Disclaimer! Please read! I am not a medical professional in any way, shape or form, and this is not to be misconstrued as medical advice. I am simply sharing what has worked for me and others. It is your responsibility to discuss these matters with your physician.
Yes, it really did take 3 planes and several bags of peanuts to arrive in Florida for a full tour of 2 hCG producing pharmacies, along with meeting the CEO’s and staff in person of hCG companies.
If reading this portion of the story is reassuring to you, you can check out DietDoc’s pricing for hCG kits here. Now keep in mind that it is ONE of the pharmacies they use – so depending on what state you order from, you may get hCG from a different pharmacy, but all the pharmacies DietDoc is using has to go by these same set of laws, so it’s going to be of good quality regardless.
Oh and did I mention I was “traveling” (the whole airport/airport food/weird-airplane-air thing) from 8 a.m. to like midnight due to delayed flights and resulting flight changes? This allowed for plenty of time to take #absurdselfies. Good thing right? Otherwise, you’d have missed out on this amazing #absurdselfie. The world would have been a sadder place. That’s my brother by the way – he’s the normal one.
Ah but the one cool thing that came out of this was that so few rental cars were left when we finally got there, I got to pick out a gigantic brand new Durango for the price of a mid-sized car. Cha-ching! And my videographer who is also my brother was also my driver! Cha-ching twice.
WHY Would I Visit an hCG Pharmacy?
Seeing is believing right?
I have wanted to do this – this pharmacy visits thing – for a LONG time, probably 2 years now. Even though I have communicated quite a bit with the companies I recommend on my blog so that I know that what they are sending out is real hCG, there has still always been that slight uncomfortableness of not SEEING it with my own eyes. I feel incredibly responsible to you all.
People don’t just let people walk into pharmacies though, especially while such a person is wielding a camera!
This is why I believe I’m the very first person in this particular niche – the small hCG world – to not only now have visited two of these pharmacies in person, BUT on top of that, to have been given permission to take video footage of my entire tour, much of which I will be allowed to share with you as time goes on for your benefit.
Pricing for hCG Kits from DietDoc here
Essentially for my visit to Absolute Pharmacy, they had to shut down what they were doing the entire afternoon to let me in.
Check it out- gorgeous eh? I mean for a pharmacy anyway. Love that floor.
They knew it would be a wise use of their time and expense to do this because they have seen over time how much you all value the openness of my blog. The fact that I pretty much tell you EVERYTHING. That’s how I like to make my own decisions in life, whether I’m researching a hormone cream or what kind of dishwasher I want – I want to have details made available to me that actually educate me about the process or the why or why not something works so that I can make my own informed decision.
This is why I write things out here on the blog is SO much detail. For some of you, it’s probably too much! But I get enough thank you emails to know the vast majority really appreciate it, so it’s what I plan to continue doing. Thus, they decided to invite me and essentially the rest of you guys, through my camera, in to their company and one of the pharmacies they use.
I have several hours worth of video footage waiting here in my computer for me to attempt to creatively edit and put together into valuable stories – my perfectionism is putting a bit of fear into me as I try to think of the perfect way to combine it all.
But then I realize to myself that what is most important is really just that you see that I went there.
I went IN one of the pharmacies they use, I saw, pretty much everything, with my own eyes and ears which I get to pass on to your eyes and ears.
I DO plan on sharing plenty of the actual audio in bite-sized chunks in the near future so you can hear the explanations of the process and requirements for producing injectable hCG yourself, not just from me, but from the pharmacist himself.
Key Points for hCG Injections Produced in the U.S.
Some of the main things that the pharmacist both showed and explained to me are the following:
Every batch of injectable hCG made is both potency tested and sterility and endotoxin tested. If it doesn’t meet FDA standards, the entire batch is destroyed.
Obviously, that would be super costly for them hence they simply do good work (which is nowhere simple to accomplish by the way- any of you think you’re clean freaks? Think again! No one is more fastidious than a pharmacist creating injectable meds!) I had no idea. So essentially, you are guaranteed a quality product, because in the U.S., the law makes sure of this. If you’re wondering why the FDA is so involved with this and has made so many rules and regulations it’s because you’re injecting something in your body – this requires a lot more care to ensure the safety of what’s being put inside you.
Here are the 3 Main Concerns regarding getting the hCG hormone online:
1. Real.
After all, you see me there in the video AT the pharmacy! Hope that’s proof enough. That would have been one expensive set. 😉
2. Potent.
As mentioned just a minute ago, every single stinkin’ batch now is potency tested and if it WERE to be outside of the 10% allowance either way (90-110% potency) it has to be destroyed (which would a VERY expensive mistake to make both in materials and man hours). But Andreas mentioned to me that a good pharmacy doesn’t even have that much variance in potency from batch to batch going on.
3. Safe.
Every batch is also required, by law, to undergo sterility and endotoxin testing. This ensures there isn’t weird bacteria that’s in the vial that could get in your bloodstream and kill you. Nice to know right?
This is all a very involved, expensive process. In order to test vials from every batch of hCG, that means a certain number of vials that were made have to be essentially wasted – they are the sacrificial vials if you will, that must prove whether or not the rest of the vials are good enough. A full 10% have to be used up for testing – so if 100 vials are produced, 10 vials must be tested/wasted. If 1000 vials are made, 100 vials must be tested/wasted. That sounded like a LOT to me! But hopefully that gives you guys an idea of the lengths they have to (and want to, for safety of course as well!) go to in order to produce things like injectable hCG and Lipo shots.
You want more? Oh I’ve got more!
So Much to Relate to You All
This is just scratching the surface of what I learned from my personal visit to this pharmacy – another important thing was that this one particular pharmacy they use, Absolute Pharmacy, is a 503b FDA Registered Compounding Facility. Wait, wuz-zat? And furthermore, who cares?
The special 503b designation as of early 2015 currently has only been given to 22 pharmacies in the entire United States – more on that later. That means it’s REALLY hard to get. Basically in everyday language, it’s a top-notch, state-of-the-art facility that has been inspected by the FDA and meets the extremely stringent requirements in order to achieve that little “b” on the end of their 503. Yeah, that was a mouthful.
I actually met the very person who compounds all the injectable hCG from this particular pharmacy, the Pharmacist in charge of the facility, Michael. I just want to say a public thank you because he spent about 3 hours both explaining and showing me everything in detail (he even let me put on the whole bunny suit and go inside the cleanroom – huge favor since he had to thoroughly sanitize the entire room after my mere presence inside there) and what struck me the most was that he was respectful, humble, and very fastidious.
Okay in all honesty you want to know what I was kind of expecting when I heard I was going to interact with the pharmacist? Some old crotchety guy with a big nose who thinks everyone without a Ph.D. is stupid and would answer my questions in the shortest, huffiest way conceivable. I was nervous about the whole idea!
As you can see in the video he was pretty much the furthest thing from any of those descriptions.
I was impressed that Michael sees the bigger picture, that what he is making is being injected into people who have family members who love them and want them around for a while.
One thing I can say about this particular pharmacy, it was impeccable. I don’t see how it could possibly get any cleaner or newer.
Pricing for hCG Kits from DietDoc here
Mostly, I just felt so much better now that I actually know FULLY what is going on, how this whole process works. And I mean they REALLY showed me everything.
Yep that shrimp on the left is me in an XL bunny suit. I guess there are currently no 5’1″ pharmacists working there yet. 😉
We went over all the questions I asked you guys to send that you wanted the pharmacist to answer, discussing which ones were suitable for him to answer and which ones would be more something that the doctor would need to answer (which we have plans for that in the future so stay tuned!) Please don’t kill me guys, it was such a whirlwind that I didn’t end up having time to ask the pharmacist those questions off the list! The afternoon just flew by with all that he had to show me but we’re hoping to do a skype interview soon to actually cover what you guys specifically wanted to know okay?
Was I tired at the end? Well…this picture might help you decide that.
But it was all OH SO WORTH IT! Over the next couple months, you will see more footage from my visit as I gradually put it all together.
I’m so glad that I was able to have the opportunity to do this for you guys so that you don’t have to feel nervous when you purchase such an important product online. I REMEMBER being nervous myself when I started hCG – so worried about getting scammed. This stuff isn’t cheap when you go the U.S. made like this and we work hard for those dollars in our bank and there’s often not much left in there after organic groceries and exorbitant rent! Some of you save up for quite a while to do a round of hCG. Some of you might be foregoing something else on your buy list in order to do this.
The benefits that can be had are of course worth far more than a couple of hundred bucks.
As some of you may know, as of January 2015 I have been maintaining my weight loss from the hCG protocol for 2 years and 3 months. In fact, here is a picture I took literally last week after I got back home from the pharmacy visit.
hCG may not be for everyone, but if you are ready for the change, it can really achieve a pretty big alteration in your body.
Until next time you guys!
– Rayzel
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Yup, I want this!
I am already taking HCG injections. This is my second go round. I started taking them on 10/20/17 so I am into my second week. I am also doing a 500 calorie a day meal plan. I am hungry most days and wind up eating a little bit of something that I shouldn’t because I am craving a particular food that is not on the meal plan. My main question is how much is the HCG injections if I buy the next batch from you? I am beginning to think they have been watered down or something because I thought they were supposed to suppress my appetite as well. Waiting to hear from you.
Hi Dana,
This is Li-an, Rayzel’s assistant. Nice to meet you 🙂
Just to clarify, Rayzel does not personally sell hCG herself. But she has her recommended US prescription hCG sources here: hcgchica.com/buyhcg
ALL hCG shots you can get from US pharmacies are all legally monitored & regulated by FDA. They are all potency & endotoxin tested – so if you got yours from a US pharmacy/doctor, maybe you can do some adjustment on dosage. Rayzel discusses it here: http://hcgchica.com/hcg-dosage-how-should-feel-on-the-hcg-diet-when-you-are-on-the-right-dose/
Hope that helps!
Hi Amanda!
This is Cristel, RAyzel`s assistant. Nice to meet you! 🙂
Rayzel already seen that letter months ago and discussed it at length with Andreas the CEO- it’s actually all very explainable. She never want to be accused of brushing something off that is unsafe, which is why she spent time investigating this and discussing things with Andreas when it initially came up to make sure that wasn’t the case.
In fact many compounding pharmacies that are checked by the FDA get warning letters all the time. The really large pharmacies pay to have those letters hidden because they have the money to do so. The point is from what I’ve learned, they make it out to sound a lot worse than it actually is and if there was a real danger involved, they would have had to recall the actual vials made in the facility, which has not happened.
To explain a little further, there are 2 types of compounding pharmacies: Compounding pharmacies can choose to try to be an FDA outsourcing facility, which is a higher classification and requires MUCH more stringent guidelines for equipment and sterility which is what absolute attempted to do because they wanted to be the best and invested in hundreds of thousands of dollars of state of the art equipment to do so. This is what some of these pharmacies like the one you mentioned have attempted to do but the FDA continues to make the guidelines more and more strict and the real money is in the big pharmacies, they don’t really care if the small pharmacies can live up to the requirements. The point is actually these smaller compounding pharmacies that have been trying to be FDA outsourcing facilities like Absolute are actually MUCH cleaner than your average neighborhood compounding pharmacies, but then when they are inspected by the FDA since they have now “signed up” with them, they are then made out to sound like they are compounding in an unsafe unsterile way.
I hope that make sense. My point is the quality of the medication from these pharmacies like Absolute is likely MUCH higher still, regardless of any of these letters, than the hundreds of operating regular compounding pharmacies who only don’t get letters because they are not connected directly with the FDA. Their operations are way above your average pharmacy because of having to try so hard to live up to the ever increasing/changing FDA standards, which the regular compounding pharmacies haven’t had to do.
Again, if there were a real problem, the medications would actually be recalled, if that makes sense. The pharmacies I’ve visited are amazingly clean and I’ve definitely seen in plenty of scenarios how the FDA maneuvers things to their advantage and they are trying to shut out the small business compounding pharmacies.
I hope that helps. Regardless, of course order from where you feel safe, but likely if you order from somewhere else that doesn’t have a letter like this on file, it’s likely not as sterile still actually as this pharmacy if it’s not an FDA outsourcing facility type of compounding pharmacy like Absolute was trying to be as they will not have the same procedures and equipment in place that they did in order to meet those requirements initially. It’s all the way it’s presented which unfortunately is totally misleading, however, I understand it can be hard to just believe 1 person’s word for it, but this is what I truly believe especially based on what I’ve seen.
AND also Andreas has a special email that he said to please give to anyone who has questions, and he’d be happy to explain it to you himself. Here’s his email: [email protected]
Hope that helps!
Cristel
Hi, I am from India, and need to reduce more than 20 pounds, how do I order them to be shipped to India? Also, If shipping is not possible then I would ask a friend to favour me by taking it along via flight, not sure if that is allowed. If so, then I believe tablets would be safer option, as it would not spill or damage due to temperature in atmosphere.
Hi Rayzel,
I ordered the pills from nu medical and did 2 rounds but only lost 11 lbs. I did HCG before and lost 21 lbs. I do admit I cheated this last time, but was hoping for more weight loss. I’d like to do another round any suggestions about pills or shots? Also about food choices?
Thanks !
Hi Shelley!
Here’s Rayzel’s thoughts on injection vs oral hCG: http://hcgchica.com/hcg-diet-faq/hcg-injections-vs-drops-which-is-better/
Hi Ronniiee!
Oh dear I’m sorry for the confusion- I used to recommend pregnancy testing but I now have multiple things proving that pregnancy testing is actually not reliable – your hCG is indeed real – here are two examples to show why it’s not reliable for this: http://hcgchica.com/an-important-message-to-my-readers-about-real-prescription-hcg/
I hope this helps explain it- as you’ll see hCG CAN register on a pregnancy test (I’ve done it multiple times myself), but often it doesn’t it and the reasons are described in the above post.
Take care,
Rayzel
Hey Tony! I’m so sorry I missed this! Real quick- you can’t test your urine for hCG – you would test the hCG itself- there’s far too little hCG in your system for a pregnancy test to be positive on you personally – but secondly, I don’t even recommend the pregnancy testing anymore for hCG itself heres why:
the issue that’s making the testing unreliable is either faulty tests or not enough hCG is being used- I have proof of this:
This experience here: http://hcgchica.com/an-importa…
And also this convo which literally just happened today:
http://hcgchica.com/wp-content…
Also, see below link which shows many test brands are only sensitive down to 100ius, and even then, states that it’s not reliable at this level and that false negatives do occur) I myself did not originally know all this as well. I did some research on what levels of hCG a pregnancy test can reflect, and different brands have different sensitivities, and it also mentioned that the test may not reflect a positive indicator down to whats advertised on the box as well as that at that early level of pregnancy (where this is not much hCG in urine yet) that a negative test is more likely to be inaccurate – so again showing that with small amounts of hCG, not reliable- here’s a post discussing this:
http://www.estronaut.com/a/pre…
Anyway- all this is to say US hCG shots is real hCG, I toured their office and the compounding pharmacy they use myself in person actually, and I will have a bunch of photos and some video footage of this trip up very soon. So please don’t worry! I hope my proof above showing where the testing ended up being inaccurate in some cases is adequate proof for you in that department.
I will be making a detailed blogpost in the near future all about this issue with pregnancy testing – it CAN test positive of course, I’ve tested many vials myself this way, however, it can’t relied on as 100% accurate, as my examples show- and those are not the only ones- this has happened several times, where it was negative, then positive with either different test, or someone added more water to the strip, etc. – all kinds of crazy stuff. Does this help? – Rayzel
Hi,
I did the meal delivery not long ago and would use it again. The meals came frozen and well packaged with dry ice. The food followed the protocol and so it was just very basic and but I’d say the ingredients used were quality. The only thing I didn’t like was that asparagus was tough and chewy and a little bitter. It wasn’t cheap but worth it for me because I have 4 kids I have to cook for and I sometimes had to wait to eat until I made their meals first which would make me grouchy and hungry and more likely to cheat. This way I could have my meal done at the same time theirs was or eat mine first which helped me. I liked the chili best, I thought it had the most flavor.
Hi there! Thanks for the info! I sent you a private message on Facebook but I’m guessing it went to your “other” folder. Would you mind checking? I have a couple questions for you if you wouldn’t mind. Thank you!
Thanks for your comment @Kathy! I don’t know anything about the meal delivery myself, wish I did! Perhaps someone else will have some feedback on that. That’s funny you have that history with hCG! It’s interesting, after I first learned about this protocol 5 years ago and discussed it with my mom, she had a flasback to being in high school and her dance teacher taking the group of girls to a doctor where they got these shots for losing weight- she thinks it was most likely hCG too and that was back in the late 60’s I believe! So trippy. – Rayzel
Hey @Terri A Lindsay Wow you are bookin’ girl! I felt so honored to be able to go there myself and to be able to share it with you to set people’s minds at ease. Was really worth all the plane rides! – Rayzel
Have you ever tried or used their HCG Diet Protein Shakes while on the diet? Just curious of your thoughts on using them as a meal replacement and if you liked the flavors.
HI @Carla I haven’t tried the shakes. I think they may be nice as a change now and then, but overall I still highly favor actual meat protein for MOST meals, only because I’m just not sure I believe that the protein is absorbed as well by the body- I could be wrong! I just think real meat protein will preserve a person’s muscle on the diet the best- just my personal opinion at this time. But I think on occasion, the shakes are probably really nice! – Rayzel
I’m 21 and I’m hoping to start hcg soon. But I’m still trying to throughly research it. But one thing I’m concerned about is will it effect my fertility in anyway?
Hey @Paige Holcomb – I can’t say for sure of course, but in case you didn’t know, hCG shots are actually used as a fertility treatment by fertility clinics.
Where does advanced HCG make their product
Hey @Cindy – their hCG comes from a compounding pharmacy in Florida as well by the name of KRS Global Technology at this time. Same type of rules and regulations except I think they are a 503a pharmacy, which is what the vast majority of the compounding pharmacies in the states currently are.
I really like this site, hcg and the fact that you travel to a pharmacy. I look forward to the Skype session to come.
A few points I have to mention, there is no drug manufacturing equipment shown in your photos/video. In the clean room, there is an autoclave, a chemical hood and steel table. Is this just a testing facility?
@Beck hey! They had to kind of clear the entire area since I was going to be videoing in there. There is an entire clean room area that I got dressed up and got to go in and I got to do a pretend making of something where I got to use a .2 micron filter etc. to sterilize a liquid etc. it was pretty neat. But yes, were not actually producing anything at the time of my visit because that wouldn’t have been safe etc/ would be a risk for them to show on video since I’m not a medical personnel etc. I hope that makes sense. The pharmacist in the videos makes all the hCG and lipo etc.- all the injectable goods for this particular pharmacy in that clean room. In fact, I was the only the 2nd person to ever get to even enter that room – up to that point, that one pharmacist is the only one who had been using the room, even the CEO hadn’t been inside! – Rayzel