HCG questions

[buttslinger]

I have been experimenting with HCG dosage, have some concerns that I hope the more experienced can help me with.
I get my HCG online, it comes from India. I get my diabetic syringes at Walmart.
I have recently gone to daily, in my case 6 days a week, I take Sunday off.
I do FIVE on the syringe which comes out to ONE TWENTY-FIVE (I don't even know if that's units, cl,ml, whatever) but it comes out to SEVEN-FIFTY each week.
I grew up with a bad pituitary so it this late stage in my life (60 years old) so a set of Lion sized Ka-jones is a big ego booster.
1) What is the range I can safely play with here? I don't think my pituitary was putting out the LH most guys have, does that make a difference? I have gotten info off the internet that says I should start with crazy high numbers, my endocrinologist said I should skip it altogether....!!!!????
2) When I draw the HCG into the syringe, it is clear. And I figured out sometimes NOTHING was going into the syringe at all and I couldn't tell because it looked kind of opaque and milky, even with a bubble, but I would withdraw and squirt out a bit into space and it was all air!!!........Anybody experience this? If I keep putting it in and out I dull the needle and waste lots of HCG into space, would it be safe to inject a little food coloring in it?3)
4) Does taking a week off now and then make any sense? Some of the late posts kind of hint at this.
5) Does time of day make any difference?
6)Will DHEA and pregnenolone effect the dose of HCG I need?
7) Any other wise old tips? I poo-pooed HCG at first but now I love it. THANKS

[OingoBoingo]

My first suggestion is to stop everything you're doing until you get a grip on dosing. You don't want to saturate your receptors.

HCG is measured in International Units (IU).

Your hCG says it is 5,000IU.

If you reconstitute the hCG with 5mL of solution, you will have a concentration of 1,000IU/mL.

You are using 0.5 cc syringes, which means a full syringe will contain 0.5mL of hCG. 1cc = 1mL. At the concentration above, that would be 500IU of hCG.

If you are injecting daily, I suggest starting with 100IU.

If you reconstituted your hCG with less than 5mL of solution, and are injecting a full syringe, you are injecting too much!

[OingoBoingo]

1) What is the range I can safely play with here? I don't think my pituitary was putting out the LH most guys have, does that make a difference? I have gotten info off the internet that says I should start with crazy high numbers, my endocrinologist said I should skip it altogether....!!!!????

Assuming you're on TRT, start with 100IU per day, 7 days a week.

If you're not on TRT, just stop it, and talk with a doctor.

2) When I draw the HCG into the syringe, it is clear. And I figured out sometimes NOTHING was going into the syringe at all and I couldn't tell because it looked kind of opaque and milky, even with a bubble, but I would withdraw and squirt out a bit into space and it was all air!!!........Anybody experience this? If I keep putting it in and out I dull the needle and waste lots of HCG into space, would it be safe to inject a little food coloring in it?3)

I would not inject food coloring.

You need to work on your loading technique. If you can't see the end of the needle, tear off some of the label.

4) Does taking a week off now and then make any sense? Some of the late posts kind of hint at this?

No, it does not make sense. Does your pituitary take a week off every now and then?

5) Does time of day make any difference?

Your body releases LH while you sleep, so I inject hCG in the morning.

6)Will DHEA and pregnenolone effect the dose of HCG I need?

Because I use hCG, I don't really understand the point of supplementing with DHEA and Pregnenolone.

[buttslinger]

I do not know what was going on with the vial that sucked air, but I threw it out and hopefully that is that.
Oingo Boingo: two things:
I reconstitute the hCG with 2mL of solution, not five, so I should fill my syringe to about 50IU per day, correct? In other words, FIVE on my 1/2 mL syringe. Right???
Please clarify something else for me? If I use HCG I don't need DHEA and pregnenolone to get my roll going? I had thought it might mean I don't need as much HCG, but now I am really confused.

ALSO, let's say I like 5 units per day, and I want to experiment with more. Is this a rookie mistake?

PS thanks

[OingoBoingo]

I do not know what was going on with the vial that sucked air, but I threw it out and hopefully that is that.

The 5mL vails that I use contain the freeze-dried hCG in a vacuum. When I reconstitute the hCG, I also fill the vial with air, thus removing the vacuum. If I want to draw 0.05mL of the solution, I first inject 0.05mL of air into the vial.

Maybe the vacuum contributed to you problem. Hard to say.

Oingo Boingo: two things:
I reconstitute the hCG with 2mL of solution, not five, so I should fill my syringe to about 50IU per day, correct? In other words, FIVE on my 1/2 mL syringe. Right???

If you reconstitute with 2mL of solution, the result will be a concentration of 2500IU/mL.

Your 0.5mL syringe should have a maximum of 50 units. Is that correct?

If so, at that concentration each tick on the syringe will 25IU. If the above is correct and you draw to the 5, you will have 125IU. More about this later.

Please clarify something else for me? If I use HCG I don't need DHEA and pregnenolone to get my roll going? I had thought it might mean I don't need as much HCG, but now I am really confused.

I have seen some say that even if one includes hCG in their protocol, they should also supplement with DHEA and Pregnenolone.

I don't know if that's true, but I do not supplement with DHEA and Pregnenolone.

ALSO, let's say I like 5 units per day, and I want to experiment with more. Is this a rookie mistake?

PS thanks

When I first started hCG, I injected 100IU daily. Experimenting, I increased my dose to 110IU daily, and felt better. At 120IU daily, E2 started raising its ugly head again.

I recently switched from Pregnyl to another supplier and had to change my concentration. After a couple days at 125IU daily, I don't like it, and will reduce my dose to 117IU with the next vial.

A little can be the straw that breaks the camel's back. If you really want to experiment, I suggest mixing your next vial with 5mL of solution enabling you to make smaller changes. And run your new dose for a month or so to make sure you keep a handle on E2.

Remember: hCG can cause one to convert more to E2. IMO, it's better to stay where one is balanced instead of pushing it too much.

Hope that helps.

[2Sox]

Don't waste your bacteriostatic water. It's rather easy to mix 2mL of water into the 5000iu vial of hCG . Fill the insulin syringe up four small lines only and that gives you 100iu (25iu/line).

I take 100iu daily and I'm doing just fine. The dose is entirely up to the individual and how he feels. If you need 125iu/day, I'd say just go for it. Look up John Crisler's hCG protocol. It's a very good primer.

In regards to DHEA and Pregnenolone: I firmly believe that one should supplement if blood work indicates. As men get older, they produce less of these two substances. I take 50mg of pregnenolone TWICE a day because my bloods show that I should. I only take 25mg of DHEA daily because I need no more of it. Others take 50mg daily. Don't play with DHEA. Too much can cause problems. And from my knowledge, they both have nothing at all to do with LH production - which hCG is the analog of.

[buttslinger]

OK, the fog is clearing.
I have no idea what was up with the vial that sucked air, I ended up throwing it out, since there's no be response here, I figure it was an odd case...
I'll click back from 5 to 4 daily on the syringe, as suggested, and go from there.
Mt DHEA has always been low.
I have never had my blood tested for pregnenolone........

ONE MORE QUESTION:
Once you start supplementing with testosterone , your LH levels go down to near zippo, right? So even if my pituitary had been deficient producing LH, before TRT, that means nothing in figuring my LH dose now, correct?
Does bodyweight figure into this?

[lovbyts]

I didn't jump in because everything was already explained very good.

The vials are supposed to suck air. They have a vacuum. I would be more worried if they didn't suck air.

[buttslinger]

The vials are supposed to suck air. They have a vacuum. I would be more worried if they didn't suck air.

I was getting air bubbles when I pulled the plunger, so I kept pushing it back in and trying again. Perhaps doing that over and over messed up the laws of Nature.

[2Sox]

I was getting air bubbles when I pulled the plunger, so I kept pushing it back in and trying again. Perhaps doing that over and over messed up the laws of Nature.

Not sure what you mean here. But to equalize the pressure, there are a couple of techniques. After you mix the water with the powder, while leaving the needle inside the vial, unscrew the barrel. You'll hear a little swoosh of air as you do. That's the inside and outside pressure equalizing. OR you can simply inject the same amount of air inside before you draw out the liquid each time you inject. Usually, the first way takes care of things.

[buttslinger]

Not sure what you mean here.

When I mix the water into the powder vial with the large syringe, sometimes it will pull the water into the vial by itself, obviously there is a vacuum in the powder vial to keep it fresh.
I went from injecting twice a week to daily, I don't know if I messed up the rubber membrane, I may have even used this last vial over the 60 days, because I took a break while I got my acne under control, I now take Minocin antibiotic 100mg twice a day. It also took me a while to remember to push the diabetic needle down to zero, when you take the two caps off it sits around the five mark.
Even after all that, I would push the diabetic syringe (with needle twisted on firmly) into the vial, see that the tip of the needle was clearly in the liquid part of the vial while turned upside down, and it would STILL suck air!

I ended up throwing that vial away and that solved the problem.

[lovbyts]

The little bubbles will disappear after a minute when the pressure normalizes. I get them every time in my syringe when I pull my gear, hcg or most anything and just let it set for a few seconds and they are gone. Pull a little more air into the syringe and then push it out so a small drop appears on the tip of the needle and the bubbles should be gone and you are g2g.

It really sounds more like the plunger on your syringe was bad. It happens, I have had a couple of them that did that and if I was able to draw with it it even leaked out the back. I cant imagine it could have anything to do with the vial because even if it had no cap you should be able to draw the gear with a good working syringe.

[DrewZ]

Just a thought for you OP;

I have never reconstituted hCG with Bac water, I use injectable B-12 which is red and easy to see.

You should be able to buy it from the same place you get your hCG.