It doesn't bother me at all, taking pills. I'm not allowed to get delestrogen anyway. The endo said me E levels would get too high. But, the orals work well in any event, so whatevs. The only thing that bothers me is like I was at my BFs for five days straight and didn't want to go home to get me hormones. I don't think it had any effect. And it's not like it happens all the time. I'm pretty good with taking them, except when I sleep out. I might start carrying a replacement stash in my purse for these types of things.

Quote from: Jennygirl on April 29, 2014, 09:12:24 PM
Actually pellets have been around since the 1930s

http://www.collegepharmacy.com/images/download/PelletFAQ.pdf

This document is a great read for anyone interested!

Will read, lol. 

Like I said, I'm the worst with this stuff.  I feel like every other transwoman is like a specialist when it comes to hormones and all I know is I take those blue pill thingys a few times a day, lol. 

I like taking them at the moment. The happy blue pills.
Reminds me of the long and hard road I had to take to get this far. Each is one more step closer.

I love it and how I feel.

Quote from: Jennygirl on April 29, 2014, 09:12:24 PM
Actually pellets have been around since the 1930s

http://www.collegepharmacy.com/images/download/PelletFAQ.pdf

This document is a great read for anyone interested!

That's right. My endo told me it was just that they went out of style for a while for injections and pills and whatnot but are coming back in again.

ughh I really despise taking the pills, can't afford shots and my doc doesn't offer pellets anyways..REALLY SUCKS
end rant

Quote from: Ms Grace on April 30, 2014, 05:50:02 AM
That's right. My endo told me it was just that they went out of style for a while for injections and pills and whatnot but are coming back in again.

It does seem like that!

Let's hope that the demand increases which would drive cost down and possibly get them covered under insurance

That'll be the day!

I'm hoping to get on pellets eventually. I'm barely more than a month in right now though and my E is only about 178, my Doc says I need to be somewhere between 300 and 800. So once my E level gets to where it needs to be and my dosage stops getting adjusted, I'm going to try to get on pellets.

Quote from: Jessika Lin on April 30, 2014, 10:31:33 AM
I'm hoping to get on pellets eventually. I'm barely more than a month in right now though and my E is only about 178, my Doc says I need to be somewhere between 300 and 800. So once my E level gets to where it needs to be and my dosage stops getting adjusted, I'm going to try to get on pellets.

You are still very early in the game.  Give it some more time, and let your endo do adjustments as they see fit.  Eventually, things should get better.

Free E levels don't mean much at all because they don't measure how much E is actually getting absorbed... (only you will know this by the way you feel). So I wouldn't worry too much about it- especially if you are planning on switching to pellets. I would say go for them as soon as your endo will let you.

My endo started me on a high dose of pellets, and I've never had anything but... never had a single negative side effect physical or mental. The craziest part, I've never had my E or T level checked... there is no need! It is pretty useless information.

I think the bottom line is, don't let endos push you around. If you don't think you're getting the care you deserve, don't just "take their word for it" and let them gatekeep you. There is a lot of BS methodology leftover from the old methods (or lack thereof really), so if you feel held back it might be time to find someone else who knows more / cares more about their transgender clients.

Did I not warn about getting me started?

Quote from: Jennygirl on April 30, 2014, 11:19:33 AM
Did I not warn about getting me started?

I, for one, do not mind in the slightest Jenny!

Offtopic: Btw, Dr O'Dea's site is great. I took a look at it a while ago and got some great info from it!

Sidenote: I haven't even seen my Endo yet, the waiting list is SO SO long! Fortunately my regular Dr. is willing to walk this path with me or I would have gone bonkers long ago!

Hmm...four exclaimation marks in one post...maybe I'm starting to go bonkers after all...

Quote from: Jennygirl on April 30, 2014, 11:19:33 AM
Free E levels don't mean much at all because they don't measure how much E is actually getting absorbed... (only you will know this by the way you feel). So I wouldn't worry too much about it- especially if you are planning on switching to pellets. I would say go for them as soon as your endo will let you.

My endo started me on a high dose of pellets, and I've never had anything but... never had a single negative side effect physical or mental. The craziest part, I've never had my E or T level checked... there is no need! It is pretty useless information.

I think the bottom line is, don't let endos push you around. If you don't think you're getting the care you deserve, don't just "take their word for it" and let them gatekeep you. There is a lot of BS methodology leftover from the old methods (or lack thereof really), so if you feel held back it might be time to find someone else who knows more / cares more about their transgender clients.

Did I not warn about getting me started?

Wow you nailed it. I find the medical establishment leans toward the apathetic side to our health interest, taking a too restrictively cautious and drawn out grace period wait and see approach to see if we'll change our minds during the course of what basically amounts to ineffectual starting treatments.

Load this bitch up already!

I've had to take pills for various things to keep myself healthy almost all my life. What's one or two more? 

Quote from: Evelyn K on April 30, 2014, 12:17:07 PM
Wow you nailed it. I find the medical establishment leans toward the apathetic side to our health interest, taking a too restrictively cautious and drawn out grace period wait and see approach to see if we'll change our minds during the course of what basically amounts to ineffectual starting treatments.

Load this bitch up already!

Yeah, this is very true and very wrong, if the person knows their stuff, to treat a patient. If the patient is lackadaisical and iffy about HRT, then maybe a more cautious approach would be correct. For me, I self-medicated before starting treatment on a moderate to low dose (though it worked very well), so when I went to the Mazzoni Center, I was seen very quickly and put on a high (or higher dose) than most patients. At least that's what he said. He's a great doctor but he won't allow me to have injectable E (delestrogen), as he feels I'm developing perfectly, there's no need and some other reason I don't get.

Quote from: Jennygirl on April 30, 2014, 11:19:33 AM
Free E levels don't mean much at all because they don't measure how much E is actually getting absorbed... (only you will know this by the way you feel). So I wouldn't worry too much about it- especially if you are planning on switching to pellets. I would say go for them as soon as your endo will let you.

My endo started me on a high dose of pellets, and I've never had anything but... never had a single negative side effect physical or mental. The craziest part, I've never had my E or T level checked... there is no need! It is pretty useless information.

I think the bottom line is, don't let endos push you around. If you don't think you're getting the care you deserve, don't just "take their word for it" and let them gatekeep you. There is a lot of BS methodology leftover from the old methods (or lack thereof really), so if you feel held back it might be time to find someone else who knows more / cares more about their transgender clients.

Did I not warn about getting me started?

I agree with this, though I'm one of those people that are fairly uninformed on endocrinology.  It's sort of pathetic given the fact that I depend on this medication and my entire family works in medical (and I used to give blood work results to patients myself), but what are you going to do, lol.  Sadly, this leaves me dependent on what my doctor says without really knowing if it's right or wrong.  For example, I've been told pellets are more experimental and I've never been in the position to question it.  Luckily, I'm finally on the right dosage for myself, but I wish I had more control over the method of hrt that I use (though I will only switch to pellets once they are more affordable).

Quote from: Joanna Dark on April 30, 2014, 12:58:17 PM
Yeah, this is very true and very wrong, if the person knows their stuff, to treat a patient. If the patient is lackadaisical and iffy about HRT, then maybe a more cautious approach would be correct. For me, I self-medicated before starting treatment on a moderate to low dose (though it worked very well), so when I went to the Mazzoni Center, I was seen very quickly and put on a high (or higher dose) than most patients. At least that's what he said. He's a great doctor but he won't allow me to have injectable E (delestrogen), as he feels I'm developing perfectly, there's no need and some other reason I don't get.

That sucks that he is dictating how you administer hrt, but at the very least you are having results, right? 

Quote from: Evelyn K on April 30, 2014, 12:17:07 PM
Wow you nailed it. I find the medical establishment leans toward the apathetic side to our health interest, taking a too restrictively cautious and drawn out grace period wait and see approach to see if we'll change our minds during the course of what basically amounts to ineffectual starting treatments.

Load this bitch up already!

It's funny because my endo acted like starting hrt was like the matrix.  Like you either take the red or blue pill and there is no going back,lol.  No exactly true, especially early in the game.  Though she was cautious because she had a trans patient that had a stroke, so it took me forever to get where I am now. 

Quote from: learningtolive on April 30, 2014, 01:48:58 PM
That sucks that he is dictating how you administer hrt, but at the very least you are having results, right? 

It doesn't bother me. I wouldn't call it dictating since I have various co-concurring intersex conditions and he is wary of my E levels being too high and my T dropping too low. It's more expensive anyway and if breast growth is used as an indicator of the quality of transition, then my transition is miraculous lol My Free T was 182 at baseline, which is extremely low and at the level of a woman with PCOS. I blame my primary condition, De La Chapelle Syndrome, for my being transsexual. I also do not tell people I am intersexed usually, excpet for my BF, since it is really complicated and in the end, doesn't really matter. Either way I am a transsexual. All things being equal, I wish I wasn't intersexed as then I wouldn't have had to spend so much time in the hospital as a child. I was supposed to be the hospital all year when I was 3, but my mom AMA'd me because I was already a very emotional child and she was frightened of me being left alone there all night, every night. It gets even more depressing, but am trying to forget all that. it doesn't matter anymore.

Quote from: Jennygirl on April 30, 2014, 11:19:33 AM
Free E levels don't mean much at all because they don't measure how much E is actually getting absorbed... (only you will know this by the way you feel). So I wouldn't worry too much about it- especially if you are planning on switching to pellets. I would say go for them as soon as your endo will let you.

My endo started me on a high dose of pellets, and I've never had anything but... never had a single negative side effect physical or mental. The craziest part, I've never had my E or T level checked... there is no need! It is pretty useless information.

I think the bottom line is, don't let endos push you around. If you don't think you're getting the care you deserve, don't just "take their word for it" and let them gatekeep you. There is a lot of BS methodology leftover from the old methods (or lack thereof really), so if you feel held back it might be time to find someone else who knows more / cares more about their transgender clients.

Did I not warn about getting me started?

Thanks Jennygirl I downloaded and will read the document later.

I really do hate taking the pills. I'm going to ask my Endo at my next appointment about shots. Patches don't work for me cause they won't stay on, no matter how well I clean the area beforehand. Must be my Native American skin, lol!! Though my last recent bloodwork showed great E levels & very low T, and that for my age with the exception of my chronic pain issue I'm in extreemly great health, I do worry about clotting and liver damage. I'd love to have the pellets but in my case I'm afraid I'll have to stick to what my insurance covers. I've waited sooooooo long for this though, I'll take whatever form I can get my E in. I just hope the shots are covered.

Does anyone have a USD amount per pellet & implant cost? I read the cost on that pdf, and it doesn't give a dollar amount.

O'Dea charges somewhere around $75usd per pellet and that is with implantation.

Lower doses last longer, so they are much much cheaper. Higher doses need to be replaced more frequently, so they are vastly more expensive.

You could probably compare a low dose of pellets (2-4 pellets) to a high dose of oral HRT in terms of feminization. With that few of pellets, you could likely go about 6 months in between implantations... Meaning as low as $150 every 6 months. A more moderate dose of 4 pellets would be $300 every 6 months or roughly $50 a month.

Considering how very little estradiol (by weight) goes into your body, it is by far the most efficient way to do it.

It is, believe it or not, a rather large trigger topic for me when I think about endocrinologists prescribing oral HRT at all. I believe that all hormone methods (except for pellets) plague our community with a host of nasty side effects... which leaves a lot of people blaming themselves. Soo messed up and sad if you ask me The fact of the matter is that most endocrinologists don't care enough or have been taught not to question the medical literature (which is a joke when it comes to transgender care). And there are enough of us who don't question as well, and we end up depressed, anxious, tired, screaming, and sometimes hospitalized unless monitored closely (luckily at least endos seem to be good at this). Pellets solve all of those problems, though; they are the closest things we can have to ovaries.. And [big surprise] they are incredibly effective, safe, and use just the tiniest amount of estradiol for the greatest effect.

What I wish would happen first is to see doctors stop pushing E levels and T levels on their patients. It is SUCH a waste of everyones time, money, and anxiety. What they need to be focusing on is our happiness, not some numbers on a chart or whether negatives outweigh positives. With the right treatment, there are no negatives

Ignorant ltl is coming for more schooling, lol. 

Don't e and t levels matter though?  I thought the goal was to get your body at a certain level in order to ensure the changes happen, am I wrong? 

If 2-4 pellets are comparable to a high dose of oral hrt, you may have just won me over.  I'm not a fan of paying 50 dollars a month, but hell that isn't so bad and I can find a way around that once I'm back at work.  Do you have any further information on this?  I'm seriously going to look into this now considering it's not all that bad price wise compared to what I originally thought. 

And one last thing, do you know how one would go about finding an endocrinologist that uses this method?  It seems it's hard enough to find a trans friendly endo and most don't seem to use pellets.  I'm sure there is bound to be someone in the NY area, but I've got no idea.

P.S.  Sorry for all the questions, but you've really piqued my interest. 

Quote from: Lady_Oracle on April 30, 2014, 06:32:01 AM
ughh I really despise taking the pills, can't afford shots and my doc doesn't offer pellets anyways..REALLY SUCKS
end rant

My injectable, that I get from a compounding pharmacy, only costs me about $125 a year including supplies (syringes, alcohol pads and band-aids).