massive info thread on the associated risks with the different testosterone blockers that are available to transgender patients and why you should consider progesterone as a blocker. 1/20

spironolactone is a diuretic that raises cortisol levels, causing visceral adiposity, it can cause brain fog, there's also a theory that high doses of spiro can stunt breast development in transfemmes who take it by prematurely fusing the nipple plates.

spiro sucks, pretty much any person who switches to bicalutamide or progesterone will tell you that, it'a extremely ineffective as a blocker and the side effects make taking it a miserable experience. why WPATH has it as the standard of care is beyond me.

finasteride and dutasteride are 5-alpho‐Reductase Inhibors (5-ARI) which can cause severe depression by blocking the synthesis of a hormone called neuroallopregnenalone. This hormone is involved in regulating your mood and without it you can become super depressed, basically

also finasteride and dutasteride can have cognitive effects just like spiro, besides also making you feel miserable. also, 5-ARI drugs dont even block testosterone at all, they just prevent it from converting to DHT which is 5 times stronger. thus, theyre not effective blockers

cyproterone is blocker available in europe. it can cause brain tumors, namely prolactinoma, a tumor on the pituitary gland and meningioma, which is a tumor that compresses the brain and spinal cord. a side effect of this is peripheral field loss, darkening of the sides of vision

bicalutamide as a blocker is alright and i generally view it positively, especially when compared to the other blockers, but it should be known that doesnt actually lower testosterone. Bicalutamide works by stopping testosterone from binding to your cell's receptor sites.

bicalutamide is cool because it blocks your t and transfemme folks can even use it by itself (with no supplemented estradiol) and see some minimal breast growth, as the estrogen in your body isnt blocked by the testosterone anymore and it's allowed to do its thing.

Also, after bicalutamide stops your T production, your body senses this and upregulates the estrogen production in your body in return, which also contributed to that little bit of breast growth.

bicalutamide was okay, but for me it wasnt nearly as good as progesterone, since my testosterone levels were still high and i still struggled with brain fog. luckily, switching over to bioidentical progesterone fixed that for me. if this isnt an issue, stick with bicalutamide!

there's a theory that progesterone usage too early (<1yr) in transition can inhibit breast growth but it's debatable. Progesterone has been mainly shown to increase breast growth as well as working as a blocker, so for transfemme folks it's a huge plus compared to other blockers

Topical progesterone on the breasts has also been used in people looking to increase breast size. I have no personal use for this, but the topical absorption rate is very high so it makes sense to me why it would work.

the only issue is that progesterone has to be taken as a suppository every night to block your testosterone. rectal progesterone is absorbed at nearly 15% the rate of oral, so it's honestly super worth that inconvenience.

Also, when taken rectally bioidentical progesterone works as a minor gaba agonist, so it tends to make you very sleepy, ive also noticed that if i accidentally absorb too much progesterone too quickly by breaking open the capsule, i tend to have vivid nightmares

progesterone works so well because when taken rectally, the capsule breaks down in the distal third of the rectum where it drains into the systemic circulation in the body. Because the progesterone is an oil, it's absorbed very slowly over the next 24 hours.

When taken in this way, progesterone works as a GNRH agonist. It repeatedly stimulates your pituitary to release a tiny bit of LH and FSH, and then it turns off completely. This shuts off all t production in the body.

My testosterone count is around 15 or so, which is the amount synthesized by the liver. what this means is that i have essentially no testosterone in my body at all. normal testosterone levels in female bodies range from around 8-60. In male bodies, testosterone is from 270-1070

Unlike progestins, which are synthetic progesterones, bioidentical progesterone has been shown in a couple studies not to have breast cancer risks. Progesterone is a natural hormone created during pregancy, and is considered totally safe. the human body makes it itself!

bioidentical progesterone gives me a clear head and a sense of calm that i never felt with spiro or bicalutamide. i highly recommend it to anyone thinking about starting HRT or changing blockers. I immediately noticed a difference on the first day, and i hope you'll consider it

i also apologize for the wordiness, it is a medical info thread and if you wanna ask me what any of these words mean feel free to comment below! i've been doing DIY hormones for a while and i know a bit of everything here and there just from treating myself for almost a year

god, this took me two hours to research and write

clerical error: progesterone taken as a suppository absorbs at 15x that of oral administration, NOT 15%. there's a big difference and i apologize for that. when taken orally most of it is broken down or converted to neurosteroids which make you feel calmer but wont block T, sadly