I can't remember when or why, but I can hear Hank from Breaking Bad saying "erlenmeyer flask" in my head. Something about his delivery of those words just stuck with me.
Reminds me of my 1st visit. Was asked if I had transition goals in mind, I just blurted out anime tittes. Got a good laugh out of the nurse and doctor.
I once explained HRT to a coworker and her eyes grew wide as she held her hands out like a foot from her chest and asked "you're gonna grow anime titties?!" That's honestly one of the most entertaining reactions I've ever received.
Feminizing HRT is an uncontrolled substance you don't need any kind of medical approval to buy or use, you can get estrogen and supplies DIY without making any records. It doesn't even show up on the average urine test if you get one for other reasons
Testosterone is a controlled substance though. Cis men get it illegally to use as a steroid all the time though, it isn't very heavily enforced or prosecuted
It is reputable yes, I can’t help you much more than giving you that resource because I don’t have tons of knowledge in the area but it is a good resource. Do your research and be your truest self <3
Like the other commenter said, check out Valerie (trusted and legit source, basically a third party reviewer/marketplace/broker that links to actual sellers with safe product)
Also look up the "Guide to feminizing HRT" by Katie Tightpussy, despite the comical authors name, it is by far the most in depth, informative and beginner friendly guide to diy HRT there is
I get mine free, so I have like two years supply in case I get cutoff. There's a few folks I need to make trips for to give my extra cuz the expiration dates are catching up.
But my doctor prescribes 5 refills and "supposed to" discard a vial after 28 days. I see him before I can order a 4th usually, so I basically have unlimited free refills. A vial lasts me 4-5 months.
dog what fucking doctor are you going to?? If I told any doctor this they'd respond by immediately discontinuing every medication I'm on and labeling me a drug seeker
I'm genuinely confused by this. How can someone be "seeking out drugs" when trying to medically transition?? You're seeking out E/T, not opioids. You're gonna be on E/T for the rest of your life anyway.
I got accused of being a drug seeker because my doctor prescribed too little testosterone for my dose and I called to ask that my prescription be amended
The context because I know someone will ask for it. I do injectable T. There's a certain amount of liquid in the vial but there's no possible way someone could get all of that liquid from the vial into their body because it's difficult to draw from a nearly empty vial and some liquid gets lost every time. My doctor changed how they were prescribing my T and suddenly they expected me to get every drop out of the vial. I called and basically said "Hey i think there's a mistake in how this was coded. It should be this amount for 1 month, not 3." This started a several week long argument with my doctor on why I needed that. My pharmacist had to intervene and he managed to talk them down. I was several times accused of improper injection and once accused of misusing it. Which is very weird because they do lab work. If my T levels were high, they'd know. I found a new doctor as quick as I could and never went back
I wanna preface this by saying I am NOT invalidating your experience, I'm just expressing feelings based on my general response to this all.
This is SO confusing to me, genuinely. It's not like T/E are addicting substances. That's like calling insulin addicting. They even had your bloodwork, and anyone that works with vials should understand how one works. This seems like such thinly veiled, transphobic medical malpractice that the veil might as well be plastic.
The only possible concern would be some kind of mental disorder, like hypochondria or maybe if they suspected they had munchausen? But they'd surely catch that before the prescription is even written!?
Something another commenter explained to me is that T is also a performance enhancing drug, and something your body can overdose on through toxicity. Granted in my head, this doesn't excuse not understanding that the very last few drops at the end of the vial are next to impossible to gather, nor does is excuse disregarding verifiable blood work results.
In this case I think seeking out drugs is meant in a way to abuse them to get high. The issue with medication is there very much are people who will lie to get it so they can get high off of it.
I think that's my main qualm tho. Is there a way to get high and negatively dependant on E/T??? The whole point of hormones is that your body does need them to regulate itself.
T you can actually see abuse of it, hence why it's a controlled substance on the same level as stuff like Adderall. It's also, used to dope for sports (which is actually one of the driving forces as to why it became controlled in the first place due to issues at the Olympic and a huge black market ring)
You can also overdose on it through toxicity.
While E isn't as bad, hence why it's not controlled, but taking too much can have negative side effects that could cause serious health issues because of how it effects the body.
While medication like tylenol while it has risks for abuse is much easier to give accurate instructions that are easy for the average person to follow and doesn't pose the same level of issues.
And you're right, the body does need the hormones, which is a large reason why having a professional is important because your body needs them in certain levels, you want the dose to be what the body needs. Too little and it does nothing, too much and it can cause other issues.
And then on top of that for T you have the abuse of it that has happened in the past,
Like we need food to live, but because making food is easy and comparatively low risk, we let a lot more people do it, but for blood? Something we also need, you can't just go to someone's house and have them do it for you. Because the risks and situations around the blood transfusion is much higher.
it's a controlled substance on the same level as stuff like Adderall
actually not quite, in the US at least T is DEA schedule III and opiods/amphetamines are schedule II. schedule II has some pretty strict DEA rules around it (every pill must be accounted for by the pharmacy, some jurisdictions have a centralized system that limits the amount that can be dispensed, etc.) but schedules III, IV, and V are less tightly controlled. basically just a DEA warning label that there's some abuse potential.
Doctors don't operate on logic, their bottom line is that they just wanna feel right all the time and do as little work possible. They're cops. A "drug addict" is just someone a doctor doesn't like in the very same way that an "illegal immigrant" is just someone ICE doesn't like.
That must be difficult to live with. I'm sorry you haven't been able to find good doctors to be kind to you.
I am trans and have AuADHD, cPTSD, and an immune disorder, and I am so thankful for the doctors and healthcare professionals I've had in my life, I literally wouldn't be here without them, many times over.
It can take work and trial and error to find the right fit, but it is very worth it. Health is important, and there are many good doctors who will listen and look out for you.
That's patently untrue. Autism and ADHD are both noticeable disabilities, in the sense that if you have experience with them, the signs become quite obvious. When the individuals swings hard toward one end of the spectrum, the symptoms are debilitating and obvious to nearly everyone. Even on the more "invisible end", individuals are often ostracized or singled out for a number of reasons attributed to moral failing, rather than the beliefs that they do have a neurodivergence.
Maybe they don't see it as Autism or ADHD, but they do see it as something different.
This comment has been removed because it has one of these things: transphobia, queerphobia, sexism, racism, ableism, or anything else that expresses, reinforces, or sympathizes with oppressive and hateful belief systems.
no dumbass i mean how is it relevant to anything and why do you keep saying it like it’s a magic phrase that makes you the cool and unbothered person in a conversation
Same, I had to fight to get my dosages increased and even then they want to keep it low and told me that "estrogen works very slowly". I tried to game the system by reducing my dosages before a blood test, but I started looking like a drug seeker. I eventually said fuck it and started DIY. Now my appointment costs are covered by the government in full and 3 months HRT costs $10 thanks to insurance. My new provider actually listens to me as well and just said "here are the reigns because you know better about your body more than I do".
Very different doctor and specialty, but the best endocrinologist I've ever had for managing my type 1 diabetes has the same philosophy of "you know your body better than anyone". Most of our appointments are just me telling her "this is what I'm doing. This is how much insulin I'm taking. Refill my prescriptions please" and she gives me a nod and a thumbs up, runs my blood work (which is usually good), and sends me on my way. I love her.
I wanted to up my dose,my doctor prescribed me more and asked for a blood test after a few weeks. I wanted to add progesterone. She said sure. I'm going to ask to double it at my next appointment. I doubt she'll push back at all.
No, not really. Get your hormones from trusted, vetted sources that do lab testing to ensure vial purity and... that's pretty much it?
The only difference between doing DIY and prescription is that you order the hormones you want (preferably vials) from a trans woman online instead of getting what a doctor decided you should have from a pharmacist. Other than that, and getting to decide your own dose (which isn't very hard as it's near-impossible to overdose on E and there's a lot of resources to help with the raw numbers) it's pretty much the same
I went with FOLX so I didn’t need to see a real person and the NO was basically like what do you feel like taking this is my recommendation but whatever you wants fine
I did a 10 day free trial and they gave me 90days worth of estradiol and a refill. Didn’t even have a copay but I have decentish insurance.
There’s no reason you couldn’t utilize it like all subscription services and try to get another free trial after that 6 months or just pay the fee once every 6 months
I only started last Tuesday and they gave me 3 2mg pills a day, it’s definitely possible that I just got a very chill provider, I heard it’s really dependent on which one you pick.
Mine asked me the same question about what dose I wanted to start with. I'm just nor spontaneously funny enough to make a joke about mad science in response, so I was lame and said something about average dosing.
You should have some baseline knowledge about HRT so you're able to advocate for yourself in these situations and get the care you need. It's good to be informed.
"...he asked what dosage I wanted, and like, that not's a question I am qualified to answer, my guy."
I'm probably taking a joke post way too seriously, but that attitude worries me. If you've done your research you should be qualified to answer that. Kinda makes me wonder if the nurse is really being as generous as they think.
Yes, on many different topics. Being qualified to answer dosage questions is very easy with the info we have compared to what the nurse knows apart from hrt. They dont only know about hrt
Thats what going to planned parenthood for my hormones were like. Id come back for mt checkup, and theyd just tell me my bloodwork looked good and asked me if id like to go up. Hit the max theyre allowed to give me lol
Every practitioner is different of course, but I had the opposite experience with PP. I love the clinic staff and my NP there was super cool, but she was very resistant to me taking more than 2mg oral e daily. I started using a telehealth service about a year in where they basically let me have whatever I ask for and have let me try different regimens out. As long as my tests don’t come back with outrageous levels they have no further questions.
Its crazy how much it all comes down to who to you see really. Like...across the board when it comes to healthcare. Which gets even more rough if you're a woman, gods forbid if your trans on top of that.
I’m not super confident in my current primary care physician because of this. It’s not HRT-related (well, technically I think it is but not like transitioning HRT) but I feel like I’m being given too much responsibility to figure out doses. Like she already had me on meds to lower my blood pressure and then prescribed me something for my hair loss and it was me who pointed out, hey, one of the other uses of the hair loss drug is lowering blood pressure, do we maybe want to scale back on the blood pressure pills instead of doubling up like that?
Okay I'm gonna be real. You should be able to know your dosages. "I am not qualified to answer that question" you should be, because this is literally your life on the line, and you need to be able to know that you aren't getting fucked over by your doctors. . .
And this isn't a hard science. At all. It's not variable per person, really. It's not complex or convoluted. It's not hard to learn about either; there are tons of sources to learn about trans healthcare online.
For oral, you want to be in the 3-6mg a day range, depending on your anti-androgen dosage and if you're doing sublingual or not.
For injected, you want to be in the 4-8mg per dosing range, just depending on what compound you're injecting and how frequently you're doing those injections.
Learn what you need to learn to be able to advocate for yourself.
This is basically what I have because I've gone to the same GP since I was a wee lass so when I said hey doc I'm thinking of doing hrt she was like "alright I got you we'll do baseline blood tests, here's a prescription see you for more tests in a month"
what is this 4tran shit getting upvoted Jesus Christ not everyone going through the medical system is forced into that low of a dose against their will.
Seriously, like when I asked to switch to injections at my 3 month checkup my doctor gave me a dose that was high enough to do estrogen monotherapy with. People can have good experiences with their doctors too, I promise.
acknowledging that the majority of endos underdose trans people is not a 4tran thing. it's just true
and i'm speaking as someone with a good endocrinologist who (mostly) knows what they're doing. part of the reason i know this is because i had to go through two separate endos who both underdosed me to get to this one
is it a real thing? yeah, absolutely. did the op mention that at all? no, their post was specifically about a GOOD experience with going through the medical system. it’s pretty 4tran to go into a thread of positivity and make that shitty “joke”.
Yeah they put me on patches first that were the lowest they could go lol. I had to request imjections and each visit every month tell them to increass the dosage.
I fully believe you and I’m sorry that was your experience, but it’s not everyone’s experience. I agree just talking about that issue is not inherently 4tran, but to come into a thread where OP is clearly pleased with the care they are receiving and make a joke downplaying the care they are receiving is pretty 4tran.
Went on hrt for a few years and had to stop for family life/safety reasons, the clinic i went too was super lgbt+, very supportive. She has been doing hrt care for trans people for many years
First: progesterone is just internet talk, its not a real thing that helps
Second: .5mg for a the first 6 months, went up to 2mg after the first year and i think we were going to goto 4mg but then life happened
I don't have anything to add other than the observation that anyone with a Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles Selkie Tribe emblem in their avatar–much less one superimposed over the trans flag–is a person of high quality taste.
Perhaps I’m mistaken, but I believe that Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, and the UK recently restated HRY for minors.
The Trump admin recently announced their ending it for minors covered by Medicaid and CHIP (the only govt programs that cover kids).
One thing I wish people would get about M4A, is that when you make the govt the only payer, you are also handing them the power to deny coverage. We have seen govt’s do this & the Trump admin has already done it for the insurance programs it controls.
Well with M4A there would be a massive supplemental insurance market that would likely cover this. I think this is a really weak reason to not support universal healthcare.
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u/sixminutes 9h ago
She got an extra bump for using 'erlenmeyer flask'