Quote from: pebbles on August 30, 2011, 03:10:16 AM
I followed your route Jenna I tried talking to a GP when I was 20 (Having previously smashed my testicles with a hammer when I was 19) They ignored me for 2 years, I eventually brought hormones myself online, I don't regret not depending on those pepole I've been in touch with GP's and GIC's but they just ignore me. It's nearly been a year and I still haven't got an appointment at the GIC.

If I'd waited for them and followed the rules I'd be dead... To hell with the lot of them.
I'm still far from a safe situation dependant on dangerous pepole for my supply of hormones.

My friends discribed the smell of my Spironolactone tablets as "Polo mints that have gone wrong." dispite how they smell They taste like the inside of a dustbin.

Your friends described them 100% accurately....but I definitively understand how you felt about not waiting for help. It's amazing how much can change in a years time from my lowest...to the same time the next year 4 months on hormones and having a completely different state of mind....thank goodness for my estorgen made from cow pee. 

In my first blog post about HRT, I described Spiro this way:

"They taste like mint. I'm not sure how I feel about that."

I'm actually self-medicating right now but I'll be seeing a doctor on Sept 14 so it will be my first official appointment

I'm really excited. By then, I'll be on hormones for exact 2 months. I know what a short amount of time right?

Quote from: Lexy711 on August 30, 2011, 02:30:06 PM


I'm really excited. By then, I'll be on hormones for exact 2 months. I know what a short amount of time right?

not really seeming a lot of the continuity has not yet been able to start hrt 2 months is  not short you should say that proudly sweetie that's 2 months less of a male anything

Quote from: Miniar on August 30, 2011, 07:06:20 AM
Doctor.
Safety first and all that.

That's well and good (optimal) but if I go to a doctor with a tumor that is deforming my face and body and they want to hem and haw and act like another 3 months is no big deal then "F*** THEM"!  It takes 3 days to get blood tests completed and 5 minutes to make an adjustment.  Doctors like to try and tie our hands as much as they can so we are dependent on them.  HRT is not rocket science and neither is most medicine. Too often, if you get very far away from what they see every day, they don't have a clue and rarely will spend hours researching your medical case.

When they don't understand stuff, they tell you it's "in your head". Truth is, most docs are not going to spend unbillable time to really research stuff. People save their own lives and the lives of their loved ones by searching the internet for countless hours in an effort to put the pieces together. If the doctors didnt act as gatekepers to the bloodwork, I should be able to get a full panel screen for $100-$150 and that wil tell me everything I need to know. Then of course, they hold the pad that gives us 'permission" to but drugs at a pharmacy.

Take the stranglehold that doctors have off of medicine and healthcare would be far more affordable becasue we'd rarely need to access "the system". Screw the gatekeepers. If I want to change MY body, I shouldn't have to PAY for their permission!  Ok, rant over. Back to your normally scheduled broadcast....

ON MY OWN!

Jennifer

  Umm the first time i started with a therapist/doctors help, second time around i started DIY hormones then eventually sought out a therapist and endo.   

Been a long road for me, even though i'm only 28, i come out to my mum when i was about 17, she arranged private counselling for me, i attended him for a few sessions and then biggest mistake of my life i stopped because i could see how it was effecting my mum and said it was just a phase which i'm over.

So 10 years on, i've been to see my gp, since the psychiatrists and now waiting for my gender clinic appointment, but in the mean time i'm self medicating as i feel it's probably going to be a very long time till i'm seen again. I plan on going to tell my gp and then she can monitor my bloods etc.

I guess everything happens for a reason, maybe back then i wasn't ready for this and now i certainly am x

Quote from: JennaNicole on August 29, 2011, 11:35:53 AM
So after reading the web, and finding a way to get hormones, I started my transition a month after my 16th Birthday.

I want to seriously challenge your identifying transitioning with hormones. They are not the same thing.

My transition has always been done by myself on my own. My HRT has always been under the supervision of a doctor. I remember it was something like my sixth visit to my therapist that she realized I wasn't changing into female clothing in her restroom before our sessions. Her comment was, "You have effectively transitioned already." That was more than two years before I started HRT.

Jenna Nicole, your transition is your own, and your responsibility. But you should not have started HRT without a doctor's supervision. That part is what is causing you difficulties in pursuing GRS now. You will have to accept the fact that your choice in the past is going to set back your progress at this point in time.

Quote from: LifeInNeon on August 30, 2011, 10:15:38 AM
In my first blog post about HRT, I described Spiro this way:

"They taste like mint. I'm not sure how I feel about that."

My first thought on tasting them was, "They flavored them so men would be willing to take them." They are, after all, given to men for blood pressure.

But if one ever gets stuck in your throat and dissolves, you'll know why they have to be flavored.

Quote from: Lisbeth on September 02, 2011, 03:03:16 PM
I want to seriously challenge your identifying transitioning with hormones. They are not the same thing.

For *SOME* people, the two events DO go hand in hand, especially when someone started as young as it appears Jenna did...

QuoteJenna Nicole, your transition is your own, and your responsibility. But you should not have started HRT without a doctor's supervision. That part is what is causing you difficulties in pursuing GRS now. You will have to accept the fact that your choice in the past is going to set back your progress at this point in time.

I don't read anything in Jenna's post history that suggests the self-medding contributed to any of the difficulties.  I DO read there to have been an issue with getting past a gatekeeper prior to the age of 18...which is likely as much a problem now as it was when I was under the age of 18 (I tried paying for shrinks out of my own pocket by the age of 17). 

And while I have respected the ToS as it pertains to self-med directions, I find it appalling that someone would even try to preach about what someone should or should not have done.  It is a decision that can be made by the individual after they weigh the pros and cons.  And in this day and age, it is also not difficult to get lab work done in any number of local areas.  Had the internet existed when I was a kid, I can tell you without a doubt that I would have been self-medding by the age of 16.

I couldn't agree with you more, Ann!!!  There is no way in hell that had I had the internet as a kid and had this stuff all figured out that I would just sit around letting T and DHT do their work on me while I waited for the gatekeepers blessing. Untreated GID is far more deadly than DIY HRT, especially for a teen.

Quote from: Ann Onymous on September 02, 2011, 03:19:27 PM
For *SOME* people, the two events DO go hand in hand, especially when someone started as young as it appears Jenna did...

I don't read anything in Jenna's post history that suggests the self-medding contributed to any of the difficulties.  I DO read there to have been an issue with getting past a gatekeeper prior to the age of 18...which is likely as much a problem now as it was when I was under the age of 18 (I tried paying for shrinks out of my own pocket by the age of 17). 

And while I have respected the ToS as it pertains to self-med directions, I find it appalling that someone would even try to preach about what someone should or should not have done.  It is a decision that can be made by the individual after they weigh the pros and cons.  And in this day and age, it is also not difficult to get lab work done in any number of local areas.  Had the internet existed when I was a kid, I can tell you without a doubt that I would have been self-medding by the age of 16.

     I agree, at 16 i didn't even know that transexuals could take hormones and get sex change operations, FFS etc.  My idea of what transexuals were was from the jerry springer show and that just scared me and made me feel sick to my stomach. Wasn't intill we got the internet in my house that i started to poke around looking for reason's why i felt this way. I kinda had a sheltered life growing up in a small hick town so without the internet i def wouldn't have been able to transition.   

  I don't like answering this type of question on Susan's until I seen the quick responses on this thread.  My answer is on my own after several doctors I seen this past decade would not broach this question of using HRT on my GID and later my prostate problem.  My last doctor visit was at an urologist's office.  He gave me a hard sell about getting prostate surgery and his nurse was doing the same thing before he tried to schedule a biopsy!  He makes a lot of money with those surgeries, he does them.  I found out 1 month later in an AARP article that such tests and some of those surgeries are unnecessary and the side effects were worse than the cancer in the quality of life. 
  A doctor shortage and my limited income helped contribute in my self-medicating.  I did see a shrink plus others in the 70's, but things back then were not good for transgender people.  I do not want anybody, especially you younger ones, to do what I am doing because I am flying without instruments in a fog right now.  Dosages? I knew them since the 70's, no changes since.  Some of the dosages in a lot of the many transgender sites are wrong and can cause severe damage to your organs or do nothing at all.  Stay away from the herbal remedies, especially for prostate.  I've been through that route.  Herbals just made things worse.
  If you have a doctor, heed his advice.   What is working for me right now may not work for you as I've seen here on Susan's.  Please, be careful!
  Joelene