HCG
Human Chorionic Gonadotropin
HCG (Human Chorionic Gonadotropin) is a hormonal & sexual research compound. LH mimetic — directly stimulates testicular Leydig cells to produce testosterone and maintain size/fertility.
HCG quick facts
| Reported research dose | 500iu-1000iu |
| Route | Subq |
| Frequency | 2-3x Weekly |
| Half-life | ~24–36 hrs |
| Forms | Injectable |
| Evidence level | Human (established) |
The classic for keeping the testes online on TRT or in a restart. Well-trodden ground.
How HCG works
LH mimetic — directly stimulates testicular Leydig cells to produce testosterone and maintain size/fertility.
Proposed benefits
Testicular function / fertility support and testosterone maintenance.
✅ Clinically validated
- An approved human drug with decades of clinical use — licensed for ovulation induction, hypogonadotropic hypogonadism and cryptorchidism, with trial data behind each.
- Its use in fertility preservation during testosterone therapy is supported by published clinical series showing maintained spermatogenesis, which is why it is standard practice in that setting.
📊 Correlative data
- Extensive off-label use for testicular volume and fertility on TRT, and in post-cycle protocols. The clinical experience is consistent and long-running.
- The hCG diet is the notable failure — controlled trials showed weight loss came entirely from the 500-calorie diet, with hCG no better than placebo. Worth stating because it is the most common thing people have heard about it and it is not true.
🧪 Theoretical / extrapolated
- hCG is structurally similar to LH and binds the same receptor, so it substitutes for the pituitary signal to the testes rather than replacing the hormone downstream.
- That is why it maintains testicular function where exogenous testosterone shuts it down, and why prolonged high-dose use desensitises Leydig cells — a receptor held on continuously stops responding, which is the argument for modest intermittent dosing.
These tiers tell you how much human evidence exists — not how well something works. This is the research space, and most of what’s in here is new rather than disproven. Something sitting at “theoretical” usually means nobody has funded the trial, not that the trial was run and failed.
The trap runs the other way too: something can be clinically validated and still do very little for you specifically. A statistically significant result in a study population is not a promise about your body.
- ✅ Clinically validated — human randomised trials or meta-analyses support it. The strongest footing available.
- 📊 Correlative — observational or epidemiological data. Suggestive, and genuinely useful for direction, but it cannot establish cause.
- 🧪 Theoretical / mechanistic — the mechanism is understood and often demonstrated in cells or animals, and the human trial doesn’t exist yet. Unproven is not the same as ineffective. Plenty of what’s standard practice today sat here five years ago.
✗ is a safety flag, not a grade. Where you see it, the concern is harm — not a disappointing trial. A compound tested for one purpose and found not to help there can still be worth studying somewhere else, so a negative result never gets rendered as a cross. It sits alongside the tier, because something can be both well-studied and genuinely risky.
My job is to tell you which one you’re looking at, and let you make the call. Grading something low isn’t me dismissing it — it’s me refusing to oversell it. This is the research space, and being able to reason forward from a mechanism matters as much as waiting for the trial.
HCG — safety, predicted from mechanism
Much of this compound class has never been through a human safety trial. Rather than say nothing — or print a generic warning — this is what its known mechanism predicts could go wrong, and what you can do about it. Predictions are labelled as predictions.
What the mechanism predicts
Derived from what this molecule does, not from a trial.
- These act on the top of the reproductive axis, and which direction they push depends on how they are given. hCG and gonadorelin stimulate; kisspeptin stimulates upstream of GnRH. Continuous GnRH agonism (triptorelin) paradoxically SUPPRESSES after an initial flare, because sustained signalling desensitises the receptor. Cetrorelix is a straightforward antagonist and suppresses immediately.
- The predicted harm follows the direction: stimulation raises testosterone and estradiol together, so aromatisation-driven effects arrive with it. Suppression produces a hypogonadal state — low libido, fatigue, mood change, and bone loss if prolonged.
- The initial FLARE on a GnRH agonist is the specific thing to know about: hormones rise sharply before they fall, and symptoms can transiently worsen.
What has actually been reported
- hCG is well characterised in fertility medicine — gynaecomastia and fluid retention from the estradiol rise are the common complaints.
- GnRH agonist flare is documented and clinically managed in oncology with an antiandrogen during the first weeks.
How to reduce the risk
Each of these follows from the same mechanism as the prediction.
- If using hCG alongside an androgen to preserve testicular function, lower and more frequent beats large and infrequent — the estradiol spike tracks the dose size.
- Anything suppressing the axis for more than a few months needs a bone density conversation, not just a hormone panel.
What it does to your bloodwork
A fact about the assay, not a guess about the drug.
- LH and FSH, total and free testosterone, sensitive estradiol (these raise it more than people expect), and a semen analysis if fertility is the reason you are running it.
Don't run this if
- You have a hormone-sensitive cancer, unless this is being directed by an oncologist — in which case it is their protocol, not one to self-manage.
The honest unknown
- Kisspeptin analogues are early in human study. The axis effect is real and well demonstrated acutely; the consequences of repeated long-term use are not established.
Not medical advice. If you take prescription medication or have a diagnosed condition, check this with a pharmacist or doctor.
Can you actually get HCG?
Prescription-only for human use. Compounding pharmacies supply it through a prescriber — I have no partner route and won't imply one.
HCG — interference & stacking
Predicted from mechanism, not from an interaction study. There are no trials of these combinations — what follows is what the biology implies, so treat it as a reason to watch something, not as a finding.
What HCG moves on your bloodwork
These are the markers this compound is expected to move, and which direction. Knowing that in advance is mostly about NOT panicking: some of these moving is the compound working.
- Complete Blood Count (CBC) with Differential — ↑ expected to rise
Haematocrit and haemoglobin rise — androgens stimulate erythropoiesis. This is the most reliably predictable movement of any compound in the Vault.
What to do: This is the number that decides whether you keep going. Baseline and every 3 months. Dehydration on the draw day inflates it, so hydrate normally or you will chase a false reading. - Total Testosterone — ↑ expected to rise
Expected. Trough vs peak matters enormously — the same protocol reads completely differently depending on when you drew.
What to do: Draw at the same point in the cycle every time or the trend is noise. - LH & FSH — ↓ expected to fall
Suppressed by negative feedback. This is the mechanism, not a side effect — and it is why exogenous androgen shuts down your own production.
What to do: Relevant if fertility matters to you. Worth knowing before, not after. - Estradiol, Sensitive (LC/MS-MS) — ↑ expected to rise
Aromatisation converts a fraction to estradiol, and it rises with the androgen. Use the sensitive (LC-MS/MS) assay — the standard immunoassay is unreliable in men and produces numbers people then medicate.
What to do: If you are reading estradiol in a man, the assay choice matters more than the result. - SHBG (Sex Hormone-Binding Globulin) — ↓ expected to fall
Falls with androgen exposure, which raises the free fraction — so free testosterone can climb faster than total.
What to do: Read total and SHBG together; total alone understates what changed. - Lipid Panel (Cholesterol, HDL, LDL, Triglycerides) — ↓ expected to worsen
HDL falls, sometimes markedly. Oral 17-alpha-alkylated compounds do this far more aggressively than injectable esters.
What to do: Baseline and 12 weeks. ApoB is the better long-term read than LDL-C. - PSA (Total + Free + % Free) — ↑ expected to rise
Androgens can raise PSA modestly. It does not create prostate cancer that wasn't there, but it can unmask it.
What to do: Baseline before starting matters — without it, a later number has nothing to be compared against.
- Which compounds push the same lever, and why the dose adds up faster than people count
- What blunts it — the stacks that waste your money
- What compounds the risk, so a side effect arrives sooner than any one of them suggests
- Coach Cam's read on running it alongside the rest of your protocol
Get the complete breakdown for HCG — inside the Academy alongside the full interactive Vault.
Unlock in the Academy — $10/mo →- How to work up to it, and when not to
- When to take it, and why that window
- Cycle length
- Time off between cycles
- Fasted or fed, and when in the day
- Coach Cam's personal notes
Get the complete breakdown for HCG — inside the Academy alongside the full interactive Vault.
Unlock in the Academy — $10/mo →Bloodwork to run alongside HCG
Run these before you start, and again after 8–12 weeks. A baseline you didn’t take is one you can never go back for.
| Marker | What it’s watching for |
|---|---|
| Total Testosterone | hCG stimulates production directly |
| Estradiol, Sensitive (LC/MS-MS) | Rises sharply on hCG — the commonest source of side effects |
| LH & FSH | Suppressed by exogenous hCG, so read with that in mind |
| hCG, Quantitative | Confirms you're actually absorbing what you're injecting |
The Post-Cycle / Recovery & Fertility panel covers these in one order — 9 markers, $184.50 with the discount applied.
Check results you already have → · All 102 markers A–Z
HCG — frequently asked questions
What is HCG?
HCG (Human Chorionic Gonadotropin) is a hormonal & sexual research compound. LH mimetic — directly stimulates testicular Leydig cells to produce testosterone and maintain size/fertility.
Is the full HCG protocol on this page?
The reported research dose is on this page, along with how HCG works and the evidence behind it. The protocol — how to work up to it, frequency, cycle length, time off, what not to stack it with and Coach Cam's notes — is inside the Academy.
What is the half-life of HCG?
HCG has an approximate half-life of ~24–36 hrs, which is part of what determines how often it's dosed.
What's the evidence behind HCG?
Current evidence level: Human (established). HCG is offered for research purposes only and is not an approved medicine.
Want Coach Cam's exact HCG protocol?
Dosing schedules, stacking, cycle timing and my personal notes live inside the Academy — plus the full interactive Vault of 237 compounds & 350 supplements.
Join the Academy — $10/mo →What HCG is used for
HCG appears under 3 goals in the Vault’s goal router, grouped by the mechanism it works through rather than by how much trial evidence exists. Each link opens that pathway in full, with the alternatives beside it and the bloodwork that tests it.