DIY HRT

DIY HRT and your liver function (LFTs)

With the rise in legislation restricting access to gender affirming care, many individuals have and may consider using ‘DIY’ HRT methods, including anabolic steroids, and/or supplementing with herbs and ‘feminizing’/’masculinizing’ supplements. PLEASE be careful doing this (I strongly do not suggest doing it), but if you are, you need to watch your liver function.

• Many of these ‘supplements’ and OTC testosterone boosters are very hepatoxic (hurt your liver a lot) which is not good!

• For example: ashwaganda, fenugreek, tribulus, maca, DHEA, tongkat ali, all of the Nugenix supplements, etc, can lead to your liver function tests (ALT/AST) becoming very out of whack.

• If you do use these things, PLEASE make sure you are getting your LFTs and other bloodwork done regularly.

• Similarly, buying DIY HRT from “homebrew” sites (homebrew means they make the HRT (testosterone, estrogen, etc) in their house/own place, not in a facility/manufacturing plant like a pharmaceutical, I understand where you are coming from, but I am begging you to please use caution. Injectables can be very dangerous as they may not be sealed properly, and if not sealed properly, very bad bacteria can grow in them (bacteria that like low-oxygen conditions like C. botulinum (botulin toxin) and not the kind of botox that you want) so please please exercise caution if you do this.Utilize harm reduction measures that your community provides and if you don’t know of any, I am more than happy to find some.