[LisaM]

Week 22

Week 14 on E (7.5 mg daily Oestrogel 2x pumps every 8 hours or so)


I think I've settled on a permanent regime (for now lol) as this seems to suit me.

AM (first thing on an empty stomach.)

2 x pump Oestrogel (2.5g)
2 x Swanson Bovine Ovary (500mg)
1 x Swanson Reishi capsule (600mg)
1 x Swanson GTE (500mg)
1 x sea kelp tablet (2,000mg)
1 x milk thistle tablet (4,000mg)
1 x omega 3 fish oil capsule (1,000mg)

Lunchtime

2 x Swanson Bovine Ovary (500mg)
1 x Vitamin C  (500mg)
1 x Vitamin D (500iu)

Mid Afternoon (3:30)
2 x pump Oestrogel (2.5g)

PM (last thing)
2 x pump Oestrogel (2.5g)
2 x Swanson Bovine Ovary (500mg)
1 x Swanson Reishi capsule (600mg)
1 x Swanson GTE (500mg)
2 x meletonin pills
-
Coconut oil dissolved in either chocochino or cappauchino coffee pods 3-4x a day
walnut halves, several big handfuls a day.
-

I don't want to jinx it but in terms of general health I feel great!, full of vitality, not tired or lethargic

My skin is apparently glowing, as other people have commented on it who are not family so that's nice.
I'm not entirely sure but I *think* my body hair is starting to get finer and start to disappear (fingers crossed)
My mental health is overall good, I am experiencing some 'social anxiety' although I'm still well into the bounds of boy-moding it. I'm putting it down to the quite toxic hostile atmosphere here in the UK right now.

Last time I posted I mentioned that emotional changes were hard to quantify and I've spent some time reflecting and thinking about that.
I feel like my emotional range is larger now than pre HR, where you would try and suppress your emotional output because 'boys don't cry etc' 
I do feel more emotional now when triggered, but no wild mood swings yet.


Lisa

[LisaM]

Week 24

Week 16 on E (7.5 mg daily Oestrogel 2x pumps every 8 hours or so)

Woohoo 4 months on E

I've made a very slight change to the regime (Krill oil capsules vs fish ones)

AM (first thing on an empty stomach.)

2 x pump Oestrogel (2.5g)
2 x Swanson Bovine Ovary (500mg)
1 x Swanson Reishi capsule (600mg)
1 x Swanson GTE (500mg)
1 x sea kelp tablet (2,000mg)
1 x milk thistle tablet (4,000mg)
2 x krill oil capsule (500mg)

Lunchtime

2 x Swanson Bovine Ovary (500mg)
1 x Vitamin C  (500mg)
1 x Vitamin D (500iu)

Mid Afternoon (3:30)
2 x pump Oestrogel (2.5g)

PM (last thing)
2 x pump Oestrogel (2.5g)
2 x Swanson Bovine Ovary (500mg)
1 x Swanson Reishi capsule (600mg)
1 x Swanson GTE (500mg)
2 x meletonin pills


I've just done another iHerb order for GTE, Reishi & Bovine Ovary which has led to me wonder if at this point I still need GTE & Reishi as I'm effectively mono-therapying with 7.5 mg of E daily

@Lotus if you see this, what do you think?

Here are the monthly vital stats to see what changes have happened since the start.

---
First the starting point.

Height: 5ft 10
Shoe size UK 9 (US11, EU 43)
Neck: 16
Bust: 42 (I have little 'moobs' already, probably an age thing)
Chest: 40
Waist: 35 (32 inch jean waist)
Hips: 38
Upper Thigh: 21.5
Ankle: 9.5
Biceps: 13
Wrist: 6.75
Hand Width: 5

Blood Pressure: 147/81

Weight: 12 stone 9 pounds (177lbs)

------

Now the week 24 values:

Height: 5ft 10
Shoe size UK 9 (US11, EU 43)
Neck: 16.5
Bust: 44.5 (+2.5)
Chest: 41.5 (+1)
Waist: 40 (+5)
Hips: 41.5 (+3.5)
Upper Thigh: 24 (+3.5)
Ankle: 9 (-0.5)
Biceps: 13
Wrist: 7 (+0.25)
Hand Width: 5

Blood Pressure: 98/78

Weight: 14 stone 12 pounds (207.8lbs) -- (+30.8lb) in UK values that's a shade over 2 stone in 6 months!

I wonder when I get to month 5 scores if it's still going up, I should try weight cycling? 
BP and overall health is fine, in fact in terms of well being  I feel great! but almost 15 stone... whew for me that seems quite heavy, I don't know.

On the plus side, my butt and thighs are looking nice in tight jeans  no  wonder my supportive wife mentioned 'you're the only girl I know who wants a bigger ass!'

Emotional range is still ramping up, even just reading sad things on the news etc can now get me tearing up, it all seems typical for the time spent in transition.

Things seem to be ticking along quite happily right now, more of that horrid 'hurry up and wait' thing

Lisa

[LisaM]

I've been a little quiet of late here.

This is due to a few reasons, firstly my very supportive wife doesn't really want my life on show for all  and sundry and I need to respect that, so further postings will likely be infrequent although if anything big happens I'll post about it

Secondly, the rather boring reality of transitioning is that... nothing really happens very quickly at all, so I wouldn't really have a whole lot of stuff to say.

All that said, here are a few events that have been big enough to warrant an entry

The GP's referral (that I had doubts had actually been done) I received a letter from the Notts GIC confirming my referral since May 24, I fully expect a good 2 year wait before I get seen, but I'm on the list now, and it won't stop me from doing what I am in the meantime

The other event isn't so pleasant I'm afraid.

13 days ago in preparation of getting a new stair carpet laid, my wife and I removed the old carpet and underlay. This wasn't especially difficult and didn't take long, the problem began when we realised that the fitters had stapled the underlay into the stair wood using heavy duty staples, which had to be removed.
I had this job so I began to remove each and every staple which took me about 2 hours, during which my right leg was fully extended on the stair below I was working on in a kind of lunge position. Over time this was unconformable progressing to painful and ending up really sore but I persevered as the fitters were coming the next day and I didn't want any of us or the kids or dogs getting cut on a staple on the stairs.

The next day as expected my leg was sore, it felt like a typical muscle pain when you've done too much so I thought nothing of it, took some paracetamol and continued with my day, over the next 3 days when I expected it to fade away and return to normal, this wasn't happening, if anything it was becoming more painful. No matter if I stood, sat, or lay, or changed position nothing brought relief. I managed to snag a GP appointment on Wednesday and they prescribed me stronger pain killers and checked to see if my leg was swollen (it wasn't). Thursday evening my wife wondered if it might be a blood clot, which I hadn't even considered, but the pain was really bad and the pain killers were barely touching the sides (night time and sleeping were just not happening) so she called 111 and asked for advice, in the end an ambulance was called and I was sent off to one of the nearby hospitals about 1 AM stuffed full of morphine and paracetamol, after a really shitty night of being pretty much ignored by anyone (the ambulance crew were nice) I had a chest X-Ray late morning, because I had chest pains and was frightened it was blood clots, and finally an ultrasound scan on my right leg.

The technician only needed to get as far as my knee before the blood clot showed up, this was a blow as I was still holding out hope that it was muscular, a little later I saw the consultant who  prescribed me 3 months of blood thinners and painkillers and sent me on my way. I returned home Friday late afternoon.

We're now 8 days in and the pain is slowly going away, leg still aches though and I have to make sure to keep this weird balance of walking/sitting/lying down to make sure nothing horrible happens.

As to the cause?
No idea, Estrogen can make your blood a little thicker, although I'm on Gel not pills.
No one seemed that bothered about it to find out the cause and the whole attitude seemed to be one of nonchalance like it was no big deal.

I had noticed my ankles had swollen slightly a few days earlier, and although I am reasonably active I have a tendency to spend reasonably long periods sat on my computer without moving my legs much, perhaps it was the prolonged and uncomfortable position I had my leg in when removing the staples.

I'm a little worried moving forward because I'm only on the thinners for 3 months and they will offset anything the Estrogen is doing, but they end after 3 months...
I'm making much more effort to try and vary my activities to ensure I'm not doing anything in one position for too long (wife is very good at reminding me to do this) 
I just hope now I'm an almost 59 yrs old I'm not going to enter a new horrible chapter of health issues, where I really had none before.
It's all a little worrying really.

Lisa

[CM213]

Dang. It's good you caught it rather quickly. I hope you have a fast recovery from the blood clot. 

Who knows why and when people get blood clots. I know I've been very lucky with using steroids for the past ten years, and never really doing blood work the entire time. Lots of things could have gone wrong during the time. Just had a visit with my primary care and we had blood work done, nothing too crazy. Liver enzymes were up a bit, and my blood is thick from using steroids for so long. I have since stopped since April May time frame since I'm looking at potentially transitioning. (Prob did too much damage with testosterone from all that time.) Any ways most body builders will donate blood a few times a year to help combat having thick blood. Not sure if it would do the same here. Also there is no cure for thickening of the blood from testosterone products other than blood thinners, donate, or discontinued use of the product. Also having thicker blood can throw other things off in your blood work. 

Anyways Im glad that you posted and gave us all an update. I hope your recovery quickly and have smooth sailing for the rest of your transition.

[LisaM]

Little bit of an update.

I've been on the  NBE supplements side for getting close to 1 year now, and I've been feeling great, with lots of energy and good health.

Since last Sunday though I'd been waking up after only a few hours sleep with a pain in my back low down towards the hip and to one side (left), and also duplicated on the front in the same area, it felt initially like the kind of pains you get when you've slept on an unsupportive mattress or perhaps muscular like you've overdone sit-ups or something. Over the next few days it continued and got worse, worse to the point that by Friday (24 Jan) I was in agony, and actually threw up. To make matters worse I just couldn't find a position that gave me relief, sitting, standing, walking, lying on one side, the other side, on my front, on my back all to no avail. 

Each episode would 'fade in' around 2-3 AM and would fade out again by 8-9 AM. During the day I felt fine.
Things came to a head on Sunday night where I was feeling really ill, and threw up again several times, and my wife and I started to consider what on Earth it could be, obviously at the time you fret about all sorts of things like stomach cancer or pancreatitis etc, it was definitely in the Liver area though.

To recap, these are the supplements I'm taking.

AM (first thing on an empty stomach.)
2 x Swanson Bovine Ovary (500mg)

1 x Swanson reishi capsule (600 mg)
1 x Swanson GTE (500 mg)
1 x sea kelp tablet (2,000 mg)
1 x milk thistle tablet (4,000mg)
2 x omega 3 Krill oil capsule (500mg)

Lunchtime
2 x Swanson Bovine Ovary (500mg)

1 x Vitamin C  (500mg)
1 x Vitamin D (500iu)

PM (last thing)
2 x Swanson Bovine Ovary (500mg)
1 x Swanson reishi capsule (600 mg)
1 x Swanson GTE (500 mg)
2 x melatonin pills


I've done a little bit of research and it may be that its the Krill or the GTE or Reishi that has built up in my system and is making my liver complain. Obviously I don't know which, and I'm unwilling to  completely fark up my liver experimenting to see, especially as it's incredibly painful when it occurs.

I've taken the decision for this entire week to not take ANY supplements at all and see how it goes.
I can see that right from stopping I've had NO liver/abdomen pains at all, so clearly it was something I'd been taking. I haven't changed my regimen of HRT at all, still on 7.5 mg of Oestrogel taken in 2.5 mg doses 3x a day.

Next week... I dunno. I feel reasonably sure it isn't the Vit C/D or Melatonin, not sure on the BO (although I haven't ever read anything about liver function problems with that before)

I'm sure I read that reishi can be problematic, but I thought that was form specific, i.e the whole mushroom.

Given the dose of Estrogen I probably don't need the GTE/Reishi for testosterone blocking.

Any advice ? @lotus etc

[tomi66]

When I first started reading your post I thought pelvic tilt, but as I read on it sounded like something a little more serious.

I am by no means an expert, I don't know RR is a mushroom and fungus like that could stress the liver, I would guess that RR is the culprit. Milk thistle is a good supplement that cleanses the liver, I took it religiously when I was an active alcoholic, and I swear it saved my liver, I drank a 5th of alcohol or more every day for at least 10 years, on top of beer and wine, before I got sober.

[LisaM]

I don't know what it was, I can say though, since stopping I've had no more pain which is lovely. You have no idea of the simple pleasure in just being able to lie down in any position and it not to hurt  it also adds weight to the fact that it was a supplement causing this rather than anything else occurring on its own (I don't drink alcohol by the way)

[wee2er]

You've done right to listen to your body, so coming off all the herbs is clearly the right thing to do.

When I first read you regime my immediate thought was, heck that is a lot of supplements to process, poor liver (& wallet)!

My preference when I was taking a lot of BO / RR was do it rectal, simply so I wasn't taxing my liver. Nowadays though I'm on Een injections so have dropped/reduced  a lot of the extras.

For me a solid HRT regime (progy/gel/inj) with a decent multi-vit is the best standard regime that definitely gets results, maybe a tad slower, but does work.

Then if desired, add a decent topical regime, to help target whatever growth you want (breasts, bum, thighs, hips, legs).

Far less taxing your liver and far easier on the wallet LOL

Hope you get back to feeling well again.

[LisaM]

Starting from Monday of this week (24 feb)

I'm only retaining the following:

(HRT schedule is the same)

First thing
1 x Swanson reishi capsule (600 mg) ***!!!***
1 x milk thistle tablet (4,000mg)
1 x Vitamin C  (500mg)
1 x Vitamin D (500iu)

Last thing
1 x Swanson reishi capsule (600 mg) ***!!!***
1 x milk thistle tablet (4,000mg)

***!!!*** = 4 weeks on/2 weeks off because apparently prolonged reishi is a bad thing, and you need to give it a break.
I'm giving the B O a miss too in the short term to see how this regime goes, all things working out ok, I'll reintroduce this back up to the full dose in due course.

[wee2er]

Hi Lisa,

That looks far more manageable.

When I did my research I didn't pick up that about Red Reishi, other than the usual warnings they give for most herbs ' safe for 'a' period of time'. I was on RR daily for many months and saw zero side effects, but that's not to say others wouldn't. Interesting as I have been thinking about adding RR to help my green tea kill off my DHT.

Good luck with your ne regime