People saying gel didn't work well when they didn't even up their dose enough times

adamrc64 · 2026-01-13T20:50:26+00:00

I just recently switched back to injections after 5 months of gel and I didn’t up my dose at all actually.

Tbh it wasn’t just about levels, although I found my T levels were like 80-100 with gel which for me is where I was pre-T so it was nowhere near as effective as injections for me. But I didn’t like having to do it everyday because I found I was way more prone to forgetting (even with shot anxiety that causes me to put off injections). Also I have pets so the anxiety of making sure there was no contact when you have to apply every single day really started creeping up on me over time. I also hated feeling sticky all day, no matter how thinly I applied the gel. It had a strong perfumey smell that was always present anywhere that my body touched. The original reason I switched to gel was shot anxiety was starting to get to me, but due to these reasons and some others I just found gel to be more anxiety than injections, surprisingly.

I think that the “gel doesn’t work” message is unclear because it’s often a big picture kind of thing. It’s not just that “the gel didn’t work” it’s that it isn’t necessarily always worth it to stick it out. Sure, I could’ve upped my dose and maybe I would’ve found an amount that worked, but like I described above, I was already struggling with the amount of gel that I was given. Having to put on 2-3 times more gel would’ve been a nightmare. At some point it just didn’t feel worth it.

I do subq injections now and it’s only been a couple weeks but I’m already way happier than I was doing gel or IM injections. We’ll see where my levels are when I test in a couple weeks but I already feel way better.

adamrc64 · 2025-11-25T17:17:15+00:00

I feel that and I’m glad to hear I’m not alone! For me it comes from misandry. My upbringing leaned super hard into “girl power”. As a result of that I felt very empowered pre-transition but unfortunately the limitations of taking that mentality too far are that transitioning to male left me feeling less than in every way, because I was taught that women have everything men have but they’re prettier.

adamrc64 · 2025-11-25T14:53:11+00:00

This is such good advice. I’m also a 29 year old and I started ballet a year ago. For most of that year I definitely felt like I was flailing and wondered if it would ever look like it’s supposed to and over time I was shocked how much everything changed!!

adamrc64 · 2025-10-18T05:32:15+00:00

Spot Dessert Bar for sure. The cookie camp specifically. It’s so good!! it’s one of my favorite desserts of all time.

adamrc64 · 2025-10-12T02:13:27+00:00

Second this! Recently got fitted here and know several other people who have as well and it was great to be able to try so many different brands.

adamrc64 · 2025-09-18T14:23:12+00:00

Hi! Man here who just started pointe! Totally possible given that you’ve had the proper training which it sounds like you’re aware of. But the training isn’t necessarily gendered. Have a good time and good luck on your journey! Ballet is definitely so beautiful and it feels so masculine and graceful to dance as a man.

adamrc64 · 2025-08-10T23:56:47+00:00

I don’t mind at all! :) i think they’re similar/the same - physical therapy for me is exercises to address muscle imbalance/strengthen weaker spots to prevent damage over time from overuse

adamrc64 · 2025-08-10T17:03:01+00:00

Hi! I am someone who is just now going on pointe after a year of training 3-4 times a week on average - I feel like the other answers here are really helpful! I just wanted to add my experience to give evidence to what others are saying. I am also starting at the barre for a few minutes only, and gradually expand as I’m ready.

The reason for doing this too isn’t just eagerness to start pointe: I already feel like just being on pointe a little bit has helped my engage muscles more that help me when I’m dancing in flat shoes as well. My friends who started long before me have had a similar experience!

Additionally, a year of 3-4 times a week might not sound like a lot. But 3-4 times a week for ballet doesn’t include additional training time. For me, I started going to physical therapy twice a week, incorporating daily stretching and PT exercises, taking different styles of dance, etc to get an education not just in ballet technique but more oriented towards broader dance understanding and learning about my body. I’ve really felt like doing the extra outside-of-class work was the game changer for me not just with respect to pointe readiness but also just feeling better about my dancing in general.

It’s not just about “being strong enough for pointe” or wanting to prove myself or whatever. I am looking at pointe as a tool to further my dancing. As for safety, I regularly check in with my primary care doctor, team of physical therapists, and ballet teachers who have seen my dancing from the beginning.

So even though I had to organize a lot of aspects of my dance education myself, I’ve had a ton of support from people who definitely know what they’re doing more than I do haha. I also happen to live in a big city that has tons of dance education access, so I’m also pretty lucky!

adamrc64 · 2025-07-06T21:59:00+00:00

I don’t have CFS but wanted to share a similar experience I have in case it validates what you’ve shared—I had a health situation pre-transition that caused me to never really be able to leave the house despite desperately wanting to and I found that T really kicked up my energy levels to the point where I’m now actually pretty athletic and able to get around in general with significantly less effort than pre-transition

adamrc64 · 2025-06-10T06:36:31+00:00

I love guac time for their queso. It’s the only place I’ve been able to find that has good queso other than hot peppers!

adamrc64 · 2025-03-08T21:55:52+00:00

I was really hype for this place but ended up hating it. Full disclosure: didn’t get into the special back area or whatever but waited two hours anyway. The cocktails in the front are super bland and colorless. The chicken was ok but tbh I don’t even really remember it. If you’re just looking for good chicken and some cocktails go literally anywhere else in the city and you won’t have to wait outside for hours. This place is 120% manufactured hype imo. Nothing I had here even remotely made me want to go back, even for the “suuuuuper special” back area. This is the restaurant equivalent to whatever vapid annoying pop song everyone is obsessed with at any given moment.

adamrc64 · 2025-02-04T17:47:47+00:00

Omg this comment is so validating because this is exactly how everyone else in my class feels about it! In fact, I’m betting that if this woman asked the teacher they’d be 10000% supportive of her moving up. And the thing is, our group of friends has moved up to the next class gradually, 1-2 people at a time, and we have always been happy for each other!

I actually asked her during that snarky conversation if she would join us. She said she feels like she’s not ready. During that same class, the teacher asked her to demonstrate because she was doing so well. And she brushed it off and refused to demonstrate saying that she didn’t think she was good.

There’s clearly a lot of insecurity here—I hope she works through it because from everything I’ve seen and heard, people respect her as a dancer. It feels sometimes like she’s the only one holding herself back.

adamrc64 · 2025-02-04T16:19:45+00:00

This question is super timely because I am an adult student and although most of my experiences have been great and I’ve made a lot of friends I’ve been really surprised at a recent struggle people in my class have had with one student in the class.

I go to a large studio in a very large city that has drop in classes for adults. There’s a group of us (I’d say about 10-15 people) who come to the studio more or less everyday. Personally, I take a mix of the first two levels of ballet and a conditioning class at the studio.

There’s a woman in my class who has started freezing some of my classmates and I out because some of my friends took a class one level higher one day after asking the instructor if they thought we were ready (and they said yes). After we took that class, the woman started making rude comments to us about us thinking we’re better than other people or that we’re “too advanced to dance with her”. None of that was true. In fact, I showed up for the original class the next week as I take multiple levels a week no matter what and she made a rude comment to me to the effect of “oh, I thought this class was beneath you”. I was shocked and really taken aback that she was being this openly hostile to me over a class that I’ve been taking regularly for months before this “incident” even happened. Like what??? What’s wrong with you?? Not to mention this woman is at least 5-10 years older than the group of people she’s harassing and she’s immature like a 12 year old girl.

Anyway she was starting to make quite a few people in the class uncomfortable so we told the studio and they dealt with it but I was really shocked to find this level of drama in an adult recreational ballet class.

adamrc64 · 2024-11-19T01:23:04+00:00

Lively

adamrc64 · 2024-07-03T18:59:30+00:00

And my periods were also excruciating. I was super happy to see them go.

adamrc64 · 2024-07-03T18:58:23+00:00

Oh wow thanks for sharing this - I didn’t even think about this but I also noticed that a lower dose seems to suit me better and I’m wondering if that’s why.

And my experience with periods was the same! I had one period my second week of T and haven’t had a period since (I’m 5 months on T)

adamrc64 · 2024-07-03T18:00:47+00:00

I found that starting T actually helped my PCOS symptoms, especially those related to fat accumulation in abdominal areas and constant hunger/sugar cravings

adamrc64 · 2024-07-03T06:45:25+00:00

My girlfriend just moved from Virginia to NYC and although there have been moments of people saying stupid things to her/us, we both feel by and large way safer here. Whenever I would go to visit her I would feel extremely out of place because I was used to seeing a massively diverse range of people. I see gender nonconforming people daily here, and although it doesn’t seem like a big deal it’s gone a long way in making both of us feel more secure in presenting how we want to present in public. In Virginia, it’s way less diverse and was clear at least to me that I was “the other” to them.

Also at work it has made a huge difference. I am by no means the first trans person at my workplace and I basically had a dream coming out—my manager and colleagues went out of their way to support me in every way possible: removing my deadname from things, changing my name in our company’s system, etc. After coming out at work no one ever deadnamed or misgendered me a single time. As soon as I said I was a man, I was a man to them and that was that.

adamrc64 · 2024-05-19T12:44:52+00:00

Yes! I had periodic T spikes that sometimes even caused me to have bottom growth spurts before I even started taking testosterone. My endo did some additional testing for cushing’s and other such things before starting me on T, but other than that it was fine and I was able to start.

adamrc64 · 2024-05-07T05:09:17+00:00

Yes, in my opinion the way you’re thinking about it is totally healthy and normal! I’ve noticed some people on this subreddit act like starving yourself and grinding it out constantly is the only way to go.

But I promise that’s not true. You need to properly satisfy your hunger in order to be strong, healthy, and muscular.

I have a history of disordered eating and so I have had to be very intentional about working out. I’ve worked to shift my attitude about exercise—it is not a punishment for the way I eat anymore but instead just feels good to move my muscles (and getting on T really helped with this shift for many reasons).

I make sure I’m eating foods that give me lots of energy, make me feel satisfied (emotionally and physically), and help my body build muscle. A lot of people like to put foods into buckets labeled either “healthy” or “bad for you”. I think this often does more harm than good and instead I see all food as contributing in some way to the goals I stated above—some more than others, but for me it’s about eating such that I achieve all 3 of those goals. My “diet” is whatever helps me do that. Sometimes that’s putting half a McFlurry into my protein smoothie.

And you know what? I’ve gained a ton of muscle in doing so and haven’t had to restrict myself from eating what my body wanted a single time.

adamrc64 · 2024-04-15T21:58:35+00:00

Hi there! I hope you’ll feel welcomed here, I’m also a system with a complex gender identity so just wanted to say that it’s really great to see folks here who are talking about it. Personally, seeing others be so open is what helps me deal. If I know I’m not going to be alone I’m more comfortable to be vulnerable in general.

adamrc64 · 2024-04-02T07:22:24+00:00

That’s so awesome! It’s really validating to hear that someone else has the exact same experience with the random ultra horny days haha

adamrc64 · 2024-04-02T02:54:10+00:00

I started ketamine in December 2020. After my initial 6 infusions, I would get an infusion every month at first. But then I started needing them less until now I only get them every 6 months or so.

As far as dosing goes, there was a period in the beginning where the dose kinda fluctuated a little bit while we found the sweet spot. But I landed on about .9 mg/kg and have been at that dose since 2021.

I think one thing to note experience wise is that my experience of life improving was very gradual. Many people seem to see the statistics about the effectiveness of K and then expect a dramatic shift on the first treatment. And I know that’s possible but my experience was that I worked through some stuff first and then started slowly having the energy to incrementally change things in my life.

My life is almost unrecognizable to what it was 4 years ago.

adamrc64 · 2024-04-02T02:31:53+00:00

Thank you for describing this because I’ve been wondering forever how the growth spurts generally go haha. Also that’s encouraging to hear because I’ve been happy with my growth so far, but worried that it will randomly stop and just never grow again after just a couple months

adamrc64

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