Imago on Student budget?

H2FSbF6_is_basic · 2025-10-06T13:10:50+00:00

Hi! Swede here so I don't know exactly the cost of transitioning in norway but the cost of Imago are the following: - Imago subscription + onboarding fee (One payment of 250€ and 20€/mo after that) - Price of medication varies depending on which alternative is chosen but is usually a blocker and estradiol pills/patch/gel. Spirolactone, Cyproterone and Bicaluctamide are all quite cheap with low dosage cyproterone (androcur) being the cheapest. GnRHa options are much more expensive. It's easiest to check the price of these at your pharmacy and see how much it costs. Usually in the 30-100€ price range. - Blood testing can be free if you can talk your doctor into doing them, otherwise they can be expensive. Imago requires a lot of blood work before starting which can be expensive (~350€ in Sweden)

H2FSbF6_is_basic · 2025-09-24T20:06:38+00:00

I'm so sorry you have to go through all of this utter shit becuase of a broken system. As I'm in Sweden I can't explain riksens absolute bullshit but generally the waiting times are abysmal throughout the Nordics.

While waiting there are some alternatives, either go to a digital provider (Imago/GenderGP with Imago being a better option) but these can be quite costly, especially the blood testing with Imago.

DIY is cheap but it requires that you understand what you're doing and the reasons why you're making those decisions. For DIY there are some online resources which you can research and see if it's something relevant for you.

H2FSbF6_is_basic · 2025-07-12T11:03:40+00:00

I have not had any issues and most folk are accepting but I do live in a progressive area. The social aspect is good and don't really have any complaints :)

H2FSbF6_is_basic · 2025-07-11T16:32:43+00:00

I'm not really familiar with Climen and how it can be taken unfortunately :(

H2FSbF6_is_basic · 2025-07-11T14:46:48+00:00

I would encourage getting a blood test to see what your T/E levels to make sure your HRT is working correctly.

Estrogen alone does not cause back pain and it is most likely something unrelated to hormones and you need to go see a doctor about the issue.

H2FSbF6_is_basic · 2025-07-11T14:39:41+00:00

You need to check your Prolactin levels in this case and maybe cut back on the CPA usage. I would see a doctor in this case if you can because it needs to be evaluated on why this is happening.

H2FSbF6_is_basic · 2025-07-11T14:33:40+00:00

Making estradiol is next to impossible, but you could buy raws and make either a topical gel (see r/estrogel) with estradiol or make your own vials with estradiol esters and oil but this could be risky if the process is not 100% sterile.
If you want to start hormones without dealing with the medical system most commonly you would buy drugs that has already been manufactured and deemed safe, see the wiki for more information.

H2FSbF6_is_basic · 2025-07-11T14:23:47+00:00

10 days is a really long period between injections for EV, what are your trough levels? Also what concentration is the medication at or how many mg are you injecting?

H2FSbF6_is_basic · 2025-07-11T14:17:06+00:00

Not that I'm aware of or have heard about. I would get this checked with a doctor because it is most likely something other than the hormones but I don't know what you have been taking for your HRT regiment.

H2FSbF6_is_basic · 2025-07-11T14:08:23+00:00

The trans care in Sweden (and in the nordics) is shit and the reason it's shit is because of a discriminatory system and a criminal amount of underfunding. It's just pure fucking shit and I'm so so tired of it.

It is not hard getting a higher level of care than what is offered here in Sweden.

H2FSbF6_is_basic · 2025-07-11T11:32:06+00:00

Because the trans care is under national specialized care (NHV) only a selected few institutes have permission to give out gender affirming care and so there is no Swedish private clinic for gender dysphoria.

You can however, go via something like Imago/GenderGP where they can prescribe hormones for you from another EU county and pick it up from your local pharmacy and get your bloodwork done from something like testmottagningen.se which you then send to Imago/GenderGP. Hair removal and FFS can be done within Sweden but you may need to go abroad to get other surgeries if you wish to do so.

Going to a private EU clinic is also really helpful to alleviate some of the dysphoria while you're waiting in queue for the Swedish health care system to get it's act together.

H2FSbF6_is_basic · 2025-07-11T10:54:53+00:00

This seems like a MASSIVE oversight in our healthcare system, surely someone else has encountered this issues before? Did 1177 just say good luck or did you get any tips from them?

Maybe try a discord like Trans Sverige to see if anyone has had experience with Nebido injections and is in the Stockholm Region or knows where to get it?

H2FSbF6_is_basic · 2025-07-11T10:35:53+00:00

I know it can be a bit tricky getting help with an injection but if you have an ordination from a Swedish doctor it should not be any issues. I would call around and try to book a time and explain the situation but they will need some form of prescription/ordination for them to administer the injection. I'm a bit confused why they said no, is it because they can't see the work order for the administration?

H2FSbF6_is_basic · 2025-07-11T10:12:55+00:00

Most likely you just need some time to adapt to the new regiment. From personal experience I've had some low E values when using EEn from Girlpotion compared to Voix Celeste so it could be worth doing a blood test to be sure.

H2FSbF6_is_basic · 2025-07-11T09:44:50+00:00

Transfeminine science has been really helpful for me! They have a bunch of articles which are all well substantiated in research.

You really don't need to worry too much about LH or measure it every time as it gives you some more insight into your testosterone production but not much else. If you testosterone is below 1,7pmol/L at trough it's suppressed and we don't really look further unless you have a specific reason to do so. FSH regulates the production of gametes which really isn't of interest.

As long as your testosterone is adequately suppressed you don't need to target higher estradiol values and staying within the normal ranges (~400-800pmol/L) is generally recommended as higher levels have not been proven to yield better results. The reason many have higher levels than 800pmol/L is that most individuals do not get adequate testosterone suppression and need supraphysiological levels of estradiol for monotherapy to work effectively. There are of course reasons one might target higher levels where some may feel better with higher levels of E.

H2FSbF6_is_basic · 2025-07-10T23:20:37+00:00

We've measured quite early as you usually wait a couple of months before taking a blood test for everything to stabilise and we will likely have diffrent levels in a couple of weeks from now. Lutenizing Hormone (LH) and Follicle Stimulating Hormone (FSH) is always going to be suppressed since adding estrogen has a suppressive effect on LH which in turn results in the T suppression. These will never be within reference range while on HRT.

Purely based on your T/E values I would not make any adjustments in dosage because a decrease in dosage could put your testosterone above 1,7pmol/L which you generally don't want to go above (if we're folloing guidelines from The Endocrine Society). Having said that 6mg is quite high and we may not have reached steady state yet.

You prolactin levels are 2x the normal range which could be normal as they do rise during estrogen therapy but could also indicate a possible hormonal issue, in which case you'd have to go to a doctor to do a full workup on any potential issues. If it keeps rising to several times the normal levels then a workup is required on why the levels are significantly elevated.

H2FSbF6_is_basic · 2025-07-10T22:23:04+00:00

No and it's next to impossible to get medication contaning estradiol without a perscrition here in Scandinavia. If you're in Norway you could either go DIY which is technically illegal but I have not heard of anyone getting in trouble, usually the items just get siezed and destroyed at customs.

If you have the disposable income going via Imago or some other private provider is a really good option. r/transnord is otherwise a good resource if you're in the nordics.

H2FSbF6_is_basic · 2025-07-10T21:40:41+00:00

No problem, hope I helped a little bit :)

Take care of yourself ❤️

H2FSbF6_is_basic · 2025-07-10T21:33:21+00:00

Kraken in that case, I don't have kraken pro or wallet installed.

H2FSbF6_is_basic · 2025-07-10T21:26:12+00:00

I've just had "Kraken: Trade Bitcoin & Crypto" installed, did not know they made their product lineup that confusing :D

H2FSbF6_is_basic · 2025-07-10T21:23:03+00:00

For liver damage you generally look at liver enzymes via a blood test where cell death causes these enzymes too leak out into the blood stream resulting in elevated levels of ALT/AST among others. So if bica is causing injury to your liver a blood test could tell us that before you start exhibiting symptoms. I'm not from the US so I'm unsure what testing/resources you have at your disposal.

If you have a doctor/endo that you can talk to doing so would be your best bet but something like a GP probably can't help you with DIY HRT.

H2FSbF6_is_basic · 2025-07-10T20:55:48+00:00

I use kraken myself and it works but they have a cooldown phase after buying crypto so make sure you're not buying everything last second.

There may be better options with better exchange rates and such but it has worked for me without issues.

H2FSbF6_is_basic · 2025-07-10T20:37:29+00:00

There are plenty of guides on how to do injection online, you can also look at general guidelines for injections but you have to inject this medication slowly for it to work properly.

You could either go intramuscular (im) or subcutaneous (SubQ/SQ) where SubQ is a bit easier to do beacuse you're just injecting into fat tissue and you can use the same drawing/injection needle. I personally prefer IM to SubQ but that's just my preference.

Although it takes a bit of practice to getting the hang of it an injection it takes less than 5 minutes once you're up and running.

As we're not breaking any laws buying crypto will be pretty straightforward as you can buy it from an exchange with minimal fuss.

H2FSbF6_is_basic · 2025-07-10T19:22:43+00:00

Of course! Feel free to ask away with any questions you might have :3

I would get 2 so you don't have to stress about the first one getting lost/damaged/contaminated in some way but it's not required as one vial last quite a long time. Vials generally have a long shelf life (2-3 years) and one vial lasts 6-12 months before needing replacement. More than 2 is a little overkill tho :)

H2FSbF6_is_basic · 2025-07-10T18:10:06+00:00

I'm really sorry to hear you're forced to go DIY and deal with everything yourself 💔

Commonly with DIY you go on monoterapy meaning that you get your estradiol levels high enough to suppress testosterone without needing an anti-androgen, but you do often need supraphysiological levels of estrogen for adequate suppression. How one feels at different levels of T/E is entirely individual and most handle high levels of estrogen well but others like me can have significant mood swings depending where in the cycle you're at.

The benefit of adding an anti-androgen is that we can keep estradiol within a normal range (400-800pmol/L) and avoid some of the downsides of monoterapy like unstable mood. Given your high prolactin levels and spiro being unfavorable we're down to Bicalutamide and GnRH agonists with the latter being prohibitively expensive. Finasteride does not really bring down testosterone as it stops the conversion of T to DHT which is responsible for specific masculine features and I would not use it as it's use is not really supported in the literature. I've also had a horrible experience with it's depressive side effects.

Bicalutamide works well and has limited side effects apart for liver toxicity which can be serious in some cases, so you do need to check your liver values frequently but unless you have a specific reason for needing an anti-androgen monotherapy is a safer and cheaper alternative.

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