previous: • Help, advice, guidance on meds and dosages • HRT related medical experiences and research • Availability and pricing of medications • Rational and scientific discussion
I want to finally start HRT and I need your help, but a few things you need to know: - i'm a 26 yr old man who will not pass - i'm a repper who mainly doesnt want to go bald - i'm probably not even trans just dont want to look bald and goateed - i kinda dont wanna sterilize myself or get boobs - im doing finasteride topically bc oral fin sides scares me but somehow oral e does not scare me(?? maybe it should?) I'm worried fin wont be enough. I'm considering all the meme treatments for hairloss too, red light caps, etc.
so that being said is there such a thing as a DIY HRT "trial period", wherein I can hondose myself intentionally for a period of time with no permanent effects (infertility, breast buds, etc)? just to see what I think? without harm?
Like taking oral e or bica or something for a month? I don't know anything just don't wanna be picrel.
Hair on temples won't regrow with minox and hrt, right? After over a year I only got some white thin hair there
Elijah Gomez
do I really have to wait 3 months to test for E2 level? I'm lowering my sublingual dose
Jason Edwards
why start with pills instead of gel/patches?
Carter Kelly
people like you are hard to help because you provide unreliable information >repper >probably not even trans use a combination of finasteride to prevent hair loss and minoxidil to prevent breast growth 2.5mg every other day >Finasteride 1mg daily is FDA-approved for male pattern baldness, while the 5mg dose is approved for management of prostatic hypertrophy. >In one study with finasteride for instance, DHT levels decreased by 49.5% at 0.05 mg/day, 68.6% at 0.2 mg/day, 71.4% at 1 mg/day, and 72.2% at 5 mg/day (Drake et al., 1999). you'll be fine; finasteride isn't that bad. estrogen would cause breast growth and infertility, both of which may be irreversible. even a low dose could result in these effects the trial period is about 3 months relatively low doses are actually good for breast growth, it's more about suppressing your testosterone
>Hair on temples won't regrow with minox you will get partial regrowth, but should combine it with finasteride. even then, a hair transplant could be to completely reverse balding in more severe cases, esp. if you're as bald as kmslol.jpg. it's something where the earlier you start, the better. dutasteride is actually much more effective even at lower doses than finasteride is at higher doses >In one study with finasteride for instance, DHT levels decreased by 49.5% at 0.05 mg/day, 68.6% at 0.2 mg/day, 71.4% at 1 mg/day, and 72.2% at 5 mg/day (Drake et al., 1999). >In a study with dutasteride, DHT levels were decreased by 52.9% at 0.05 mg/day, 94.7% at 0.5 mg/day, 97.7% at 2.5 mg/day, and 98.4% at 5 mg/day (Clark et al., 2004). take 0.5mg dutasteride per day or 1mg every other day. it will nuke your DHT without lowering your T. in fact, your body will probably temporarily spike your T in response to the lowered DHT. i recommend duta and minox. why the fuck would you want estrogen if you're a male?
Elijah Williams
why are you lowering it? you don't have to wait a full 3 months. about 1 month is often enough
Christopher Morgan
Ok so I read numerous posts on how taking a break from E can reset boob growth as long as you keep T suppressed. I'm only 4 days in and my mood is garbage, body feels heavier, and I've been coping by eating like a pig.
Can anyone tell me how long they waited before going back on E? I've heard 2weeks- a whole month. I need motivation to commit, the titty skittles are sitting right there!
Connor Gonzalez
on 6mg my e2 was 490, I should have stuck with 4mg and I feel like an idiot for taking that for 3 months. I don't trust myself and want to be sure.
Daniel Lopez
according to hrt.cafe and transfemscience.org: EV injections are $0.14/mg; for the highest dose of 6mg/week, that's $0.84/week EE injections are $0.16/mg; for the highest dose of 6mg/week, that's $0.96/week EC injections are $0.19/mg; for the highest dose of 6mg/week, that's $1.14/week EB injections are $0.27/mg; for the highest dose of 6mg/week, that's $1.62/week pills are $0.17/mg; for the highest dose of 6mg/day, that's $7.14/week gel is $0.18/mg; for the highest dose of 9mg/day, that's $11.34/week patches are $6.32/100ug/week; for the highest dose of 600ug/day, that's $37.92/week patches are hands-down the most expensive kind of HRT that's still commonly used (implants are rare)
>I read numerous posts on how taking a break from E can reset boob growth as long as you keep T suppressed and you believed them? do they cite any non-anecdotal evidence/sources or use reasoning based on things we already know? low T low E is basically menopause. don't let it get below 75pg/mL or you could get hot flashes and other adverse effects > I'm only 4 days in and my mood is garbage, body feels heavier, and I've been coping by eating like a pig. you fucking idiot go back on E now. at the very least, take low or moderate dose () E if you want breast growth. relatively low doses are good for breast growth high E levels aren't really that bad. i'd say that with 490pg/mL, you should lower your dose to 2-3mg/day sublingual dosing (split between 2-3 doses a day). but if your T is above 30ng/dL, then i wouldn't decrease your dose of estradiol.
Aaron Walker
basically it's just that the longer it's been since the hair fell out, the less chance of regrowth. But it's very possible that it'll regrow with hrt, minox, fin/dut, and especially microneedling. Get a dermaroller, 1.5mm.
Benjamin Martin
What sort of levels do you want post-orchi?
Christopher Murphy
i was looking at buying finasteride from meds.mx but the shipping is high. is there a way i can get it in the US over the counter? or does anyone know a better seller? i plan to take a small bit of a whole pill each day to make it last longer per reccommendation.
Jacob Jones
100-200pg/mL the relationship betwen E2 levels and breast growth is unclear to me. >Breast Development in Transwomen After 1 Year of Cross-Sex Hormone Therapy: Results of a Prospective Multicenter Study, The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, Volume 103, Issue 2, February 2018, Pages 532–538, doi.org/10.1210/jc.2017-01927 >The median age of the included transwomen was 28 years (range, 18 to 69). Mean breast-chest difference increased to 7.9 ± 3.1 cm after 1 year of CHT, mainly resulting in less than an AAA cup size (48.7%). Main breast development occurred in the first 6 months of therapy. Serum estradiol levels did not predict breast development after 1 year of CHT (first quartile, 3.6 cm [95% confidence interval (CI), 2.7 to 4.5], second quartile, 3.2 cm [95% CI, 2.3 to 4.2], third quartile, 4.4 cm [95% CI, 3.5 to 5.3], and fourth quartile, 3.6 cm [95% CI, 2.7 to 4.5]). >Mean breast-chest difference in centimeter over duration of CHT in months, stratified for age in four groups. (a) Weight change in three groups (b), normal weight (BMI < 25 kg/m2), overweight (25 kg/m2 ≥ BMI > 30 kg/m2), and obese (BMI ≥ 30 kg/m2) BMI (c), smokers vs nonsmokers (d), oral vs transdermal estradiol administration route (e), and four quartiles of serum estradiol levels (f). Mean serum estradiol levels in the center-specific quartiles were 110 pmol/L−1 (first quartile), 184 pmol/L−1 (second quartile), 271 pmol/L−1 (third quartile), and 452 pmol/L−1 (fourth quartile) in Amsterdam, and 142 pmol/L−1 (first quartile), 206 pmol/L−1 (second quartile), 299 pmol/L−1 (third quartile), and 567 pmol/L−1 (fourth quartile) in Ghent. For each time point, the mean increase in centimeters (dot) with 95% CI (bars) is shown.
Injections are so cheap... but I'm scared of needles, can't do it myself.
What I wanted to ask was why should I start with pills instead of transdermal/injections, if transdermal is more effective?
Chase Scott
is re: No. Currently, finasteride is not available over the counter in the United States. There are other suppliers with low prices so you might want to check the top 5 ones to see which has the lowest shipping cost. do the work yourself
>Because CHT induced suppression of serum testosterone and LH levels in almost all transwomen (testosterone: not suppressed in 7.9%; LH: not suppressed in 1.3%), no analyses could be performed on these data. Transwomen with an A cup size or larger did not Aside from genetics, I think hondosers not suppressing T properly is probably the biggest most common factor, given it causes breast atrophy in FtMs and MtFtMs.
Joseph Nelson
Bulk powders from China mixed into a gel are even cheaper than injections
