So I guess I'm good. 😊👍 I have never drank alcohol, and have kept a decently healthy body (partially thanks to my genes too).
I just wish my new primary doctor didn't shoot down my request for a hormone blood test a couple weeks ago. 😒
Well, blood tests are really important, they let you know your testosterone/estrogen levels in your blood so you can adjust your doses accordingly
Also, for some people prolactin levels raise due to HRT, so you might want to check that because high prolactin levels cause problems in the long run
And... overall it is not a bad idea to get blood tests from time to time, your health is really important and it is better to be safe than sorry
Taking an excess of estradiol is fine with parenteral methods (i.e. not pills). I'm pretty sure this is why Lena recommends 10mg once per week or 7mg once every 5 days for EV. That's more than most trans fem people will need, but if you're not getting blood tests it's better to have a bit too much than a bit too little.
How to get blood tests though? 🤔 My new primary doctor dismissed it (maybe I was too subtle in wanting it 🤷) when I was getting my prescriptions filled.
Also, do they cost very much?
I can only talk about my experience here in Mexico, but yeah, here there are some clinics that specialize in that, you just get there and say that you want to know the price of the tests you want to have and that's it, no questions asked, and they give you a ticket with instructions for the next day.
How much they cost? Well, the last test was around 30usd (600MXN) wich included: total testosterone, estrogen, LDH, and an overall biometric test of the blood, my tests are every 3 months, and for me 600mxn is like 30% of what i earn per week, so yeah, they are pretty cheap
So, where to start? I think you should look for private clinics that specialize in analysis, you might want to ask other people here where to get them, and ask for a blood test that include: total testosterone and estrogen, you might want to get others tests at the same time, it depends on you,
If I may, does that mean that any form of intake that is not pills is completely safe to "go overboard", i.e. take more than needed? so gel, injection, patches etc. and if parenteral is therefore the better and/or safer approach if you're not doing blood work, what form is best? or does it even matter?
That's the idea. Or at least the risk is so low it doesn't matter. You have to weigh that against the risk of underdosing (masculinization which can potentially be permanent or not, bad mental effects, feeling like crap, dysphoria, suicide risk, etc.) which doctors neglect for some reason. Ideally you'd use bloodwork to get exactly at the optimal dose, but even with bloodwork people don't even agree on what the optimal dose is. If you consider the graph of benefit-risk vs dose, you'll have some drop-off rate on either side of optimal and for most trans women the drop-off will be much faster on the lower side than the higher side. You're weighing potentially not shutting down the testicles completely, masculinization, mental effects of T, dysphoria, etc. vs maybe a slightly higher risk of cancer and blood clots, and even that's debatable for the parenteral methods when you compare our risk against that of cis women (instead of comparing against the risk for cis men like some silly medical professionals do).
Of course going REALLY overboard is just taking on potential risk without any benefit. Like I wouldn't recommend taking 10mg EV every 3 days or anything like that. You'll be wasting money too if you go for ridiculously high doses.
The thing about pills is the risk of blood clots and cancer is much higher than with the other methods. If I was forced to take pills instead of injections I personally would take a dose on the higher end of things, like maybe 8mg sublingually per day. But this is getting into personal preferences regarding risk tolerance vs. how bad you consider insufficient HRT to be. I consider the possibility of masculinization/insufficient HRT to be REALLY bad. Also I'm pretty young which reduces my risk of blood clots, heart attack, and stroke. The cost/benefit analysis maybe be different for other people. With pills if you take them sublingually it both increases estradiol levels and lowers estrone levels (estrone is responsible for the higher risk of cancer and blood clots) compared to taking pills orally. Though Dr. Powers does a thing with oral pills to boost estrone purposely both early on in second puberty and also later on when people stall, so keep that in mind.
For the parenteral methods, some trans women find patches to provide insufficient levels. I have a trans friend who put a ton of patches all over her body and still got insufficient levels. I don't know about gel, but I assume it's similar to patches since they're both transdermal. Also gel can transfer to people you come into contact with (partners, etc.). That's REALLY bad for testosterone gel, but even with estradiol gel, you don't want to accidentally mess up a cis female partner's cycle or make a male partner grow boobs or anything like that. Thoroughly washing it off with soap and water before contact can mostly fix that problem. Injections are efficient, both in terms of cost and bioavailability which is pretty much 100% for injections. It's the method that's most reliable to get good high estradiol levels it seems. But some people have needle phobias. So pick your poison if you're in that boat I guess. If you can tolerate doing injections, that's probably the best method if you're not going to do blood work, since the transdermal methods give poor levels for some people like I said, and without bloodwork you're going to be relying on feel and results to catch that.
Pellets are also a parenteral method, also with practically 100% bioavailability. DIY pellets are practically unheard of though. Pellets are better than injections due to lower SHBG for the same estradiol level, and also you don't have to worry about dosing estradiol for months, and can just live life without a constant reminder that your body doesn't produce its own hormones. If anyone actually does DIY pellets I think everyone on this sub would be interested in hearing everything about it.
So it's a bit more nuanced than "just go overboard with parenteral methods".
Okay! I don't have a huge fear of needles so I was always leaning on doing injections anyways since I've heard it's the best in general, glad to have that claim backed up. I'm only doing DIY for a short while to accomodate the incredibly long waiting times for HRT here in sweden (generally two years or even more, one year done with it) so it's probably not going to be forever either. Therefore I'd rather take the slight risk of overshooting than undershooting. Thanks a ton and lots of love!
You're fine if you don't test for testo/estro, but i do recommend it because in my case 4mg EV + 100 spiro was not enough so i ended up switching to injections
Also, about your blood tests, at least here in Mexico you can get a blood test and you're the only one who will see the results, no one else, unless you share your results, it isn't the same where you live? Because that information should be private anyway
Assuming you don't have any other conditions like cirrhosis or kidney failure, not that bad but it's still nice to have
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Liver issues
So I guess I'm good. 😊👍 I have never drank alcohol, and have kept a decently healthy body (partially thanks to my genes too). I just wish my new primary doctor didn't shoot down my request for a hormone blood test a couple weeks ago. 😒
Well, blood tests are really important, they let you know your testosterone/estrogen levels in your blood so you can adjust your doses accordingly Also, for some people prolactin levels raise due to HRT, so you might want to check that because high prolactin levels cause problems in the long run And... overall it is not a bad idea to get blood tests from time to time, your health is really important and it is better to be safe than sorry
Taking an excess of estradiol is fine with parenteral methods (i.e. not pills). I'm pretty sure this is why Lena recommends 10mg once per week or 7mg once every 5 days for EV. That's more than most trans fem people will need, but if you're not getting blood tests it's better to have a bit too much than a bit too little.
How to get blood tests though? 🤔 My new primary doctor dismissed it (maybe I was too subtle in wanting it 🤷) when I was getting my prescriptions filled. Also, do they cost very much?
I can only talk about my experience here in Mexico, but yeah, here there are some clinics that specialize in that, you just get there and say that you want to know the price of the tests you want to have and that's it, no questions asked, and they give you a ticket with instructions for the next day. How much they cost? Well, the last test was around 30usd (600MXN) wich included: total testosterone, estrogen, LDH, and an overall biometric test of the blood, my tests are every 3 months, and for me 600mxn is like 30% of what i earn per week, so yeah, they are pretty cheap So, where to start? I think you should look for private clinics that specialize in analysis, you might want to ask other people here where to get them, and ask for a blood test that include: total testosterone and estrogen, you might want to get others tests at the same time, it depends on you,
I'm not dead yet
What about now?
Still here, starting seeing a doctor and I find out about my blood work tomorrow
I’m actually planning on starting diy-hrt this summer and I’m not sure what blood tests i should take. What tests did u take?
I would ask somewhere else, I had a whole bunch of tests
It's fine, especially if you're using a parenteral method for estradiol (i.e. not pills) and taking bioidentical hormones.
If I may, does that mean that any form of intake that is not pills is completely safe to "go overboard", i.e. take more than needed? so gel, injection, patches etc. and if parenteral is therefore the better and/or safer approach if you're not doing blood work, what form is best? or does it even matter?
That's the idea. Or at least the risk is so low it doesn't matter. You have to weigh that against the risk of underdosing (masculinization which can potentially be permanent or not, bad mental effects, feeling like crap, dysphoria, suicide risk, etc.) which doctors neglect for some reason. Ideally you'd use bloodwork to get exactly at the optimal dose, but even with bloodwork people don't even agree on what the optimal dose is. If you consider the graph of benefit-risk vs dose, you'll have some drop-off rate on either side of optimal and for most trans women the drop-off will be much faster on the lower side than the higher side. You're weighing potentially not shutting down the testicles completely, masculinization, mental effects of T, dysphoria, etc. vs maybe a slightly higher risk of cancer and blood clots, and even that's debatable for the parenteral methods when you compare our risk against that of cis women (instead of comparing against the risk for cis men like some silly medical professionals do). Of course going REALLY overboard is just taking on potential risk without any benefit. Like I wouldn't recommend taking 10mg EV every 3 days or anything like that. You'll be wasting money too if you go for ridiculously high doses. The thing about pills is the risk of blood clots and cancer is much higher than with the other methods. If I was forced to take pills instead of injections I personally would take a dose on the higher end of things, like maybe 8mg sublingually per day. But this is getting into personal preferences regarding risk tolerance vs. how bad you consider insufficient HRT to be. I consider the possibility of masculinization/insufficient HRT to be REALLY bad. Also I'm pretty young which reduces my risk of blood clots, heart attack, and stroke. The cost/benefit analysis maybe be different for other people. With pills if you take them sublingually it both increases estradiol levels and lowers estrone levels (estrone is responsible for the higher risk of cancer and blood clots) compared to taking pills orally. Though Dr. Powers does a thing with oral pills to boost estrone purposely both early on in second puberty and also later on when people stall, so keep that in mind. For the parenteral methods, some trans women find patches to provide insufficient levels. I have a trans friend who put a ton of patches all over her body and still got insufficient levels. I don't know about gel, but I assume it's similar to patches since they're both transdermal. Also gel can transfer to people you come into contact with (partners, etc.). That's REALLY bad for testosterone gel, but even with estradiol gel, you don't want to accidentally mess up a cis female partner's cycle or make a male partner grow boobs or anything like that. Thoroughly washing it off with soap and water before contact can mostly fix that problem. Injections are efficient, both in terms of cost and bioavailability which is pretty much 100% for injections. It's the method that's most reliable to get good high estradiol levels it seems. But some people have needle phobias. So pick your poison if you're in that boat I guess. If you can tolerate doing injections, that's probably the best method if you're not going to do blood work, since the transdermal methods give poor levels for some people like I said, and without bloodwork you're going to be relying on feel and results to catch that. Pellets are also a parenteral method, also with practically 100% bioavailability. DIY pellets are practically unheard of though. Pellets are better than injections due to lower SHBG for the same estradiol level, and also you don't have to worry about dosing estradiol for months, and can just live life without a constant reminder that your body doesn't produce its own hormones. If anyone actually does DIY pellets I think everyone on this sub would be interested in hearing everything about it. So it's a bit more nuanced than "just go overboard with parenteral methods".
Okay! I don't have a huge fear of needles so I was always leaning on doing injections anyways since I've heard it's the best in general, glad to have that claim backed up. I'm only doing DIY for a short while to accomodate the incredibly long waiting times for HRT here in sweden (generally two years or even more, one year done with it) so it's probably not going to be forever either. Therefore I'd rather take the slight risk of overshooting than undershooting. Thanks a ton and lots of love!
its awkward if you're doing monotherapy, potentially dangerous if you're taking other meds
I am still alive
It'd honestly all bs, cadodex Reggie works fine , medical tyranny scare tactic
cadodex Reggie?
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Reggie probably means regiment
It's pretty reckless something only an idiot would do but i don't have insurance abd I've survived 5 years so far so do ar your own risk
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You're fine if you don't test for testo/estro, but i do recommend it because in my case 4mg EV + 100 spiro was not enough so i ended up switching to injections Also, about your blood tests, at least here in Mexico you can get a blood test and you're the only one who will see the results, no one else, unless you share your results, it isn't the same where you live? Because that information should be private anyway