before you say anything, yes i already know about diyhrt[]wiki and hrt[]coffee.
my question pertains to doses and which exact medications. i'm confused as to how i'm supposed to know what dose to start at. for estradiol, i've heard 2mg is not enough for most people. also, is taking antiandrogens necessary or advisable before taking estradiol? do i have to consider prog or spiro as well?
also, blood testing. i don't have the means to go to an in-person doctor and do them. are they really necessary?
inject estrogen. that's all
if youre doing sublingual start at 1 mg + anti androgen for 2-3 months & then go up to 2mg for another 3 and slowly increase dose like that till you reach the right spot
then switch to mono injections
is oral or sublingual better? also 1mg seems very low, i'm afraid of getting dosing myself too little before proper changes can occur
i'd be starting with pills i think. they're easier to hide and injections are scary.
if i took your advice and did go on AAs, then should i start AA and estradiol at the same time? i've heard the procedure sometimes is to start AAs for a few months first, then estrogen. is that true or should i start both at the same time?
Maybe try the AA on its own for at least two weeks, longer isn’t amazing for you because we need hormones long-term. That way though if anything feels weird you know it’s the AA, if not then you can continue on to E and know all the changes to your body are because of that (:
Spiro was originally intended and prescribed as a blood pressure medication. It has side effects like causing sodium, potassium, and electrolyte deficiency, decreasing water retention, and ofc has a very strong side effect of blocking androgens. That’s why it’s prescribed in the US for trannies but it will lower your blood pressure and have some another annoying side effects that vary in strength between people. For some, it’s not bad at all, for others, it makes them feel faint/shitty and in bad cases it can severely increase prolactin levels which isn’t good. It’s also a big strain on the liver so even if it works for you, taking it very long term is probably not great for that lol
actually I think I got that backwards I think it can increase potassium levels which is another thing to watch out for
thank you! this has been full of great info
ofc good luck
oh wait actually, what AA is the best and what dosage should I do?
>1mg seems very low
It is: i started at 2 and increases to 6.
Pills aren't necessarily as easy to hide because you have to take them more often. You only inject once a week.
>what AA is the best
It's not that simple. But probably bica. There is a lot to be said for avoiding AAs and just doing estradiol monotherapy
i am getting conflicted guides here. one of you says to start on exclusively AAs, the other says it's possible to avoid AAs entirely
it would certainly be cheaper to go on exclusively estrogen, and it would be easier to make sure i have a continuous supply. hmm
Monotherapy isn't possible for everyone, but when it is possible, it's preferred.
"monotherapy" meaning only relying on one drug instead of multiple? e.g. estradiol?
More or less. In this context it means suppressing the testosterone with just estrogen and maybe progesterone, no AA.
why is monotherapy preferred?
Well AAs do come with various side effects (spiro for instance causing frequent urination, low sodium, and high potassium levels) nothing too major typically but generally speaking it's better to be on fewer meds if the same effect can be achieved. Anecdotally I've heard some women say that spiro can limit breast growth, but idk how much I buy in to that. Sadly there isn't enough research into trans related healthcare so it's hard to verify some stuff. Hell even progesterone, while very likely to help with breast growth based on the anecdotal evidence, has no peer reviewed research to verify it. But I'm going on a bit of a tangent. Main reason monotherapy is preferred is just to avoid unnecessary side effects of AAs.
Bica is like cocaine
It's expensive so only the elite can afford it (keeps pp working)
Spiro and cypro are like crack - cheap and does something extremely similar
if you don’t have a doc/way to test blood, be conservative about your doses. I’d avoid spiro without blood tests because it can have nasty side effects, but a low dose is probably okay in a pinch. I can’t speak about other AAs
Are you starting with injections or pills? If pills, then AAs are probably important because they’re not good about giving consistent levels to manage your T. I would really recommend to start low and slowly work up a bit - on pills, I started on 2mg a day for a month and then 4, and then after 6 months I went to 6mg (and then later, injections).
i take about 6mg (EC, so injections) weekly now, but starting at 2 isn’t so bad if you start to increase it little by little say each month. Some studies seem to suggest that starting on too high of a dose can frick you so don’t be scared to take it slow, just don’t keep those low doses past say a year.
Spiro has nasty side effects? I’m thinking about copping some from a cis friend but I didn’t know there were nasty side effects.
have you considered horse urine?
It all depends on what type of meds you go on. But you should start low, test after about 3 months, adjust, and repeat. I'm guessing you've already found sites to buy from but as far as tests go, letsgetchecked.com has mail in blood tests for a reasonable amount.
If you live in America, maybe you should check out Folx. It's a telehealth service for trans people that is very non gatekeepy, I'm actually swiching over from diy to them thanks to the diy sites having constant shortages and having to swap meds every few months.
I have heard about folx, and i'm considering it. they are more expensive though. 100 dollars a month is not insignificant to me, especially compared to the price of diy,
They do include tests as part of the monthly payment though. Personally for me it worked out to be pretty competitive to what I was paying before. Also, after a year (or if you've been on hormones for over a year prior to them) you can just do their maintenance plan, which is about $50 cheaper per month.
my cum contains progesterone
Are you really considering doing a diy hrt regimen? That sounds like a way to frick yourself up and make yourself suicidal
newbie detected
>Are you really considering doing a diy regimen?
Yes.
if you do genuinely feel like your current levels are inadequate you should get your blood tested and see what your levels are. if they're not at a cis woman's yet (the exact numbers are somewhere in diyhrt [] wiki) then maybe you should supplement with diy. I've heard prog isn't worth it though
while we're at this can someone please give me advice? i receive 4mg of estradiol valerate daily through pills and 25mg of cyproterone
i feel like my transition has been pretty awful and slow and like i've been quite unreceptive to estrogen, my breasts have grown but if i lie down for example there's nearly nothing there and they haven't really "formed" properly
should i take progesterone maybe even though i've been on this combination of things for more than 5 years now? also should i maybe buy some estrogen just to diy my dose to 6mg a day? the doctor won't prescribe more than this 4mg hondose i think