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HRT advice: When to start? (lemmy.dbzer0.com)
submitted 1 month ago by WeLoveCastingSpellz@lemmy.dbzer0.com to c/mtf@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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I have recently learned that you can get hrt medicine off the counter in my country. I am an 18 year old and I am at the last year of high school. My plan since I learbed this was to wait till my finiahing exams are done (May) and start after that which puts half a year between that and till I can move out aboard for university. What worries me is having to hide the effects especially with the summer in between and swimming that comes with it. How much does it take for breast growth to become noticable and what would you do in my place?

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[-] FJW@discuss.tchncs.de 5 points 1 month ago

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.

[-] WeLoveCastingSpellz@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 points 1 month ago

I just want to hide it from my parents for safety, my mates at school are supportive and I am out to them and luckily have no hairloss yet. I have decided to start androcur immediatly and add estrofem into that mix after summer.

[-] FJW@discuss.tchncs.de 4 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

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!

[-] WeLoveCastingSpellz@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

my plan is to go 12.5mg once every two days till after summer. I mean what other choice do I even have when testerone is actively changing my body. I can maybe start estrofem very low dose.

[-] FJW@discuss.tchncs.de 3 points 1 month ago

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.

[-] WeLoveCastingSpellz@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 1 month ago

hey. I found a medicine called casodex, it is supposed to be better than androcur and also something I can biy over the counter. Do you know anything about it?

[-] FJW@discuss.tchncs.de 2 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

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).

[-] WeLoveCastingSpellz@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 2 weeks ago

Update: Yeah I just took the bluepill btw. Why wait when I can buy HRT over the counter. Me from the future will have to worry about hiding effects

this post was submitted on 08 Oct 2024
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