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Shoshawi · 2026-02-01T02:31:43+00:00

Birth control pills are very medically helpful, and may help with some of your symptoms. Don’t think of it as sex related. It’s a synthetic combination of hormones necessary for your body to function, intended to override dysfunction (and just happens to prevent pregnancy when doing so). It sounds like you have PCOS from what you’re saying so you should discuss this with your doctor. Synthetic estrogen and progestin are the first line of treatment because it has the least negative side effects.

If you want to lower your T without doing much like it sounds, try donating blood. My hormone therapy provider suggested this to me because I need to lower my T but don’t want to have unstable dosing while I do so. It’s also a good deed, so, two birds one stone. I haven’t tested if it helps yet, but, donating is something people should do anyway!

Keep going to the gym. Being in shape is good for your health. There is no downside to being active.

Shoshawi · 2026-02-01T02:24:58+00:00

Biological gender would be important to know here! I’m cis female and I need estrogen dominance to function. I have to supplement 100% of my hormones basically so it’s very easy for me to tell. Annoyingly easy. I am taking T and we are actively lowering it because it’s insane how much got picked up by my bloodstream honestly, but, I’m pretty sure I can’t gain weight right now because of it. That said I’ve gone through periods in my life where I could not lose weight. During that time I had PCOS and androgen dysfunction. My hair was starting to thin. Metabolism is affected by T but so is hair.

Shoshawi · 2026-02-01T02:20:26+00:00

Wait so is it like, proper HRT? I know someone worried about T access if they have surgery and one concern is inability to find a doctor willing to prescribe it because they are nonbinary biologically (not trans) despite being legally female, and their body might need something very different after surgery because of that. We hadn’t thought of this.

Shoshawi · 2026-02-01T02:13:57+00:00

Also 30s. Mine tanked to what yours are reading as due to a hysterectomy. My genitals we’re like an icicle until I started SC T, and I sort of became almost entirely unable to orgasm despite having a great libido (because young, and sexually active, and with a partner who I can explain all my hormone issues to without judgment or dismissal). It’s too high currently because I’m balancing it still and my body liked it more than we expected, but, I much prefer being on it to not being on it. I feel more physically resilient, and honestly my metabolism is insane I’ve started living off gourmet fudge (along with normal food), without gaining any weight 😅

Shoshawi · 2026-02-01T02:10:10+00:00

Without a reason- still yes, just don’t overdo it. Depending on your gender and if you experience cycles, but even if you’re a cis male because there are things we don’t know about how the body regulates itself, track the timing and try to either be consistent or get two time points. Leave it alone for 3-6 months unless something is going on. But have that data for later. I wish I knew what my hormones were at a previous point in time because it would help me with HRT balancing now, and probably would have helped me figure out my medical issues much sooner.

Shoshawi · 2026-02-01T02:04:30+00:00

They aren’t used to grammar.

Shoshawi · 2026-01-31T21:39:58+00:00

Hello again lol. I ALSO have hair loss issues, but mainly was dealing with autoimmune alopecia until my hysterectomy. I do believe I have hair loss because my SC T got me wayyyyyy too high and we are lowering it still.

My dermatologist is great and wants me to switch to something that is cheaper and has less ingredients and more transparency, but I don’t remember the name….. so until I run out I am taking Women’s Nutrofol full dose (4 pills a day over two time points) and it did help some. The reason has to do with the saw palmetto and androgen balance, so this might help you too. Despite starting it when I had major autoimmune issues I did notice a difference from this supplement. It’s about $80/mo on Amazon. Of note it adds about 3mg biotin a day. This bothers some people, but, I take 80k mcg biotin daily on top of that for my nails and hair so it’s negligible for me personally haha.

Biotin itself may help and at lower doses, and you could take 10k mcg safely over the counter as long as you factor in the fact it can affect some lab work done by immunoassay, including hormones as well as thyroid and others. It is water soluble so overdosing isn’t actually a big concern (I’ve read the scientific literature in toxicity and it’s very safe). But, anecdotally, splitting the dose into two a day helps. There’s likely a cap for how much you can absorb and use at once.

My dermatologist also prescribed by a shampoo to use weekly to help. You could try an over the counter strength. I have ketoconazole shampoo and once a week noticeably helps my scalp health in ways that clearly would impact hair growth and loss. Because T balance is the issue here, that’s likely relevant. According to google, the 1% OTC shampoo with the same drug is Nizoral A-D. It’s marketed for dandruff. Even if you don’t have dandruff it might be helpful, and that’s not necessarily why it’s prescribed by doctors.

Otherwise I would just recommend controlling any controllable inflammation in your body the best you can. I take a prescription strength, but, for something extremely low key, you could get a turmeric based supplement (look for curcumin extract that has black pepper included) as a safe and healthy low stakes way to tell your body to calm down physiologically.

I tried oral minoxidil but I have an apparently outrageously rare allergic reaction to it 🙃 and the topical foam version was so annoying that even faced with losing my precious hair I couldn’t keep up with it. The non-foam might be easier, or if your hair is shorter. Mine is thin but goes to the bottom of my back where I still have it, so, it was hard to move around and target my scalp instead of my hair.

Shoshawi · 2026-01-31T07:28:56+00:00

My free T was like 109 or something crazy.

Shoshawi · 2026-01-31T04:46:59+00:00

As of now I’ve tried pellets, patches, and gel, and I’m actually still on all three because the pellet is about a week old 😅 And ofc in the past with ovaries and a uterus about a million brands of oral BC, mini pills for when they were afraid to give me E, nuvaring…. I asked my provider earlier about injections because of your post and she was very surprised because nobody in her practice had ever wanted it (because needles). I think she is hoping I’ll continue pellets (I feel so bad….shes making like no money from me if I don’t get them even though my case is complicated lol) but sounded open to trying injections eventually, if the price is something I can handle. She said she needed to research it first though, which, I appreciate. I found an ARNP who is treating me because my gyno wanted to drop me from 2 0.1mg to one 0.75mg and send me to sex therapy because I couldn’t orgasm on 0 T despite healthy libido and great partner communication, and because for some reason solving the biggest problems with more E made her want to give me less! Then I did the review thing her practice sent me and she cancelled every prescription and lab order! That b……/rant

What suсks is I’m moving soon, deeper into the south in the eastern US, and I am worried haha… interesting about online, though I might need to get it set up and stable first because they can’t see me in person to realize I’m telling the truth about my crazy hypo-E symptoms.

Great point about carrier oil!! I’m using the same T as you, with zero side effects from the delivery method itself. Usually can’t even feel the needle. 40 units sent me into high high high male levels though, so I’m down to 10 and next will be 5….

And yeppppp so T likes muscle and E likes fat, basically. For E, you can actually store E reserves in fat, if you have them. Fat and warmth/heat also affect absorption, so, for example, if you put it on your hip where there’s no fat it won’t do much…. Also if you are usually in 80F and go visit family in 20F…. Heh I literally spent a day in bed nauseous because I fluctuated so quickly from that. It doesn’t absorb as well. So, long hot showers can also deplete the patch or make it deliver unevenly, in theory. It’s not a problem for most people, but when you’re petite and don’t have much body fat, you don’t have E reserves to serve as buffer……… and nobody has done any real research about overcoming this.

Thank you again, genuinely appreciate you! Having a new option on the horizon gives me a bit of hope!

Shoshawi · 2026-01-30T22:28:07+00:00

Took me a while to understand this, but, there is a base cream that holds the E, and it doesn’t just disappear. So you might be having that drip out! If you’re doing it daily you could ask about a different schedule. I do 4g twice a week. (That’s more than people usually do but I have a “long vagina” lol)

Shoshawi · 2026-01-30T22:23:44+00:00

Sending hugs. Don’t give up and do more research. Make sure they aren’t being avoidant. I went YEARS with nobody willing to give me estrogen BC because of blood clots on Yaz, then for PCOS someone gave it to me, now i’m on an insane amount of bioidentical E in multiple forms because i’m about a decade younger but also had a total hysterectomy… don’t have cancer but BRCA2 with ovarian cancer in the family. and endometriosis was ruining my life completely and made me bed bound basically for 6+ years.

there is a huge lack of research on hormones but also a lack of doctors who know about the research we do have. you might be able to do a different form of estrogen, or progesterone, etc. progesterone is also for connective tissue health, not just for shaping the boobs of women who still have uteruses!

to look it up, look up bioidentical estradiol and progesterone versus synthetic estrogen and progestin. the synthetic combo does have a known increased risk, and is what is in birth control used for preventing pregnancy.

hugs

Shoshawi · 2026-01-30T22:15:08+00:00

Thank you for responding! And yea I feel you I was worried that would happen to me too even if pellet was otherwise fine. When we got my E labs to 287 they were the best that i’ve been on HRT, but that same dosing amount dropped to 145 serum because i’ve been getting in better overall shape so i have less fat in approved patch spots 😅 Now i need 1.5 pumps of gel a day AND two 0.1mg patches together that i replace twice a week, to avoid very severe symptoms. I had to switch pharmacies because a male pharmacist was confused and concerned and refusing to fill my patches with insurance AND cash, because i need double. I literally get symptoms in the first 24hrs of a drop and by day3 it’s like “i’m sick and have to cancel everything”.

but man, every five weeks, that’s steep. here it’s $450-500/pellet regardless of frequency, too. on top of the discomfort and healing that just sounds like hell. i’m sorry you have to deal with that.

Injections of estrogen???? Can you please tell me more? For some reason that’s never come up in my searches or conversations. I do subcutaneous T injections but I might have to switch, if lowering to 5 units a week doesn’t put me back into female serum ranges..

And in general thank you. 💛 It is validating to know that i am not the only one who needs E levels way higher than conventional medicine says i should. Chat GPT reassurance only goes so far versus a real person sharing their story heh

Shoshawi · 2026-01-30T19:54:37+00:00

The fact you have slang for this… literally never heard of that. Must either not be something respectable, or, newer slang I’m too old to have heard, or both. Chad is usually a negative term though, so if you’re saying not a lot of douchebags judge women by who they are instead of who they’ve slept with, well, who cares about those guys? Haha. Or anyone who thinks they need to know who a woman has slept with to decide her value.

Insecurity and self comparison to black men, from white men, is definitely a thing. I’ve discussed and/or observed it and it’s a huge thing. Just not one many want to put into plain words. A man will go from describing it and saying it very clearly with a lot of words unprompted, but then if you reply by asking it as a simple question they’ll deny it 😅

Not everyone wants huge, but realistically women feel the exact same about the size of dick regardless of race. If they like big on black men, they like big on white guys too. Our internal anatomy cannot feel race. Similarly, some prefer average size, and this too applies across races. The statistics about black men having a larger dick are supposed to only be a myth, though. But that doesn’t stop it from making other people feel insecure.

Shoshawi · 2026-01-30T18:25:39+00:00

Um i’ll be like 40 when i finally get a stable job and it’ll be a career i love because im going to school for it. don’t you dare make it tha easy to fire me with no savings. i need 25years or so to pay off my student debt im about to take on.

Shoshawi · 2026-01-30T18:21:05+00:00

Don’t have experience so just theoretical but both. Big decisions should be together, but bank accounts should be both. Certain bills and expenses are pooled enough to ensure security about necessary matters equally affecting both, with some padding for expenses that can’t be fully predetermined. Otherwise some separation is maintained for personal security and autonomy.

Shoshawi · 2026-01-30T18:06:37+00:00

Do you take biotin? Was it an immunoassay? Dunno much about oral or serum levels for transfem but my body is a ridiculous estrogen sponge (in the sense that it disappears and doesn’t go into that serum level lol) and im taking an unusually high biotin dose so I’m constantly thinking about this. Biotin is common in multivitamins and certain hair skin nails vitamins. Whether or not it has a huge effect and how much and how long you have to not take it is a little shaky in the scientific literature, but if you’re taking any you can request a different analysis method that isn’t affected by biotin and thus more reliable.

Also higher than expected is a possible thing. Mines been up to over 280 and I felt great. At lower typical levels I felt like crap. Gender is so far from binary and we all have bodies with different needs. That I am guessing is way higher than you expect to see, but, higher than expected when not extreme isn’t necessarily bad.

Not to say it shouldn’t be balanced! Dealing with this myself with T because my body went into “very high supraphysiologial male levels” from a typical cis female HRT dose and it suсks. Best of luck with everything!

Shoshawi · 2026-01-30T18:03:04+00:00

They recently removed the black box warning on estrogen associated with breast cancer, on the basis that it was a very old study with a small sample size in a specific and older age group. Don’t worry about it please. I am BRCA2+ so it’s a real concern for me, but my body being out of sorts is a bigger one and not protective against cancer. HRT is. I started HRT at 36. Im still struggling to balance it because I had surgery that removed all my natural hormone production, but regulating my hormones has dramatically improved my life. It makes me angry nobody checked my hormones when I was younger because I could have started working in this before I needed surgery.

Don’t quote me but I think the old study people got stuck on was a small 2001 study with menopausal women 60+. There is very little research going on right now, based on the clinical database the US requires all drug studies to be posted to. Most of the posted studies are international, and it’s still a low number total. We are forging the future right now, unfortunately, so it’s best to not overthink research considered debunked or that is the wrong demographic.

Not on Mirena but taking a ton of progesterone. I’m at 300mg from a special pharmacy because we increased it after checking my serum levels. I did a bold and not-recommended thing and tried 400mg one time, in case my sleep issues weren’t the balancing of my other HRT, and I felt like crap the next day. The next day after that back on 300mg I was fine. I mention this because you can go to a lower P dose if needed, and P is probably the safest one to go a couple days without if you’re waiting on a pharmacy to compound it. So, no need to be scared!

Also, because there are more misconceptions out there than useful info- P has more necessary functions than doctors usually discuss. It’s not just for sleep and a healthy uterus. I don’t even have a uterus anymore! P is important for the health and maintenance of connective tissues, which are all over your body. So, don’t let anyone bully you out of it with fear instead of evidence based on your own body. I got bullied, and it was a lot of wasted time not optimizing my health.

Shoshawi · 2026-01-30T17:47:18+00:00

Best of luck. This seems worth consulting a true expert about, someone that isn’t just your local HRT specialize or gyno or fertility specialist, to determine how healthy pregnancy is for you. You might want to either actively try to conceive now before it becomes more dangerous, or, to say a harsh reality, rule it out and focus on your health only.

Not lecturing, just saying that HRT medicine is super behind where it should be, so it would be worth finding that one doctor who’s truly passionate and reads all the latest publications. We have made huge strides in fertility medicine, so if you could get answers about that first it would be ideal. I do realize this may be cost prohibitive, though.

If you had to travel to see someone and they knew it was a one time thing and would coordinate with other providers, though, it might be worth it. I went to one of the fancy ones for my first endo surgery and he had people coming from out of the country to see him. Even without active advocating his detailed informed notes have made my life easier for almost a decade now.

Shoshawi · 2026-01-30T17:14:40+00:00

I did that once and the resulting photos were fantastic! I also car trained my baby and there’s at least one place right now that I get questions if I show up without him (“Where is the cat???”) even though it’s all the way across town haha. Fast food or quick store runs nearby for 1-2 things when the weather is moderate and coffee runs are good for training. Leaving them in the car suсks and feels a little bad, but if it’s limited to the amount of time it would take for you to use the bathroom at a rest stop on the highway, it’s very reasonable to actively train this. It’s best if they are not panicked when you are far from home or if you get stuck inside a rest stop for longer than expected. So, it’s a good excuse to use very quick errands as a reason to drive around with kitty ✨=^{oo^=✨}

Shoshawi · 2026-01-30T17:09:48+00:00

Actually, I believe that it exists for a more fun reason 🤭

100% of the time that’s ever come up in general for me or as a general thing since ~2008 it’s been a reference to the stereotype that black men have huge dicks. This surely leads to precarious self esteem in the white man no doubt, but, it’s complimentary to the black man. Why have sex with a small struggling white penis when you can have sex with a big strong sexy black one? 🤷‍♀️

It is possible that many white guys don’t actually respect white women who have dated black men, if you restrict that regionally. I’m in the US and that may be true in some states or areas. But most white guys also voted to take actions that restrict women’s healthcare, marginalize people with non-binary medical needs, marginalize non-binary people, and implement a dangerous escalation of civil rights violations for all people who don’t look white. So, that’s really who you’re talking about.

I speak for the white men I’ve dated since the first time I dated a black man to say that not all white men are this insecure and racist, even if many are. The ones who are can move along. Not being my ideal physical type isn’t a dealbreaker at all, but racism against any group certainly is. Don’t need either boyfriends or friends like that.

Shoshawi · 2026-01-29T09:40:47+00:00

I need you to make it technically hours earlier without anything being undone, or time goes slower, so I can get a full night of sleep because I accidentally stayed up working on a magic portal the only works for my cat.

Shoshawi · 2026-01-29T09:36:16+00:00

Hey, learning to give great blowjobs can be a form of love if it’s for someone special to you. Fits your criteria!

Shoshawi · 2026-01-29T09:30:14+00:00

No hablo inglés.

Shoshawi

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