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.
Debate surrounding transgender rights or acceptance will result in an immediate ban.
- Please follow the rules of the lemmy.blahaj.zone instance.
- Bigotry of any kind will not be tolerated.
- Gatekeeping will not be tolerated.
- Please be kind and respectful to all.
- Please tag NSFW topics.
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- Please do not repost bigoted content here.
This community is supportive of DIY HRT. Unsolicited medical advice or caution being given to people on DIY will result in moderator action.
Posters may express that they are looking for responses and support from groups with certain experiences (eg. trans people, trans people with supportive parents, trans parents.). Please respect those requests and be mindful that your experience may differ from others here.
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.
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.
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I had breast soreness pretty quickly. Increased sensitivity could be right (that's how it was for me at first), but at some point it did become painful enough that I had to change how I slept, etc.
My advice: switch to injections (I recommend subcutaneous as you can use very small needles that can be painless).
As others have said, oral is a poor way to get estrogen - 80+% is eliminated by the liver, and the rest spikes blood levels and eliminates relatively quickly, creating vicious ups and downs without providing sufficient and consistent estrogen blood levels to estrogenize the body by. Anecdotally the people I know IRL who do pills have slower and less feminization than those who inject.
(I actually started hormones at the same time as an IRL friend, and a year later my friend still passes as a boy and boymodes full-time, and I ... wouldn't be able to pass as a boy anymore. The main difference is that they take oral and I inject.)
Highly recommend reading: https://transfemscience.org/articles/transfem-intro/
Is there a reason not to do injections (unless you have bad enough fear of needles so that you can't do it)? To me it seems to be by far the best option in every way (at least price, effectiveness, frequency of administration, convenience) and I see no reason to pick anything else. Not that I personally have much of an alternative anyway because I'm doing DIY right now.
I have a horrible needle phobia, and even so I did a lot to overcome it so I could do injections. Ultimately I agree, injections are the best method. Transdermal (patches or gel) isn't that bad of a route for lower doses, but pre-op I wanted to do monotherapy when bica didn't seem to help my biochemical dysphoria enough.
Even post-op I still do injections, as my skin is very sensitive, so I was worried about getting rashes from the patches, and I also exercise a lot and worried about the patches coming off (they can be expensive to replace, this is just a major downside to patches).
Yeah, the patch coming off is what I would be worried about as well, especially also when showering. Patches would be my top alternative because they also last a while but it's just an extra thing to have to be careful about.
Congratulations on overcoming your needle phobia! :)
I've not yet had one come off in the shower, and I'm not particularly careful. The adhesive gets a little loose, but it goes back to normal pretty quickly once you dry off. Having tried gel, injections and patches I have to say patches easily beat everything else for me! That's assuming you don't get irritation from them, of course.