So I am hypothetically, allegedly, possibly, asking for a friend about info regarding to DIY hrt. What are common pitfalls to avoid, people's favorite sources and ways to stay safe wile doing DIY. firstly, is coffee.hrt a good aggregator for pharmaceutical sites? Secondly, on average, how long can the results of estrogen be hidden before it become obvious? Thirdly, where can I find good dosage charts. Lastly, if I can't access or afford blood testing, how do I keep dosage safe and effective?
I've been on DIY for roughly 9 months and it's not super difficult to hide. I started out obese, so I still just look like an amorphous blob. I wear oversized, baggy t-shirts to hide the fact that my hips have flared out and that I have a noticeable hourglass shape going on, and I'm at the point where I can't wear men's jeans anymore because they sit too low and won't snap around my hips/butt unless I get an absurdly huge waist size. I swiped a pair of my wife's old MILF jeans and lo and behold, they're a perfect fit. This became an issue at around the 5-6 month mark. Breast growth hasn't kicked into overdrive yet, so I'm not at the point of needing binders to hide that -- just baggy shirts or jackets. Regardless, it's different for everyone, so take this with a grain of salt. I also have no clue what my levels look like because I haven't been able to get blood tests done yet.
hrt dot coffee has been helpful, but you do have to be vigilant about who you order from on there. If
you'reyour friend is in the US, RX Aisle (Turkish seller listed on that site) will ship anti-androgens and patches/tablets out of the EU, but customs processing takes a LONG time. Patches are the safest starting dose ifyou'reyour friend is over about 30-35, but they can cause some nasty skin irritation and fall off if you look at them too hard. Nexcare Tegaderm dressings can help keep them in place and protect them while showering/swimming/etc., but they can also exacerbate irritation from sweat buildup. In my case, I wound up switching to gel after about 3 months because the irritation from the patches was too much and they kept falling off after 5 days anyway when they're supposed to be a weekly dose. The gel that I got is from Otokonoko, another seller on hrt dot coffee. Note that the site recently moved to a new top-level domain, and some of the listings on hrt dot coffee aren't updated yet. Anyway, Otokonoko is a homebrewer, and their gel uses a different formula from white-label Oestrogel -- namely that it comes in a really inaccurate pump, and that it dries in about 2-3 minutes instead of 10-15. I blew through a tube of that in about 4 months because of the pump not measuring out even doses, but I'm definitely seeing results.As for dosing recommendations, Transfem Science is a good source, and so is the DIY HRT Directory: https://diyhrt.wiki/transfem#what_methods