Okay, rule number 1 about transitioning: The best time to start was for almost all of us a number of years in the past. The second best time is now. It’s never too late!
FJW
joined 2 years ago
That’s not the kind of thing that I would assume makes people significantly insecure. What might happen though is that she will talk you into transitioning too…
And yes: Transitioning is SOOO good! It’s almost always worth it. 😊
casodex
From what I found that is a brand name for Bicalutamide (“Bica”). AFAIK it is a competitive antagonist for the androgen-receptor, which means that it will bind to all the places that Testosteron would bind to without activating the “sensor”, thereby preventing Testosteron from doing the same with effect. The consequence of this is that your T will actually increase, but still not pose any problem if your dose is high enough. The difficulty is then, that you cannot really measure whether your T is properly blocked, because the blood-levels will still be high. Endocrinologists hate it as a consequence, but if you are fine with that, that’s okay.
Other than that Bica seems to be popular with those who take it, but you will require a liver-function test a while in since it can cause some very severe liver-issues with some people (AFAIR you either are susceptible or you are not, so if it’s fine a few month in it should stay fine, but I might be wrong on that; DEFINITELY check the details on that one).
It’s up to you of course, but don’t expect this to do all that much. I’m on 12.5mg daily and before my last blood-test I took ≈4mg E transdermal and even at that I was still very much on the upper end of the female range for T.
Then get that estrofem ready to use anyways, since adult human bodies are not made to have no sex hormone. If you get depressions or feel bad in general, add E to the mix anyways.
Also: Cypro (Cyproterone Acetate, Androcur is a marketing name for it) requires much higher doses if you do mono-therapy than if you use it to support E: With E the general wisdom is to not exceed 12.5mg/daily and rather increase E-intake if T isn’t properly suppressed, whereas without you may need 50 to 100mg per day, with a massively increased risk of bad side effects.
There is a reason why pretty much no one who has the choice does it that way, but it’s of course up to you!
IIRC, the primary thing to cause breast-growth is in fact blocking T and doing so can definitely cause it.
For immediate mitigation of hair-loss, which is the most pressing thing if you already went through full puberty you can use finasteride/dustasteride, which are DHT-blockers. In rare cases they can act like weak T-blockers, but that is an exceptional side-effect; after that waiting for half a year will just make you miserable for an additional six month, which may be worth it, depending on your risk-assessment.
OTOH: You won’t see most of your school mates afterwards and if you already have six months of effects and arrive as visibly trans at uni, it can make getting into communities at uni easier.
I’m eight month in and have B- or C-cups. But I’m also much luckier than most of my transfem friends in that regard.
there is technically a limit of “too high” E but its so incredibly high you’ll never get anywhere close on normal dosing.
To add to this: The usual joke on /r/transDIY whenever someone manages to miscalculate and do a 10× overdose is “congrats, you are pregnant now”, because E-levels during pregnancy are crazy high. And you don’t exactly see pregnant women dying left and right either, so don’t worry too much.
Ouch! I’m not in the UK, so I didn’t follow it too closely, but they had some problem with the NHS recently, though it seemed that they got it under control. Maybe that is not the case though. In that case, hrt.cafe says that the following homebrewers also sell to the UK
- voixceleste
- astrovials
- silvermaplelabs
- teahrt
- Otokono Pharmaceuticals (old and trusted, but suffering massive shipping delays due to immense load, last time I checked)
You probably want Estradiol Enanthate which has to be injected weekly. I’d recommend to get a multi-year supply just to be on the safe side. With injections monotherapy is viable! Most people seem to calculate one vial lasting for about one year, give or take depending on your exact dosing.
There is also the option to buy raw estradiol and mix your own spray or gel. The advantage is that a lifetime-supply of E is comparatively affordable this way. Check /r/estrogel on reddit for more info on that.
Get on the waiting lists just in case to be able to eventually get bottom surgery covered. Even if you don’t want it now, you very well may by the time your turn comes and you can still say no then.
The primary DIY provider for TERF-island is Vanna Pharma who sell gel and injectables. If you want to use gel you will probably need an anti-androgen from a different source, Estradiol monotherapy is generally considered to be less viable with transdermals (with injections it’s usually fine), which you can find on these sites that list well established, trusted sellers:
You probably want Cyproterone Acetate (“Cypro”/“CPA”) in pill form. Don’t exceed 12.5mg (get a pill-cutter!) per day and rather increase E if your T isn’t fully supressed by that.
It’s great!
Personally I’m using 12.5mg Cypro and six pumps of Felicitas’ gel, though that is probably overkill. (I used to take two, but my E-levels were low-ish and since I too have to pay for my blood tests I just took the “a lot helps a lot”-approach, though in part this may have been due to issues with the bottle I was using since the new one produces much more gel per pump than the old one.)
I have an appointment with the hospital in Rotterdam on Friday, hopefully they will finally give me an official prescription…
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The main reason I hear people stating in favor of sublingual is that it is better for the liver, which those guys didn’t even study and wouldn’t have been able to with those sample sizes either…
And reducing CPA-intake is a pretty good reason to switch to SL in its own right, so this is all really non-convincing.