Human Chorionic Gonadotropin

Use in weight loss

A controversial usage of hCG is as an adjunct to the British endocrinologist Dr. A.T.W. Simeons’ ultra-low-calorie weight-loss diet. Simeons, while studying pregnant women in India on a calorie-deficient diet, and “fat boys” with pituitary problems treated with low-dose hCG, discovered that both lost fat rather than lean (muscle) tissue. He reasoned that hCG must be programming the hypothalamus to do this in the former cases in order to protect the developing fœtus, and proceeded to use low-dose daily hCG injections (125mg) in combination with a customized ultra-low-calorie (500 kcal/day, high-protein, low-carbohydrate/fat) diet to help obese adults lose dramatic amounts of adipose tissue without loss of lean, at a Salvator Mundi International Hospital in Rome, Italy, clinic mainly for celebrities. After Simeons’ mysterious death, the diet started to spread to specialized centers and via popularization by such as the controversial popular author Kevin Trudeau.

The controversy proceeds from warnings by the Journal of the American Medical Association and the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition that hCG is not safe, indeed ineffective, as a weight-loss aid on its own; yet its usage as cited above to increase testosterone production contradicts this assertion, since much late-life male obesity is associated with estrogen dominance and deficient testosterone in the mis-named, so-called andropause. Furthermore, in the Simeons protocol, it is, as in any diet, the ultra-low-calorie component (caloric deficit) that results in weight loss, if the protocol is followed strictly. hCG’s role is supposedly to trigger the hypothalamic lean-protection mechanisms Simeons thought he saw, thus promoting mobilization and consumption of abnormal, excessive adipose deposits, while protecting normal adipose and lean tissue from being consumed, with the assumption that these protective hypothalamic mechanisms exist in males as well as females, to be acted upon by hCG.

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Use with anabolic steroids

In the world of performance enhancing drugs, hCG is increasingly used in combination with various anabolic androgenic steroid (AAS) cycles.

When AAS are put into a male body, the body's natural negative-feedback loops cause the body to shut down its own production of testosterone via shutdown of the hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal axis (HPGA). High levels of AASs that mimic the body's natural testosterone trigger the hypothalamus to shut down its production of gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) from the hypothalamus. Without GnRH, the pituitary gland stops releasing luteinizing hormone (LH). LH normally travels from the pituitary via the blood stream to the testes, where it triggers the production and release of testosterone. Without LH, the testes shut down their production of testosterone, causing testicular atrophy.

In males, hCG mimics LH and helps restore and maintain testosterone production in the testes. As such, hCG is commonly used during and after steroid cycles to maintain and restore testicular size as well as endogenous testosterone production. However, if hCG is used for too long and in too high a dose, the resulting rise in natural testosterone will eventually inhibit its own production via negative feedback on the hypothalamus and pituitary.

On cycle hCG protocols were developed by Dr. John Crisler, a well known figure in the anti-aging and HRT field. Dr. Crisler recommends 250IU subcutaneous injections twice per week through out the length of the AAS cycle. More specifically, take one 250IU injection two days before as well as the day immediately previous to the IM Test injection.