DISCLAIMER: This is not medical advice, engage in DIY HRT at your own risk; the intent of this post is harm reduction. This information is not intended for minors; by reading further you agree you are over the age of 21.
DISCLAIMER 2: This is not rigorous scientific research. I conducted this experiment over the course of a work day, carrying out my actual work while trying to not arouse suspicion. That being said, I am using these results to inform my own DIY HRT.
Earlier this year, I bought estradiol enanthate (EEn) from Dragon Ordnance ( dragonordnance.io or dragonordnance.com ; .io seems to be down but they’re run by the same people). Shipping was expensive ($50 I think) because they are located in China, but the prices are low ($5 for a gram that will last over 2 years). You have to email them for information on how to send payment, either sending cryptocurrency or a cash transfer via the Wise app. The people are really nice too; the person processing orders had COVID when I ordered and my order was delayed a week or two so they sent me double my order. I’m sitting on a 25 year supply now so I’m going to be giving away a lot of E to friends.
I also bought MCT oil as a solvent for the injectable solution and benzyl alcohol as a preservative from Dragon Ordnance. I used a volumetric flask to make a 50 mg/mL EEn solution with 2% v/v benzyl alcohol, but if you don’t have access to volumetric flasks you can make a vial with 500 mg EEn, 0.2 mL benzyl alcohol, and 9.35 mL MCT oil. This wiki is a good resource for DIY MtF HRT, but the owner of the group is an outspoken anti-communist. I plan on injecting 0.3 mL (15 mg EEn) every 14 days, but this wiki recommends 0.22 mL (11 mg EEn) every 7 or 10 days. Use distilled water to determine which liquid is MCT oil and which is benzyl alcohol. The MCT oil will float on distilled water, while the benzyl alcohol sinks. Also, 1 mL of benzyl alcohol will dissolve in 25 mL of water if you mix it thoroughly, while MCT oil will not dissolve in water.
I happen to be a chemist who has access to a variety of analytical instruments so I ran UPLC to test for purity and GC-MS to verify that the chemical is actually estradiol.
The UPLC chromatogram indicates very high purity (>99%), as only one peak was visible.
The extracted UV-Vis spectrum of the UPLC at 8.429 minutes (the sole peak above) was consistent with the expected UV absorption of estradiol esters.
The GC-MS chromatogram similarly indicated the presence of just one compound at 26.628 minutes (the first peak is the solvent I used, and the following two peaks are solvents commonly used in our lab and are likely only present in this chromatogram due to residue on the sample injection needle). The small peak between 14 and 15 minutes is likely a breakdown product formed in the harsh GC conditions.
The mass spectrum at 26.628 minutes indicates the compound is estradiol enanthate. The NIST library we use indicated a >90% chance that the compound is some estradiol derivative based on the fragmentation. The base peak at 384.3 m/z is sufficient evidence to identify the compound as estradiol enanthate, which has a molar mass of 384.56 g/mol.
I am confident that the powder sent by Dragon Ordnance is high purity estradiol enanthate and would highly recommend this vendor for their low price, quality product, and good service.
I inject like 2-3mg every 7 days. 11mg sounds so high
good post i support appropriating lab equipment for this purpose
yeah that would make my tits explode, mine swell painfully (and temporarily) on a too high dose, did that for years with little permanent gain in breast growth. i think the wiki is probably too assertive, a lot of things are ymmv and you really need blood tests done to determine blood estradiol levels. i tried bica and got some nasty side effects, spiro is the easiest ive tried
Yeah, I didn’t like the attitude of the wiki writer either but there’s some good info there. I’ve heard you don’t need an AA when you’re doing injections, what is your experience with this?
generally its my recommendation to do spiro for 3-6 months to shrink the testes and then do mono if thats what you want to do. i low dose spiro and take estradiol pills these days for specific effects (spiro got rid of boners for me, big fan, had issues with that on mono). i did injections but it would leave scars and irritated skin, and residue from patches was annoying (i have sensitive skin). spiro really nukes testicles from orbit, mvp, shocking how much mass they lose and how much it reigns the T in
spiro is the most common antiandrogen for trans stuff by far in the USA. usually theyll start you out on 100-200mg depending on how high your T is, then usually estrogen is 2-8mg each day under the tongue
I was considering bica but the cost of AAs is a limiting factor for me. For me, maintaining a functioning penis is important, so I don’t think spiro is ideal. I figured the injections will give high enough E levels to naturally lower T. Is the 3-6 months spiro recommended for someone in my situation— wanting to maintain penis size and function?
it might be hard to get high enough estradiol to lower the T without an anti-androgen at first. i recall a number of people with monotherapy having issues with that, youd need a very high dose i think to get it to push down. if you know your T levels and its on the lower end of normal i think itd be pretty reasonable to try monotherapy out of the gate. in the USA 100mg of spiro for 3 months is like 15 USD.
again this is all YMMV, people have wildly different reactions to HRT, blood tests are very important. to highlight this, i know someone where spiro did almost nothing at 200mg and another who had extreme amounts of T and it nuked it to 0 with 50mg. if you need help with payments or finding a place to get blood tested at lmk i can look into that for you.
Thank you so much!
what issues did you face on bica, if you don't mind me asking?
Very bad migraines iirc, I tried everything to see if it helped with breast growth. Most things like prog and high estradiol are like a temporary 1 increase in cup size for me but made my tits hurt a lot. Not permanent, once you stop the pain goes away and so does the swelling.
Prog was a good T blocker tho
Spiro makes me a little lightheaded but I think its probably the best for me
slow and steady wins the race, ive been on hrt for 10+ years at this point, still get some permanent growth every now and again. bodies are weird
Maybe I’ll cut my dose down then. This is my first time doing HRT so i don’t have any personal experience. I’ve seen studies for 10 mg every 14 days returning peak E2 levels of 300+
https://transfemscience.org/misc/injectable-e2-simulator/ I've had a good experience after playing around with this it predicted my levels quite closely
Thanks for the resource!