Jul (they/she)

Again, adverse effects doesn’t mean death, the fact that the description you posed has that last sentence is the alarmist thing and only applies to certain drugs, of course.

The difference in absorption rates between oral and rectal administration can be as much as double or triple or more in some cases. For example I remember reading a study from the 70s or 80s on methylprednisolone. The absorption rate orally was about 90%, but rectally was only around 35% likely due to bacteria in the rectum decomposing the drug before it could make it into the blood.

So, over the long term the difference in dose could have a significant impact on health. Getting 3 times more or less of any drug, even something relatively safe, will likely mean “adverse effects”. With estradiol this could mean greatly increased side effects for overdose like nipple soreness or mood swings, or greatly decreased effect for underdose meaning testosterone takes over again and hair loss and body hair growth restart. These are “adverse effects”, but are not likely to be deadly, but still considered overdose/underdose.

Possibly, but I don’t see Google doing that either. It’s not about where the app comes from really. The thing they are going to restrict is the developer. A developer can not have their app installed on a certified phone, regardless of where the user got the app, if the developer is not registered.

So, since there are no regulations to allow a user to install apps from any chosen developer, only from any chosen app store, there likely will be no regulatory recourse like Apple is facing as mentioned by the OP.

This is different, by design. Sideloading and alternate app stores are still perfectly fine. It’s just that the developer has to give a bunch of personal into to Google in order for their app not to be rejected by the phone itself. Middleman doesn’t matter which is where most if the regulations are. Problem is that many open source apps don’t have a developer willing to spend the time and money or give up their privacy in order to publish an app they don’t make money on. So it’s designed to kill off FOSS apps.

More evidence that although I love the idea of the MIT license, it is not good when large corporate interests and their money get involved. It’s too easy for the code to get scooped up and relicensed or just hidden away. Copyleft licensed projects are the only ones I’ll work on anymore.

Overdose doesn’t mean die, it means getting a larger dose in your blood than the labeled dosage. Over a long period of time dosing too high, there may be side effects. Sorry if I used medical terminology, but I work in healthcare so it’s common terminology there. I sometimes forget that the media has warped the meaning of some of these terms.

Can and should are two very different things. The two have different absorption rates for different things. You may overdose or it may be totally ineffective. There may be toxic contaminants that taken orally might not be absorbed much, so its relatively safe, but taken rectally might be absorbed into the blood stream. There’s also the sanitation issue. The mouth is generally better at capturing and keeping infections out of the body than the rectum, so you may need to sanitize the pills which might be difficult if you don’t want them to dissolve. And relatedly, there’s the matter of the inactive ingredients. They’re designed to be swallowed, but may cause issues left behind in the rectum. Most pills that are swallowed just use starches which isn’t a big deal, but to make things dissolve quickly there are other ingredients including sometimes sugars which could encourage microorganism growth if you don’t sanitize them or some ingredients may trigger diarrhea or other reactions.

There’s usually not research done on a drug taken sublingually as to how it would affect a person rectally, so it’s usually not going to be well known.

That said, ask your doctor. If there is any data about doing it, they would be more likely to know.

X is a right-wing propaganda platform now. Bluesky is not a good alternative though. It’s just as controlled and toxic as X was just before Elan bought it and will eventually become what X is now when a major corporation or rich person decides to grab it or it goes public. The federation functionality is just for show and marketing. I wish people would stop just jumping when platforms become truly horrible and then jumping to something that will be made as horrible very easily after it becomes popular enough.

I’m getting mine in 2 weeks, but getting PPT so no scrotal tissue is used as labia will be made from the shaft since that’s not needed for the vagina, but I expect similar experience with the clit at first from what I’ve read.

But for me, I’ve actually had what I’ve been calling phantom vagina/vulva most of my life. Basically, the feeling that the peritoneum and area being the scrotum should have an opening and the shaft should be a clit. So I’m hopeful that putting things the way my brain thinks they’re supposed to be will make it easier for me at least.

But everything I’ve read has told me your experience is normal and will change over time. But it will likely take years and even then relapses of it may come up here and there. For now, take comfort in what has improved And I’ve heard you should spend time looking at and exploring touching yourself with a nonsexual intent to help train your brain on what’s actually there. I was reading to use your dilating time for that at the very least as well as time after masturbating when things are especially sensitive but you’re relaxed.

As i mentioned, DIY with doctor’s monitoring if you can find a doctor with sliding scale fees and pay cash. Or if you don’t mind your parents seeing the trans diagnosis, then DIY with monitoring by your doctor but find an inexpensive/sliding scale lab for the blood tests if you want to hide that. Or if your insurance will allow privacy for adult dependents, just be careful if you need an auth for the type of HRT you get, and don’t use mail order pharmacies. But if you choose DIY and get them from supplement companies, be sure to research the manufacturer as there are lots of fakes, heavy metal contamination, etc., in the supplement industry.

Yeah totally get that. Just want to give other options you should look into first before risking fully DIY.

DIY generally should only be used as a last resort. There are lots of risks involved in HRT that you really should have a doctor for. Also, you’ll be unlikely to get dosages right if you can’t get blood levels tested periodically.

As for parents knowing about clinical HRT due to insurance, you might want to check into if your insurance company allows an adult dependent to have confidentiality. A few do, though with consolidation of insurance companies lately, that may no longer be an option in most people’s cases for all documents they produce. You’ll need to ensure that both the EOB/EOP documents that the your parent receives can have diagnosis and lab procedures codes hidden and that prescription claims do not show the prescription name. But the most difficult one to hide usually is the authorizations if you get patches or any other option that is a drug that’s normally only covered in dosages that are used by cis people and requires authorization for higher dosages required by trans people.

And assuming you can get all of that, you need to make sure you use a local pharmacy and not a mail-order one connected to your insurance as they often leak the information, and make sure you talk to the pharmacist to ensure that they will keep your records confidential, even from a parent.

Unfortunately, all of these things are difficult to control, so you could try to find a clinic whose fees work on a sliding scale based on income to get monitoring and blood tests, and do the DIY.

Also, $20 is a pretty small amount. To get good quality, safe DIY HRT, you likely will need to spend more unless you grow some of the plants yourself and learn how to properly test, process, and use them. The supplement industry is full of fakes or outright dangerous products. And DIY can only provide supplementation, not androgen blockers.

For me, I’m lucky enough that I’ve never needed androgen blockers, but that’s not true of everyone. Tangent, but there’s not good data on how often people need them since trans care is all off-label drug usages and so have little to no funding for research. But it’s becoming more widely practiced to wait to start the blockers to see if they are needed or not, now that it’s better understood how the body often chooses which hormones (estrogens or androgens) to produce by which is more prevalent after the blood is flooded with one over the other for some time. It used to be thought that testosterone was dominant, but it’s looking like that idea might have just been patriarchal medicine at work. Unfortunately, once you start blockers, you are likely to need them indefinitely unless you have some surgeries. This is likely due to a poorly understood feedback loop that’s created likely similar to how overuse of artificial sweeteners confuses the body into not producing the right amount of insulin when consuming real sugar. Once the body gets stuck in those kinds of loops with hormone production it’s difficult to get out of them.

But I’m not a doctor, so don’t take any of this as medical advice, just my 2 cents as someone deeply involved in trans issues and the health insurance industry.