LogFAQs > #963807842

DocileOrangeCup posted...

Wait you have to inject it??

There are a few different delivery methods. Pills are popular and easy and allow you to have a steady level of estrogen. However, the liver metabolizes estrogen that hits the digestive system into estrone, which can cause blood clots (it helps to hold the pill under your tongue until it has dissolved). This is an extremely rare complication, but something to be mindful of given how severe clots can be.

Patches circumvent that by leaching estrogen into skin and thus directly to the bloodstream. You can't really deliver a lot that way though, is my understanding. About 0.1 mg a day, IIRC (a pill can be up to 2 MG, twice daily, for comparison).

Injections allow you to deliver a large amount of estrogen directly into the bloodstream, neatly solving both shortcomings, at the cost of your estrogen level ebbing and flowing based upon your injection schedule.

Progesterone is generally delivered via pill and is safe that way. It helps to stabilize mood (though it does the opposite, for some people), promotes feminine fat distribution, and supports a healthy libido (a feminine libido). However, there seems to be a lot of dissension as to when and whether to administer it: I was given 100 MG prog after 3 months and currently take 200 MG (once daily), which I've been on the past 3 months (I'm 9 months in). I wouldn't mind getting more.

Spironolactone is the other major component: it blocks testosterone. It's also a diuretic (it is, in fact, used for that too). In short, it makes you pee a lot and causes you to crave salty and/or electrolyte-laden foods and liquids.
Pickles and pickle juice, for instance.
It's annoying, in other words.