I like the gel, which spikes neither my T levels nor my BP. About a dollar per day from India.
Why do you take it if it doesn’t spike your T? Aren’t all these methods in effort to raise T?
HCG alone for 5 months killed my T. I went from 540 November to 380 in April, and was doing HCG 3 times a week. I was hoping for the opposite, but it lowered it.
The raising of T can occur in a smooth, gentle curve, while a spike is generally sharper and higher. I’ve tried subq and it spikes my BP by 20 points.
1 Like
Do you think it’s possible there is another reason it was lower than HCG? It isn’t supposed to lower T. Perhaps you slept worse before the 2nd test?
1 Like
Well, the sleep part should not be a factor since It’s been in dumpster for over 2 years now, but together with HCG I started HGH also, and some lipid lowering drugs, though I think I was already on Pita, and added ezetimibe 10mg. Everything else should have been apples to apples including taking the test at same time 10:30 AM. So don’t really know what to think of it.
1 Like
I think you are correct. I used to be a patient of AlphaMD. I got that information from their website: I’ve read enclomiphene can cause permanent eye damage. Sound...
But, I can’t find any studies to back up 10%. Probably more like 1.5% but studies are lacking. I have heard plenty of anecdotal information about vision problems with enclomiphene to scare me off.
The goal is to “increase” your testosterone level to a steady level. You don’t want rapid “spikes” or peaks followed by lows or troughs. Which is why I inject daily to keep a steady level. Old school thinking was to inject every two weeks. Some even did monthly injections. That doesn’t work out well for most men. Giving infrequent bolus injections caused men to have issues (such anxiety and BP) from the huge peak during the first several days, followed by a period of feeling good when testosterone levels normalized, then followed by a period of fatigue and maybe even depression before the next shot was due. An emotional roller coaster and often led to BP issues, acne, and elevated hematocrit. These days I rarely hear of anyone being prescribed less frequent than at least weekly injections. Weekly works out well for many but more and more men are finding out they feel best with at least 2-3 injections per week or even daily. It’s the same amount of testosterone. It’s just dividing the dose into multiple injections.
Yes, that can absolutely happen with hCG solo therapy, and the mechanism is straightforward once you understand how the feedback loop works.
hCG is structurally nearly identical to LH (luteinizing hormone) and binds to the exact same receptors on the Leydig cells in your testicles. Your pituitary gland can’t tell the difference it just sees that LH-like signal already present, gets the resulting rise in testosterone as negative feedback, and dials back its own LH output accordingly. So you’re effectively trading your natural LH for an external one.
This is the same problem that kills the “I’ll just use a little testosterone to nudge my levels up a bit” strategy. It doesn’t work that way. The moment you introduce exogenous testosterone, even a small amount, your pituitary detects it and starts suppressing GnRH, LH, and FSH. Your testicles then reduce or shut down their own production. If the dose you injected isn’t enough to fully replace what your body was making, your total testosterone level ends up lower than where you started. It doesn’t take a large dose to cause significant suppression, which is why underdosing is actually worse than not starting at all.
This understandably scares people off TRT, but I’d argue it shouldn’t. If your body can’t produce testosterone at a level that keeps you feeling well and functioning optimally, it’s simply not doing that job adequately regardless of the reason. It makes far more sense to replace it properly and dial in to an optimal level than to try to coax a failing system along with half-measures. One more reassurance for those on the fence: once the ester is cleaved after injection, the free testosterone released into your bloodstream is chemically identical to what your body would have made on its own. There’s nothing foreign about it at that point.
3 Likes
I used compounded transdermal testosterone when I was taking it. I used to share an office with a naturopath who specialized in women’s hormones and this was the delivery system she was familiar with.
I did inject sermorelin when I was taking that. Something about the molecule made it not work very well transdermally.