I believe it was the cause yes. I have pssd from an antidepressant, if you are familiar with that, which also probably played a role in my low t. I responded well after a few weeks but after my doses of hcg a day or two later i have Ed, no libido, and the following t Treatment doesn’t help. Past few weeks I have removed hcg and been much more stable with improvements
Yeah I ended up here from finasteride (or I believe I did anyways) so very familiar with pssd. Family thinks I’m crazy when I try to get them to not take anti depressants regardless of whether the doc told them to or not. It’s maddening.
Yeah HCG is pretty hit or miss with how it affects people. Some feel better, some feel worse. Sometimes more time helps but I’m the same way and feel worse every time I try it, which doesn’t exactly bode well needing it soon for fertility but I guess we’ll see how it goes
Yep we’re in the exact same boats then. The T helps some by itself although it comes in waves. The hcg makes me worse. Done on the pssd forums mention hcg May mess with er a/b expression but I don’t know what that means really. I just don’t want to be made permanently worse with the stuff. But I can’t lose fertility so I guess time being I don’t have many options. I’m going to do 150iu today.
Ok so have some updates. One, my sperm count is now down in a month from 250 million to 40 million so it has dropped significantly… I have to go back to my full dose of hcg or get off trt all together. The second thing is I got my labs back from last week. My Total test is 935 and free test is 28.6, but my estrogen is 54 so they said too high and these labs were done on a week when I skipped the hcg all together because I was feeling so bad from it previous week. So if I had to guess my estrogen is probably quite a bit higher than that already high number when I do the two hcg shots each week. The nurse practitioner is suggesting I stay on the hcg and take 1mg of anastrazole this week and then go to half of one once a week after… it just seems to me like an awful lot to put into my body.
So now I’m battling keeping fertility, shrinkage and libido issues which I am hoping is from high estrogen but nevertheless coming up every hcg shot which is what I was taking to stay fertile, and all fertility clinics are closed until corona virus stuff is over so I don’t really know what to do at this point
They also decreased my test from 160 weekly to 130
You are digging yourself a hole and need to stop changing things. First, E2 does NOT cause shrinkage of anything, except maybe your prostate depending on what you believe.
You need to take JUST testosterone for a ehile and relax. You can add in HCG AT ANY TIME to increase fertility. You don’t have to “Maintain” it throughout.
HCG makes you feel bad. Don’t take it unless you are trying to conceive. Your balls might shrink, it’s not the end of the world, it’s called atrophy and it’s what happens when you aren;t using something. For the love of yourself, if nothing else, don’t take that giant dose of AI. Don’t EVER adjust more than one thing at a time either. If you dropped your dose, that’s your ONE change for the next 6 weeks.
Well the problem is we ARE trying to conceive right now. And my count is dropping. My estrogen is high and the hcg spikes it so what should I do to bring it down otherwise? Is half a mg of AI a lot?
I’m having shrinkage of balls and my penis is drawing up some with it as well. Seems hormonal but not sure what
So, you haven’t posted an E2 number that qualifies as “High”, particularly. How are you defining that? If your count is dropping on HCG and it makes you feel bad, maybe that’s telling you something. If your doc knows that you are trying to conceive, why did he not have you do a run of Clomid before TRT? You keep pointing at E2 as the problem, but not providing any evidence why it would be.
Taking the AI will lower your E2, it may in fact crash it and make you regret life. It will not block production of it in the testes though, which is where the HCG is causing production of it. So if E2 is actually the problem, you will be reducing it everywhere except where it’s causing the issue.
Ok well that’s why I’m posting on here. To get second opinions. No need to be combative over it. I don’t know as much as I should that’s why I’m reaching out. My e2 is 54, but I made the mistake of not taking the hcg the week of labs. They already said that the e2 was over normal range and so I’m factoring in it I had taken the two hcg shots that week it probably would have been higher. So don’t take the AI at all? I don’t want to crash it and I was not going to take a full pill regardless but trying to get some input on what to do now. Not sure why I didn’t get put on anything else it is just the T and 300iu of hcg 3rd and 5th day. I have felt bad on the hcg so I haven’t followed full protocol which is on me.
And it’s not so much that my testacles have shrunk much it’s that my scrotum does not loosen up they stay super tight almost all the way up against my crotch. It’s uncomfortable and very imasculating
Not trying to be combative. Out of range doesn’t particularly apply to E2 on TRT. It’s pretty much always higher on exogynous. If the doctor knows you are trying to conceive, he really should have tried some fertility drugs like Clomid first. Not in addition to, separately. The biggest favour you can do for yourself is to not introduce multiple drugs/changes at once. Start with test. Once you have that worked out and stable, look at adding other things. But one at a time, or you really won’t know what did what. And the AI makes a lot of guys feel horrible and usually isn’t necessary at all.
Thank you for all your help. So what should I do with the hcg? My wife had been doing iui past couple of months. Today my count was 40 million which still is enough but last month it was 250 million… should I ride it out without hcg for a month and see what happens and hope count doesn’t drop too much more?
That’s up to you.
Oh I know but was hoping for some guidance with someone who has long term experience with trt. I don’t know how quickly your sperm production should drop or if it will go to 0. I always heard you almost have to be on an AI low dose if you do trt and hcg because hcg boosts e2 even more . That’s not the case?
I’d rather not take the hcg if I could get by or use something else safer that helped
Some men are destined to be always hunting for the right AI dosage. I had a 0.050 anastrozole and couldn’t even handle an 1/8th, my knees and hips hurt days later.
I’m an AI over-responder, I over-respond to all medicines and should have known better than to even attempt using an AI.
Heck I even over-respond to TRT.
So anyone have suggestions on what my next move should be with us trying to get pregnant? I have two frozen samples as of now. But we have done three unsuccessful iui treatments . I do not feel good on the hcg. But how small will my nuts shrivel? I realized my actual testacles would shrink some but I didn’t know they would tighten up to the point like I have been in a cold pool nonstop? I’m trying to decide on whether to eliminate it if I can get another sample. But if I should continue a few more weeks should I take a small dose of AI being that e2 was 54 on a week I didn’t even use hcg? Just a lot of unknowns…
Given your history, I would stop testosterone and take either Clomid or hCG.