Am I a non responder?

[u/Rafterlad]

I’m a 26 year old guy who’s struggled with low testosterone since I was at least 18. When I was 20 I got on 1000 IU a week HCG mono therapy as a “natural” alternative to TRT to aid my testosterone levels. Which were around the high 200s at the time. HCG was like a miracle for about 3 months. I felt fantastic and the “High T” sensation was very distinct. It brought me to the low 800s and it radically altered my eyebrows, body hair, confidence, energy levels, increased MPB and eventually raised my estrogen. Long story short on my 3rd month the dosage from my provider changed and I never felt the same. Not even close. It was like a light switch. I tried experimenting with estrogen blockers, higher dose, lower dose but I continued to feel awful. I got off shortly after and didn’t try anything again until this year.

About 4 months ago I went back to the same provider and got on the exact protocol I tried 6 years ago. Once again almost immediately I was left with a “low T” anxiety ridden feeling. I pushed it for 2 weeks and eventually couldn’t take it anymore. Although my estrogen stayed within normal levels the entire 2 weeks. Fast forward to two weeks ago and I’m with a new provider and they’ve prescribed me a full on TRT protocol. I inquired on why I had such an abrupt change in reaction to HCG but they had absolutely no idea.
My current protocol is
HCG 250IU Twice a week
Testosterone cypionate 140mg a week split into two doses

I opted to stay on HCG solely to preserve testicular function in the case that this doesn’t work. I’m currently over 2 weeks in and so far I feel the worst that I ever have in my life. I even stopped HCG after the first week and continued with only Test. But I’m here with Unbelievable brain fog, anxiousness , insomnia and just a general low confidence soft spoken feeling. I’m really struggling and my current Dr is set on my giving the protocol 8 weeks before bloodwork or changing anything.

My question to anyone reading this is could there be any reason why I’m seemingly rejecting HCG? What mechanism or system could be contributing to this? I assumed that jumping on TRT would essentially bypass this issue. Obviously I’m only two weeks in but I’m not sure how much longer I can tolerate feeling this way. The only other variable I can add is that I’ve had low cortisol issues in the past. Any help or thoughts on why I’m seemingly so non responsive would be greatly appreciated.

And I am not overweight and I generally eat very clean. I don’t drink or do any kind of recreational drugs.

[u/Cmd_reboot_sim]

Gotta give it more time

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[u/ComfortableHair2442]

two weeks is nothing, your body's still adjusting to having outside hormones instead of making its own. the anxiety and brain fog is pretty common early on, your system is basically freaking out while it figures out what to do

i had similar issues when i started and it took maybe 5-6 weeks before things leveled out. low cortisol could definitely be part of it too, your adrenals might be struggling to keep up with the shift. 8 weeks feels like forever when you feel like crap but your doc is right to wait for bloodwork before changing anything

[u/Rafterlad → u/ComfortableHair2442]

Thanks for the response

[u/mylastvengeance]

I think 2 weeks on test cyp is super early. A lot of guys feel worse before they feel better because levels are still ramping and stabilizing.

On the hCG side it can def make some people feel like trash, not because you’re “immune” but because it can spike intratesticular T and estradiol and you end up with a bad E2 spot or just big swings lol. Anxiety, insomnia, brain fog, low confidence all track with that.

If it were me, I wouldn’t white-knuckle 8 weeks with no data. Just get labs ASAP (so if ur feeling like shit at least figure out what the cause is).

But usually the fixes are: smaller, more frequent injections to flatten peaks, and either lower, more frequent hCG or dropping hCG temporarily until you’re stable on T.

Cuz the thing is man it clearly worked for you at some point. It could've been a mixture a ton of different things. You just have to do some trial/error to see how you can find that sweet spot.

If you haven't done this methodically then its hard to say ur a "non responder"