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/publications/guidelines/final/upload/AndrogensMenGuideline053006.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:
https://anabolicminds.com/forum/male-anti-aging/66268-jan-s-bloodtest-3.html
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In any case, life is much easier when testosterone is available even if he gets it in less than perfect way.
.