It doesn't just have to be "oh I'm a man/woman/enby." What qualities do you have or want to obtain as your gender? How do you express yourself? What does your gender feel like?

I'm still pretty early on in my HRT journey at just under 5 weeks of estradiol IM injections and Spironolactone.

One thing that I kind of was expecting but still took me by surprise was the depth of my emotions increasing.

I kept reading about "a larger range of emotional responses" but feeling it is a whole new world! I feel like my emotions have so much more texture and nuance that I pick up on. I can feel them shift from sadness to anger to determination to whatever so quickly and so intuitively.

Before I started E, the best way I can describe how my emotional state behaved was like these blurry blobs of feelings that were difficult to distinguish or identify. Everything swirled around me without me being able to fully experience them. Now they are a part of me and I would never go back ❤️

Hi! I am currently looking into getting HRT for my transition, and I think that I might have some real problems with the checkups. I have a crazy fear of needles, so when I heard that one can get the hormones using anything but needles (gels, patches, pills, probably some other methods too), I was incredibly happy. I was like -YES thank you scientists that I don't need to become unconcious while getting my HRT!-. But then I started researching some of what happens when you take those drugs, and I found out about checkups. Now, see, that. THAT! Is very very very scary. I do not have porblems with body checkups, no problem with any sort of that, but NEEDLES!? NOOO! I can not do needles, no, never in my life. When I got circumsized (for medial reasons, not religious) even after taking some -calming down pills- I was still shaking while getting my injections. After about one minute of the injection, my body starts piercing everywhere and I usually completely use my sight and my ability to hear. Also crazy amounts of nausea and stress come up a lot. By now, just thinking about em makes me start to breath heavily (I am breathing like that right now, shoot dang).

So yeeah how necessary would it be to maybe get my blood checked out or something like that? I really really do not want to be subjected to T anymore but also, oof, needles are also kina a death sentence in my head.

Lately I have been listening to the album "The Blessed Unrest" by Sara Bareilles.

From "I Choose You" being the song my wife and I chose to walk down the aisle to (before my egg cracked) to that same beautiful woman playing "Brave" for me - giving me strength to come out as trans to family. This album has become a staple in my transition and it's easy to see my self throughout it's lyrics and melodies.

"Hercules" is also a good song about pleading for inner strength - which for me, means becoming my authentic self as Olivia. Here is a verse from that song that resonates with me:

I've lost a grip on where I started from
 I wish I'd thought ahead and left a few crumbs I'm on the hunt for who I've not yet become But I'd settle for little equilibrium
 There is a war inside my heart gone silent Both sides dissatisfied and somewhat violent The issue I have now begun to see
 I am the only lonely casualty

Personally, for me it's the idea that just because you don't experience something (dysphoria, or being a gender other than what society expects of you) that doesn't mean those experiences aren't valid.

I get sooo tired of the response "I just don't understand! I love being my AGAB! Why can't you just get over it?"

I borrowed this idea from Ada, who made a great post on c/MTF about this. The discussion was very interesting and I wanted to bring it to a wider range of perspectives across the spectrum.

Bonus: what are your goals for the future (doesn't have to be specific)

I'm feeling a lot of feelings and need to vent, so my apologies if this ends up being a little scatterbrained.

I'm a security guard in a purple city/red state, and I'm working an event tonight at a church. 3 hours into my shift, I've accepted that I'll have to go to the bathroom at some point.

I'm tall (over 6ft/180cm), over weight, bad hairline, and the only obviously feminine shape I have is boobs (which are squished into a sports bra and not very visible).

Package all this in a polo shirt and black cargo pants... I've gotten "maam'd" -twice- in the 1.5 years I've been working this job.

So, after 3 hours of deliberating, I decided to trade some of my dignity for safety and just use the mens room. I'd already been misgendered, so I felt it was the best option...

I go into the mens room, take care of business (in a stall), and as I'm washing my hands, this guy comes in, sees me and says "am I in the wrong place??" as he walks back out to check the sign on the door. I told him no, I don't think so and just got the fuck out as fast as possible.

There was no confrontation and I didn't feel unsafe, though now I'm worried about a complaint (which I was also trying to avoid), and now I'm too nervous to use either one next time I have to pee... I can't win. And I feel like my spent dignity got me nothing but frustration and a possible complaint.

I won't lie, there was some validation in the whole thing, but it was tainted by the frustration of feeling like there's no place in the world for me and the desire to just hide myself away from it all...

I came across this and quite enjoyed it. It's a collection of trans voices from the Southern USA. As a trans southerner myself, I think it's very important to have our voices out there especially nowadays.

Most of what you hear in the news is about all the gross human rights violation laws targeted towards LGBTQ people. It's very real and has far reaching effects. Despite all this, there's still a sizable queer population hanging on! There are also many allies here, despite all the loud bigoted voices.

I've had people judge me solely because I am a southerner. People make negative assumptions because of an accent. I've literally had people up north outright ask me if I'm homophobic, transphobic, racist, etc.

Point is, if you ever meet a southerner, get to know them first. We're people just like anybody else, and some of us are trans too. If you meet a queer southerner, give 'em an extra hug because times are tough.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.fmhy.ml/post/549334

TransDIY Wiki

Getting Started

These are good resources to get started learning about HRT and endocrinology.

General

Trans HRT Wikipedia Page

WPATH Standards of Care

Transmasculine

Hudson's FtM Guide Testosterone Therapy Basics

Trans Care Project - Hormones: A Guide for FTMs

Rainbow Health Transmasculine HRT guidelines

Transmasculine HRT Wikipedia Page

Transfeminine

Transfeminine Science (transfemscience.org)

Intro to Hormone Therapy for Transfeminine People by Transfeminine Science

Approximate equivalent doses of different estradiol routes/forms by Transfeminine Science

Trans Care Project - Hormones: A Guide for MTFs

Rainbow Health Transfeminine HRT guidelines

Transfeminine HRT Wikipedia Page

Kuhl (2005)—an amazing review about the pharmacology of estrogens and progestogens

General Resources

Resources to get a doctor

HRT in Sydney AU

Getting HRT in Auckland New Zealand

Finding a doctor in the UK

List of trans friendly general practitioners

Mascara and Hope: A guide for trans women navigating the NHS and transition in the UK

Finding a doctor in the US

List of informed consent clinics in the US (direct link)

Trans in the South: guide and interactive map for finding quality trans providers in the southern US

GALAP: a group of therapists who write letters for surgery/HRT based on informed consent

Online

r/TransDIY list

~~hrt.cafe~~ diyhrt.cafe

Blood Tests

Reference ranges to help interpret blood test results (if these ranges are different than the ones printed on your test results, then trust the ones you got from your lab; every lab has different equipment and different reference ranges)

Dr. Powers: Why drawing your blood for hormone labs any time other than right before your next dose is pointless (but a rebuttal by Transfeminine Science)

Canada Blood Tests

Blood tests in Sweden

Blood tests in Netherlands

US blood tests

Private MD Labs

Labs MD

Walk-in Lab

UK blood tests

Medichecks

Walk-in Clinic

Blue Horizon blood tests

Cliniq

List of trans friendly GPs (can provide blood tests even if they don't prescribe your HRT)

Finland Blood Tests

Private blood work guide/experience (Finland)

puhti.fi

Bone Density Tests

dexascan.com provides tests for osteoporosis that don't require a prescription. They also do muscle/fat composition scans if you want to track muscle growth/atrophy.

Medical Guidelines

Standards, guidelines, or explainers made by healthcare professionals.

A full list of guidelines is maintained by Transfeminine Science

Major Guidelines

WPATH Standards of Care

The World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) Standards of Care (SOC) (2022, currently version 8 and known as SOC8) are considered by many to be the go-to international guidelines and best practices for trans healthcare.

There is a free download in many languages here:

https://www.wpath.org/publications/soc

Endocrine Society Clinical Practice Guideline

The Endocrine Society guidelines (2017) are the major consulted international guidelines on transgender hormone therapy:

https://doi.org/10.1210/jc.2017-01658

UCSF Guidelines

The University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) trans health guidelines (2016) are quality and thorough:

https://transcare.ucsf.edu/guidelines

Overview of masculinizing hormone therapy

Overview of feminizing hormone therapy

Minor Guidelines

Rainbow Health Ontario Trans Health Guide

These are a beautiful overview of trans HRT.

• Transfeminine HRT guidelines

• Transmasculine HRT guidelines

Link to the full site homepage: https://www.rainbowhealthontario.ca/TransHealthGuide/index.html

Trans Care Project

This is an easy to understand explanation of HRT for trans people:

• Hormones: A Guide for MTFs
• Hormones: A Guide for FTMs

Royal College of Psychiatry Good Practice Guidelines

http://www.tgmeds.org.uk/downloads/CR181_Nov15.pdf

Others

• NHS explainer for trans patients
• The Fenway Institute guidelines for trans medical care
• Endocrine Therapy for Transgender Adults in British Columbia: Suggested Guidelines
• Sherbourne Health Center Guidelines
• International Medical Advisory Panel Statement on hormone therapy for transgender people

Hello everyone,

Due to the exponential growth of this community in the past few days, we're looking for a third mod to add to our team.

Mod requirements:

1. Is trans

2. Is an active member of this community

If you want to be a mod, explain what your vision for this community is.