HCG in Post Cycle Therapy (PCT)

It is our opinion that HCG is probably one of the most misunderstood and misused compounds in bodybuilding. Hopefully this information will go some way towards rectifying that for the members of MuscleTalk. HCG stands for Human Chorionic Gonadotrophin and is not a steroid, but a natural peptide hormone which develops in the placenta of pregnant women during pregnancy to controls the mother's hormones. (Incidentally, this is the reason you may hear of people testing for growth hormone (HGH) with a pregnancy testing kit - If their HGH shows 'pregnant', they've been ripped-off with cheaper HCG - but we digress slightly).

Its action in the male body is like that of LH, stimulating the Leydig cells in the testes to produce testosterone even in the absence of endogenous LH. HCG is therefore used during longer or heavier steroid cycles to maintain testicular size and condition, or to bring atrophied (shrunken) testicles back up to their original condition in preparation for post-cycle Clomid therapy. This process is necessary because atrophied testicles produce reduced levels of natural testosterone, this situation should be rectified prior to post-cycle Clomid therapy.

HCG administration post-cycle is common practice among bodybuilders in the belief that it will aid the natural testosterone recovery, but this theory is unfounded and also counterproductive. The rapid rise in both testosterone, and thus oestrogen due to aromatisation, from the administration of HCG causes further inhibition of the HPTA (Hypothalamic/Pituitary/Testicular Axis - feedback loop discussed above); this actually worsens the recovery situation. HCG does not restore the natural testosterone production.

The typically observed dosing of 2000 to 5000IU every 4 to 5 days causes such an increase in oestrogen levels via aromatisation of the natural testosterone that this has been responsible for many cases of gynecomastia.

From the above discussion it is clear that HCG is best used during a cycle, either to:

1) Avoid testicular atrophy, or
2) Rectify the problem of an existing testicular atrophy.

HCG Dosage
Smaller doses, more frequently during a cycle will give best overall results with least unwanted side effects. Somewhere between 500IU and 1000IU per day would be best over about a two-week period. These doses are sufficient to avoid/rectify testicular atrophy without increasing oestrogen levels too dramatically and risking gynecomastia. This dosing schedule also avoids the risk of permanently down-regulating the LH receptors in the testes.

It is important for the HCG administration to have been completed with 6 or 7 clear days before the onset of PCT in order to avoid inhibition of the Nolvadex and/or Clomid therapy. Also, a small daily dose (10-20mg) of Nolvadex would normally be used in conjunction with HCG in order to prevent oestrogenic symptoms caused by sudden increases in aromatisation.

Presentation and Administration of HCG
Synthetic HCG is often known as Pregnyl (generic name) and is available in 2500iu and 5000iu (not ideal for the above doses!). Administration of the compound is either by intra-muscular or subcutaneous injection. It comes as a powder which needs to be mixed with the sterile water. The powder is temperature-sensitive prior to mixing and should not be exposed to direct heat. After mixing, it should be kept refrigerated and used within a few weeks - though there are sterility issues which need to be considered after mixing.

Summary and Presentation of Clomid and HCG
Clomid and/or Nolvadex are more effective than HCG post cycle, but some long-term users like to use HCG during a cycle, or to prepare the testes for Clomid and/or Nolvadex therapy.

Clomid is available in 50mg tablets most commonly, but also comes in 25mg capsule, often in boxes of 24 tablets. Tamoxifen is made by a number of manufacturers and comes in 10mg or 20mg tablets, most commonly 30 x 20mg tablets. HCG generally comes in kits of three ampoules of powder needing to be mixed with the provided injectable water as 1500IU, 2500IU or 5000IU per ampoule kits.

hCG (Human Chorionic Gonadrotropin)

HCG (human chorionic gonadotropin) is provided as a glycoprotein powder to be diluted with water and taken by injection, either intramuscularly or subcutaneously. It acts in the body like luteinizing hormone (LH), stimulating the testes to produce testosterone even when natural LH is not present or is deficient. It therefore is useful for maintaining testosterone production and/or testicle size during a steroid cycle.

Additionally, outside of or in-between steroid cycles, it can be very useful for increasing testosterone production. The success of this depends on the ability of the testes to actually produce greater amounts of testosterone with increased stimulation. Where the testes themselves are the limiting factor, HCG cannot overcome this.

Including HCG as part of a hormone replacement therapy (HRT) program is superior to relying on testosterone alone if maintenance of sperm production and/or normal testicle size is considered important. Use of testosterone alone can result in infertility or reduced fertility, as normal testicular function depends on higher intratesticular testosterone levels than results from such use.

With regard to steroid usage, HCG should either not be used as part of post-cycle therapy (PCT) at all, or should be used only in a rather precise manner to avoid impeding recovery, shortly to be described.

Post-cycle recovery of LH production requires androgen levels to have fallen back into the physiological range. With use of medium or long-acting esters, this is a slow process. For example, let’s suppose that a given testosterone ester’s half-life is 7 days, and that 800 mg/week was used during the cycle. If so, then one week after the last injection, levels will be similar to what they would be if 400 mg had been taken weekly for some time, and with another 400 mg having just been injected. At the two week point after the last injection, levels will be commensurate with ongoing 200 mg/week use.

This is without using HCG during this period.

By this point, ordinarily some recovery could begin with use of Clomid or Nolvadex.

But if HCG were used during this time, or started at this point, testosterone levels would be similar not to those of ongoing 200 mg/week usage, but to that level plus another 100-200 mg/week of equivalent increase from HCG. This would interfere with recovery of LH production.

The better plan is, if using HCG, to employ it during a cycle to maintain testicular function so that the testes will be responsive to LH as soon as its production is restored. There will also be the advantages of maintaining testicle size and of providing some additional testosterone via HCG-stimulated production.

This last point will be of no great importance when a large amount of steroids is being used weekly, but can be quite significant if the total milligram amount is modest.

Such added testosterone production is of particular value if a stack is entirely non-aromatizing and dosed high enough to be fully inhibitory of natural testosterone production. In that situation, estrogen levels would fall abnormally low unless or HCG is taken to yield normal testosterone levels during the cycle, as estradiol is produced from testosterone.

The traditional HCG dose was 5000 IU at a time. While this produces blood levels representing a vast overdose for at least the first week after injection, this dosage had a medical use as in many cases it is desirable to administer only a single injection, or infrequent injections, than to require two or more office visits per week for injection. And as the half life is only a few days, an extremely high initial level is required to obtain extended duration of action from a single injection.

This dosage is far more than should ever be used in bodybuilding or for hormone replacement therapy.

My previous recommendation of 500 IU/day as being generally sufficient was a radical break from bodybuilding practice at the time, which employed far higher doses that gave HCG a reputation as a harsh drug; but further experience as well as a medical study on the matter published in 2005 by Coviello et al. has shown that even less than that is needed.

Little if any difference exists in resulting testosterone production between dosings of 250 IU every other day (EOD) and 500 IU EOD. Dr Eugene Shippen has also found low-dose use effective in extensive clinical practice, and bodybuilding practice has also shown such doses to be completely effective.

Accordingly I now consider a dosage of 500 IU EOD (or 3x/week, which is nearly equivalent), or 250 IU daily to represent a reasonable absolute maximum.

As values for general use, 100 IU daily, 200 IU EOD, or 250 IU three times per week are very effective. The medical study mentioned above found no significant difference in results between this dosage level and the above recommended absolute maximum, but it may be the case that for some individuals there could be some small difference.

At these doses, unlike what is the case with vast overdoses, HCG has no perceptible side effects.

As a part of PCT, as already explained HCG should not be used during that period in which inhibition would result from the combination of the resulting testosterone production and the remaining levels of injected steroid. However, upon levels of injected steroid falling below what would be commensurate with 100 mg/week use, very low dose HCG such as 100-125 IU every other day is acceptable as a part of PCT.

HCG Pregnyl FAQ

1)What is HCG?
HCG stands for Human Chorionic Gonadotropin.

2)Where does HCG come from?
It is extracted from the urine of pregnant women.

3)Is HCG a scheduled medication?
No, its similar to clomid and Liquidex as far as US laws go. However you would need a prescription to purchase legally in the US.

4)What is HCG normally used for?
It is used to help females get pregnant, and can be used to stimulate testosterone production in males.

5)How does HCG work?
HCG mimics LH (leutenizing hormone). The presence of LH causes the Leydig cells in the gonads to produce testosterone . This effect also restores the size of the testes rather quickly if they were suppressed from a cycle.

6)What should HCG be used for?
HCG is commonly used by bodybuilders on either very heavy or very long cycles, when the HPTA gets severely suppressed. Although HCG can be used in almost any cycle, the benefits are most pronounced on heavy/long ones.

7)How do you take it?
You can take it IM or Sub-q.

8)Can I use HCG only for PCT?
No you shouldn't. It is better than nothing, but clomid or Nolva are far better plans. Since HCG mimics lh, your body wont begin producing its own lh, as it sees no need to because test levels are high. You stop the HCG, your balls stop making test until your body begins producing adequate levels of its own lh, and that may take a while if you don't use clomid or Nolvadex to stimulate lh production. The use of clomid or Nolvadex should also be continued at least 2 weeks after HCG is discontinued to avoid the HCG causing problems.


Bacteriostatic Water Injection Starter Pack
9)Can I use HCG during cycle and when?
Yes you can, imo to best benefit from HCG is to run it by the last 3-4 weeks of your steroid cycle. Do not run HCG if your getting signs of gyno, HCG will make it worst, so be careful.

10)How much HCG is needed during cycle and/or PCT?
For PCT a minimum of 10,000iu's HCG is needed. When you have a proper PCT planned with a SERM and an AI, and you want to run HCG during the last 4 weeks of your cycle, then you might only need 5,000iu's.
An anti-estrogen (Nolva, etc.) is to be used with HCG during your last 4 weeks of cycle.

11)What dose do you run HCG at?
HCG is best dosed at 500iu and/or 1000iu, more than that can cause too much aromatization, and some people wont react to less than 500iu. So during the last 4 weeks of a cycle, you shoot 500iu of HCG twice a week or 1000iu once a week. For PCT, 500iu ed or 1000iu eod.

12)Can HCG be used w/out Steroids to boost test production above baseline?
Yes. It is not recommended however. Continued use of HCG will desensitize the Leydig cells to lh, meaning once you stop using the HCG as an artificial lh, you will crash bad. The natural lh production once restored by using Nolvadex or clomid, may not be as effective as it once was. To boost natural test above baseline, Anastrozole, Nolvadex and clomid are better choices.


13)How long does HCG boost testosterone for?
HCG can boost testosterone for up to 5 days following the last dose, although the drugs half-life is very short, and its no longer active at that point.

14)Can HCG cause gyno?
Yes. estrogen is elevated by two ways from HCG use. Primarily from the sharp rise in testosterone , which allows more testosterone to aromatize to estrogen. Secondly HCG can cause a small amount of estrogen to be produced which is not from the result of aromatizing, and this is the reason that a combination of an anti aromatize such as Liquidex/Arimidex/Letrozole and a estrogen receptor blocker such as Nolvadex are ideally used. The Nolvadex may also offer some additional benefit to help avoid a negative estrogen feedback to the HPTA during HCG therapy, which would otherwise slightly lessen the effectiveness of the therapy.

15)How does HCG come packaged?
You get 2 vials or amps, 1 has the powdered HCG in it, and the other has a diluent in it (solvent). The diluent is typically bacteriostatic water, or sterile water w/ .09% sodium chloride. ***ending on the brand and version, the package commonly comes w/ enough diluent to make concentrations ranging from 250-10,000iu per ml.

If your package is 5000iu, and you add 1ml diluent, you have 5000iu per ml.
If you add 5ml diluent, you final mix is then 1000iu per ml.
If you add 10ml diluent, then 500iu per ml and so on.

This is simple math, and you don't want to screw it up, know what dose you are taking!

If your package doesn't include enough diluent to make the concentration you want, you have 2 options to make it easy to accurately measure your doses.

1-buy some insulin syringes, U-100 type. On the graduated markings, the 100iu mark is equal to 1ml, the 50iu is .5ml etc. THIS DOES NOT MEAN IF YOU FILL IT TO THE 100IU MARK THAT YOU ARE TAKING 100IU OF HCG! Iu's are not a measurement of volume or weight, they are a measure of effectiveness for a desired response from specific drugs/compounds. Every compound is different. These are insulin syringes, and they are made for insulin-not HCG. Insulin is the same iu concentration per ml everytime if its u100 type), HCG is not. Imagine if you made your HCG 10,000iu per ml. if you fill the insulin syringe up to 100iu mark, you now have 10,000iu in there! Not good. You must understand this.
So if you had 5000iu per ml, and wanted to take a 500iu shot, you would inject 10iu on the insulin syringe scale.

2-buy some bacteriostatic water off the internet, its easily found. Simply add more to dilute it to the desired concentration. Making lower concentrations are easier and more accurately dosed. Then it can accurately be measured w/ a regular syringe.

Mix the two together, they dissolve very easily. HCG can be very unstable and to make sure to not shake it and let it foam.... Be careful when reconstituting it . Be gentle and run the bacteriostatic  water down the side of the vial not allowing to foam up... Keep things sterile folks. Unused HCG can be refrigerated and is ok to use within 30 days after the initial mixing.

Remember: Store HCG at controlled room temperature (59F to 86F)(15C to 30C). After reconstituting store in refrigerator (36F to 46F) (2C to 8C).

Absorption
A detectable rise in HCG is seen in 2 h; peak levels are reached in 6 h and remain at this level for 36 h.

Elimination
HCG levels begin to decline at 48?h and approach baseline at 72 h.

Nolvadex and HCG in Post Cycle Therapy (PCT)

One of the most frequently asked questions is how to properly use the Post Cycle Therapy (PCT) drugs Nolvadex, Clomid and HCG correctly.

How to take Nolvadex for PCT
As an alternative to Clomid, which has been reported to have led to unwanted side effects such as visual disturbances in some users, Nolvadex can be employed. Nolvadex is a trade name for the drug Tamoxifen. Like Clomid, the half life of Nolvadex is relatively long enabling the user to implement a single daily dosing schedule. Administration would start as per the timescales outlined above and the duration would be identical to that of Clomid.

Typically, for a moderate-heavy cycle, the following dosages would be used:
Day 1 - 100mg
Following 10 days - 60mg
Following 10 days - 40mg

Occasionally, heavier cycles containing perhaps Nandrolone (Deca) or Trenbolone which by definition are particularly suppressive of the HPTA, may require a slightly longer therapy. Likewise, more modest/shorter cycles may require lower dosages, perhaps dropping each by 20mg per day.

Some users like to use both Clomid and Nolvadex in their PCT in an attempt to cover all angles. An example of the dosages involved might be:

Day 1 - Clomid 200mg + Nolvadex 40mg
Following 10 days - Clomid 50mg + Nolvadex 20mg
Following 10 days - Clomid 50mg or Nolvadex 20mg

Of course, the examples provided are not set in stone and may be adjusted depending on the factors outlined above and individual variances.

Using HCG
It is our opinion that HCG is probably one of the most misunderstood and misused compounds in bodybuilding. Hopefully this information will go some way towards rectifying that for the members of MuscleTalk. HCG stands for Human Chorionic Gonadotrophin and is not a steroid, but a natural peptide hormone which develops in the placenta of pregnant women during pregnancy to controls the mother's hormones. (Incidentally, this is the reason you may hear of people testing for growth hormone (HGH) with a pregnancy testing kit - If their HGH shows 'pregnant', they've been ripped-off with cheaper HCG - but we digress slightly).

Its action in the male body is like that of LH, stimulating the Leydig cells in the testes to produce testosterone even in the absence of endogenous LH. HCG is therefore used during longer or heavier steroid cycles to maintain testicular size and condition, or to bring atrophied (shrunken) testicles back up to their original condition in preparation for post-cycle Clomid therapy. This process is necessary because atrophied testicles produce reduced levels of natural testosterone, this situation should be rectified prior to post-cycle Clomid therapy.

HCG administration post-cycle is common practice among bodybuilders in the belief that it will aid the natural testosterone recovery, but this theory is unfounded and also counterproductive. The rapid rise in both testosterone, and thus oestrogen due to aromatisation, from the administration of HCG causes further inhibition of the HPTA (Hypothalamic/Pituitary/Testicular Axis - feedback loop discussed above); this actually worsens the recovery situation. HCG does not restore the natural testosterone production.

The typically observed dosing of 2000 to 5000IU every 4 to 5 days causes such an increase in oestrogen levels via aromatisation of the natural testosterone that this has been responsible for many cases of gynecomastia.

From the above discussion it is clear that HCG is best used during a cycle, either to:

1) Avoid testicular atrophy, or
2) Rectify the problem of an existing testicular atrophy.

HCG Dosage
Smaller doses, more frequently during a cycle will give best overall results with least unwanted side effects. Somewhere between 500IU and 1000IU per day would be best over about a two-week period. These doses are sufficient to avoid/rectify testicular atrophy without increasing oestrogen levels too dramatically and risking gynecomastia. This dosing schedule also avoids the risk of permanently down-regulating the LH receptors in the testes.

It is important for the HCG administration to have been completed with 6 or 7 clear days before the onset of PCT in order to avoid inhibition of the Nolvadex and/or Clomid therapy. Also, a small daily dose (10-20mg) of Nolvadex would normally be used in conjunction with HCG in order to prevent oestrogenic symptoms caused by sudden increases in aromatisation.

Presentation and Administration of HCG
Synthetic HCG is often known as Pregnyl (generic name) and is available in 2500iu and 5000iu (not ideal for the above doses!). Administration of the compound is either by intra-muscular or subcutaneous injection. It comes as a powder which needs to be mixed with the sterile water. The powder is temperature-sensitive prior to mixing and should not be exposed to direct heat. After mixing, it should be kept refrigerated and used within a few weeks - though there are sterility issues which need to be considered after mixing.

Summary and Presentation of Clomid and HCG
Clomid and/or Nolvadex are more effective than HCG post cycle, but some long-term users like to use HCG during a cycle, or to prepare the testes for Clomid and/or Nolvadex therapy.

Clomid is available in 50mg tablets most commonly, but also comes in 25mg capsule, often in boxes of 24 tablets. Tamoxifen is made by a number of manufacturers and comes in 10mg or 20mg tablets, most commonly 30 x 20mg tablets. HCG generally comes in kits of three ampoules of powder needing to be mixed with the provided injectable water as 1500IU, 2500IU or 5000IU per ampoule kits.