Introduction

The current situation for trans people worldwide is either rapidly deteriorating or completely unacceptable. In the imperialist countries chauvinistic sentiment is being drummed up against us for our extermination and in the imperialized countries an ultra reactionary state persists where the threat of murder looms large over one’s head. Additionally while the situation for homebrewers is for the most part stable currently, there remains the ever present risk of supply being disrupted especially as the imperialist powers gear up for the next great imperialist war of annihilation.

Of note has been the recent shut down of Open Gates Labs which was the last homebrewer providing femininizing transdermal hrt, though only to the US, Canada, and the UK. And now with its shutdown there are no homebrewers at all distributing feminizing transdermal hrt, which is important because injectable hrt is not universally available due to certain jurisdictions placing restrictions on the purchasing of syringes. And pharmaceutical DIY transdermal options utilize subpar dispension methods.

Beyond homebrewing us trans people have to rely on endocrinologists which may force us to endure humilating procedures and long wait times to even be considered for hrt. If they are willing to accept us at all!

Justification

Given such circumstances it is of utmost importance that us trans people become independent in supplying our own care to the greatest degree possible. DIYing is not something to be taken lightly and requires a level of expertise, which this gudie is attempting to provide at least a part of.

The current trajectory of things does not imply that the situation for us trans people will be getting any better. If we are to take our fate into our own hands and make real strides toward our liberation, then the first step toward this will be learning to take our medical care, our most immediate need, into our own hands. HRT is merely one part of that and there are many other aspects of trans medical care which we will also need to learn to manage ourselves. But of course one thing at a time, hrt first.

With the looming threat of a third world imperialist war, evident by yankee imperialism’s most recent wars of aggression and genocide in the middle east, Russian imperialism’s invasion of Ukraine and testing of the NATO alliance, and the aggressive posturing of Chinese social imperialism, the risk of the third world imperialist war and the resulting mass disruption of global supply chains is marching forward at concerning pace. Therefore if we are to secure our healthcare we must begin organizing this initiative immediately. For these reasons this guide is created.

Things To Know & Keep in Mind

The prosepects of producing your own hrt may sound unsafe and exorbotantly expensive at first, but in fact it is incredibly cost effective and by far the cheapest method for aquiring hrt. Even when compared with DIY homebrewers, it is cheaper to produce the hrt on your own than purchase from a homebrewer or other DIY supplier. And of course when compared to the convential institutional route making the hrt yourself becomes even more financially viable, with all the doctor visits and other such marked up expenses.

Additionally due to the complexity and required rigor of producing injectable hrt this guide only covers transdermal hrt. Information on injectable hrt can be found at “hrt.mom”^[1][2] There are other guides as well which can be found on onespark’s links page. Transdermal hrt is sufficient however for both masculinizing and feminizing hrt. Even for transsexual feminine hrt regimines, which would otherwise require the patient to utilize androgen blockers, transdermal is sufficient to suppress testosterone on its own given a sufficient dose (which is easy to achieve). Such as 4mg a day or higher applied to the scrotum.^[3] Scrotal, or genital more broadly, application of transdermal estradiol offers better absorption than other more conventional application sites and therefore is best for monotherapy.^[4]

Lastly some terminology to know before the guide begins:

"raws" - refering to unprocessed hormones

"CAS" - “CAS” or “CAS(chemical abstracts service) number” refers to the unique identification numbers assigned to every known chemical substance

"Beta Estradiol" - Beta Estradiol is the specific form of raw estradiol which should be purchased for feminizing transdermal hrt. Other estered forms (cypionate, valerate, undecylate, etc) should not be purchased as they are molecularly too large to be absorbed through the skin and used for injectable hrt.

"Dihydrotestosterone" - Dihydrotestosterone is the particular form of testosterone used in masculinizing transdermal hrt, other estered forms (cypionate, enanthate, etc) are utilized for injectable hrt and so should not be purchased.

Philosophy in Your Production

In producing hrt there are certain key questions which you should be keeping in mind as you execute the various steps of the procedure.

Firstly, how much hrt do you want to produce? Are you producing for yourself, your friends, or a larger scale. This will dictate the amount of resources, especially raws, you will need to purchase. Though dosing may vary, the standard dosing for transdermal femininizing hrt is 4mg per day and 100mg per day(maximal dose) for masculinizing hrt.

Following from this point, you probably want to stockpile a reserve of raws as well beyond the immediate batch which you are producing. The amount which you should stockpile depends greatly on your situation and intended scale of production, however.

If you’re producing for yourself then it very well may be reasonable to secure a lifetime supply of raws, though this may cost a lot so you’ll probably have to spread the purchases over a protracted period of time. For femininzing assuming you live for another 60 years and take 4mg per day, you'll need 87.66 grams of beta estradiol. Costs vary a bit, but assuming a cost of 4 USD per gram you’ll need around 351 USD (not including shipping costs) to purchase all the estradiol you’ll need. If you purchase it all at once you’ll only have to pay for the cost of shipping once and that’ll drastically minimize the cumililative additional costs resulting from shipping.

Then for masculinizing hrt, also assuming you live for 60 more years and take the maximal dose of 100mg per day you'll need 2,191.5 grams or 2.2 kilograms, assuming a cost of 0.2 USD per gram you'll need 487 USD (this is likely an mis-estimation given I could not find any direct prices). Given more legal scrutiny (though risks are generally low)^[5] on testosterone, firstly you should aim to order domestically if possible, and secondly not such a large amount all at once.

Producing for more than yourself is a bit more variable. The exact amount of raws you’ll need, not to mention the other resources such as dispensers for the hrt, makes things a lot more expensive. First and foremost identify, to your best ability, how many people you expect to be distributing to and aquire a supply to cover at least 6 months per person alongside a stockpile of 50% of that base supply (covering everyone for 3 months). Additionally, you should be aiming to grow your stockpile to 100% of your base supply over time and keeping it at 100%. This functioning as an additional reserve in the event you can’t acquire new raws for whatever reason.

Where To Get Raws

Raws can be acquired at a number of places.

For estradiol there are 2 main places, Dragon Ordnance and madeinchina.com. Dragon Ordnance seems to be generally reliable in their supplying of raws, are exceptionally cheap, and offer a variety of purchasing methods. Then there is madeinchina.com which is a bit less reliable and is a collection of different pharmaceutical suppliers within China. There is a great variance in cost and you have to contact the companies directly in order to purchase from them, additionally you may have to utilize alipay or a wiretransfer service in order to purchase from them which exposes you a bit more in regards to your identifiable information compared to using crypto which is completely anonymous.

Testosterone appears to be more diffcult to find suppliers of. Generally testosterone is considered a controlled substance in most countries and therefore its distribution is more restrictive, especially raws. From what I could find it seems Dragon Ordanance also distributes injectable testosterone internationally but no transdermal or raw testosterone. Alternatively there is a site going by the name “Purple Panda Labs” which appears to distribute a variety of testosterone products within the US, including transdermal. However they only ship “testosterone isocaproate” raws internationally, which is not what we are looking for. Alternatively there may be other suppliers within your country which supply raws or testosterone products. But you would need to find these on your own, whether off or online, as they are not particularly visible online. In western countries however, due to the prescence of a market for cisgender bodybuilding men it is very much feasible to acquire testosterone if you manage to find the right sources. Though they are not raws, additional resources can be found on diyhrt.info.

Where To Get Other Resources

The other resources for making the hrt, such as the solvent, penetration enhancer, containers, etc, can all be easily acquired at local stores physically or the right online store. They are generally mundance tools and supplies, and so shouldn’t be difficult to acquire.

Full Resource List (based on TeaHRT/OGL Recipe)^[6]

1 - Raws (solute – 20mg/mL(estrogen) OR 100mg/mL(testosterone))

- Beta Estradiol

- Dihydrotestosterone

2 - Solvent (45% of solution)

- ethanol

- rubbing alcohol

- isopropyl alcohol (some reports of it being harmful)^[7][8]

- vegetable oils

3 - Penetration Enhancer (45% of solution)

- isopropyl myristate (ideal)

- orange oil (caution advised – can be corrosive)^[6]

- niaouli oil

- eucalyptus oil

- peppermint oil

- mentha oil

- propylene glycol

4 - Mixture Stablizer (10% of solution)

- polysorbate 80

5 - Thickening Agent (optional - if you want to make gel)

- carbomer 980 + triethanolamine

- Hydroxypropyl methylcellulose

- Glycerol

6 - HRT Container

- airless pump container

- hand sanitizer dispenser

- if you have nothing it’s important to get creative, there is probably a dispensing container of some sort you can repurpose

7 - Mixing Container & Tool

- final containing bottle

- a bowl

- generally anything which won’t have the solution flying everywhere as you shake or stir it

- lab spatula

- magnetic stir bar

- milk frother

- your hand (for shaking)

- anything else that can be used to stir or shake the container

8 - Measurement Tools

- measurement cups/spoons

- milligram sensitive weighing scales (for best percision)

9 - Misc Additional Scientific Equipment (optional)

- weighing boats

- laboratory glassware

- hot plate (to speed up dissolution of the raws)

- etc

How To Make Transdermal

1 - determine dispenser parameters

figrue out how much the dispenser you’ll be putting the hrt in dispenses. This is crucial in order to figure out the concentration of hrt you should be aiming for in your solution. Generally aim for one dispensing being one dosage, if this is not possible, then one dosage should be a whole number of dispensings and not a decimal number.

Generally if one pump expells x mL, then you should be aiming for a concentration of 1 dose per that x mL. It is for this reason important to measure the dispensing volume to determine the ratio between your raws and solvent in mg/mL.

2 - setup brewing area

gather all the resources you’ll need to make the hrt into one cleared spot

3 - measuring things out

measure out the the desired amount of solvent, raws, penetration oil, and mixture stabilizer based on your determined specifications.

4 - mix everything

combine everything into your mixing container (you also could’ve measured each ingredient then poured it into the mixing container) and mix (shake or stir) it all together until the raws are completely dissolved. Don’t panic when they don’t dissolve quickly, it takes a few mintes.

5 - pour solution into dispensing container(s)

pour the produced mixture into your desired dispensing container.

6 - clean up

clean up your work area, return all your materials, and store your hrt and spare raws in a cool, dark, dry, and secure area.

How To Distribute

If you are producing for others then ideally you should be producing this completely for free, however this is likely completely unrealistic due to the involved costs. Consequently it makes sense to charge for distribution proportional to the amount which your purchaser is purchasing. Oppose profiteering in this endeavor and aim to at most break even and distribute free products as frequently as possible.

Specifics on how to distribute are tricky. In regards to payments prioritize crypto or cash as those are the most anonymous. In regards to how to get your product to your purchaser, this will have to be situationally specific. Generally don’t just proclaim you are distributing hrt to anyone, be intelligent with who you tell and how you tell. Focus first and foremost on your local area, get to know the other trans people in your region or wider region and help those people. Treat this as a more clandestine activity, you don’t want to unnecessarily get in trouble or have reactionaries find you out and attack you risking your operations.

Long Term Vision

In the long term we should be working toward the smashing of the barriers placed between us and our healthcare. Additionally if it is possible to do so initially, these distribution networks should aim to produce injectables as well, as they are superior to all other methods of taking hrt and are by far the cheapest in the long run when produced locally. The main issue is the up front costs of the lab equipment required to produce injectable hrt reliably and safely.

This is all part of our struggle to construct a new society. As Chairman Mao proclaimed, we must not be good at only destroying the old society but constructing the new one as well. Siezing control of our healthcare is one of the many parts of this. Healthcare should be decommidified in the long run as well, this isn’t completely feasible within capitalist society, but we can begin to do this in part.

We will only learn how to construct the new society by actively taking part in its construction! Learn by doing!

CRITICISMS

All critiques can be directed to my email AvawaveForward@proton.me. I accept criticisms from all well meaning and serious people, only through struggle can higher understanding be developed.