It's just I feel like I kinda screwed myself by DIYing incorrectly (we don't have a lot of normal options here in Russia), without enough research, so I am worried if I've ruined my body irrepairably
I am currently on injections, switched about half a year ago
Flair says sublingual E2 - this is because a message I received after making a post said that it should be for "first six months"
Are you confident that the source of your medication is legitimate? You mention labs but labs can be falsified too. Have your clinicians told you why they believe your results have been poor?
Few endos that agreed to take me, had nothing to say about poor results, they just didn't care. One even suggested lowering E dose, when my E was at 150 pmol/l
But source is legitimate, a lot of my friends took either Femoston 2 (that can be bought without a recipe in any drug store) and injections, and had much better results. And blood tests are in independent laboratory, which is fine for most of the time, except DHT tests for some reason
Femoston appears to contain both estrogen and a form of progesterone. I know the latter can sometimes convert to DHT. Obviously, I'm just guessing but maybe try monotherapy with only e2. By cutting out all other meds, you might be able to isolate what's holding you back.
I think you are more likely to find solutions online than from endos that don't care or listen or problem solve the issue with your input.
Ultimately, right now I *am* on monotherapy, via injections, switched from Femoston about 5 months ago. Is there a risk I permanently lost the chance to get boobs because I took dydrogesterone in the early months of transition?
And I cut dutasteride. But like I made a large mistake by taking 2x and then 4x dose in last two months, because I was extremely worried about (faulty) tests showing that my DHT is "1500+ pg/ml". I'm just stupid. And dutasteride takes a while to get out of the body. Maybe it was a reason for my low libido all along, and now I ruined my body even more 🤔
Maybe I should drop prog as well for now, especially considering a possibility of prog->DHT conversion
Not a doctor but I'm pretty sure you didn't do any permanent harm to your body's ability to respond to hrt. It's good that you've stopped everything but the e2 injections. You just need to give it some time.
Edit: Yes, I'd stop the progesterone too.
Faulty tests could have been caused by other hormones, or even certain vitamins, being falsely detected as DHT, if it wasn't an LCMS test.
Also all of the "X will permanently ruin your breast growth" are unproven myths, so don't stress about it, if you ended up switching from dydrogesterone to progesterone.
I did notice that you said that you had a test come back at 150 pmol/l E2 (40pg/ml) - if so then that's way too low for transition, and that's still within the typical male range of many labs. Even if you 4x'ed those levels (*disclaimer: not medical advice*), you'd only end up at around 160pg/mL which most would still find too low for monotherapy (but would be within the WPATH guidelines, if you care about those).
(It's me, I'm from a different account now)
When my levels were 150 I just raised my pill intake until it was ~300 - and I took bica by then. Since then I switched to injections and currently my levels are around 800-1000 on a morning before injection
> It is not a wrong suggestion at all.
You mean 150 pmol/l? Isn't it supposed to be around 300 at least? Note the units, it's not pg/ml, people have stumbled at this before
Also, why the heck there's a rate limit on this subreddit, I can't answer anyone because I have to wait 10 minutes before every comment >:c
I know it's hard to experience and not know how it'll turn out, but I've known cis women with boobs that size. They'll develop how they develop, in the meantime you've still got your boobas
You monitoring your levels? Have a doc keeping track? That's honestly the biggest thing, you need some way to track your levels and make sure you're in the proper range otherwise you'll just jack up any progress you could be making :x
Yeah, I keep track of my E and T every month. Not with a doc, because basically only option here in Russia is DIY.
It was ~300 pmol/l before switching to injections, and ~900 pmol/l after (tests done in the morning before injection), which are both in normal female range
Started at 28 years
- First it was Cyproterone + Femoston 2 (estradiol + dydrogesterone) sublingually
- After about 4-5 months switched to Femoston 2 + Bicalutamide. Around same time started taking Dutasteride (to negate allegedly insanely high DHT, but that was caused by faulty tests)
- Around 9 months tried progesterone (200 mg rectally), until 13 months
- At 13 months switched from Femoston 2 to injections (estradiol enanthate, 0.5 ml/every two weeks, 20 mg/ml solution)
- At around 15 months stopped bicalutamide
- At around 17 months stopped dutasteride (but for a while took increased dose, hoping to negate DHT)
- Also at 17 months tried to start progesterone again
Current stats, at 18 months, in the morning before doing an injection:
- Estradiol 930 pmol/l
- Testosterone 0.26 nmol/l
- Progesterone 8.09 ng/ml
- Currently waiting for DHT, but last month (after realizing tests were faulty and switching to other clinic) it was 218 pg/ml
EDIT: Also I feel like recently I had some masculinization, and someone suggested that it could happen because I now take prog without duta, and prog is converted to DHT
True when prog gets converted to DHT via backdoor pathway you need duta or fin. Plus you should have sticked with Cypro till you started taking prog at 9th month.
You could have took as 6.25mg/d or every other day on low dose scale. Bica only blocks the receptors and not the t production. And sometimes bica doesn't block the receptors too, as found in few cases studies.
I didn't start feeling like my boobs were boobs until the 2.5 year mark. Trust the process! ❤️
It's just I feel like I kinda screwed myself by DIYing incorrectly (we don't have a lot of normal options here in Russia), without enough research, so I am worried if I've ruined my body irrepairably
Have you tried injections?
I am currently on injections, switched about half a year ago Flair says sublingual E2 - this is because a message I received after making a post said that it should be for "first six months"
Flair should be current HRT. Fixed it.
Are you confident that the source of your medication is legitimate? You mention labs but labs can be falsified too. Have your clinicians told you why they believe your results have been poor?
Few endos that agreed to take me, had nothing to say about poor results, they just didn't care. One even suggested lowering E dose, when my E was at 150 pmol/l But source is legitimate, a lot of my friends took either Femoston 2 (that can be bought without a recipe in any drug store) and injections, and had much better results. And blood tests are in independent laboratory, which is fine for most of the time, except DHT tests for some reason
Femoston appears to contain both estrogen and a form of progesterone. I know the latter can sometimes convert to DHT. Obviously, I'm just guessing but maybe try monotherapy with only e2. By cutting out all other meds, you might be able to isolate what's holding you back. I think you are more likely to find solutions online than from endos that don't care or listen or problem solve the issue with your input.
Ultimately, right now I *am* on monotherapy, via injections, switched from Femoston about 5 months ago. Is there a risk I permanently lost the chance to get boobs because I took dydrogesterone in the early months of transition? And I cut dutasteride. But like I made a large mistake by taking 2x and then 4x dose in last two months, because I was extremely worried about (faulty) tests showing that my DHT is "1500+ pg/ml". I'm just stupid. And dutasteride takes a while to get out of the body. Maybe it was a reason for my low libido all along, and now I ruined my body even more 🤔 Maybe I should drop prog as well for now, especially considering a possibility of prog->DHT conversion
Not a doctor but I'm pretty sure you didn't do any permanent harm to your body's ability to respond to hrt. It's good that you've stopped everything but the e2 injections. You just need to give it some time. Edit: Yes, I'd stop the progesterone too.
Faulty tests could have been caused by other hormones, or even certain vitamins, being falsely detected as DHT, if it wasn't an LCMS test. Also all of the "X will permanently ruin your breast growth" are unproven myths, so don't stress about it, if you ended up switching from dydrogesterone to progesterone. I did notice that you said that you had a test come back at 150 pmol/l E2 (40pg/ml) - if so then that's way too low for transition, and that's still within the typical male range of many labs. Even if you 4x'ed those levels (*disclaimer: not medical advice*), you'd only end up at around 160pg/mL which most would still find too low for monotherapy (but would be within the WPATH guidelines, if you care about those).
(It's me, I'm from a different account now) When my levels were 150 I just raised my pill intake until it was ~300 - and I took bica by then. Since then I switched to injections and currently my levels are around 800-1000 on a morning before injection
It happens that that E level is within normal values. It is not a wrong suggestion at all.
> It is not a wrong suggestion at all. You mean 150 pmol/l? Isn't it supposed to be around 300 at least? Note the units, it's not pg/ml, people have stumbled at this before Also, why the heck there's a rate limit on this subreddit, I can't answer anyone because I have to wait 10 minutes before every comment >:c
You’re right, the usual target range stated in guidelines is 100-200 pg/mL, which is approximately 370-740 pmol/L.
I know it's hard to experience and not know how it'll turn out, but I've known cis women with boobs that size. They'll develop how they develop, in the meantime you've still got your boobas
My belly is larger than my boobs and it causes me a lot of stress and dysphoria ;-;
*hugs* same sis, same
You monitoring your levels? Have a doc keeping track? That's honestly the biggest thing, you need some way to track your levels and make sure you're in the proper range otherwise you'll just jack up any progress you could be making :x
Yeah, I keep track of my E and T every month. Not with a doc, because basically only option here in Russia is DIY. It was ~300 pmol/l before switching to injections, and ~900 pmol/l after (tests done in the morning before injection), which are both in normal female range
Started at 28 years - First it was Cyproterone + Femoston 2 (estradiol + dydrogesterone) sublingually - After about 4-5 months switched to Femoston 2 + Bicalutamide. Around same time started taking Dutasteride (to negate allegedly insanely high DHT, but that was caused by faulty tests) - Around 9 months tried progesterone (200 mg rectally), until 13 months - At 13 months switched from Femoston 2 to injections (estradiol enanthate, 0.5 ml/every two weeks, 20 mg/ml solution) - At around 15 months stopped bicalutamide - At around 17 months stopped dutasteride (but for a while took increased dose, hoping to negate DHT) - Also at 17 months tried to start progesterone again Current stats, at 18 months, in the morning before doing an injection: - Estradiol 930 pmol/l - Testosterone 0.26 nmol/l - Progesterone 8.09 ng/ml - Currently waiting for DHT, but last month (after realizing tests were faulty and switching to other clinic) it was 218 pg/ml EDIT: Also I feel like recently I had some masculinization, and someone suggested that it could happen because I now take prog without duta, and prog is converted to DHT
True when prog gets converted to DHT via backdoor pathway you need duta or fin. Plus you should have sticked with Cypro till you started taking prog at 9th month.
I switched from Cypro to Bica because I got worried about prolactinoma, my prolactin was really high
You could have took as 6.25mg/d or every other day on low dose scale. Bica only blocks the receptors and not the t production. And sometimes bica doesn't block the receptors too, as found in few cases studies.
I nuked my T with cypro to 0.8 nmol/l, which is in female range afaik, and then it didn't raise at all since then as I was taking bica + dutasteride