I’m planning on getting HRT in the coming weeks, at least just to try for a month or so to see its effects as I can’t get blood tests currently. I’m going to be buying Climen tablets, which are pretty cheap, but in the guide I’m following it tells me to get Androcur tablets as well which are insanely expensive for me.
Is it absolutely required that I buy them, or can the small amount of cypro in Climen tablets be sort of sufficient?
Androcur is expensive but extremely effective. The general advice is you only need to take a quarter of a standard 50mg tablet per day instead of a whole tablet, but I found that once my T levels were suppressed, I could maintain an undetectable T level with only 12.5mg of Androcur per week. The 1mg of cypro in Climen might be enough for you to maintain low T levels, you’d just need to try and find out, but I would highly recommend taking Androcur for at least the first 3-6 months since that’s when most breast growth occurs and so has the highest chance to be impeded by high T levels.
My doc put me on a quarter pill every 2 days and it’s had nuked my T levels within weeks. The really important thing with cypro is that you give your liver time to clear all of it out before you put more in. There are scary risks with it but they’re almost completely mitigated of there is no long term build up. That’s why the 12.5mg every 2 days.
You don’t need a lot of Cypro but unless you have access to injections some antiandrogen is recommended.
How much it affects your levels depends heavily from person to person so try to get blood tests done every quarter for the first year if possible. Also don’t stress out if at first your levels are still lower it happens to a lot of us and doesn’t mean you’re doomed. Also do your own research on credible sites (always check your sources for validity)!
A vial of estrogen only costs like £50, lasts a year, and can suppress T on its own with monotherapy (5mg/week if estradiol enanthate)
Androcur is 1800TRY (~40USD) in my country and it would take me some saving up just to spend that much lol. Another reason I can’t get vials is my country has effectively banned getting anything from abroad.
My current intention is to just test out its effects for a month or so, using OTC estradiol meds which are pretty cheap (Climen is 75TRY but Turkey is seeing a supply shortage of it for some reason, and Cyclo-Progynova is 150TRY but it seems I can only use half a package of it because of norgestrel). I don’t think that monotherapy is possible with these 🙁
I’m sorry, that sucks :((
When you say ban stuff from abroad, you mean they search packages coming from abroad? E vials are usually disguised as essential oils or whatever unless the checks are really severe
Also in Turkey you can get estradiol over the counter? Without a prescription? That sounds really cool!
When you say ban stuff from abroad, you mean they search packages coming from abroad?
Sorry, it turns out that what I had heard before was exaggerated. It seems that they used to tax stuff you bought from abroad only if it passed 30 euros, but now they’re doing it for anything you buy, even if it costs like a dollar, and the taxation rates are pretty bad (30% for products from the EU, 60% for other countries, and an additional 20% for electronics, personal care products etc.). I could try it I guess but I would really need to save money for it.
Also in Turkey you can get estradiol over the counter? Without a prescription? That sounds really cool!
Yup! That is pretty nice c:
cypro in climen is not enough and only in half of pills
I never used anti-androgens and my testosterone lowered itself significantly with just the Estradiol, I used patches at first and injections now. That doesn’t work for everyone, but on the plus side the side effects of the anti-androgens are also often the worst part of HRT.
So is it “required”, I’d say it depends on how your body reacts. You can try mono therapy and then get blood tests to see how effective it is, or not, at lowering your testosterone.
I’m not sure if this works right off the bat, or if you have to have T suppressed for a long time first, but I’m not on any antiandrogen except a tiny bit of finasteride. Levels are good and steady!
