A bit of context: I'm a 38-year-old male, quite active and in good health. Right now I weigh 185 pounds with roughly 13% body fat. Chronic fatigue has been a lifelong issue for me; I began TRT 4-5 months back. My current dose is 150 mg per week, injected twice weekly. Every blood marker looks solid — total T sits near 1300, E2 is under control, HCT is 46%, ferritin is 75, and so on. The sole anomaly is IGF1, which comes in around 110. TRT has definitely given me more energy and drive, yet I still run into a fatigue barrier during the day. I'm wondering whether IGF1 might be behind this, and if using 2-4IU of HGH would be a reasonable move.
New Member Intro — HGH Inquiry
- Thread starter vb88
- Start date
My take: run 4IU of HGH each day, divided between morning and evening. Wait at least 30 min before your first meal, and no food for 2 hours ahead of the evening shot. Compared with Tesa, Ipa, CJC and every other secretion-boosting peptide, HGH will always come out on top. On a CJC IPA stack my IGF climbed from about 135 at baseline to roughly 225, and once I switched to 4iu of Somatropin it reached 375. That lab draw happened a couple of months back, while I was running 200mg of test.
A lot of people suggest beginning at 2iu and working upward, but my view is that if 4iu sits fine with you (and it does for most), that's where you should begin, split across 2 doses. On TRT alone it may ease fatigue. If a GLP is also in the mix, though, the wall is largely going to happen no matter what (adding 500mcg of cagri on top of my Reta dose hit me really hard) and I hadn't dealt with it before... HGH doesn't do anything for that, but back when I was on no GLP at all and only the test/hgh combo, I felt amazing.
A lot of people suggest beginning at 2iu and working upward, but my view is that if 4iu sits fine with you (and it does for most), that's where you should begin, split across 2 doses. On TRT alone it may ease fatigue. If a GLP is also in the mix, though, the wall is largely going to happen no matter what (adding 500mcg of cagri on top of my Reta dose hit me really hard) and I hadn't dealt with it before... HGH doesn't do anything for that, but back when I was on no GLP at all and only the test/hgh combo, I felt amazing.
hgh is something i've been looking into too. trt is what i'm on, via the cream. 3 hours after i put the cream on, my free test reads 36, so it likely falls off later in the day, though it's still on the high side.
from what i've come across, hgh can bring the dopamine receptor back, and that appears to be 1 reason hgh helps you feel improved while on trt. when i had my igf 1 checked it came back at just 76, so my hope is to bring that up and find out whether my sleep and recovery improve. going on trt, i genuinely expected to get everything back to how it was at 20, but that hasn't happened. perhaps hgh is the piece that's been absent for that to occur
from what i've come across, hgh can bring the dopamine receptor back, and that appears to be 1 reason hgh helps you feel improved while on trt. when i had my igf 1 checked it came back at just 76, so my hope is to bring that up and find out whether my sleep and recovery improve. going on trt, i genuinely expected to get everything back to how it was at 20, but that hasn't happened. perhaps hgh is the piece that's been absent for that to occur
Jone5y87!
Explorer
Is ERP's HGH any good? Can someone verify?
I've got 10 vials set to use, though I'm aware supply is tight right now. Two worries keep me from adding it to my stack: 1, the quality might not be there, and 2, I'd burn through it and be unable to restock lol
I've got 10 vials set to use, though I'm aware supply is tight right now. Two worries keep me from adding it to my stack: 1, the quality might not be there, and 2, I'd burn through it and be unable to restock lol
Gr33dyOctopus
Explorer
Ugh, ERP gets a bad rap because their COAs are ridiculously old. Still, I've picked up a fair amount of stuff from them and haven't had a single complaint.
FunkyOtter
Explorer
Just curious on my end — was 150mg your starting dose, and does 1300 total feel fine for you? Any experience with either lower or higher doses?
My own journey began roughly two years back, and I experimented with various dosages, briefly buying into the idea that higher was superior, yet I've found my sweet spot around 700. I split my injections across several days each week, which helps me avoid the peaks and valleys too.
Endeavor Fitness
Explorer
Taking 2-4 iu brings about solid fat reduction along with a good increase in IGF. I recently cut my dosage down to 2 IUs, yet the results remain just as good as they were back when I was using 4 iu.
Riviera
Explorer
@vb88 - yeah, the same situation happened to me - unending tiredness - I'm closing in on 60 - got my testosterone levels tested - results came back fine - that led me to think about asking my doctor to check my gh levels- but then I figured, why not just experiment with 1iu of hgh right away in the morning - so I did - and the fatigue was gone that very day - caught me off guard. Placebo effect? I really don't think so.
My guess is I have aghd - and even if a doctor verifies it - pharma gh would be prescribed, costing an arm and a leg - out of my budget - pointless when gray is available at 1/10th the pharma price.
Right now I've worked my way up to 2.5iu / day- which appears to wipe out or greatly lessen my fatigue.
Might be worth a shot for you. Good luck
birdwhacker
Explorer
Honestly, forget about losing fat and forget about gaining muscle — what HGH does for me is make me feel like a normal person. I started it roughly 2 weeks back. Suddenly I'm never late for work, I wake up with the sunrise, I don't get worn out or overheated the way I did before, and I'm constantly in go mode.
Be sure to pair it with potassium, and be sure you keep your insulin and your sodium intake in check.
Even at 6iu I had no side effects at all, and I usually sit around 4
background: 27yo/m, went from 235lbs down to 190lbs, past drug abuse, bipolar depression, "adhd"
Recently I pulled off TRT with HCG, DIM/calcium glucarate, and L Carnitine Tartrate, and that alone had me feeling much better. Then 2 weeks ago I added HGH and at last I feel "there." Each day is great and I feel hope about what's ahead.
Be sure to pair it with potassium, and be sure you keep your insulin and your sodium intake in check.
Even at 6iu I had no side effects at all, and I usually sit around 4
background: 27yo/m, went from 235lbs down to 190lbs, past drug abuse, bipolar depression, "adhd"
Recently I pulled off TRT with HCG, DIM/calcium glucarate, and L Carnitine Tartrate, and that alone had me feeling much better. Then 2 weeks ago I added HGH and at last I feel "there." Each day is great and I feel hope about what's ahead.
Riviera
Explorer
That's awesome to hear, buddy!! A lot of folks start it hoping to pack on muscle - I was in that same mindset 6 months back until I dug around online & picked up more info...
Only a handful of us react right away to it - my guess is you might have aghd or something along those lines too, even though you're much younger than I am....Even so, - doesn't it feel great to be NORMAL AGAIN ????
I'm keeping an eye on my bs - actually I just started a new thread over in the peptides blending section, asking how hgh & bs have worked for other people.
Appreciate the tip on postasium & sodium intake - I'll check into that ! There's still a lot I'm learning.
You and I belong to a pretty rare group !!
birdwhacker
Explorer
And honestly the muscle gains are a welcome bonus too. There's just something really pleasant about the way glycogen keeps you looking full all the time.
Absolutely. It's an incredible feeling. Now I get how some folks manage to hold down those grueling, high-paying jobs. If push came to shove, I could roll out of bed at 4am and grind through the whole day without issue. My life has taken a completely different direction because of this, and I'm no longer scared of what's ahead. At last I grasp what is meant by going to failure and then going past it. Compared to who I was 12 months ago, I'm almost a different species.
Happy to help. One more thing you could try: piperine first thing in the morning (personally I take doctor's best ubiquinone since it has piperine, but any supplement with piperine works), then roughly 30 minutes afterward take berberine.
It's wild that HGH is said to boost appetite because of heightened insulin sensitivity. My own hunger is completely crushed -- I even went almost 2 weeks without my reta dose and cut back to a half dose (2mg weekly), yet I still struggle to get food down. I suspect the berberine is behind it.
Oh, and psilium husk fiber can be used to soften the insulin spikes that come from eating as well.
AngieHolmes
Explorer
Has getting it tested crossed your mind?