HCG When?

[livelylady]

My husband is going to be upping his Androgel from 5 to 10 mg. Did those of you who use Androgel start HCG right away or did you wait until you had some symptoms such as testiclicular shrinkeage or reduced semen? He's 59 and after using 5 mg. of Androgel for several mos, his T was still low, like about 18 or low 20's (don't remember exactly) Is it recommended to start the HCG shots right away?

Are any of you using Androgel without the HCTG shots successfully?

Thanks,

Livelylady

[livelylady]

Phil, I posted some time ago and you gave me the name of your Dr. in MI. My husband just made an appt with him for tests and possible HCG therapy. Do you think it's best to start HCG right away, as he's going to up his dose from 50 to 100 mg of T, or do most men wait until they have symptoms? He hasn't had any shirnkeage but he is having some difficulty with orgasm

Thanks for recommending Dr. Stevens and he takes our insurance to boot.

Livelylady

[rick055]

Originally Posted by livelylady

Phil, I posted some time ago and you gave me the name of your Dr. in MI. My husband just made an appt with him for tests and possible HCG therapy. Do you think it's best to start HCG right away, as he's going to up his dose from 50 to 100 mg of T, or do most men wait until they have symptoms? He hasn't had any shirnkeage but he is having some difficulty with orgasm

Thanks for recommending Dr. Stevens and he takes our insurance to boot.

Livelylady

If HCG is something he is planning on taking irrespective of "shrinkage" issues, you will probably titrate the testosterone to a stable serum level and then add in the HCG.

It keeps the variables to a minimum while trying to gauge how T is affecting your husband. If he ups a-gel and adds HCG at the same time - and has a bad reaction - who's to say whether it's the HCG or the T?

Your doctor will probably up him to 10 grams, give it a month and assess him then. If he's good, great. If not he will probably increase him by 5 mg per month til he feels good and has stable serum T levels.

Then you can add in HCG, which should only increase his feeling of wellbeing and maintain fertility, etc...

Good luck.

[JanSz]

Originally Posted by livelylady

My husband is going to be upping his Androgel from 5 to 10 mg. Did those of you who use Androgel start HCG right away or did you wait until you had some symptoms such as testiclicular shrinkeage or reduced semen? He's 59 and after using 5 mg. of Androgel for several mos, his T was still low, like about 18 or low 20's (don't remember exactly) Is it recommended to start the HCG shots right away?

Are any of you using Androgel without the HCTG shots successfully?

Thanks,

Livelylady

At 59yo it would be nice to look at overall health problems, not only testosterone.

lipids,
sugar
adrenals
thyroid
testosterone, estrogens

to name few.

About testosterone, if low.

You want to check if he is primary or secondary.
Most people facing low testosterone are basically forced into testosterone supplementation, that is if they are lucky enough that any action is taken.
They are also put on Androgel because it is expensive and pharma makes money.

If he is secondary, he will feel much better if he would use HCG to stimulate his testis for production.
If that turns to be not enough, he may add the difference in T shots.

Only people who have low DHT need transdermal testosterone because it raises DHT.

Phil, you converse with him,
Phil is 64years old, he is secondary, he is using little larger doses of HCG and makes up differece with T-shots.
Phil uses little below od 2000iu/week.
There is another guy, he uses 3000iu/week, but he is able to do good just on HCG and Arimidex, without t-shots.

Most doctors and lay people go straight for T supplementation, this is carry over from steroid use tradition.

Unfortunately doctors, assuming that they are willing to help, would follow their bible:
T h e E n d o c r i n e S o c i e t y ’ s
CLINICAL GUIDELINES
Testosterone Therapy in
Adult Men with
Androgen Deficiency Syndromes:
An Endocrine Society Clinical Practice Guideline

http://www.endo-society.org/publicat...line053006.pdf

Men that are older and not planning new children are written off for dead.

You only hope is to insist that he want to be fertile.
Then instead of following the step by step phases, he can just follow part that I red lined in my post #79 here:
Jan's BloodTest April13/2007 - Page 3
-------------

In any case, life is much easier when testosterone is available even if he gets it in less than perfect way.


.

[zkt]

Have never used the gel. But have been doing injections for about a year. Without going into all the details, if I were him I would start hcg ASAP. The reason the dose needs to be increased may be because the testes are reacting to the lower LH levels brought on by the gel. And so the endogenous T part of the total T is decreasing. If this is true then increasing the T dose will only make the problem worse. Been there- one that. Leave the T alone and start hcg and see what that does in a month or two. How long on T gel ?