Question related to Estrogel Protocol:
Janey,
Sorry if you've mentioned this before but what is your protocol with e-gel: how much, how ofter, body part applied.
I've had moderate success with it over the last 2 years but it greatly increases my estrone levels.
My protocol is pretty much based upon trial and error. As part of the answer, let me try to elucidate first the variety of issues involved. I am not a scientist so all of the normal cautionary advice applies:
I continue to believe that using estrogens on the scalp is more effective for hair loss and hair recovery than using only non-topical estrogen applications. I have very little data-wise to support this however as I have been working at this since October of 2013 and I have used oral estrogen, at times oral spironolactone, and at times oral estrogen with topical estrogen. Studies that are systematic appear to be rare in terms of evaluating what takes place.
Topicals and other ingestion methods can be strange regardless of the medication. First of all terminology, similar to that involving the AA's, is often not rigid in terms of differentiating trans-dermal as a term from topical. Sometimes topicals seem more or much more effective; sometimes they appear equally effective and other times, either less effective or not effective at all.
There continues to be a debate over topical spironolactone. The better view from my reading of what is asserted is that topical spironolactone is unlikely to be very effective for hair loss and its efficacy is often obscured because it is used jointly with either estrogen or minoxidil or other anti-androgenic substances. Dr. Lee continues to work on topical spironolactone and continues to tout it but there seems to be increasingly less interest or excitement about topical spironolactone or azelaic acid, another thing that he has promoted the use of topically. Someone on another thread that I would have to look for, has noted that like minoxidil, spironolactone is hampered in terms of being processed in the scalp, as opposed to the liver.
We obviously know that topicals for hair and facial treatment are widely used. Among them are the retinoids, medications aimed at dermatitis and dandruff, acne treatments, minoxidil and many others. Topicals obviously work. Issues involve whether they work better than oral ingestion methods, their side effects as topicals or oral meds, cost and ease of use.
Many FtM's use topicals on their genitalia and recent studies indicate that estrogens and androgens appear to be far more efficient in terms of achieving higher blood serum levels when used upon male and female genital tissue. The absorption increase in this context, might also account for FtM's seeking virulization of their clitoris also experiencing far more increase in body hair and greater increases in androgenic alopecia as opposed to using injections or swallowed forms but again, this is from my observing FtM's outcomes on transition and other sites and not based upon studies.
Even people who don't test can verify that topicals work in terms of effectuating bodily changes. For instance a person using Biestro from Life Flo, sold on Amazon and other places, might see them cause gyno fairly rapidly. This shows that such meds are being absorbed and doing something. What is difficult to know is whether these are actually localized effects or merely effects from increasing serum levels of estrogen. My feeling is that estrogens do have localized effects, followed by systemic effects. It is difficult to disentangle, however:
"A medication's potency often is changed with its base. For example, some
topical steroids will be classified one or two strengths higher when moving from cream to ointment. As a rule of thumb, an ointment base is more occlusive and will drive the medication into the skin more rapidly than a solution or cream base."
en.wikipedia.org
Half-llfe levels might differ depending upon ingestion method used and half-lives can be both significant and of very little significance in terms of outcomes. To me, half-lives appear relatively unimportant for feminization in general but very important to hair outcomes, particularly in the shorter term but this is conjecture based upon my own anecdotal results and reading about those of others in the MtF community. I think that using estrogen on the scalp though is likely to be more efficacious due to the ability to home in on and focus on the tissue most relevant and then based upon liver-pass effects which come later.
en.wikipedia.org
Desired target effect
Identical drugs can produce different results depending on the route of administration. For example, some drugs are not significantly absorbed into the bloodstream from the gastrointestinal tract and their action after enteral administration is therefore different from that after parenteral administration. This can be illustrated by the action of
naloxone (Narcan), an antagonist of
opiates such as
morphine. Naloxone counteracts opiate action in the
central nervous system when given intravenously and is therefore used in the treatment of opiate overdose. The same drug, when swallowed, acts exclusively on the bowels; it is here used to treat constipation under opiate pain therapy and does not affect the pain-reducing effect of the opiate.
Local
By delivering drugs almost directly to the site of action, the risk of systemic
side effects is reduced.
[25]
Skin absorption (dermal absorption), for example, is to directly deliver drug to the skin and, hopefully, to the systemic circulation.[29] However, skin irritation may result, and for some forms such as creams or lotions, the dosage is difficult to control.
[26] Upon contact with the skin, the drug penetrates into the dead
stratum corneum and can afterwards reach the viable
epidermis, the
dermis, and the
blood vessels
One of the reasons that I feel that what
@bridgeburn did and what we are doing, is so important is the very fact that we might see anecdotally different outcomes. This is particularly true with respect to the use of AA's and whether they are even valuable in the hair loss context with or without estrogen administered concurrently. If we start getting even a nucleus of five, seven, 11 or 20-something people with similar experiences leading to substantial hair-loss and hair-regrowth improvement, then we can start chipping away at some of the differences among those whose improvement is either lagging or non-existent. This is similar to what happened with the polysorbates which were used to clean the skin of murine species during lab testing, resulting in unexpected increased hair growth.
The discovery of psychedelic substances usually tryptamines or phenethylamines, and the work of Albert Hoffman and Gordon Wasson, and Alexander Shulgin are inspiring here.
en.wikipedia.org
en.wikipedia.org
en.wikipedia.org
en.wikipedia.org
Particularly, as the studies of Hoffman and Wasson took them to Mexico and Central American, they encountered Indians using seeds from the family of the Morning Glory flowers reputed to be quite similar to LSD in their effects. This was disputed, however, as westerners often ingested these seeds and saw no effects whatsoever. Wasson noted however that the Indians didn't merely swallow them. Rather they pulverized them with rocks and then ingested them. When done this way, indeed, psychedelic effects of the strongest category were produced. The active ingredient, LSA, is chemically quite similar to LSD, and the active ingredient in magic mushrooms, but even more so to rye ergot, with its effects on vasodilation, which could be dangerous, with rye ergot implicated in St. Anthony's Fire.
Still, when ingested this way, many experienced unpleasant gastric effects. Heads and stoners then found ways to extract the LSA using methods involving various solvents such as water and lighter fluid to isolate the LSA in order to avoid the vomiting and other effects that made using them so hit or miss. I still note on certain boards that people often seem to be unable to get these seeds, which are found sold
everywhere to induce effects.
Hence, "What's the Story, Morning Glory?"
The extraction methods do work and I tried them for scientific reasons and entheogenic effects. The DEA has strangely not interfered but this is largely because the vasoconstrictive effects make morning glory seeds much more of a downer than LSD or psychedelic mushrooms. They just aren't a lot of fun and it's hard to abuse them for this reason and because psychedelics tend to need to be spaced at least weekly for full-blown effects. Although conjecture, meds like V***** might substantially improve the experience by curtailing the painful vasodilation effects and allowing for free movement during the experience which is otherwise uncomfortable.
What is LSA? LSA—also known as ergine—is a psychedelic compound found in the seeds of several common plants, including morning glory (Ipomoea violacea),
doubleblindmag.com
This has little to do with HRT except to point towards some of the interesting and thrilling aspects related to discovery of pharmaceuticals and making them work for our own purposes. I will discuss how I use Estrogel in my next post.
Goddess bless.
