Hi,
Been on TRT for about 2 years and 8 months have switched protocols quite a bit and have settled on daily injections doing 150 mg per week.
I’ve recently decided with my girl we want to start trying to have a kid and curious the best route on this. My doctor mentioned we’d start with clomid, though I’ve heard everyone here seems to talk about HcG… anyone have any advice for the best route and possibly even what frequency and dosage of that medication worked well for them?
Thanks
Whoa, slam on the brakes, let’s start from the beginning, are you in fact infertile?
A simple semen analysis will answer that question. It’s crazy how everyone automatically assumes one is infertile because they are on exogenous testosterone. There are lots of men on cycles have babies.
If you’re infertile, then TRT, hCG and FSH is the best route. hCG wakes up the nuts, FSH stimulates sperm production.
With clomid, there’s no guarantee you’ll even have sexual desire or be able to get an erection strong enough for penetration. Clomid blocks estrogen in the brain, heart, pancreas, and liver, so it’s not hard to understand why strong sexual desire can be so difficult to achieve.
Oh this is news to me. My understanding is that when you’re on TRT your LH and FSH go down to near zero and therefore you are infertile…
So a sperm test is definitely the best next step then.
Assuming I am infertile, I need to ask for both HCG and FSH? Has anyone had experience with clomid? I don’t mind asking my doctor to try something else but curious if anyone has had any experience with it, my understanding is it’s a lot less expensive
The devil is in the details, near zero, but not zero.
Clomid has a very bad side effects profile, vision, mood problems, sometimes severe mood instability. Some men have to stop it shortly after starting it. There are stories out there of men who went on clomid for fertility, for several months, return to TRT and never respond the same again.
There’s a guy on ExcelMale currently in this very situation, had been taking 25 mg and was fine, he started taking 37.5 mg and started having big problems within days, never feel good again, even on TRT. I will admit, these cases are more rare.
Clomid gets a bad rap around here, and with good reason. For some Clomid is a necessary evil.
SERM while on TRT isn’t going to have any impact. At least for 9 out of 10 guys. HCG/HMG would be my choice.
Okay thank you for the insight here… I read some things about it’s ineffectiveness but didn’t realize it could potentially cause long term or permanent issues…
Sounds like HCG is the move then. What is generally a good dosage and frequency to start? It sounds like I’ll be doing TRT with HCG… should I lower my TRT dose when adding this?
Also how long typically does it take for HCG to increase fertility if you start at infertile
This paper has the answers to your questions.
I think it should be required reading for younger men going on TRT.
Personally, I’d just start with TRT and HCG. I’d (what I would do, not medical advice) is take ~250 iu 2-3X a week for a good period of time before trying to conceive. At 6 months, if sperm results were not great, I’d add either FSH or HMG. HMG is LH and FSH combined, so I’d probably lower HCG or drop it if using HMG.
I see… so is 6 months roughly the timeframe to anticipate results?
It it take longer than 6 months for some people and as little as 3 months. It just depends on individual response to compounds.
This is not my personal experience, but those in my practice:
Most common, add hCG to existing TRT at 400-500IU 3x a week. Sometimes, we will decrease the testosterone slightly. Start two or three months prior to go time. The vast majority are pregnant in 2-6 months after starting hCG.
Less than 5% choose to stop TRT and go with clomid, clomiphene or enclomiphene. Their choice, probably based on “researching” the internet.
Two have used FSH, again their choice.
I used HCG for 1000 IU thrice per week with TRT for 100 mg per week.
That’s what my doctor who helped me have two kids advises.
My doc put me on 500 hcg 3 times a week, he said majority of his patients achieve fertility within 6 months on that.
He told me test dose dont matter, but adviced me to drop to atleast 400 for a while “to rest” from my 1g test, 300 deca and some dbol lololol
Did you reduce your T dosage to 100mg per week or were you already on that before introducing HCG?
Worried my T will skyrocket and cause issues if I keep my T dose the same and introduce HCG
I already used 100 mg.
It only raises it slightly.
I know this has been a while since last post but spoke with a doctor who has me on 150MG TRT, 25000IU HCG (which seems high) for 8 weeks, and also wanted me on Clomid as well.
Using HCG and Clomid seems like not the right decision but curious if anyone has spoken to anyone who’s tried this or has insight… I’m leaning toward just Test and HCG and see how it goes, if no results maybe add Clomid or switch entirely to Clomid.
Also curious if the 2500IU HCG is because I’ve been on TRT with no HCG for a while and trying to do a quick boost for fertility…
250 iu’s of HCG very other day, My best friend was having low counts, and wanted to have a baby. He does smoke a lot of cannabis, but works out every day, and is not carrying any body fat to speak of.
Yes he is a DAD!
One way to tell if the HCG is working is you semen will start to feel “greasy” and you then know the HCG is working.
Ya this is the first time going to a “TRT” clinic as opposed to an endo. Unfortunately my endo had no experience with HcG and wasn’t comfortable prescribing.
This guy insists on once a week HCG at 2500 IU… also switched me to TRT injections once every 4 days (which I’m okay with because every day and EOD I felt worse than 2x per week)
Is 2500 a week too high for HCG?
There are stories that too big of dosage of HCG will over saturate the HCG receptors causing them to shut down until the body clears the HCG.
I know I did post this earlier, but 250iu EOD has kind of been the standard around here for years
I am on 75 IU HMG ED. Upon adding even slightest dose of HCG ( say 200 IU), I get neck and shoulder pain ( which I wouldn’t get if running HCG solo). Do you think 75 IU HMG ED is enough for me and HCG top of it is overkill ?
Also, my FSH on bloodwork records normal FSH but next to zero LH . Any deduction of logic ? @mnben87
