@dandelion

Thanks for taking the time to explain and clear this up for me. I truly appreciate it. 😊

@dandelion

I have to say, even under doctor supervision, I had issues with the patches; the glue burned my skin so bad that the scars lasted months.

I am now taking sublingual pills and they work well for me but I still need to be monitored for kidney and liver issues because of the aforementioned damage caused by my own experimentation.

So, yeah, I was trying to share my experience as a cautionary tale about the pitfalls of trying to figure it out on my own.

@dandelion
It is possible that I am misunderstanding your definition of DIY. To me, DIY would refer to buying estrogenic supplements, whether in pill, cream, or liquid form, and self-administering.

Example: I first tried liquid supplements from a vitamin store, then moved to pills when the drops did nothing. The pills helped a little but, yes, without medical supervision, I ended up with life-threatening issues.

@SquishedFly @dandelion
Do you think that could be their way of asking for a maiden name, while trying to be progressive?

@partial_accumen @dandelion So long as the field in the database is not a bit (0/1).

@dandelion

They did a DNA test which confirmed it was hemochromatosis.

Fortunately, getting rid of excess iron was not that difficult. I gave blood every 11-14 days for a while. I was allowed to donate blood every 6 days, but 11 was where I was comfortable. The normal amount of time between blood donations is 56 days, but I had enough iron to replace the missing red blood cells in less than a week.

It was like being a superhero, though I don’t recommend it.

@dandelion

I was using an over-the-counter natural supplement, made from bovine and porcine products without doctor supervision or approval.

I went to my PCP for my annual tests and showed signs of liver and kidney damage. I don’t drink, smoke, or do drugs, so they thought it was cancer and scheduled additional blood work and a biopsy.

The blood test came back showing that it was not cancer but an iron overload. My body was storing the excess in all my organs and tissues.

@dandelion @WoodScientist DIY can hurt you. I tried DIY estrogen and…

a) It didn’t work well.
b) I found out I had hemochromatosis because it was high in iron, which built up in my body, because I can’t get rid of it.
c) I ended up with kidney and liver damage from the iron build-up.

Normal iron is 18-320 for cis males. Females are lower. Mine was 1,147 and it was killing me.

DIY hormones are a bad idea. Doctors can monitor and better balance the prescriptions.

@dandelion @hildegarde
Honestly, that is privileged information and is distributed on a need to know basis. They do not need to know.

@dandelion @stankmut or both, in my case.