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Transfem
A community for transfeminine people and experiences.
This is a supportive community for all transfeminine or questioning people. Anyone is welcome to participate in this community but disrupting the safety of this space for trans feminine people is unacceptable and will result in moderator action.
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This community is supportive of DIY HRT. Unsolicited medical advice or caution being given to people on DIY will result in moderator action.
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Some helpful links:
- The Gender Dysphoria Bible // In depth explanation of the different types of gender dysphoria.
- Trans Voice Help // A community here on blahaj.zone for voice training.
- LGBTQ+ Healthcare Directory // A directory of LGBTQ+ accepting Healthcare providers.
- Trans Resistance Network // A US-based mutual aid organization to help trans people facing state violence and legal discrimination.
- TLDEF's Trans Health Project // Advice about insurance claims for gender affirming healthcare and procedures.
- TransLifeLine's ID change Library // A comprehensive guide to changing your name on any US legal document.
- Gender Spectrum // Resources for youth, parents and family, educators, mental health professionals and faith leaders.
Support Hotlines:
- The Trevor Project // Web chat, phone call, and text message LGBTQ+ support hotline.
- TransLifeLine // A US/Canada LGBTQ+ phone support hotline service. The US line has Spanish support.
- LGBT Youthline.ca // A Canadian LGBT hotline support service with phone call and web chat support. (4pm - 9:30pm EST)
- 988lifeline // A US only Crisis hotline with phone call, text and web chat support. Dedicated staff for LGBTQIA+ youth 24/7 on phone service, 3pm to 2am EST for text and web chat.
Nice, I don't know doses well for patches but I've heard it's not a bad method. The main problems I hear are that they can come off and be expensive to replace, they can cause rashes and irritated skin, and sometimes there can be poor absorption / lower-than-ideal blood levels from patches (better than oral, though!).
I never considered patches because my skin is very sensitive and I am often rough on my body and I think I would lose patches due to daily activities (exercising, soaking in hot baths, brushing up against things when doing manual labor, etc.).
Cypro sounds better than spiro, but reading about it I don't like the idea of taking a synthetic progestogen, since it causes increased risk of blood clots and breast cancer:
https://transfemscience.org/articles/transfem-intro/#cyproterone-acetate
I wouldn't be too worried about it, but I'm just glad I can avoid that risk entirely with estrogen monotherapy (and in the long term with surgery).
For me patches work really good. I apply them to my butt and put a tegaderm patch over it to make it more resistant to water and movement, I don't ever have to worry about it coming off. Cost is also not really a problem since most of the cost is covered by insurance anyway. My last blood levels were 123 pg/ml for E and 39 ng/dl for T (these are my levels with my starting dose (75μg/24hours estradiol (with 2 patches per week) and 10mg cypro), since then I could decrease my cypro intake by a little bit). Regarding the anti androgen I don't really have a choice since that is whats used here in Germany and also my endo only prescribes dermal application estradiol, so spray, gel or patches and she doesn't do monotherapy as far as I know. But since I'm planning on doing bottom surgery in the near future anyway I don't worry about that too much.
Edit: And injections are unfortunately almost impossible to get here.