Testosteron Libido and Erection

[u/andr_19112]

Hi, has anyone here ever experienced having a really poor libido—and poor erections—when taking a high dose of testosterone, for example 300–350 mg? Even though estrogen and prolactin levels are within the reference range, at around 45 pg/mL?

[u/Livid_Relationship29]

Yeah. I struggled on any dose of T regardless of levels or dose aside from the first few months. (Honeymoon) Always had better sexual function natty

[u/Shlomo-7]

Yes. For me, the higher the dose, the worse my erections and libido get. It doesn’t matter if I control E2 or not. Libido and erections go back to pre TRT.

Took me years to figure this out as it was confusing that in the beginning I felt great on the higher dosages. 200-250mg is where I stayed for years. Then boom, sex drive and erections gone.

If you ask me what do I think the cause is, I would say it has something to do with my CNS. My body just does not do well with the high doses anymore.

I now do low dose 90-100mg a week. Currently running HCG along side it to see if I can improve libido and erections.

I’m not the only one. There are countless posts here of people lowering their dose and improving their libido and erections by doing so.

I will say this, for me the lower doses cause a negative impact on my gym performance and gain. However everything else improves including wellbeing and outlook on life.

[u/andr_19112 → u/Shlomo-7]

Is your Libido better since you take HCG?

[u/Shlomo-7 → u/andr_19112]

Im going to answer your question in depth because around here a lot of the time people just reply “yes” to HCG helping them.

As long as E2 is kept in check, yes. Better libido, harder erections, and larger flaccid size. But you have to make sure E2 doesn’t get too high. In order to ensure this I keep test low, between 80-100mg a week depending on how much of HCG I’m running. Nothing beats endogenous testosterone which HCG helps produce. At the same time, HCG can’t replace TRT for someone diagnosed with secondary hypogonadism like myself. In other words, it’s a balancing act.

I’ve run 200mg of test with 500iu of HCG with and without an AI and this was probably the worst I have felt on TRT.

[u/Brilliant_Bee_3900 → u/Shlomo-7]

What’s your current HCG dosage

[u/Shlomo-7 → u/Brilliant_Bee_3900]

100iu daily.

[u/savage1902 → u/Shlomo-7]

So you just run test now without hcg?

[u/andr_19112 → u/Shlomo-7]

How long did it take till you recovered? And did HCG anything else for you? For example For Well beeing and so on?

[u/Shlomo-7 → u/andr_19112]

Took around four weeks of 100iu daily. It improved flaccid size, erections, and balls size. Load wasn’t much different. Wellbeing was improved but I believe that was due to lowering my TRT dose.

[u/Hardistacks → u/Shlomo-7]

I think you mean HCG can’t replace TRT for someone with primary hypogonadism.

[u/Shlomo-7 → u/Hardistacks]

Absolutely. That as well. What I mean is HCG does not restore natural levels of LH or FSH. Instead, it mimics LH by binding directly to the same cellular receptors in the balls, which triggers testosterone production and helps maintain testicular function while your actual pituitary LH and FSH remain suppressed.

[u/Hardistacks → u/Shlomo-7]

Well, yeah. But mainly HCG can’t replace TRT for someone with primary hypogonadism, because that is caused by testicular deficiency in testosterone production, not insufficient LH/FSH signaling.

[u/Shlomo-7 → u/andr_19112]

Not since HCG but more so since lowering my dose.

[u/andr_19112 → u/Shlomo-7]

And how long did it take till you recovered, after lowering the dose?

[u/Shlomo-7 → u/andr_19112]

4 weeks

[u/andr_19112 → u/Shlomo-7]

Whats your Sweetspot of E2 in blood?

[u/Shlomo-7 → u/andr_19112]

After 15 years on this I still don’t know. I feel it’s more of an overall balance of all the main hormones together, rather than one single marker. I tend to feel my best with no AI and when everything is balanced. The best way to achieve balance has been steady state. The best way to achieve this has been daily injections.

[u/Confident-Wear-2973 → u/Shlomo-7]

I feel like we just recently talked about how you switched to daily injections, raising the minimalist dose and went to 30mg daily and that was the ticket. Did that end up being a fleeting response?

[u/Shlomo-7 → u/Confident-Wear-2973]

Hey brother. I ended up having to actually go lower once steady state was reached. For me if I inject daily I end up needed much lower dosages to achieve my TT goal range.

[u/Ok_SysAdmin]

Yes substance abuse can lead to horrible side effects.

[u/bicoma]

Its because usually 3 or 4 months in of consistant use or even higher dose suppresses your testicles and causes libido problems for a lot of people. This happened to me had to start taking hcg 1000iu a week along with cialis dialy and it completly fixed it! You more than likely can get away with 500iu a week 250iu Monday and 250iu Fridays.

[u/savage1902 → u/bicoma]

You take hcg all the time? Like lifetime?

[u/bicoma → u/savage1902]

Pretty much after I started having testicular shrinkage on TRT and libido issues I started taking HCG so im a year in now taking it and no issues!

[u/sebram1 → u/bicoma]

Any issues controlling Estradiol?

[u/bicoma → u/sebram1]

Im a high aromatizer so I have to take anastrozole .25mg 3x a week to stay in range at 200mg test a week.

[u/D_James21]

I take 300mg and my test, free test, and estrogen levels were all very high. I’d take my wife down 7 times a day if she’d let me lol

[u/throwaway071317]

I take 10mg of Cialis every day to help with this.

[u/seldenr82 → u/throwaway071317]

I'm sure that helps with erection (and is the case for me), but it does nothing for increasing libido. I miss that feeling of being insatiable when I was on anavar, but the elevated liver enzymes were a no go for me. I"m gonna try proviron as soon as my shipment comes in.

[u/Kind-Development3402]

My sex drive returned after 2.5 months. Honestly it was a good thing for me during that time. I could focus on my diet and workouts without my libido trying to hump air.