What Is HMG? Dosage, Half-Life & How to Track It
Also known as: Human Menopausal Gonadotropin · Menotropin · Menopur · Repronex
HMG (human menopausal gonadotropin, or menotropin) is a purified hormone preparation carrying both FSH and LH activity — the piece hCG alone is missing. A standard male-fertility protocol is 75 IU subcutaneously, three times a week, usually stacked with hCG so both signals are covered. Its FSH component clears over roughly a day or more, versus hours for the LH activity. Educational only; fertility protocols are managed by a specialist.
What HMG is and how it works
HMG is purified from the urine of postmenopausal women, whose pituitaries pump out unusually high levels of FSH and LH because their ovaries have stopped responding to those signals — which, oddly enough, makes their urine a practical source of both hormones for extraction. The result is a preparation carrying roughly equal FSH and LH activity.
That FSH content is the reason HMG gets stacked with hCG rather than used alone. hCG mimics LH and maintains testosterone and testicular size, but LH activity alone doesn’t drive spermatogenesis efficiently — Sertoli cells, where sperm actually develop, respond primarily to FSH. HMG supplies the FSH signal hCG can’t, which is why the two are typically combined for fertility restoration rather than treated as interchangeable.
In women, the same FSH+LH combination is used to stimulate follicle development for ovulation induction or IVF cycles — a different use case with its own monitoring, outside what this page covers.
Typical dosing & reconstitution
A common male-fertility protocol runs 75 IU subcutaneously, three times a week, typically for 12–16 weeks and combined with hCG. Response is gradual — spermatogenesis takes roughly three months to show up, so protocols shorter than that are already near the minimum useful window.
HMG reconstitutes to a lower concentration than most peptides, which creates a real practical issue:
| Vial | BAC water | Concentration | Full dose volume |
|---|---|---|---|
| 75 IU | 3 mL | 25 IU/mL | 3 mL (300 units) |
A full 75 IU dose at this dilution is 3 mL — more than a standard 1 mL insulin syringe holds. Options are a 3 mL syringe, splitting the dose across three 1 mL injections at different sites, or reconstituting with less water for a smaller injection volume (check your specific product’s guidance).
Half-life & what it means for frequency
HMG’s two hormone components clear on different timelines. The FSH activity has a longer terminal half-life — commonly cited in the roughly 1 to 1.5-day range — while the LH activity clears much faster, closer to hour-scale, similar to the body’s own LH. That mismatch is part of why HMG is dosed a few times a week rather than daily: the FSH component has enough staying power to sustain Sertoli-cell stimulation between injections.
Because response — rising sperm counts — unfolds over months rather than days, shifting an individual dose by a day matters far less than staying consistent with the protocol as a whole over the full 12–16 weeks.
What to track & common side effects
Reported side effects are generally mild at fertility-protocol doses: injection-site reactions and, less commonly, headache or mood changes. In women at ovulation-induction doses, ovarian hyperstimulation is a real risk that requires specialist monitoring — a different context than the male-fertility use covered here.
What’s worth tracking: the injection log (three a week, easy to blur together with an hCG protocol running alongside it), and the actual outcome measure — semen analysis over the 12–16-week course, since that is the only way to know whether the protocol is working.
How to track HMG in Stackeddd
Log each HMG injection separately from your hCG shots so a stacked fertility protocol stays legible — three doses a week of each, over a multi-month course, is easy to lose track of by memory alone. The reconstitution math matters more here than for most peptides, since a full dose can exceed a single insulin syringe.
Model it yourself · free, no account
Reconstitution Calculator
Model it yourself: enter your vial size and BAC water, and the Peptides tab returns concentration and volume per dose — including the split-injection math when a full dose exceeds 1 mL. The same math built into the Stackeddd app.
Related compounds
Related reading: Peptide reconstitution math: how much BAC water to add · What peptides can you mix in the same syringe?
Frequently asked questions
What is HMG used for?
HMG (menotropin) supplies both FSH and LH activity. In men it’s used alongside hCG for fertility restoration, since it provides the FSH signal that drives sperm production — something hCG’s LH-mimicking activity alone doesn’t do efficiently. In women it’s used for ovulation induction.
What is the difference between HMG and hCG?
hCG mimics LH and maintains testosterone and testicular size. HMG carries both FSH and LH activity, adding the FSH signal that actually drives sperm production in the testes. They’re typically used together for full fertility restoration rather than as substitutes for each other.
How do you reconstitute HMG?
A common setup is 3 mL of bacteriostatic water into a 75 IU vial, giving 25 IU/mL. A full 75 IU dose at that dilution is 3 mL — more than a standard insulin syringe holds — so it’s often split across three 1 mL injections or reconstituted with less water.
How long does HMG take to work?
Because it targets sperm production, meaningful changes in semen parameters typically take around three months to show up — spermatogenesis itself is a roughly 70–90-day process. Most protocols run 12–16 weeks for that reason.
This is educational information, not medical advice. Doses and protocols above reflect published references and community practice — protocol decisions belong with your prescribing physician. Generic names used throughout. How this reference is built & how the AI is tested →
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