Making your own injections

I don't wish to keep the "secret" of making estrogen for myself. Everyone should have access to life saving medication, The knowledge how to get it, or the knowledge how to make it. There are a few other guides out there but none meet my standards of quality or safety. This guide is largely based on Lena's guide. However I made some changes which I believe are essential to safety and quality.

The base cost to make your own Estradiol in a non-professional setting is roughly € 450 for 45-50 vials. This is a lifetime supply. However, you should do this at your own risk. The method I describe is a relatively safe and an easy way to do it at home, but is in no way comparable to pharmaceutical grade medicine. This is only good if you use it for yourself and understand the risks involved.

European countries don't prescribe injections and as far as im aware only the Czech Republic manufactures Estradiol injections in glass ampoules (ew). This makes it basically impossible to get on injections in Europe unless you import it or buy from homebrewers. If you don't want to make them yourself, I sell Estradiol Enanthate injections for € 50.

Table of contents

Seek a medical professional

While im aware that its not possible for everyone to go to an endocrinologist or doctor, it is certainly advisable. Unless you live in conservative or transphobic country, they usually have your best interest in mind and are there to help you. If you can't see an endocrinologist or gender clinic its still a good idea to consult with your GP/doctor. I am not a medical professional. Take what I say with a grain of salt and do your own research.

Look for medical professionals specialized in trans healthcare. Most countries have a website for transgenders where they can find clinics, doctors, therapists/sexologists, endocrinologist, and other specialists specialized in trans care, as well as transgender friendly places.

Raw ingredients

Raw estradiol powder

This is the main active ingredient in injections. Most Estradiol esters are about the same price so it comes down to preference on what you want to get. However I have only used Enanthate and I can't vouch if resellers for other esters are any good. If you wish to buy Valerate or Cypionate you have to find your own reseller.

Unlike testosterone, estradiol is not a controlled substance and can be bought from factories in China or India without question. Most active ingredients sold in medication comes from China or India because its way cheaper to import it from there than it is to manufacture it in Europe.

These sources for Estradiol Enanthate have been verified to be legit by other people. I have also contacted them myself to get an inquiry about how much 20 grams of Estradiol enanthate would cost to sell and ship.

The powder you receive should have a purity of ±98%. This is UPS and Ph. Eur. standard.

Testing powder

You want to test your powder to see if its the real thing. There are two easy tests at home that you can do to verify if the powder you have received is the real thing. Testing the melting point and Solubility in water.

Melting point: The raw powder should have a melting point of 94-96°C. You can test this by putting a bit of the powder in a bottle cap and putting the cap in a pan with a bit of oil over the stove. You can monitor the temperature with an inexpensive meat thermometer.

Water/oil solubility: The raw powder does not easily dissolve in water. It does however dissolve in oils.

If the powder passes both tests it is most likely the real thing. It is very had to fake something that has both of these properties.

You can also test the powder with IR spectroscopy, but those tests can be expensive and have to be performed in a private lab.

Benzyl benzoate

Benzyl benzoate is a solvent that's helps the powder dissolve easier in the solution. This is optional for Enanthate but still recommended as it helps dissolve the powder better and makes the solution thinner which makes it easier to draw up and inject with needles. Benzyl benzoate can cause allergic reactions.

You can easily find Benzyl Benzoate in online chemical store for about € 25/500Ml. I purchased mine here. But you may be able to find cheaper options in your country. If you can't find anything you can probably get it on E-bay

Benzyl Alcohol

Benzyl alcohol is an antibacterial preservative. It increases the shelf life of your vials and should make them safer long-term. Benzyl alcohol is very cheap and you don't need a lot of it (like 10ml for 50 vials). It's usually € 10/500ml

You can find benzyl alcohol in most chemical stores, maybe even the pool section of a hardware store. I bought mine here. You may be able to find it cheaper on ebay or more local chemical stores.

MCT Oil

The carrier oil is the main ingredient in Estradiol injections and make up the bulk of it. MCT oil has a very high bio-availability and is pretty cheap. MCT oil is an oil consisting of medium-chain triglycerides (hence the MCT). These oils usually consists of C8 and C10 with a bit of C6 mixed in. You can find this oil at most sport stores or diet/supplement stores. There is no such thing a "medicinal/sterile/pharmaceutical/whatever grade" oil. If you find this its a scam and they're just trying to sell you a cheap product for a lot more than its worth. The oil should have no added additives! It should smell and taste neutral and the color should be completely transparent.

Castor Oil (alternative)

Castor oil is a carrier oil that you can use instead of MCT oil. It is more viscous and will therefore increase the half life of your injectable. You can read more about it here (p.21). It's typically used in the pharmaceuticals you buy with a prescription but can be more difficult to draw due to the higher viscosity. Some prefer one over the other due to allergies or the needle size you can use. Just like MCT oil, you can easily find castor oil in any diet/supplement store. Make sure it is 100% castor oil and doesn't have any additives or perfumes. Castor oil should have a slight yellow tint.

Equipment

Vials, stoppers and caps

This is the container. Each vial has a little butyl/rubber stopper to keep whatever is inside in and whatever is outside out. The cap is to seal the stopper to the vial and prevent it from coming off. You can easily find these on ebay and aliexpress.

It is recommended to not get plastic tear-off caps as these can completely tear off the cap or leave a weak spot. Get completely metal/aluminium caps. The ebay link has the correct kind of caps but these are hard to find.

Syringes

Syringes are used to draw the exact amount of liquid needed to mix a vial. For one vial you need 2x 10ml syringes and 1x 1ml syringes. You can get syringes for cents at any pharmacy. They don't asks questions. You don't need to order them online.

Quick tip: I like to put my benzyl alcohol in a 10ml vial and seal and crimp it. Then I draw out the correct amount of Benzyl Alcohol with a 1ml syringe with a needle. This makes it a bit easier to get the correct amount.

Pressure cooker/autoclave

No, 100°C is not enough to sterilize your vials. You need AT LEAST a 120°C!

A pressure cooker can achieve temperatures higher than 100°C by boiling off the water and increasing the pressure inside the pot. A higher pressure also means a higher temperature. For a pressure cooker to be able to reach temperatures of 120°C you need a pressure of at least 2 bar or 29 psi. (in the manual they will say the pressure is 1 bar, but that is 1 bar added on top of atmospheric pressure (which is 1 bar))

Here are some pressure cookers ive looked over that seem adequate.

Or you can look in any appliance store and see if they have pressure cookers. Cheap "autoclaves" sold on aliexpress or ebay are basically pressure cookers.

Milligram scale

You can get a milligram scale for about € 10-15. You can easily find these by looking for diamond, gold, spice or jewelry scales. You may also use a 0.01g scale, but this will be less precise. You can sometimes find a milligram "spice" scale for sale in Action.

Vial crimper (optional)

A vial crimper crimps the metal cap to the vial, keeping the stopper in place and sealing it tight. This is completely optional, you can "crimp" the edges of the cap using a knife or something similar. A vial crimper will run you € 40. Get a crimper that's compatible with your caps. If you have vial caps with a plastic cap you need to get a vial crimper compatible with those. You can easily find these on ebay or aliexpress.

Others

Other equipment you need that I won't bother writing a paragraph about:

Preparation

Once you have all the ingredients and equipment you can finally start making your own Estradiol. However there is some preparation you need to do to create a safe work environment and to make sure all your equipment is sterile

Preparing the vials

Preheat the oven to 175° before continuing.

The vials you receive from China are not sterile and probably full of particles from the packaging. An easy way to clean the is to rinse them in ethanol a couple of times. This will disinfect the vials while also cleaning them from particulates. The ethanol wil vaporize, leaving little to no residue behind.

After that get a glass oven dish and clean it with ethanol as well. Put the vials upside down in the dish and put it in the oven at 175°C for 60 minutes.

After the oven is done you can also microwave it at 650W for 10-15 minutes. This is optional and will probably not be effective for sterilization since kitchen ovens have uneven heating.

Preparing your work area

While the vials are in the oven you can prepare your work area. Vacuum the entire room. Then mop the floor and clean every surface with a sponge or cleaning cloths. This will minimize dust and particulates in the air. After the entire room has been cleaned you need to clean your working surface with ethanol to disinfect it.

Get your scale, tweezers and other equipment and wipe them down with ethanol too.

Once the vials in the oven are done, take them out, move them to your work area and let them cool down. Do not touch the vials! They can easily burn you!

Mixing

Put on the nitrile gloves and use hand sanitizers to disinfect them. Wait for the disinfectant to evaporate before continuing.

Once you are done with preparation, you can start mixing. Basically all you have to do is mix the 4 ingredients.

For one 10ml vial of 40mg/ml estradiol you need the following:

The order of ingredients do not matter. This is just how I like to do it.

That's basically it. A good idea is to inspect your vials for any particulates. If there are some in there its not that big of an issue since it has been sterilized. If you accidentally inject it, your body will just break it down.