the potency of the drug whatsoever!" I'm not sure what he means by "lure" (typo?) and also unclear whether he is referring to traveling with the powdered HCG or reconstituted HCG.

Regarding testing HCG for potency, I can't find any topic that looks like it addresses this issue. I would assume it can't be done if I hadn't seen one web posting (somewhere—can't remember where) in which a woman mentioned checking her HCG potency (she didn't mention how). Follow-up searching found an article claiming that a pregnancy test kit could be used to test HCG potency, but later retracting the claim.

So, the one issue that maybe hasn't been talked to death is vibration/shaking during travel. My doctor (from DefyMedical) said not to store HCG on the refrigerator door, not because of the temperature fluctuations, but because it shakes the medicine around. If that's true, it's not going to survive a plane trip, followed by days of driving around on various types of roads.

 

[cja]

So, the one issue that maybe hasn't been talked to death is vibration/shaking during travel. My doctor (from DefyMedical) said not to store HCG on the refrigerator door, not because of the temperature fluctuations, but because it shakes the medicine around. If that's true, it's not going to survive a plane trip, followed by days of driving around on various types of roads.

Interesting, this is exactly where my HCG is kept, the refrigerator door. I have 2 teenage kids, you can imagine how many times the door is opened/closed daily. However, after reading this I will be moving the box to a more stable location, thanks.

 

[Vince]

For me personally. I just have a spot in the refrigerator for my HCG, it's a place butter would go. I never take HCG with when I travel, and I don't really miss it at all.

 

[KSPhD]

For travel you can buy sealed sterile vials that are small from online med lab supply places. Why not aliqout a small volume and take it with you? Then you only have to worry about shaking and vibrating your more recent dosage and not the entire vial. Would also seem prudent to aliqout out small doses of HCG - may 1 month at a time. You could then freeze those aliquots at -20 celcius (~4 Fahrenheit). If you only freeze them and thaw them once you should be fine. Of course when thawing they need to be kept in the fridge.

 

[tonyfr]

Hmmm...the spec sheet you attached says: "Dilute aqueous solutions undergo rapid loss of activity when stored frozen, or heated, or if excess acid or base is added. Gelatin and serum proteins help to stabilize aqueous solutions of hCG. hCG is stable in a glycerol solution at 100°C for one hour. Solutions in water at ≥ 10 μg/ml can be stored as single use aliquots at 20°C. Solutions at 100 μg/ml in water are stable at 2-8°C for about 2-3 months."

• I mix powdered HCG with bacteriostatic water at 11ml for 11,000 IU. What does this means in terms of μg/ml?
• Is this considered to be a "dilute aqueous solution"? If so, it sounds like it shouldn't be frozen.
• The data sheet confusingly says "storage temperature: -20°C". Is this for unmixed HCG?

The best I guess can make from the data sheet is that my reconstituted HCG falls into the 100 μg/ml solution category, can be stored at 2-8°C for about 2-3 months, and shouldn't be frozen. Powdered HCG expires in about 6 months; perhaps storage at -20°C extends that significantly.

But, like I said, I'm guessing.

BTW, a typical freezer would be around 0°F or -18°C.

 

[KSPhD]

"Solutions in water at ≥ 10 μg/ml can be stored as single use aliquots at 20°C. Solutions at 100 μg/ml in water are stable at 2-8°C for about 2-3 months."

Typically 1 mg of HCG is going to be ~5000 IU, though you would need to call your pharmacist and have him confirm the IU/mg for that lot. But given this number, 1 mg of HCG = 1000 ug. So we are diluting in the 1000 ug/ml range. Even if it were 1/4 of that you would still be well above the 100ug/ml range. Thus, in your refrigerator, this should last 2-3 months. Any reconstituted HCG you plan on using longer than that should be frozen @20°C. Thus it is better to get 2 vials of HCG (5000-6000 IU/piece) and only reconstitute one. If one wanted to know if their HCG was "still good" one could likely use pregnancy test strips to get an idea based on their drug under their storage conditions.

 

[tonyfr]

From various sources, I found that:

1 IU HCG = .1 mg HCG = 100 μg HCG
​

This means that:

1,000 IU/ml = 100 mg/ml = 100,000 μg/ml
​

And:

5,000 IU = 500 mg (not 1 mg)
​

The SIGMA Product Information sheet confuses more than it clarifies:

• "Dilute aqueous solutions undergo rapid loss of activity when stored frozen": There is nothing that defines how dilute is dilute or how rapid is rapid. 100,000 μg/ml might be considered dilute and 6 months might be considered rapid. Or perhaps rapid is 2 days.
• "Storage Temperature: -20°C": I have to believe this applies to the HCG which SIGMA supplies to pharmacies, which would mean the powdered form.
• "Solutions in water at ≥ 10 μg/ml can be stored as single use aliquots at 20°C": my dilution of 100 mg/ml is certainly ≥ 10 μg/ml, but I don't think I should store it at 20°C. Of course, I don't have it as single-use aliquots, but I am hard-pressed to understand how that would make a difference.
• "Solutions at 100 μg/ml in water are stable at 2-8°C for about 2-3 months": This statement only talks about solutions at 100 μg/ml, which leaves us wondering about solutions at 101 μg/ml or even 100,000 μg/ml.

From this, I get absolute no reassurance that reconstituted HCG can be frozen.

Using pregnancy strips to test for HCG is an option, but as I understand it, you can test for the presence of HCG, but not for whether potency has been reduced to 50% or 10% or whatever.

 

[KSPhD]

Like I said, it varies from lot to lot. Could it be that high - sure? Will it be that high after purification, manufacturing, processing, lyophilizing, and being bottled. I doubt it. Does it matter no. The sigma sheet is helpful in my opinion. You can freeze a reconstituted vial - if you freeze-thaw once. If you are worried about it, then request 2 vials and keep one in powder form until you run out.

 

[JRos895]

Following up on this thread regarding the point about HCG losing potency due to shaking when traveling when it is reconstituted.

I’m not so nervous about bringing non-reconstituted HCG on planes, trains, etc. I am nervous however about bringing reconstituted HCG when traveling as HCG seems more fragile once it’s reconstituted. I am especially nervous since I currently do HCG mono so reductions on potency can drastically hurt my well-being while on a trip. This fear alone makes me want to go back to T+HCG.