OK, Lotus...here I am finally, and seriously late to the conversation, LOL
I have had house guests and precious little time to be online.
All the regulars and anyone who has read my stuff knows my story. I started on herbs in August of 2010 (and on this board), and worked up to a very high dosage of PM over the next three and a half years. Last February I switched to pharma E under the supervision of an endo, and recently added pharma progesterin as well as an experiment. But I continue to supplement with roughly 1500mgs daily of PM because I found that E alone did not do enough for me.
So as much as anyone else on here I think I can speak as a veteran of herbs, a user of Syn (oooh, no pun intended...tee hee) , and currently a practitioner of both.
Other boards uniformly disparage the use of herbs (in their supremely arrogant ignorance) or shun discussion completely (crossdressers.com).
Their loss.
Here we have always, for my money, been the lone voice of reason advocating the use of herbs in M2F HRT. I am so proud of that legacy. I still feel that role is the main cause for the existence of this board.
But just as we have grown to encompass other non herb related issues which are pertinent to "transition" (and make no mistake, boys and girls...the moment you pop that first pill, herb or not, you are stepping onto that road, whether you follow it all the way or not), we are no longer exclusively about herbs.
However, given that it is our primary cause for existence, I have to throw my 2 cents (with inflation about $200) behind Lotus, and encourage a sub section for synthetics. Yeah we have too many, but I think a lot of cross discussion of the two - herbs and syn - can be a diluting factor in what Eve set out to originally do. Placing that subject loosely into its own sub section, I think, is a good idea.
Of course, what do I know...LOL
Can I get back to dancing now? ... tee hee