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Im thinking about talking to my doctor about switching to monotherapy even though im scared of needles. I just hate taking the androgen blockers and im thinking about in the future if hrt gets blocked then ill be able to make liquid estrogen but not spironolactone. Does anyone have experience switching from e+spiro to monotherapy and getting over a fear of needles?
Have you considered alternative blockers? If it weren't for spiro would you even think about changing to mono?
Also, insulin syringes are really good. I never injected my whole life, and the first time I used an insulin syringe I was already a professional injecter.
oh, oh, i have that exact experience! it was a lot easier than you might think, tbh. even though i did spend the entire first day working myself into a frenzied panic over having to stab myself in the ass
but yeah i swapped almost a year ago and it's been fine. levels are good even though progress is slower than i'd like (isn't it always?). injecting now is a chore but it's not a nightmare, though i am currently a day late on it >>
if you go the injection route make sure you look up technique videos for the draw and placement. there's a way to tilt the needle when you plunge it into the vial that keeps the little rubber stopper from getting shredded, for instance
I'm new to all of this, so no experience on that first part. However, I was really afraid of having to inject myself with a needle; I didn't really trust myself. The more you do it, the easier it will get, and there are plenty of tutorials online showing you step-by-step how to prepare the injection and then the injection itself. There's also SubQ injections (under the skin), which have much shorter needles so they don't feel like much (at least for me). SubQ works similarly if not the same as Intramuscular (into the muscle), so there wouldn't be any issues with absorption or effectiveness either.
Injecting into the wrong area is my only hangup about it, I'd much rather not have to take pills every day.
It's very easy not to inject into the wrong area. The right area is very large and easy to identify.
My first time was scary, now it's easy peasy.
Even the depth? It just... I can't see what's going on.
I hope it's the same for me.
I do a 1" 23g needle, and it goes all the way into my thigh.
I take my thigh and imagine a DnD alignment grid on it. If I'm injecting into my right leg, I inject into chaotic neutral. If left leg, lawful neutral. I do this z-track method thing and it helps me bleed a lot less. https://www.webmd.com/a-to-z-guides/what-is-the-z-track-injection-method
I still suck at doing left leg so it kinda hurts sometimes. But the process is simple.
Oh really? For some reason I was worried I'd have to like, gauge the depth or something. I guess I'm thinking of how IV looks hard.
Is there a danger of hitting a nerve?
I've poked some very uncomfortable things before. You just go slow, back out a little if you hit something that hurts. There are very few large blood vessels in that part of the leg, so I rarely bleed much. And if I do, it looks scary but it's fine.
Also like, sometimes the needle doesn't go "all the way" in and it's fine. Thighs are meaty and there's a bit of freedom as to where it ends up.
Thank you for all the information, I feel way better about hrt now.
Look into using a 6mm depth 31g (small) insulin syringe. You just prick your thigh or tummy fat and that's it.
Kinda curious how such bans even work when cis people use the same medicines for other reasons.
I don't have a big fear of needles, but I am a bit squeamish with them and worried about it. For me, I think helping my brother with using an autoinjector for unrelated reasons got me more comfortable with them in a more controlled way. Wasn't nearly as bad as I expected (have only done it once so far). I still take spiro though, so no experience with monotherapy.