Costs of HCG?

[Fetch]

Not sure if this is against the rules. I know you can't talk about the costs of illegally obtained drugs, but this is a grey area I think. My doctor is looking at switching me to HCG instead of test as I'm still experiencing problems on Test alone. Only problem is we cannot figure out whether or not it's covered with BCBS. What would be the cost of treatment with HCG assuming pharmacy obtained self injected? If this question isn't allowed, I apologize in advance.

[GFA]

Its EXPENSIVE if not covered. I have BC/BC NJ and its not covered.

Has a short shelf live once reconstituted and costs 2x as much as test cyp or more.

Its not clear if talking about prices from a pharmacy is allowed or not. The admins seem to go back and forth on this but it appears you can talk about scripts from pharmacies.

Soo...

No price discussion please...

Anyways, I wont be ordering from CVS anymore. Too much.

[Fetch]

10k ius would last how long? Standard dose is 250iu 3/week right? So that would last appx 3 months?

[GFA]

30-60 days. Short life after reconstitution. You end up throwing away 1/2 or more. And cvs doest carry 5k iu vials

[bass]

i just paid No price discussion please.. per 5000 iu vial through my clinic, they order them from a compounding pharmacy here in the US. if you have a script you should be able to pick that up from any compounding pharmacy that makes it.

[Fetch]

I guess I'll need to shop around for pricing, then. My doctor is faxing it into CVS Caremark, in the mean time I'll have to get ahold of a local compunding pharmacy, sounds like. Thanks for the heads up.

[steroid.com 1]

More importantly Fetch can you tell us about your "problems" on Testosterone.

Also of note, hCG mono therapies are hit and miss...and mostly miss.

It can raise natural levels somewhat (and everyone is different) but nothing to the likes of exogenous Testosterone.

[Fetch]

I've actually had a thread about it awhile back on here. Basically, all of my blood work checks out within good range on TRT (aside from LH, naturally, and oddly, HGH. My HGH levels were nearly undetectable), yet still experiencing sexual issues. Its been months now tryign to get it strraight, we are trying HCG now.

[steroid.com 1]

I've actually had a thread about it awhile back on here. Basically, all of my blood work checks out within good range on TRT (aside from LH, naturally, and oddly, HGH. My HGH levels were nearly undetectable), yet still experiencing sexual issues. Its been months now tryign to get it strraight, we are trying HCG now.

What is your IGF-1 score.

Why not add in some HGH to your protocol?

I know guys who were low HGH/IFG-1 and when they added it into their protocol it made all the difference in the world...especially libido!

[Fetch]

I did bring it up to my doctor, but he says that his camp does not believe that HGH has a major effect in the reproductive system after a certain age, or somesuch. He is one of the only "reproductive endocrinologists" in my area, as well. I suppose if I strike out with him, I'll be saving up and heading to another metro area to try again with someone new. At that point, i can bring it up again, I suppose.

[HRTstudent]

it seems like HGH gets so much flack from the government that most docs just stay away...

as for the HCG, are the online retailers permanently closing that avenue? it used to be a cost effective method from what I read. I might be starting on it too actually depending on what my new doctor wants to try... androgel sucked for me!

[steroid.com 1]

A4M Docs and most Physicians who know and administer TRT correctly will prescribe HGH were indicated...no problem.

It's an alternative avenue you need to check out Fetch.

[vinceproduction]

A4M Docs and most Physicians who know and administer TRT correctly will prescribe HGH were indicated...no problem.

It's an alternative avenue you need to check out Fetch.

If his doc won't do high would ghrp 6 help him?

[vinceproduction]

If his doc won't do high would ghrp 6 help him?

Hgh not high sorry

[keep fightin]

I may be living dangerously, but I only pay No price discussion please.. per 5000 iu including shipping from an over sea pharm, within a week of starting boys stopped complaining and started growing again in appreciation. have ordered 3 times with great results, cant believe the price diff. so far so good!

[bass]

i don't intent to break rules but this is really confusing about price discussion of a legal pharmacies!

[keep fightin]

whoops! will try not to do that again, but like Bass^^^ said it does seem a bit unclear now although I felt Vetteman did a great job in stating the parameters we could work with

[Fetch]

I just got my prescription. He wants me to inject 2500 ius twice a week. That's a 10k iu vial every 2 weeks. That's 2 vials a month.

That's a problem, if I'm going by the prices batted around at the start of this thread. Not sure what to do lol. I never expected a Rx for that high of dose.

[steroid.com 1]

I just got my prescription. He wants me to inject 2500 ius twice a week. That's a 10k iu vial every 2 weeks. That's 2 vials a month.

That's a problem, if I'm going by the prices batted around at the start of this thread. Not sure what to do lol. I never expected a Rx for that high of dose.

Is that dose right or did you mean 250iu?

You must know that at those levels, assuming they are correct, you will need to monitor E2 very closely.

The conventional thinking is that any dose over 500iu in 24 hours is a waste, and increase E2 and possibly desensitize the receptors on the lydeg cells.

Do some research on this...you may be surprised.

[Fetch]

Nope, it says 2500 ius. I was very surprised as well. I brought it up to the nurse, and she said it was thier standard dosage for people using HCG alone.

[bullshark99]

^^^ gotta be a misprint 250 IU's

[bullshark99]

OK, I stand corrected, but wow seems awful high

[Fetch]

Exactly what it says,
HCG
2,500 IU/mL, 1 cc
Monday/Friday

[bass]

I've never heard any one take that much! are you sure they know what they're doing?!

[steroid.com 1]

Fetch - You are secondary, correct?

Ok so that's 10,000iu a week...if you do some research by leading Physicians in the field like Dr's Shippen and Crisler; both advocate no more than 1000 IU per week -- even when used as monotherapy.

There are studies out there that have shown that high dosages of hCG up to the 10,000 IU per week does nothing extra to raise testosterone. I think the 10,000IU dose is probably what he has prescribed as a fertility treatment LOL!

High levels can blunt the testosterone response and put serious stress on your endocrine system.

Everyone that has E2 issues on hCG has them because they dose too fast and too high so be careful!

You could get the exact same testosterone response at much lower dosages IMO.

I can't post the link here to the paper on hCG mono therapy as it will be deleted but in that paper it referenced two studies where the following dosages and frequency were stated as optimal for hCG mono therapy start-up:

Repla***ent HCG dose is:

HCG-shot=358iu/EOD

another research, same paper:

HCG-shot=306iu/EOD

IMO, dose as low as possible and spread out the injections as far as possible. I'd also like to hear ecd's opinion on this as well as some other vets here; in all my research 10,000ius of hCG per week seems way overstated and potentially damaging.

[Fetch]

It's 5000 a week, split into twice a week injections. Monday/Friday 2500 each.
Still seems really high. I've been looking for research on dosage myself, but can't find much =(

[GFA]

Thats WAY too much. You run the risk of desensitizing your nuts that way to HCG and then will become primary hypogonal.

I did HCG mono in the past and used 250 iu a day 5x a week. That got my test from 250 to around 900 total. I would try much less and more frequently, discuss with your doc and tell him you want to try less.

[steroid.com 1]

Thats WAY too much. You run the risk of desensitizing your nuts that way to HCG and then will become primary hypogonal.

Not to be a prick or anything GFA but there's nothing in medical research that supports that statement...it's just what a lot think and it's been written in so many forums like this that it's sort of become a fact...and it's not.

[GFA]

Not to be a prick or anything GFA but there's nothing in medical research that supports that statement...it's just what a lot think and it's been written in so many forums like this that it's sort of become a fact...and it's not.

Thats fine.

Here are some articles for review.

http://www.jbc.org/content/253/12/4297.full.pdf

http://www.jbc.org/content/254/13/5613.full.pdf

http://j***.endojournals.org/content/61/2/234.abstract

replace censored link with J C E M.

n vivo data concerning human fetal testicular testosterone producton as well as in vitro findings in fetal and neonatal rats suggest that fetal Leydig cells may be capable of responding to gonadotropins and secreting testosterone at high levels for prolonged periods, in contrast to adult testes which reportedly become desensitized after high dose gonadotropin administration.

Id rather not risk it.

[steroid.com 1]

Interesting GFA...I am not clinician so much of this will go way over my head.

In contrast GFA, I had email correspondence with Dr. Michael Scally about a year ago and he was infatic that there was no clinical proof that high levels of a gonadotropin and desensitize lydeg cell receptors...

These should be an interesting read.

Thanks.

[busterbrown]

I have been on mono HCG for about 6 months at 2000 iu's e3d. It has raised my levels to 1200 and increases sperm motility and count to almost normal. I switched over from test due mainly to fertility issues

[Hackamaniac]

I have been on mono HCG for about 6 months at 2000 iu's e3d. It has raised my levels to 1200 and increases sperm motility and count to almost normal. I switched over from test due mainly to fertility issues

How do you feel though??? Energy, well being, etc....

[steroid.com 1]

More importantly what do the rest of your hormones look like and especially E2?

[Fetch]

Well, I decided to start out at half the prescribed dose. I'll be taking 2500/week instead of the 5000. HCG should begin to show results within a week or so, so if I don't start seeing any by say 2 weeks, I'll consider changing it up. Blood work in 1 month.

[HRTstudent]

I would talk to the doc about why so high.

There was just a nice new published study that said we may be dosing HCG too high and it was talking about 500 IU EOD and less! I think Dr Crisler has talked about higher doses of hcg before... but he definitely uses low doses of around 250IU in his "common" treatments.

[busterbrown]

How do you feel though??? Energy, well being, etc....

I feel great! I don't have any symptoms of high estrogen but have not had any labs down except for my test levels a few months ago. Don't know why Endo didn't request all labs. As far as cost, just got call from Compounding pharmacy saying my insurance has not been paying enough for the entire 6 months. So is i am going to cut dose significantly down to 500 iu e3d and see how I feel. Fcking insurance companies