index

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Getting Started

These are good resources to get started learning about HRT and endocrinology.

General

Trans HRT Wikipedia Page

WPATH Standards of Care

Transmasculine

Hudson's FtM Guide Testosterone Therapy Basics

Trans Care Project - Hormones: A Guide for FTMs

Rainbow Health Transmasculine HRT guidelines

Transmasculine HRT Wikipedia Page

Transfeminine

Transfeminine Science (transfemscience.org)

Intro to Hormone Therapy for Transfeminine People by Transfeminine Science

Approximate equivalent doses of different estradiol routes/forms by Transfeminine Science

Trans Care Project - Hormones: A Guide for MTFs

Rainbow Health Transfeminine HRT guidelines

Transfeminine HRT Wikipedia Page

Kuhl (2005)—an amazing review about the pharmacology of estrogens and progestogens

General Resources

Resources to get a doctor

HRT in Sydney AU

Getting HRT in Auckland New Zealand

Finding a doctor in the UK

List of trans friendly general practitioners

Mascara and Hope: A guide for trans women navigating the NHS and transition in the UK

Finding a doctor in the US

List of informed consent clinics in the US (direct link)

Trans in the South: guide and interactive map for finding quality trans providers in the southern US

GALAP: a group of therapists who write letters for surgery/HRT based on informed consent

Online

r/TransDIY list

hrt.cafe diyhrt.cafe hrtcafe.net

Blood Tests

Reference ranges to help interpret blood test results (if these ranges are different than the ones printed on your test results, then trust the ones you got from your lab; every lab has different equipment and different reference ranges)

Dr. Powers: Why drawing your blood for hormone labs any time other than right before your next dose is pointless (but a rebuttal by Transfeminine Science)

Canada Blood Tests

Blood tests in Sweden

Blood tests in Netherlands

US blood tests

Private MD Labs

Labs MD

Walk-in Lab

UK blood tests

Medichecks

Walk-in Clinic

Blue Horizon blood tests

Cliniq

List of trans friendly GPs (can provide blood tests even if they don't prescribe your HRT)

Finland Blood Tests

Private blood work guide/experience (Finland)

puhti.fi

Bone Density Tests

dexascan.com provides tests for osteoporosis that don't require a prescription. They also do muscle/fat composition scans if you want to track muscle growth/atrophy.

Medical Guidelines

Standards, guidelines, or explainers made by healthcare professionals.

A full list of guidelines is maintained by Transfeminine Science

Major Guidelines

WPATH Standards of Care

The World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) Standards of Care (SOC) (2022, currently version 8 and known as SOC8) are considered by many to be the go-to international guidelines and best practices for trans healthcare.

There is a free download in many languages here:

https://www.wpath.org/publications/soc

Endocrine Society Clinical Practice Guideline

The Endocrine Society guidelines (2017) are the major consulted international guidelines on transgender hormone therapy:

https://doi.org/10.1210/jc.2017-01658

UCSF Guidelines

The University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) trans health guidelines (2016) are quality and thorough:

https://transcare.ucsf.edu/guidelines

Overview of masculinizing hormone therapy

Overview of feminizing hormone therapy

Minor Guidelines

Rainbow Health Ontario Trans Health Guide

These are a beautiful overview of trans HRT.

Link to the full site homepage: https://www.rainbowhealthontario.ca/TransHealthGuide/index.html

Trans Care Project

This is an easy to understand explanation of HRT for trans people:

Royal College of Psychiatry Good Practice Guidelines

http://www.tgmeds.org.uk/downloads/CR181_Nov15.pdf

Others

Crash Course

Crash course anatomy and physiology is a YouTube video series covering a college level introduction to human biology.

It's a great way to gain a basic general understanding of the human body, which is a great thing to have for self medicating.

The episodes on the endocrine system and reproductive system are especially relevant.

Wikipedia Pages

Here are Wikipedia pages about relevant topics in trans HRT.

If you don't understand something, click through on the links or google it separately. Don't be afraid to look at the sources that are cited either. Use Sci-Hub to view paywalled papers (check the Wikipedia page if that link doesn't work). Use LibGen to download paywalled books (also check the Wikipedia page if that link doesn't work).

Trans-specific

Transgender Hormone Therapy

Endocrinology

Estrogen

Androgen

Progesterone

Estradiol

Testosterone

Dihydrotestosterone

Hypothalamic–pituitary–gonadal axis

Effects/Traits

Android fat distribution

Gynoid fat distribution

Body shape

Puberty

Secondary sex characteristic

Sex differences in humans

Sex differences in human physiology

Sexual motivation and hormones

Male-Pattern Scalp Hair Loss

Pattern hair loss

Finasteride

Dutasteride

Minoxidil

Transgender Scientific Studies

A massive repository of transgender related scientific studies

A guide for searching and getting access to raw medical research on Transfeminine Science

Searching Reddit

Reddit search is pretty terrible, so it's better to use google. You can search only specific sites using Google's advanced search. For example, put reddit.com/r/TransDIY in the "site or domain" field to only search this subreddit.

Another more advanced way to search Reddit is using https://camas.unddit.com/

Be very skeptical about things you see posted on reddit. It's very useful as a starting point to find what exactly to research in the first place, but be sure to verify everything, especially if it seems obvious or common knowledge.

Injection resources

in-depth and trans-specific guide on subcutaneous oil injections

Video: "How to do a testosterone or estrogen injection – LGBTQ Clinic"

Video: "Dr. John Crisler, SubQ Injection Demonstration"

Video by planned parenthood: "How to perform an intramuscular (IM) self-injection."

Video by planned parenthood: "How to perform a subcutaneous self-injection."

Fenway Health trans health injection guide

Video: "painless self [IM] injections"

Guide website for intramuscular injections

Buying needles and syringes online

https://westendmedicalsupplies.com/

https://www.medisave.co.uk/

https://www.gpzmedlab.com

https://www.medlabgear.com/

Non-binary Resources

Guides from this community

An excellent overview of HRT for transfeminine non-binary people (AMAB) on Transfeminine Science

A review of selective estrogen receptor modulators and their potential for transfeminine HRT on Transfeminine Science

Guide for transmasculine (FtM/non-binary) DIY

https://reddit.com/r/TransDIY/comments/aha94v/intergender_hrt_options/

Other non-binary HRT resources

https://madgenderscience.miraheze.org/wiki/Experimental_non-binary_HRT

Transfeminine regimen without breast growth using bicalutamide and raloxifene (only that section)

Chest binders sized for AMAB people (originally intended for men dealing with gynecomastia)

Transmasculine Resources

http://www.ftmguide.org/ (everything under the "testosterone" section)

Information about various androgen medications

Guides from this community

Guide for transmasculine (FtM/non-binary) DIY

FtM HRT DIY information

https://reddit.com/r/TransDIY/comments/cerjjj/a_sortof_guide_on_t_from_my_personal_experience/

Wikipedia pages

Transmasculine-specific

Transgender hormone therapy

Testosterone medication

Testosterone (medication)

Pharmacokinetics of testosterone

Androgen ester

Stopping menstrual cycle

Menstrual cycle

Menstrual suppression

Medroxyprogesterone acetate

GnRH modulator

Other Resources

10 Ways to Make Intramuscular Testosterone Injections Less Painful

Transfeminine Resources

Other Communities

Reddit

Discord

  • TransDIY Discord (not affiliated with us even with the name overlap, but a very good place)

Others

Guides from this community

An amazing in-depth overview of all the science behind transfeminine HRT on Transfeminine Science

https://reddit.com/r/asktransgender/comments/1p6eqs/how_to_diy_hrt_mtf/cczaimy/

https://reddit.com/r/asktransgender/comments/1bypmj/self_medication_looking_for_advice/c9bogx8/

Relevant Wikipedia Pages

Transfeminine-specific

Transfeminine hormone therapy

Relevant Endocrinology

Breast_development

Testosterone Blockers

Antiandrogen

Antigonadotropin

Spironolactone

Bicalutamide

Cyproterone_acetate

GnRH modulators

5α-Reductase inhibitors

Finasteride

Dutasteride

Estradiol Medication

Estradiol (medication)

Pharmacodynamics of estradiol

Pharmacokinetics_of_estradiol

Progesterone Medication

Progesterone (medication)

Pharmacodynamics of progesterone

Pharmacokinetics of progesterone

Progestogen (medication)

Other Transfeminine HRT Resources

A comparison between oral administration of estradiol and sublingual administration

A huge scientific literature review on estrogens and progestogens

Other

Body Measurements

A graph showing the distribution of body measurements by gender, and how most things scale with height

This isn't HRT specific, but it might help with dysphoria by allowing you to get an objective idea of your bone sizes compared to the male/female average for your height. Keep in mind that HRT can change your height by a couple inches.

Simulators

Injectable Estradiol Simulator by Transfeminine Science

https://transfemscience.org/misc/injectable-e2-simulator/

A simulator for estradiol levels with injectable estradiol esters like estradiol valerate

Steroid Plotter

https://www.steroidplotter.com/

For testosterone and other anabolic steroids. Calculates and plots dose eliminated (not drug levels) based on literature-reported half-lives. It's extremely rough, so take with a large grain of salt.

Half-Life Calculator

http://com.hemiola.com/half-life/

This is useful for understanding and reasoning about half-lives and drug accumulation.

 


 

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revision by shrouded_reflection— view source