But I feel 100 times better now. We’ll see where everything is again in Sept.
I stopped taking hcg 2 months ago and havent noticed anything in balls or feeling. I only took it because it was prescribed and the more I read and the fact that I in no way want children to add to this terrible world, it was probably smart to come off of it.
I get tested in a month but, probably wont see much since i just blasted for a couple months. I think too many parents having kids that shouldnt, make terrible little humans and stress their lives out, cant really afford them, etc. but, for some reason were obsessed with making them. Not trying to preach but its a decision that has many biases from society and family and Ive seen a many live terrible lives and their kids are messes. There are plenty of good used children just lying around who need love and your wife doesnt get fat (if youre not into that sort of thing). Im sure most love their wife but some get incredibly fat and never come back. You still love them but, definitely can do something to your sex life and that has a lot to do with our moods and well being. Women can get terribly depressed about their weight and post pardom depression and all. Opening yourselevs up for a world of hurt.
Ive been married going on 20 years and my wife had that “baby craving” hormonal shit and I thought it was normal to go for it but, we are pretty practical and once we thought about it, it made zero sense.
Its what were expected to do and it may not be right for us but I know most dont question and want to stay tight with the tribe.
Strange, your lab work did not change much so I wonder what the reason is that you feel so much better.
I’m sure your opinion is hard earned by your own experience and life, but man what a fucked up viewpoint.
I have been married for 24 years, have two kids, and my wife is nowhere near fat. As a matter of fact, she is sexier now than she was when I met her when she was 16 years old.
Your life and experience is what you make it bro. Your past can’t dictate what/who you are unless you let it, and no matter how much you believe in your own philosophy and logical thinking, true contentment and happiness will never be found in a statistical study. Be the master of your own destiny and make your life what you want it to be. The “tribe” should have ZERO to do with it.
Sure my wife could’ve just let herself go and gotten fat, and so could I, (and we have both almost slipped into that statistical mindset), but we didn’t. We didn’t have to. We CHOSE different. You can too.
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The mind is a powerful thing.
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Exactly.
Pretty simple actually. I dropped the HCG. It was having some type of effect on my adrenals. It was affecting me in some type of negative way. Definitely not in my head either. I’ve been on TRT long enough to know how I feel and what to do about it, plus I’d say the 20 point drop in blood pressure is evidence enough it wasn’t right for me.
I would agree that this is a real reaction to something, but it’s not conclusive at all and still doesn’t rule out placebo.
I’ll explain, when I first changed protocols, I SWORE that the extra test was aromatasing and pushing my E2 way too high and that’s why my BP was elevated. I started taking DIM and after a week my BP dropped into a perfect range. After that, I started having intermittent ED issues, and my doc told me to drop the dose in the DIM. I cut it out altogether and I just knew that I’d have BP issues again, and I did for about a week, then I told myself that I would not do anything different until I had had issues for more than two weeks. BP went right back down. It’s was my own anxiety that was causing the BP issues, and the fact that thought I was doing something that would resolve it calmed me down enough to actually produce the desired result. It wasn’t E2 at all, it was my own anxiety.
That’s what I meant by the mind is a powerful thing. It wasn’t a judgment on you, it was an explanation of my own experience.
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BP thing came as a total surprise to me. I’d been monitoring it because for the past couple years it had been elevated and I was at the point to talk to my doc about meds. By chance I stopped the hcg just because we decided we were done with kids and I wanted to see if a less is more approach would benefit me. Weird but I’m glad I figured it out. Very interested to see how this works for you. And I totally agree the mind can be a powerful thing.
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Yea a lot of times it does not get measured accurately. You have to go to the doc and get it done, then go straight to the self checker and see the discrepancy, so you can take that into account in the future.
My balls shrunk big time when I dropped HCG. Yes my ball size matters to me. I chuckle at all the guys who criticize those who care about their ball size, yet same critics use TRT (partially) or other AAS to improve their physique. Started back on HCG and within a month balls were back to normal. Didn’t feel any different either way. Just wanted my boys back.
Two week update.
Noticeable changes so far:
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I seem to notice a slight increase in BP when lying in bed at night. Mild anxiety associated with BP increase(if you could even call it anxiety…it’s more like fleeting moments of concern)
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Balls hanging much lower than they have been.
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Very mild ED. Am able to get erections just fine, but noticeably not as firm and cannot maintain them without physical stimulation.
Will be curious to see if any of this worsens or gets better over the next few weeks.
Decided to go ahead and terminate the experiment. BP did seem to level back out and the mild ED issues kind of worked themselves out as well. My suspicion is that my dysfunctional balls are decent at producing estrogen, but not putting out very much in the way of T production.
Overall I have noticed no real changes to the way I feel and don’t really see the need to keep HCG in my protocol just for slight possibility of having optimal adrenal function. I believe an adrenal support complex could be a much more economical and viable option for that.
My conclusions from this are…
If you are SECONDARY hypo, and you want to maintain fertility or if you want a decent option for “boosting” serum test levels, or if you experience truly painful atrophy…go for it.
If you are PRIMARY hypo, you may up your chances a little for getting the wife pregnant if you are actively trying. Other than that, I see no need for it.
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Yes, but what can I do when seems I will need TRT, I do not have children and I definetely want to have? Unfortunately I’m not yet at this point yet, I mean having kids but in the future for sure wanna have.
I hate the low t symptoms but I fear loosing my fertility. And to make things more complicated my fertility now does not seem great. I made a seamen analysis and seems the percentage of motile spermatozoids is below some range and the condition is labeled asthenozoospermia. I posted this in the fb group. The doctors said I’m still ok and fertile…but I have not started any TRT yet, and Im really worried about this.
I will have soon consultation with dr Nichols(waiting for the lab results from abroad to be processed). I would like to hear his view point on this topic except all other things we will go through regarding my health and possible optimization. But I’ve watched enough of his podcasts and I suspect what he will tell me for the fertility topic, I mean I know there is no magic solution and even the smartest doctor on the Earth cannot come with a miracle so I can get optimization and keep 100 percent of my fertility.
To be honest I hope to be able to get some symptoms relief with HCG mono, would definetely want to try that before TRT.
You stopped after like a month though right? Thats not really long enough to do anything. Especially if your nuts are RIP.
I thought you were gonna get before and after DHEA levels?
When someone is on TRT we crank it all the way to 4500 per week if they are trying to get pregnant. 500 iu is a good starting TRT dosage.
If your system is desensitized from testosterone use, that changes everything.
The only thing this study says it that it maintains semen parameters. Thats it and that isn’t saying much. That doesn’t mean you are overriding all of the suppression or even a majority of it. It just means your SPERM is present, its is markedly reduced on T though.
I stopped in the 6th week. I was doing 500iu x2 per week. Fertility is of no concern whatsoever to me as I’ve had a vasectomy several years ago. Interestingly enough, and even though I can’t prove it, I have a sneaky suspicion that the vasectomy is the part of the reason that I became primary hypo in the first place.
I have blood work due in a month or so. I’m not very concerned about DHEA levels concerning HCG as I take a 50mg DHEA supplement daily.
I just do not see the point in it. Cost to benefit ratio sucks for someone like me (primary), especially considering that an adrenal complex is $20, and DHEA is around the same for a several months supply.
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Ok I totally get it, if you are sure you are primary then I can see why HCG would hard to justify.
But I just don’t think this mini experiment proved much, we didn’t do a full 12 weeks and the dosage was sub par based on history.
To be honest, you’re right that it would have been more conclusive if I had stuck with it the entire 12 weeks.
I stopped it early because, logically thinking, whenever protocol changes happen normally, the instability period re-initiates and you would expect to feel something going on in the body within a few weeks, even if it was not so good. You know, like noticeably fluctuating E2 with accompanying sides, something. I felt nothing, other than a bit of a placebo after a few days, that almost immediately subsided. Based on this, I summized that the drug was doing absolutely nothing (hormonally speaking) inside of my body.
That’s why I decided that I would just terminate early.
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