homebrewing DIY HRT [adapted from 魔秘美子]

home : digital garden → transfeminism

posted u/GC146 in r/TransDIY on April 5th 2020

edited & re-formatted by 魔秘美子

on April 14th 2020

Comment by 魔秘美子: Please consider the Important section below for safety!

Homebrewing hormones (MTF), Guide

Hi, I’m a trans girl and I started making my “own” hormones some months ago. It all started with me trying to save some money, and it really helped me a lot in that regard, nowadays my entire HRT regimen (Dutasteride, Estradiol, Progesterone, Medroxyprogesterone and Testosterone for ED) is homemade. So I would recommend anyone to try at least once, because it’s much cheaper than buying on drugstores (and even cheaper than buying from Lena or from me, really each 10ml vial cost something closer to 3 dollars).

Every ingredient can be bought from Amazon (except the raw powder that you can find on Alibaba, most suppliers there are trustable, don’t worry; but if you want I can give some recommendations).

Ingredients

Oil Injections:

Aqueous suspension:

Materials

Recipe for Estradiol 100ml, 40mg/ml:

This works with any E ester (Cypionate, Valerate etc).

Recipe for Progesterone 100 50mg/ml

Because BB is used for solving Esterified components, it isn’t used for pure progesterone, instead I use a higher dose of BA.

Recipe for Aqueous Suspension 100ml

I use Aqueous suspension for Medroxyprogesterone acetate, but the same can be used for Estradiol, Progesterone (you can, but it hurts like hell, hormones without ester will always hurt) if you have some problems with oil injections (if you’re brave enough, you could even try dutasteride injections with it).

How to

The process is fairly simple.

Oil: Just mix it all in beaker (or any glassware you have) and give it a water bath for 15~30 minutes; when you finish it, just put in some flask and to sterilize, you can take to the oven for 30 minutes at 230º Celsius (it’s overkill, if you store the powder in a safe space and clean everything, just heating in a water bath would kill most bacteria).

Aqueous Suspension: Put everything in a beaker (except the hormone powder), heat it in a water bath, until the lecithin is mostly dissolved (part of the lecitin will be floating over the water and won’t dissolve, that is normal, and you won’t be using that), take all the water and put in a flask with the hormones of your choice, mix it and if you want to sterilize it you can use a pressure cooker for 5 minutes after getting pressurized (otherwise the flask can break because of internal pression).

That’s all, thank you for your time, I hope with this info, more people will start to make their own hormones, if someone has any questions I will gladly answer them.

Here just an image of my HRT

Comments

Do you do anything to control the particle sizes or are they just macrocrystalline aqueous suspensions?

My supplier sells to me micronized powder. And EV doesn’t hurt, just progesterone, looked for more info; and yes, having an ester makes aqueous suspension hurt less.

How long do the suspensions of estradiol and progesterone last in your experience or with blood work if you have any data on that?

Progesterone: 2 days if you take 50mg; pure E, I didn’t test it yet, and probably won’t. Because they’re micronized, to last more it should be macrocrystalline with 80ug +

Have you done any aqueous suspensions of estradiol esters, like estradiol valerate?

Yes, and it worked wonderfully, it lasts the same as oil injection. Just did it because a friend of mine can’t take BB.

Have you ever looked into any longer-chain esters of estradiol?

Yes, but it uses so much more E to suppress T, that is not worth it IMO, but undecylenate as an example, I can’t find anywhere

Have you ever considered home-brewing bicalutamide or enzalutamide capsules?

Yes, I’m actually doing it with dutasteride, but for pure blockers, I’m looking onto the route of doing Leuprorelin acetate injections because it can last for 6 months a single injection.

What about the actual process of getting the solution in a vial in a sterile manner?

I seal a pre-sterilized vial and inject the final product with a 1ml needle, you don’t need to use needle filtering because any bigger particle you would be able to see and don’t draw it, and smaller particles don’t hurt because they’ll be sterilized by you afterwards. I take it to the oven and leave it there for 30 minutes at high temperature.

Using a vial crimper helps a lot on the work, but if you can’t buy one, just using a knife for crimping works very well.

Can you add optional sterilization procedures for the vials and glassware? We do appreciate the recipes, but it’s important to use (at least semi sterile) equipment with oils. There was a case of an actual pharma lab that got shut down due to a rare case of contamination that regular heating couldn’t kill. I know it’s overkill but I always autoclave mine. Pressure cookers are cheap and work about as well in the majority of cases.

I completely forgot! Filters! Filters, filters, filters! 22um, PTFE syringe filters! Forget those and you are so playing with fire.

.22um filtering both removes any potential contaminants from the solution as well as sterilizes the solution, although you should perform terminal heat sterilization as well. Personally if I’m injecting something into my muscles on a weekly basis I’d want it to be as clean as possible, especially doing it for years at a time. All it takes is one bad injection and you’re in a world of shit with an intramuscular infection you’d have to go to the doctors to get it possibly drained plus a course of antibiotics. The real question is why wouldn’t you .2um filter if you have access to syringe filters, they are cheap and easy to use. by u/spiritual_cowboy

What’s the benefit of 22um filtering when using terminal heat sterilization (minimum 121°C for 30 min)?

There is such a thing as a sterile abscess. It’s not an infection, just a collection of irritants your body can’t clear. You’ll still need medical attention. Google some pictures, they are… not pretty.

Also endospores. Due to convection and localized hotspots in the oil even terminal sterilization doesn’t always get them all. There was a pharmacy lab that heat sterilized their product and something like 45 people died of meningitis. Don’t be like them, filters are dirt cheap.

by u/strawberryfirestorm

So you use dry heat sterilization with the solution in a flask?

Yes, and no in my and others experience the solution stays the same, most of the components have higher boiling point. The flask needs to be covered and sealed, otherwise it will open.

Water bath: use at boiling temperature.

Do you have a view about ethyl oleate for carrier oil?

Not OP but can confirm it works well. You can get away with less BB if you use EO as a carrier. It’s very very thin. And it starts to eat the rubber in the syringe. But it works well enough and I don’t have super bad reactions to it personally. It absorbs quickly, meaning a few days after the injection it aches a bit as there is no liquid left soon after, just chunks of hormone.

IMPORTANT though: if you are going to use EO, butyl rubber stoppers will NOT be advised; the EO will eat them. Silicone stoppers are preferred, as the EO cannot eat them. You can also heat them up to 400c without melting as a bonus. Butyl can’t handle that. by u/strawberryfirestorm

I personally tend to avoid using it, although it is much thinner it eats away at rubber stoppers which can make the long term storage of solutions with it a pain and it can randomly result in massive injection pain and swelling. People seem to develop allergic reactions to it much more commonly/quickly than to something like grape seed oil.

I don’t think we exactly know, but for whatever reason most people’s bodies tend to have a poor reaction to EO whether that occurs on the first injection or the 100th it seems inevitable. It’s one of those compounds that has a high probability of triggering an allergic response, I personally don’t know anyone who has been able to consistently use EO pain free. If you are interested in a thin carrier oil I would recommend Miglyol 840, I have had good results using it. It is slightly more viscous than water (comparable to EO) and I haven’t had a negative reaction to injecting with it yet. by u/spiritual_cowboy

Important

> if you want to sterilize it you can use a pressure cooker for 5 minutes after getting pressurized (Otherwise the flask can break because of internal pression)

Do you mean the flask breaks if the pressure cooker runs for more than 5 minutes after pressurising?

I’m guessing, internal flask pressure is a problem because the pressure cooker is going to be 10% full, and the flask - 80%. The flask is going to produce more steam per volume of air. Pressure cooking for a short time only means the inside of the flask won’t get up to the temperature/pressure, and thus will defeat the purpose of pressure cooking. In other words - if the flask is sealed, the flask not cracking means it hasn’t pressurised.

I believe there is a solution however - You should be able to leave the flask uncapped and use 2 layers of micropore tape instead (available at any pharmacy). You can cover the taped bottle neck with aluminium foil to additionally protect. The extra pressure will be allowed to escape through the pores and most contaminants will be unable to enter when depressurising, thanks to the “micropore” aspect of the tape. Just let the pot release pressure slowly.

Upgrades:

Another tip is to “vent” the pressure cooker first for 10 minutes to make sure the inside is nearly 100% steam. Venting means letting the pressure cooker run without the weight. I don’t fully understand this but apparently the inside being air will not let it reach a high enough pressure (something about partial pressure I don’t fully understand despite the fact that I should).

Source: knowledge of sterile techniques for growing mycelium, which in initial stages is much more prone to infection than a large mammal with a proper immune system, like a human.

Do you mean the flask breaks if the pressure cooker runs for more than 5 minutes after pressurising?

No, I mean that you need to use a pressure cooker, if you try to sterilize in the oven, the glass will break.

The flask is going to produce more steam per volume of air.

Yes, and because of it, it’s pressurized faster

and thus will defeat the purpose of pressure cooking.

The purpose of pressure cooking is going above 100ºC and not breaking the glass,

Upgrades:

Thank you for the tips, might try some of them, but this air box sounds like overkill to me.

OK, now I get you about the flask. Ovens can be dodgy but I saw a guy pull that off. Maybe he was using pre-heated jars.

Still, pressure cooking for only 5 minutes may mean that the inside of the flask will not reach the desired temperature (steam isn’t as heat-conductive as we would expect from water). You likely need more time to ensure the interior gets to whatever pressure/temperature the pressure cooker is graded for.

This is more of a problem if one intends to store the product for some time. In my non-medical opinion, our immune systems will manage even if 100 degrees is not exceeded.

However, with long storage, one must become wary of surviving thermophilic bacteria and fungal spores, which may be given an acceptable solution to sporulate in.

In order to test whether the solution is contaminated, petri dishes can be used. One has to prepare and pour agar in the dishes (nomen omen, agar can be sterilised in a pressure cooker). Guide on the same wiki: https://www.reddit.com/r/MushroomGrowers/wiki/index#wiki_darkstar07063.27s_agar_tek.3A

In mycology the norm is 15psi and once vented and brought up to pressure - 20 minutes for nutritious (sugar or starch-based) agar, 1 hour for grain, but grain is nasty and packed with fungal spores and calories. I suppose medical supplies are not nutritious, which makes it easier, HOWEVER, unless one tests them, or they come from a good first-world supplier, I would be wary of them and still sterilise them manically. by u/makebestofbadweather

Hi everyone, I don’t really post here on this account or at all anymore but I saw this post through a friend and please be smarter than this if you homebrew your medications. While it’s definitely possible to adequately sterilize using household equipment, putting it an oven will not remotely mimic autoclave conditions. Autoclave is done in a steam environment at elevated pressure, not an air environment at atmospheric pressure, which hugely increases the heat transfer rate and allows bacteria to be killed in the time frames mentioned in this post. This heat transfer rate, along with duration, are much more important than simple temperature. Just because 230 c is a high temperature does not mean that it is “overkill”, in fact I would strongly advise against injecting anything that has been sterilized for only 30 minutes at that temperature in dry air.

Autoclave is all about minimizing the chances that the last microbe in the volume survives. To achieve this to a high degree of certainty, typical (steam) autoclave conditions would be 121 C at +15 psi for 30 minutes, or alternatively shorter cycles at 134 C are also used sometimes. This elevated pressure is why pressure cookers are commonly used for sterilization. See here for an idea of how to go about sterilizing something at home. Note that sealed containers of liquids can burst even when raised above the bottom and should therefore not be sterilized while sealed. To sterilize vials, try filling them no more than 2/3 and loosening the caps. To account for the fact that a pressure cooker is obviously not as consistent as a real autoclave, I recommend sterilizing for longer than is necessary - like an hour plus, started from when the chamber reached 15 psi and 121 C. This is something that you’ll do once and be set for months, so take the time to do it as well as you can.

If you are not sure that you are reaching proper conditions, I suggest getting some autoclave tape. It is designed to provide an avenue of being at least a little more confident that you’ve adequately sterilized a given sample, although you should not take it as gospel. You could conveniently stick some on each vial to give yourself a bit more peace of mind.

Please take sterilization procedures seriously, and do real research from reputable sources of information before undertaking them yourself. Muscle and nerve infections are no joke, and the nature of this sub means that anyone who uses an inadequate sterilization procedure and subsequently gets a deep tissue infection will be unlikely to seek medical care which could make it so much worse. When you can substantially reduce that risk at the cost of a mere extra hour of your time or so, always decide to do so. A simple change in procedure to more closely follow proper autoclave cycles will make the exact same equipment described by OP so, so much safer. As I recall this sub used to have an ethos of citing sources and making an effort to question the accuracy of information - I’m disappointed to see almost none of either in these comments, and on an easily googleable topic too. by u/Hannah_CNC