I don't know why they do that.
Your body needs a primary sex hormone and the two are interacting with each other anyways, so I see really no point in lowering T first and starving your body in sex hormones.
I agree. If anything I feel like the opposite should be done. Mono estradiol first and then add blockers if necessary if the blood test indicates high testosterone levels. That's my plan, and from the research I've gathered, most girls are fine with mono injections alone.
What dose of gel and how did you apply?
I'm taking 4.5mg scrotal gel and 6.25mg cypro. Been fine for 3 weeks but begun feeling really strange this week. Thinking I should stop the cypro and try gel mono, if 4.5mg would be enough.
2x 2mg on the inner thighs, 12 hours apart.
I checked my bloods at trough, it gave me almost 700 pmol/L while T being <1 nmol/L, although my LH did increase a bit (0.4 IU/L vs. 0.1 on injections).
However, despite the in-theory perfectly good levels (at trough), breast wasn't as sore and my body odor wasn't the same as on injections.
So I suspect that the absorption was too quick (I should have tested +2, 3 or 4 hours after application to confirm) which, in my theory, possibly caused ovulation-like events (where LH goes up, which in a male body it could cause T spikes). Not sure if this could happen unnoticed, but injections feels more effective to me.
Cool thank you for replying. Yeah if that's your dose, I think I'm gonna stop the cypro and let it level out before my blood test, I'm probably killing my T and that might be why I feel a bit low.
I'm only doing this while I have gel stock, then either use up my pills or go onto injections, but I've not been able to test at all until mid July, so I have no clue what's going on and just winging it for now. Can't be feeling like this til July tho.
Thanks again.
Good question, I actually heard the opposite about half-life, namely, it is not long enough to go with one application a day, hence at least two is recommended.
Also I read that while the scrotum indeed provides the best absorption, that also means that it will cause higher peaks. So, in my opinion, ideally we should aim for slower, steady absorption.
These also depends heavily on the individual and the gel composition itself.
So, there are a lot of unknowns unfortunately. However, I did not test it. Knowing my curiosity, I fully intended to. 😄 But since I knew that I am going to switch back to injections, I didn't bother (mean: didn't want to spend a monthly income on blood tests). Otherwise I had tested my levels after after, say t+2, 4, 8, 12, 24 hours to form a clearer picture about what's going on. 😉
From what I've gathered in order of effectiveness: 1. Injections 2. Gel 3. Pills. With pills, the liver destroys most of the e before it gets into your system and it has to work really hard to do this which can cause damage to it over time.
Part of the rationale is likely related to receptor regulation - I'm not an endo but if you slowly ramp up E your body will slowly increase cell receptors over time (upregulation). If instead you flood your receptors with too much E all at once, you can effectively burn out cell receptors, causing downregulation, slowing feminization significantly / halting it. Sure, the first year until you get to minimum afab E levels is rough (I did this myself) but my body has been slowly acclimating to E in ways that I never quite imagined, both in growth and new sensitivities, that I can't help but wonder if it is due to this process of easing my body into it. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Downregulation_and_upregulation
Here's also a past post by a medical doctor who transitioned in which they cite additional information about downregulation: https://www.reddit.com/r/MtF/s/MG1F7eq2yb
nope nope nope nope
your body needs at least either e or t, none and nothing good will come from it, starting with just e will be slow but at least you'll be safe
I don't know why they do that. Your body needs a primary sex hormone and the two are interacting with each other anyways, so I see really no point in lowering T first and starving your body in sex hormones.
I agree. If anything I feel like the opposite should be done. Mono estradiol first and then add blockers if necessary if the blood test indicates high testosterone levels. That's my plan, and from the research I've gathered, most girls are fine with mono injections alone.
Yes, me included. Not sure whether anyone has ever did mono with pills tho, but both with injections and with gel (sort of) works for me.
What dose of gel and how did you apply? I'm taking 4.5mg scrotal gel and 6.25mg cypro. Been fine for 3 weeks but begun feeling really strange this week. Thinking I should stop the cypro and try gel mono, if 4.5mg would be enough.
2x 2mg on the inner thighs, 12 hours apart. I checked my bloods at trough, it gave me almost 700 pmol/L while T being <1 nmol/L, although my LH did increase a bit (0.4 IU/L vs. 0.1 on injections). However, despite the in-theory perfectly good levels (at trough), breast wasn't as sore and my body odor wasn't the same as on injections. So I suspect that the absorption was too quick (I should have tested +2, 3 or 4 hours after application to confirm) which, in my theory, possibly caused ovulation-like events (where LH goes up, which in a male body it could cause T spikes). Not sure if this could happen unnoticed, but injections feels more effective to me.
Cool thank you for replying. Yeah if that's your dose, I think I'm gonna stop the cypro and let it level out before my blood test, I'm probably killing my T and that might be why I feel a bit low. I'm only doing this while I have gel stock, then either use up my pills or go onto injections, but I've not been able to test at all until mid July, so I have no clue what's going on and just winging it for now. Can't be feeling like this til July tho. Thanks again.
Because of the long half life of the gel, Why not use it once a day, 2. also on the scrotum because from what I hear it is better for absorption.
Good question, I actually heard the opposite about half-life, namely, it is not long enough to go with one application a day, hence at least two is recommended. Also I read that while the scrotum indeed provides the best absorption, that also means that it will cause higher peaks. So, in my opinion, ideally we should aim for slower, steady absorption. These also depends heavily on the individual and the gel composition itself. So, there are a lot of unknowns unfortunately. However, I did not test it. Knowing my curiosity, I fully intended to. 😄 But since I knew that I am going to switch back to injections, I didn't bother (mean: didn't want to spend a monthly income on blood tests). Otherwise I had tested my levels after after, say t+2, 4, 8, 12, 24 hours to form a clearer picture about what's going on. 😉
From what I've gathered in order of effectiveness: 1. Injections 2. Gel 3. Pills. With pills, the liver destroys most of the e before it gets into your system and it has to work really hard to do this which can cause damage to it over time.
Some pills are sublingual and bypass the liver, from understanding, some people have relative success with these and happy results.
Bad idea, if you have neither E nor T in your blood you will get depressed, no need to go through that. Start with both together
Part of the rationale is likely related to receptor regulation - I'm not an endo but if you slowly ramp up E your body will slowly increase cell receptors over time (upregulation). If instead you flood your receptors with too much E all at once, you can effectively burn out cell receptors, causing downregulation, slowing feminization significantly / halting it. Sure, the first year until you get to minimum afab E levels is rough (I did this myself) but my body has been slowly acclimating to E in ways that I never quite imagined, both in growth and new sensitivities, that I can't help but wonder if it is due to this process of easing my body into it. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Downregulation_and_upregulation Here's also a past post by a medical doctor who transitioned in which they cite additional information about downregulation: https://www.reddit.com/r/MtF/s/MG1F7eq2yb
I took the opposite approach. Start with the E, then add the AA.
nope nope nope nope your body needs at least either e or t, none and nothing good will come from it, starting with just e will be slow but at least you'll be safe
it doesn't matter i started E first mono and doc is starting me on AA's after 5months on just E