Hi everyone, hope you are all well. I have made the decision to self medicate and i would like to use sandrena gel to start with, and i was hoping for a little advice or info on this product. Will it actually have any effects on me as this is all i will be starting with and is it a safe method to start with as i am self medicating, i am a smoker but my health has been good and i have no problems or conditions to speak of. Also when would i be able to tell if the gel is effecting me and how, i know its a very long process and i may not develop breasts anyway but how can i tell. And do inhouse pharmacy deliver to the UK and how long if anybody knows can it take and also what dose should i start with. Pheeew sorry everyone to ask so many questions, i just want to get started to be honest and i believe now is the time for me. Thank you all for reading and i hope to hear from you soon. xxx

Read all the threads in the Hormone section first. You will of course, get some valuable advice from members following your request. I have been self medicating for a couple of years and ensure I get blood tests by my doctor every year.
Try to stop the smoking. No doubt you have read all about the pitfalls etc.
I have been using sandrena for a couple of months and am very pleased with results to date. Ensure you start with a low dose ie 1 tube daily for a couple of months and then increase if necessary.

With all due respect, about self-medicating help...

Self-hormoning is tantamount to suicide. The only sensible option is to find treatment through your doctor to a specialist. If you feel your doctor in inexperienced or out of touch then the correct course of action would be to get a different doctor.

The thing about doctors, they spent many years studying to get medical qualifications. If, at the start, they don’t know what you need, they have the best experience and knowledge pool to find out the correct information. I doubt a doctor would spout out half the rubbish you hear on the Internet and forums.

It’s just too much of a risk to take the advice of a random person on a forum. And taking advice from other transsexuals is even worse because people tend to think that a transsexual’s opinion on hormones is the Holy Grail when in fact everyone is different and have different treatment regimes and any advice may be completely inappropriate.

You only have one body, if you mess it up you cant get another.

Thanks for listening to my opinion
Penny
x

It's too easy to say "Self-hormoning is tantamount to suicide" when the facts are that most TS in the world are self medicating. Maybe they are living in a different world but facts are - still the facts and they don't die as flies because they are taking hormones, that's for sure.

Ask any TS in most Asian, Pacific’s, Africa or South American countries if they are in the red danger zone and you will see what I mean. I’m not saying that people should do self medication but saying "Self-hormoning is tantamount to suicide" just shows how little you know about it even though its your right to have your own opinion and I respect that. It can for sure happen that people die from it but that can also happen if you are following doctors advice.

Anyhow one reason why countries in Europe and USA has quite strict regulations for males taking hormones compare to females taking hormones is that these countries needs statistics to control its population as we all know that the quality of sperm has drastically dropped over the last decade and also girls are getting children later in life compare to before with exemption from UK where some parts girls are just too young when they becomes mum.

Every country needs males to maintain the population and if more and more males are taking hormones and in the same time the sperm quality drops, what would happen in the future?

Another thing is that both males and females has oestrogen, testosterone and progestosterone so we can all say "Self-hormoning is tantamount to suicide" but the question is; is it? I don’t think so but sure you can get DVT that can lead to bad things and even death, but taking the right hormones in the right doses as a non-smoker and non-alcoholic combined with regular blood tests to ensure that your general health is OK still keeps the risks at a minimum no matter if you’re prescribed hormones or are self medicating.

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And should it happen that you’ve got bad liver or kidney functions or other problems then so be it… stay away from hormones!!!!
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xxx Natalie

If your determied to self med, the only advice i can give, is go to your doctor,, tell him what you are proposing to do, have a full medical and blood check, consider if you have Reifensteins or AIS as this will affect the dosages. Even if you have to pay for the one off medical, it will work out a lot cheaper than ruining your health.

Doesnt matter what we say, a lot of people will only heed, the bits they want to hear.