Hi I'm a chemist, my current work is with PFAS compounds, often known as forever chemicals. Please ask me about those, or anything else you are curious about related to chemistry. I will try to give you a solid response.

    • ZoomeristLeninist [they/them, she/her]M
      ·
      2 years ago

      very difficult synthesis since estrogens are a four-ring system. i did find a good synthetic route for estrone which can be easily converted to estradiol https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/chemistry/estrone

      its a 9 step reaction with starting materials of 3-ethynylanisole ($50 for 1 gram) and 1,5-decalindione ($200 for 1 gram). reactants/catalysts include potassium hydroxide (cheap), hydrogen gas (not that expensive), palladium (expensive but reusable since its a catalyst), a strong acid, aluminum chloride (relatively cheap for the small amount you need), benzaldehyde (cheap), methylene iodide (relatively cheap), potassium tert-butoxide (cheap), ozone (hard to find and i think its expensive), acetic anhydride (cheap), and hydrobromic acid (relatively cheap)

      ik its not what you want to hear, it being prohibitively expensive to synthesize, but i wish you the best in your search for HRT chemicals

      on a more optimistic note, with a functional lab and $10,000 one could synthesize enough estrogen to provide a lifetime supply for dozens of trans comrades, probably hundreds

      • CrimsonSage [any]
        ·
        2 years ago

        Honestly... that answer is awesome. Doing research is hard because most of what I get back is on estrogen synthesis in living organisms; which is interesting, but not very helpful. At least it isnt helpful until we find a way to stick some plasmids in ecoli and then just harvest whatever they poop out.

      • aFuckingChemist [comrade/them]
        hexagon
        ·
        2 years ago

        Yeah that'd be an interesting side product. I would add another 5k or so for purification and testing, in order to validate the purity. You need an effective distribution method. It'd have to be fairly scaled unfortunately.

      • forcequit [she/her]
        ·
        2 years ago

        how involved is older (with higher risk of cancer I think?) manufacture of premarin? I understand it was prepared from pregnant mare urine but that's as far as I got

        • ZoomeristLeninist [they/them, she/her]M
          ·
          2 years ago

          Hmm I don’t know anything about that but people with ovaries have estrogen in their urine, moreso if they’re pregnant. So it’s probably as simple as just extracting the mixed estrogens from from horse urine. From what I’ve found googling, the cancer was caused by mixing premarin with progestin