Human Chorionic Gonadotropin (HCG)
Drug Class: Leutenizing Hormone (LH) - Gonadotropin
Active Life: 64 hours
Human chorionic gonadotropin (HCG) is a hormone produced in the placenta of
the female body during the early months of pregnancy. It is in fact the
pregnancy indicator looked at by the over the counter pregnancy test kits, as
due to its origin it is not found in the body at any other time. Medically,
human chorionic gonadotropin has been used for the treatment of undescended
testicles in young males, hypogonadism (underproduction of testosterone) (1)
and as a fertility drug used to aid in inducing ovulation in women. In
veterinary practices, it can also be used to rapidly induce ovulation, most
often in cows and horses.
For male steroid users, HCG can mimic the action of luteinizing hormone (LH)
in the body. Luteinizing hormone is a pituitary hormone that is released and
signals the manufacture of testosterone in the testicles. It is this ability
that enables the compound to help restore the normal function of the testes to
respond to endogenous luteinizing hormone. This ability can be dramatically
reduced after a long period of inactivity, as is the case when administering
anabolic steroids. Even when the release of endogenous LH has been resumed to
it's normal levels, testosterone levels may not return to normal because of
the extended time of inaction that the testes were exposed to (2).
Individuals will also often use HCG to combat testicular atrophy, a result of
the hypothalamus pituitary testes axis shut down. While this atrophy is more
of a symptom of a side effect of anabolic steroid use rather than something
that can be dangerous to a user, many individuals are concerned about
testicular atrophy and turn to human chorionic gonadotropin to help and
alleviate it. For this purpose, HCG is quite effective.
As is fairly obvious by the preceding, human chorionic gonadotropin offers
female athletes no performance enhancing qualities and is useless for this
purpose.
Use/Dosing of Human Chorionic Gonadotropin
It is important to note that HCG should only be run while a user is still on
cycle and not during PCT. This is due to human chorionic gonadotropin actually
being suppressive to the hypothalamus pituitary testes axis. Obviously this is
something to be avoided when attempting to "re-start" your natural
testosterone production. Ensure that the last shot of HCG is taken within
several days of the start time of post-cycle therapy so that it has cleared
the system of the user and the compounds being taken for PCT can function as
intended.
High doses of human chorionic gonadotropin have also been shown to cause a
large amount of aromatase activity. Since a user would obviously want to keep
aromatase to the lowest level possible, small and frequent doses would be most
effective while keeping side effects to a minimum. The side effects and risks
associated with HCG will be dealt with later in this profile, however
obviously there are several concerns that a user must take into consideration
when choosing a method and dosing with a compound such as this.
Human chorionic gonadotropin can be injected either using intramuscular or
subcutaneous injection methods. There is no evidence showing that either
method is more effective or potent than the other. Some users complain of a
sharp sting when injecting the compound. However this pain quickly dissipates.
Once constituted, human chorionic gonadotropin must be refrigerated. Depending
on the type/brand of HCG a user has it could last from approximately four to
eight weeks. Constituting the powder of the compound with bacteriostatic water
may add some shelf life but this increase is not dramatic by any means,
extending the life of the constituted compound by only days.
There are numerous effective ways with which a user can administer human
chorionic gonadotropin throughout their cycle. However, one must ensure that
they do not run it at such a dose that damage is caused and that the Leydig's
cells are desensitized to luteinizing hormone which could impair an
individual's ability to produce testosterone naturally. Some evidence has
shown that doses as low as 800 to 1200ius can cause at least temporary damage
Leydig's cells in some individuals (1). However, the medical literature and
many doctors who specialize in hormone replacement therapy and/or
endocrinology still prescribe much larger doses of HCG despite this. Doses in
excess of 3000ius have been recommended and prescribed by doctors to help
stimulate testosterone production in patients suffering from hypogonadism.
However, like many compounds, there is very little research regarding the use
of human chorionic gonadotropin for the reason that most steroid users
administer it.
A majority of users have anecdotally reported that frequent small doses are
the norm for steroid users attempting to maintain at least minimal testicular
function during their anabolic steroid cycles. However the timing, doses,
frequency and durations of administering the drug vary quite widely amongst
users. For the most part this is due to the lack of credible information
available to users about how to go about using the compound effectively.
However, there are some absolutes when using human chorionic gonadotropin.
First, more frequent dosing is nearly always better to use rather than
increasing the dose size. Due to the fact that HCG aromatizes and it is
believed that it may be the estrogen, along with other factors, that may cause
testicular desensitization (3) large doses would only cause more problems for
a user. However, smaller more frequent doses should enable an individual to
use a substantial dose of the drug spread out over several days while
minimizing the risk of damage. Anecdotally users report administering the
compound from twice per week to every other day, with some even choosing to
inject everyday at very small doses.
In terms of frequency of injections users often find that it is determined by
the length of time that they are planning on running the compound which
influences their decision about dosing length. For example, some individuals
will begin administering HCG during the last few weeks of their cycle prior to
beginning their post-cycle therapy (PCT). The belief is that by doing so you
will "shock" the testicles back into functioning just before PCT begins so
that they can start to perform normally. Usually a user will choose to
administer the human chorionic gonadotropin several times per week, even in
some cases running it for several consecutive days at comparitavely high
doses.
Another often used method is to run HCG throughout a user's cycle with less
frequent injections. The theory behind this method is that it is much easier
to attempt to maintain testicular function throughout a cycle rather than to
try and "re-start" proper functioning. Most often when users are using this
method of administration injections are done at a minimum of twice per week
beginning in the first or second week of a steroid cycle, with them being
conducted to a maximum of every three days. Of course a user may vary the
dosing frequency as he sees fit depending on how he reacts to the compound.
Usually it is the rate of testicular atrophy that a user will use as a guide
as to when to increase his dosages and/or the frequency of injections.
Side Effects/Risks of Human Chorionic Gonadotropin
As noted earlier, the primary risk associated with human chorionic
gonadotropin is causing testicular desensitization and damage to the Leydig
cells of the testes resulting in permanent impairment to natural testosterone
production (4). It is the aromatase activity that occurs with HCG that some
feel is actually toxic to the Leydig cells of the testes (3). If this sceanrio
plays out an individual would be causing permanent damage to their natural
testosterone production (hypogonadism). This is why relatively small doses of
the compound should be administered at a time. If large doses are taken it is
likely that some damage may occur.
One way to minimize the risk of permanent damage is to use tamoxifen
throughout the administration of HCG. Studies have shown that human chorionic
gonadotropin can, at least partially, block the conversion of 17 alpha-hydroxyprogesterone
(17 OHP), which is a testosterone precursor, to testosterone. Obviously this
is something that a user would want to avoid. However tamoxifen has been shown
to protect against this effect quite effectively (4). Therefore, it would
appear that by using tamoxifen while running HCG a user could help to ensure
that desensitization of the testes does not occur. However, it should be noted
that if a user is not running large amounts of human chorionic gonadotropin
desensitization should not be an issue and tamoxifen would be unnecessary.
Despite this, for those users that administer large amounts of HCG it is
advisable that they also use tamoxifen for this reason.
Due to the fact that there exists luteinizing hormone and human chorionic
gonadotropin receptors in various tissues in the body other then gonadal, this
indicates that human chorionic gonadotropin can have an effect on these
tissues resulting in possible negative side effects when administered. Such
case of this is the possible development of gynecomastia in users (5). It
appears that the use of human chorionic gonadotropin in a small number of
users has resulted in some men developing gynecomastia that is not related to
their estrogen levels or increased levels of prolactin, the most obvious
causes of gynecomastia in steroid users. Rather, in a very small minority of
users it seems that the increased amount of circulating luteinizing hormone or
the human chorionic gonadotropin itself can interact with these receptors in
the breast tissue causing a reaction resulting in the development of
gynecomastia (5). It is unknown at this time the actual mechanism by which
this is accomplished, but it does appear to occur frequently in a small number
of men. As well there is no known method to combat this side effect in men who
experience it, leaving the only option to treat this effect the cessation of
human chorionic gonadotropin administration altogether. Fortunately it appears
that when this is done the gynecomastia that has developed begins to dissipate
rapidly and becomes unnoticeable within a matter of days or weeks in the
majority of cases.
So knowing that the ability of the testes to aromatize androgens could
potentially be heightened several times greater than normal when using HCG
(2), it is fairly obvious that it should only be used as a quick stimulus to
the testes and not something that is used to constantly barrage them in an
attempt to keep them functioning (6). If used correctly the compound is
capable of aiding in recovery of natural testosterone production post-cycle,
but like all compounds it's use must be tempered with the correct knowledge
and application.
References
1. Acute stimulation of aromatization in Leydig cells by human
chorionic gonadotropin in vitro. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 76:4460-3, 1979
2. Llewellyn, William, Anabolics 2004, 2003-4, Molecular Nutrition, pp. 272-3
3. Levalle OA, Suescun MO, Fiszlejder L, Aszpis S, Charreau E, Guitelman A,
Calandra R. Effect of an antiestrogen on the testicular response to acute and
chronic administration of hCG in normal and hypogonadotropic hypogonadic men:
tamoxifen and testicular response to hCG. Andrologia 1991 Mar-Apr,
23(2):109-14
4. Smals AG, Pieters GF, Drayer JI, Boers GH, Benraad TJ, Kloppenborg PW.
Tamoxifen suppresses gonadotropin-induced 17 alpha-hydroxyprogesterone
accumulation in normal men. J Clin Endocrinol Metab 1980 Nov, 51(5):1026-9
5. Carlson HE, Kane P, Lei ZM, Li X, Rao CV. Presence of Luteinizing
Hormone/Human Chorionic Gonadotropin Receptors in Male Breast Tissues. J Clin
Endocrinol Metab. 2004 Aug;89(8):4119-23
6. Cantrill JA, Dewis P, Large DM et al. Which testosterone replacement
therapy? Clin Endocrinol (oxf) 21 (1984) 97-107
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