Note: this is not medical advice and you must do your own research yourself. please consult a doctor before utilizing any of the content in this post. I do not accept responsibility for any negative consequences that occur as a result of the information in this post.
as it's becoming increasingly clear that we must secure access to hormones for ourselves, I'm sharing this homebrew procedure I've cobbled together from research. I won't pretend that I wrote this all myself - it's just procedural notes from various sources online. anyone with an extremely basic knowledge of chemistry should be able to follow this procedure using equipment that's easily purchased from online retailers, including Amazon, for not very much money. I've chosen estradiol cypionate here as it has a longer half-life inside the body than estradiol valerate, meaning 1/week injections result in less variability in blood E2 levels. the raw powder can be purchased from alibaba for as little as $500/Kg, in amounts as low as 10g. to put that in perspective, 10g of estradiol is approximately 1000 weeks worth of injections for a single person. a single gram produces two 10mL vials of 50mg/mL estradiol cypionate. this is remarkably cost effective if you have the basic knowhow and can effectively reduce the risk of contamination.
my primary addition is the procedure for sanitization. most sources online assume that estradiol must be handled like testosterone - that the only way to prevent infections when homebrewing it in conditions that don't even come close to cleanroom is to include copious amounts of preservatives (usually benzyl alcohol). however, BA causes an allergic reaction in a small percentage of people, so using large quantities of it is potentially dangerous for anyone who's reactive to the chemical, so alternative/supplemental means of preservation are desirable. after some research, I found that estradiol is actually stable at high temperatures (>200C) - that is, unlike testosterone, it does not break down at the temperatures required to sterilize with heat alone. this is important as in order to adequately sterilize the final product, you have to stick the sealed vial into the sterilizer -- leaving the compound exposed to air just reintroduces the possibility for contamination once the product leaves the sterilizer. I still include benzyl alcohol here because it helps to mitigate the risk of contamination but I plan to reduce it's role in the recipe after further testing. it's hard to eliminate it entirely because it helps make the injectable product move through the needle more readily, but this allergy risk should not go unstated, and it can feel uncomfortable for a bit when injecting as it will induce a mild burning sensation at the injection site, especially as benzyl alcohol levels increase.
with any procedure like this, make sure to do your own testing. spore kits are available online that allow you to intentionally contaminate a batch with identifiable spores, then send the batch to the lab associated with the kit for testing. if the spores are found active in the final product, you know that your heat treatment and preservative use did not adequately eliminate the risk of contamination. I strongly advise making use of one of these services, despite the relatively high cost (cheapest I found came close to $200 total for the testing, including the kit), as an inadequate mitigation procedure can leave you and all the people you give estradiol with the risk of infection hovering over your head. I also recommend sending the estradiol powder into a lab for analysis so you can verify that you actually got the product you attempted to buy - though this can be done more cheaply by injecting yourself with it for a few weeks and getting your blood levels tested. if there are contaminants in the source, you will poison yourself doing this, but if you must save money, there you go.
edit with caveats from the thread that might get lost:
- injecting anything into your body that wasn't manufactured in a cleanroom carries substantial risk of infection. you're bypassing all but a few of the strongest defenses your body has against both toxins and infections. most of this procedure isn't actually a recipe for making anything - it's a step by step breakdown of how to mitigate that risk as best as possible. however, no matter how well you do, there's always a risk - even if you do exactly the same thing each and every time. that you tested your product once and it came back clean from the lab does not mean it's clean every single time. you can be more sure that you're doing okay on this front by doing consistent testing. wait until you've filled most of the vials and contaminate only the last vial with spores, and send that vial to a lab to be tested after sterilization - and commit to doing this for every single batch.
- raw materials from Alibaba may just be contaminated or outright lie about what they've sent to you. most of the time, this doesn't happen - regulators in China and the risk of just going out of business help prevent this. but buying something on the gray (or really, any other) market always carries risks. you really should test each batch of raw materials you get to be sure.
- storing the vials manufactured this way for long periods of time (>2-4 years) is a recipe for infection. low-grade contamination that gets past your testing can build up into a worse problem as time goes on. keep some spore test vials in storage and test one every year to see if active spores have become detectable again.
the low price tag on the materials has a deeply hidden cost in genuinely protecting each other from harm. if "we keep us safe" is to mean anything, anyone undertaking these procedures must take testing seriously and commit to rigor in the validation process. the more you skimp on testing, the more likely you are to hurt people. this procedure and the testing regimen aren't hard to follow. they're quite simple. but simple does not mean they can be undertaken without adequate care. the most difficult part of this is that testing takes time and money - you can't do a spore test without a clean room and that means paying capital to do it for us. same deal with spectra analysis on the raw materials. and all of this requires discipline.
I'm a degreed chemist who worked for years at a pharmaceutical plant that made injectable drugs. I have homebrewed my own oral drugs from veterinary stock before, but I would NEVER attempt to make my own injectables. That's a whole 'nother level of danger. The amount of quality control that injectable drugs are subject to is insane. Even if you can guarantee biological sterility and chemical identity, there is the matter of adulteration by particulates or trace chemicals, both of which can be deadly if they're going directly into your veins (going into your stomach is less dangerous).
I thought estradiol was taken orally though? I don't know that much about trans healthcare (just drug manufacturing).
Yeah I'm pretty sure it's both oral/injectable. Injections supposedly more potent iirc but really safety ought to be taking first priority here
Injectable is preferred because it is less stressful on your organs.
I know you can / should(?) do that with progesterone, but have no idea if it works for estrogen.
I'm guessing that any drug that works orally will also work as a suppository, but I'm not a doctor.
I thought estradiol was taken orally though?
There are many methods. Oral is most commonly prescribed in the united states as far as I am aware. Transdermal is a valid method too, and is commonly prescribed in australia. Injectables are a valid method too.
a significant portion of the trans population in the US is about to lose legal access to hormones. another significant segment lacks insurance and the money to buy hormones, or are otherwise gatekept from transition by well-meaning, but ultimately transphobic doctors.
I think the point is that attempting to smuggle stuff across state lines is preferable to homebrew chemistry.
chemistry is... charitable... this is a packaging procedure for gray market hormones purchased in bulk from China. it's a process by which to prepare a lot of estradiol for injection in a small package for easier transport.
for ingestion
Your text says it's for injection. Which is it? There is a HUGE difference.
sorry I'm substituting words to avoid repetition. I mean for injection.
thread from yesterday. this is a trial balloon like with abortion. a bunch of red states will follow suit and ban transition if the courts don't stop this. and even if the courts do, they'll probably try it anyway.
:this:
We have to prepare now, even if it’s just a hobby project and you don’t take any of it. Trying to learn while you’re out of your primary sex hormone is going to be agony.
The anti-LGBTQ legislation is getting more extreme. There’s one in Missouri that extends the ban on transitioning until age 25 and may end up passing
The Missouri bills sucks and of course, death to Missouri, but to clarify... the bill bans transitioning up to age 18. The 25 thing was in regards to some sponsors of the bill thinking it should be 25.
Anyone have any idea what it would cost for the equipment to do this properly? Are we talking $10 thousand or $10 million?
you need a vacuum chamber (I've seen ~$5k) and some way to purify the raw materials. that purification process starts to compound the equipment needs because you're trying to remove a wider and wider class of contaminants in the raw estradiol. but I know people like NileRed manage to pull this kind of equipment together so it can't cost more than 10s-100s of thousands of dollars.
but yeah, I want to know the same thing cause like... if it's cheaper than buying a house it must be doable with a few well-off comrades working together.
oh also, we can bypass a lot of the risks of contamination if we can directly produce pure estradiol. if you work in a CRISPR lab, please DM me, lol.
What's the risk that something goes wrong when making this through being an inexperienced chemist, and what could happen if something does go wrong?
I feel like people should be aware of the risks before making consumables.
a fucking lot, heres a chemical whose neurotoxicity was discovered when a grad student accidentally synthesized it and injected it while making opioids, giving himself parkinsons in the process:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MPTP
Kidston's Parkinsonism was treated with levodopa but he died 18 months later from a cocaine overdose.
I'd like to think I'd do something differently, but god damn if I gave myself Parkinson's from fucking up making opioids I'd be pretty self-destructive too.
is that the only way to treat parkinson’s? How long does it last for? Fuck that is dark…
it's a little different because you're not actually synthesizing any chemicals here. just dissolving an existing product and packaging it into vials while attempting to deal with contamination introduced by both the raw materials AND the packaging process. the chemicals involved are all pretty well understood and all of them but benzyl alcohol are in the estrogen injections sold by pharmacies. so if there's a hidden risk from the chemicals being used, it's a risk literally all of us already bear. the new risk is from contamination because we cannot purify the raw estradiol, or package it, under clean-room conditions.
I guess you can test for impurities at home by mixing it with a sample of pharmaceutical company produced estradiol, and then comparing the melting point to the literature melting point of estradiol - I only know how to do it one way with those big melting point apparatus thingies that cost 3 grand though, probably not much help. If the mix of the homebrew estradiol and pure estradiol has a lower melting point and a wider melting point than the literature temp, it has impurities. You might be able to do a couple simple washes too to remove out any impurities, I don't know what impurities the reaction could make in OPs homebrew chemistry.
You might be able to do a couple simple washes too to remove out any impurities
hard part is figuring out what reasonable impurities might be - the manufacturing processes are secret and the fact that they share equipment with other chemicals manufactured in the same facility means that the contaminants might not even be related to the manufacturing process. I'm still trying to find an affordable lab that will tell me what's in the sample I send it so I can devise an appropriate wash. it's not water-soluble so perhaps water is a good place to start for safety? unsure, still trying to figure this out.
See, this is wonderfully useful to have online for folx like me who are trying to prepare in advance. I live in one of the red states that is abso-fucking-lutely going to go full chud with this shit.
there is a big difference between homebrewing estrogens/estradiol and homebrewing fucking heroin lol
tbf I’ve never done that soooo :shrug-outta-hecks: I assumed heroin would be more difficult idk
- injecting anything into your body that wasn't manufactured in a cleanroom carries substantial risk of infection. you're bypassing all but a few of the strongest defenses your body has against both toxins and infections. most of this procedure isn't actually a recipe for making anything - it's a step by step breakdown of how to mitigate that risk as best as possible. however, no matter how well you do, there's always a risk - even if you do exactly the same thing each and every time. that you tested your product once and it came back clean from the lab does not mean it's clean every single time. you can be more sure that you're doing okay on this front by doing consistent testing. wait until you've filled most of the vials and contaminate only the last vial with spores, and send that vial to a lab to be tested after sterilization - and commit to doing this for every single batch.
- raw materials from Alibaba may just be contaminated or outright lie about what they've sent to you. most of the time, this doesn't happen - regulators in China and the risk of just going out of business help prevent this. but buying something on the gray (or really, any other) market always carries risks. you really should test each batch of raw materials you get to be sure.
- storing the vials manufactured this way for long periods of time (>2-4 years) is a recipe for infection. low-grade contamination that gets past your testing can build up into a worse problem as time goes on. keep some spore test vials in storage and test one every year to see if active spores have become detectable again.
the low price tag on the materials has a deeply hidden cost in genuinely protecting each other from harm. if "we keep us safe" is to mean anything, anyone undertaking these procedures must take testing seriously and commit to rigor in the validation process. the more you skimp on testing, the more likely you are to hurt people. this procedure and the testing regimen aren't hard to follow. they're quite simple. but simple does not mean they can be undertaken without adequate care. the most difficult part of this is that testing takes time and money - you can't do a spore test without a clean room and that means paying capital to do it for us. same deal with spectra analysis on the raw materials. and all of this requires discipline.
you should definitely get your raw chems from alibaba tested. try asking on a research chemical (grey market drugs) forum for third party labs.
This is a really cool idea, but because I have zero knowledge of chemistry, it also frightens me.
I'll let the chem nerds handle this one
to clarify, the basic chem knowledge is in being able to check the weights and measures to make sure the product that comes out was the one that was actually promised, and so you can compare what you finally wind up with to determine your yield. actually following this recipe is about as complicated as cooking, albeit with different equipment, and a lot more care in trying to prevent contamination. like if you've ever wondered "is it possible to just make our own medication?" this is a nice jumping off point to get you started.
This is listed as a method of last resort. Trans people had been DIYing hormones for fucking decades before we convinced healthcare professionals to switch over to an informed consent model.
If states ban transitioning until you’re 25, this will be what so many trans folx do to survive. it’s not medical advice and it is better than the discussion not happening.
Stay safe comrades. See if you can acquire by theft or fraud before you even think of doing this. If you absolutely must, do not approach casually because you can die doing this, and preventing contamination is no trivial matter. I don't want to tell anyone what risks are worth taking, but be aware of the risks, and I know it might be scant comfort but fwiw, you're valid hormones or not.
Punching capsules is far, far less dangerous than this Dilute the stock powder down with lactose powder to a reasonable ug per mg and measure weight of the cap before/after filling. Hell, drink a diluted solution before you go the injection route. Titate to effect to account for unpredictable dissolution/absorption/metabolism person-to-person.
Punching capsules is far, far less dangerous than this Dilute the stock powder down with lactose powder to a reasonable ug per mg and measure weight of the cap before/after filling. Hell, drink a diluted solution before you go the injection route. Titate to effect to account for unpredictable dissolution/absorption/metabolism person-to-person
Responding for future reference. Any other tips?
I'd have to crack some books to give anything beyond basic compounding best practices. Get acquainted with how to operate a balance and its rating, understand the concept of "least weighable quantity" and scale sensitivity, and methods for acquiring a desired mass of active ingredient despite those limitations - so if I can only accurately weigh 10 mg and need 1mg, weigh out 10 mg, dilute with 90mg insert material, then weigh out 10 mg of that mix. When mixing two or more powders, go to YouTube and search "geometric dilution". Much easier to see than for me to tell. For filling capsules, weigh them empty, pack them, weigh them full, then adjust the filling if necessary. The release mechanism of homemade capsules will not be as good as film coated tablets, and these WILL be inferior (as far as predictability of dose to clinical effect) to commercially available estradiol tablets, this is a patch job at best, but it will be relatively low risk if you do your calculations right.
Mary Maggic has done some work in this realm. https://maggic.ooo/
I ran across this in my research. her stuff looks really cool and I hope she puts out a replicable means of making estrogen.
I think your liver will just decide to go on strike. start with like 1% that much :cat-trans:
it's still a good reminder cause I'm sure there's a trans femme egg reading this who laughed and went "wait...could I?"
Nah, bro; you gotta ease into that shit. Start with 500 mg reishi mushroom extract tablets (testosterone/androgen blocker), one in the morning and one in the evening, for about a week. Next, add in pueria mirifica (fairly potent phytoestrogen), starting at 500 mg per day, and add another 500 mg each week until you hit about 2500-3000 mg. Then you will experience gender mania for a month straight.
Do not actually do this. No, seriously. You need at least two or three other things (e.g., a pro-aromatase, an HGH source, potentiators to help reduce the load on your liver and/or activate your estrogen receptors, etc.) for that cocktail to work properly, and all the dosages/concentrations are unreliable as hell because herbal supplements are completely fucking unregulated. Plus, once you get that phytoestrogen source in your system, if you suddenly experience body horror/dysphoria and want to stop, it's not leaving your system for a while because it has solubilized into your fat tissues, and it's going to hang around until you detox. Also worth pointing out that prolonged pueria mirifica usage may permanently shrink your bepis and render you infertile, just like estradiol injections.
Source: Wife may or may not have cracked my egg over Easter, and I've been down a research rabbit hole. Definitely skewing NB/GF at the moment, and curious whether a full MtF transition is what I really do eventually want, so I figured what the hell -- do exactly what you said and dose myself with a bunch of estrogens and see if it leaves me a dysphoric mess for 3-6 weeks. :shrug-outta-hecks:
Goddamn, thank you for writing this. I’m beyond incredibly stressed rn about all of the transphobia out there.
Related resource: https://diyhrt.github.io/
I think alot of the reactions in this thread are from people failing to understand HRT is not taken IV
Please remove this wtf, please do not try this. If you don't have the skills to figure this out yourself you don't have the knowledge to do this properly.
Especially when you can order estrace tablets online from overseas and it's so easy to get a cis female friend to get an estrace scrip
Especially when you can order estrace tablets online from overseas
You can't necessarily do this. Some countries including mine examine all packages coming in from overseas and seize and destroy medication.
If we're going to sterilize a vial in the oven, should we vent it with a needle so that it doesn't burst?
sorry was sick so just getting back to this. try it with a single vial but if you leave room at the top of the vial, it shouldn't pressurize so much that it bursts. I haven't yet had a problem with it, at least. if you try and fill the vials completely though, you will need to vent, but doing so will also risk contamination as you'll be providing a vector for pathogens to get inside the vial as it cools.
