Absolute minimum dose of HCG for fertility?

Is there any data on what the minimal dosage of hcg is to keep 'the guys' working while on TRT?

I'm asking this because hcg seems to rise estrogen and I'd like to keep that to a minimum.

Also, I might want to have kids later but not exactly now, so I'm looking for a guideline for the minimal dose per week. Not to be super fertile right now but when I'd want to, I could in theory increase the dose.

It's just anecdotal, but reports suggest that dosing hCG as low as 250 IU twice a week still can yield benefits.

Unfortunately, I think its how long and how much your sperm have been compromised or of low quality/count that will determine the dose. Dr. Lipshultz recommended 75 ius a week for me and I had a kid while on TRT. But yes the e2 effects are pretty harsh, I agree at the higher doses. Shit even at low doses.

mrblonde01 said:

Is there any data on what the minimal dosage of hcg is to keep 'the guys' working while on TRT?

I'm asking this because hcg seems to rise estrogen and I'd like to keep that to a minimum.

Also, I might want to have kids later but not exactly now, so I'm looking for a guideline for the minimal dose per week. Not to be super fertile right now but when I'd want to, I could in theory increase the dose.

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When on TRT. Hcg may not keep you fertile. The only way you will know for sure is by getting your sperm tested.

Yeah so what im asking is what the minimum 'maintenance' dose is, or could be. Just a guideline. I'm now on 500iu a week, but I have feeling it could be lower. I don't need to be very fertile right now, I just need to make sure the underlying system keeps working and doesn't atrophy.

mrblonde01 said:

Yeah so what im asking is what the minimum 'maintenance' dose is, or could be. Just a guideline. I'm now on 500iu a week, but I have feeling it could be lower. I don't need to be very fertile right now, I just need to make sure the underlying system keeps working and doesn't atrophy.

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It's a great question and one I have as well. I have read 500iu to 1000iu a week to help prevent testicular atrophy. I guess it's possible < 500iu a week could work but it seems like 500iu tends to be the minimum.

mrblonde01 said:

Yeah so what im asking is what the minimum 'maintenance' dose is, or could be. Just a guideline. I'm now on 500iu a week, but I have feeling it could be lower. I don't need to be very fertile right now, I just need to make sure the underlying system keeps working and doesn't atrophy.

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Take an amount see if your things get bigger. Test your sperms counts too. That should tell you. Work with a doctor. I've hear 250 it's twice a week up to 500ius

it will depend on brand slightly.. some brands are stronger as iu is determines on females and every brand will have differing ratios of HCGs.

anyway I took ~150iu(so just under 500iu per week) and larger loads, way better orgasm increase energy( too strong), balls got more plump. it was designed to last 2 months so i think they overdosed it so maintains efficacy for the 2 months.. forget the brand, maybe ferris i think from canada. wish i woulda tried pregnyl too. so if that is any indication of probably increase in fertility than could try even less... or look up studies and see what dosages they have tried, obv what may work for 1 may ot work for another and usually why they side on the higher dose so works for larger population esp as fertility studies for HCG are typically for short term use from my understanding.

granger said:

it will depend on brand slightly.. some brands are stronger as iu is determines on females and every brand will have differing ratios of HCGs.

anyway I took ~150iu(so just under 500iu per week) and larger loads, way better orgasm increase energy( too strong), balls got more plump. it was designed to last 2 months so i think they overdosed it so maintains efficacy for the 2 months.. forget the brand, maybe ferris i think from canada. wish i woulda tried pregnyl too. so if that is any indication of probably increase in fertility than could try even less... or look up studies and see what dosages they have tried, obv what may work for 1 may ot work for another and usually why they side on the higher dose so works for larger population esp as fertility studies for HCG are typically for short term use from my understanding.

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U still taking the 150iu’s of HCG EOD?

like someone said here you need to get tested. i experimented with various doses of hcg. typical is something like 3x500IU/week. i used to react badly to empower hcg back in the day where it was avail. thought it was e2, and maybe it was, since AI would resolve my symptoms within 24h. now on zyhcg/sanofi hcg from india, i run something like 3000-4000IU HCG per week with no 'e2' issues at all. i expect sanofi to be rather good quality. i don't want kids, but for libido, and my mood is just better on high dose HCG. also since my last kid, 3 years ago, my wife is not getting pregnant at all, with 0 protection. my last kid was pre TRT, so maybe despite HCG i am not fertile anymore? which is ideal for me since I am done with kids

t_spacemonkey said:

like someone said here you need to get tested. i experimented with various doses of hcg. typical is something like 3x500IU/week. i used to react badly to empower hcg back in the day where it was avail. thought it was e2, and maybe it was, since AI would resolve my symptoms within 24h. now on zyhcg/sanofi hcg from india, i run something like 3000-4000IU HCG per week with no 'e2' issues at all. i expect sanofi to be rather good quality. i don't want kids, but for libido, and my mood is just better on high dose HCG. also since my last kid, 3 years ago, my wife is not getting pregnant at all, with 0 protection. my last kid was pre TRT, so maybe despite HCG i am not fertile anymore? which is ideal for me since I am done with kids

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maybe the hcg is wack? Maybe not - can you please post a link with india HCG site?

Fernando Almaguer said:

maybe the hcg is wack? Maybe not - can you please post a link with india HCG site?

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i tried both sifasi/zy, no diff i think. plenty people have good results with dose, i don't suspect they are bad

Sifasi has always worked for me in the past. Was getting it from reliablerx at the time

Fernando Almaguer said:

Unfortunately, I think its how long and how much your sperm have been compromised or of low quality/count that will determine the dose. Dr. Lipshultz recommended 75 ius a week for me and I had a kid while on TRT. But yes the e2 effects are pretty harsh, I agree at the higher doses. Shit even at low doses.

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Just to make sure, are those syringe units (in which case it would be closer to 750iu/week of actual hCG) or actual iu's of hCG?

I'm asking because that seems extremely low, but after reintroducing hCG at 50iu/day (350iu/week total) I'm seeing some significant benefits (libido, EQ, flacid hang, cognition), but also a lot of water retention and I feel significantly less masculine than I did without the hCG; I think I'm very sensitive to aromatization from it (and in general).

So I was considering dropping to 30 or even 20iu/day, but according to even the most conservative recommended dosages it's hard to believe I could experience any benefits at such low dosages.

Jerajera said:

Just to make sure, are those syringe units (in which case it would be closer to 750iu/week of actual hCG) or actual iu's of hCG?

I'm asking because that seems extremely low, but after reintroducing hCG at 50iu/day (350iu/week total) I'm seeing some significant benefits (libido, EQ, flacid hang, cognition), but also a lot of water retention and I feel significantly less masculine than I did without the hCG; I think I'm very sensitive to aromatization from it (and in general).

So I was considering dropping to 30 or even 20iu/day, but according to even the most conservative recommended dosages it's hard to believe I could experience any benefits at such low dosages.

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I apologize yes 75 syringe units. So thats maybe 1500 ius a week?

Fernando Almaguer said:

I apologize yes 75 syringe units. So thats maybe 1500 ius a week?

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All good, thanks for confirming!

As far as your dosage it would depend on the concentration. For example I used to mix 5mL of bacteriostatic water with 10mg of hCG, so 1 unit on a syringe was 20iu of hCG.

Now because I'm injecting so little hCG (just dropped to 30iu/day), I mix 10mL of bac water with the 10mg of hCG, so I can inject 3 units on the syringe instead of an impossible to gauge 1.5 units.

Most likely you were either taking 750iu/week or 1500iu/week.

Is there no research done on this (minimum amount of hcg) topic?

In my experience with extensive testing and measuring with various hcg and fsh doses the past few years, a low dose of hcg every other day might reach your goals of preventing e2 increase but maintaining Fertility. It will work better than moderate to high dose 1 or 2x weekly. Check my most recent 2 or 3 posts, i think i outlined hcg dose, estrogen, and maybe Fertility on various regimens.

The bottom line is i need my estrogen to go up from baseline , and the only way I've found to do that in a somewhat sustainable way is once a week 350 iu pregnyl Sundays, then 125 iu or so weds Fri.

Anything below 250 iu in any frequency does almost nothing to increase estrogen for me but maintains Fertility. 350 is a sweet spot for getting up estrogen for me.

E2 and other estrogen increase requires a threshold hcg dose, which makes sense (I'm referring to 350 as the threshold) .

When I did 125 every other day along with standard FSH dose I think 75 IU three times per week, for 3 mo, and compared semen parameters, T, and e2 to my 350/125/125 for 3 mo, the semen on the lower dose was in the "ok" range, but E2 was crushed to like 17 and i felt much lower wellbeing as a result. On the 350/125/125, e2 is around 35, regardless of the day of week i test, and semen is superhuman range like 300 to 400M total motile count. Pretty good morphology as well, at least when i was on fsh.

Also taking 10 days off of the hcg 350 /125/125, total motile count went from 400M to 90M. But came back up just as quickly.

mrblonde01 said:

Is there any data on what the minimal dosage of hcg is to keep 'the guys' working while on TRT?

I'm asking this because hcg seems to rise estrogen and I'd like to keep that to a minimum.

Also, I might want to have kids later but not exactly now, so I'm looking for a guideline for the minimal dose per week. Not to be super fertile right now but when I'd want to, I could in theory increase the dose.

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If you are just starting TTh then in order to minimize/prevent testicular atrophy 1500 IU once weekly should suffice or better yet 500 IU twice-weekly.

The sweet spot would most likely be 250-500 IU twice-weekly or 3X weekly in order to stimulate maximum ITT (intratesticular testosterone) production which should have a strong impact on minimizing/preventing testicular atrophy and maintaining fertility.

In some cases especially when it comes to fertility the addition of FSH may be needed

If you have been on TTh solo for a long time (years) then you will most likely need much higher doses then 1500 IU once weekly/500 IU twice weekly as your leydig cells will have been dormant for so long and they are more prone to being what we call stubborn to the LH signal.

Hcg mimics LH and will keep the Leydig cells active (producing some degree of ITT).

What is critical here is making sure the testes are responsive to the LH stimulation as in many cases when on TTh or abusing T/AAS if no hCG was used during this time then the Leydig cells become dormant and the seminiferous tubules shrink which results in testicular atrophy due to shutdown of the hpta and LH/FSH production. This results in the Leydig cells no longer producing endogenous testosterone and the Sertoli/germ cells no longer producing sperm.