Excellent write-up as always! I’ve started planning to do the same thing as you once I get that far, but that’s almost a year away.

Can’t wait for my artisan vagina culture 😄

They work as excellent prompts for introspection and for helping you to see connections you might have missed before. The output can ofc be entirely non-sensical but if everyone involved is aware they are simply cards then that isn’t really an issue, you just laugh about it and move on.

It’s like rubber ducking in programming really, but for whatever issue you “ask” the cards.

In the meme the scenario is made up and we don’t know if the two individuals believe the cards can be used for something spiritual or not, but it’s just a meme anyways so it doesn’t really matter.

tarot cards don’t have to be religious/spiritual.

I’m so tired 😣

Me when I buy a carton of eggs because I can’t remember if I remembered to buy a carton of eggs when I was low at some point (I’ve done this eight times already)

We need a combo version of the far right dangling over the centrists and the tankies shooting off towards the right

My hair is like a wilder version of your 8/23 hairstyle, but I’ve been considering getting bangs and this is a point in favor of that! Looks great on you

What a stunning transition! You look so pretty and happy! (also I like your drip, girl)

tihi :3c

Thank you for purchasing amazon© brand Upvotes™! This purchase has earned you 7 amazon coins!

a bit :P

?

What’s the problem with bots following people if follower count is neither visible nor used for sorting?

Yeah some degree of sorting is necessary when there’s a lot of content, but there might still be another way. Following people, tags, and communities and allowing people to sort things themselves I think might be a better system. I know some people will be obsessed with follower count, but that doesn’t need to be a metric that is actually tracked and shown. I guess at some point it stops being lemmy/piefed, but I do think that we should be thinking about these kinds of things.

The truth ofc is that any system can be abused but that’s partially a culture problem too, and different systems will encourage and incentivize different behaviors.

I still think upvotes and downvotes are unhealthy and that lemmy and piefed should strive to get rid of stuff like that. There are other ways of organizing and sorting things that doesn’t require such systems.

Voicing disagreement, support, like, dislike, or whatever you personally put into an upvote or a downvote can be achieved by making posts, reports, or replies. I understand that people feel strongly that making the numbers go up and down makes them feel good, and that many derive pleasure from ratio-ing others, but I don’t really think basing communities around metrics is good for us in any way.

Community should be about what it is, which is people and culture.

That’s why I buy my votes from Amazon©, where you know people work hard, have fun, and make history!

An extra part of the joke is that 50mg spiro and 2mg estradiol is severe underdosing. Often they overdoes the blocker and underdose the estradiol, but sometimes they underdose both. This is in addition to all the hoops you mention that we need to go through to get HRT in the first place.

There are also other more effective blockers with less side effects but they’re not as cheap and therefore not as often prescribed. More proof that this is totally about our health

Edit: There are ofc doctors and clinics where you get excellent care, just, terrible care is all too common globally.

Spray has low half life so levels tend to fall quickly. If you’re doing three spritzes a day you’re avoiding the half life issue at least. Do you have access to blood tests? That’s the best way of measuring.

There are these little home test kits you can get so you could do multiple over some stretch of time to see. They’re less precise than a proper blood test, but if blood tests are hard to get then this is an option to consider.

Make sure you’re measuring at the point when your E levels would be at their lowest (this will be right before you take your next dose), and don’t get any spray/gel on the arm or hand you will be taking the test from. It can impact the results from the test.

Edit: I would love a little pressure dial but for estradiol on my arm or my thigh or something :P

Hell yeah! I think the state shouldn’t get to baby anyone about what we put into our bodies, and making it illegal for our protection or to protect the sanctity of sports is neither effective nor justifiable. Informed consent all the way!

Correct!

Low levels on blood tests compared to what is expected. Now gel and spray kinda give very varied results on blood tests, but if you get consistently low levels then likely that means that transdermal might not be that effective for you

Yep, that’s true

Oral should be the last thing considered on that list right after sublingual.

A better way to determine what HRT to take is this linear list:

• Implants/Pellets. Hard to get. Requires very minor surgery, but they last up to a year or something.
• Injections. Hard to get prescribed in some parts of the world. Easy and cheap to get DIY.
• Patches. Expensive. Some find these don’t work well on their skin, or that they don’t stick well because they exercise a lot. Apothecaries can run out of these easily and you might suddenly be out for a while. You can tape these down with body safe tape or try a different location to see if it sticks better.
• Gel. Some find these don’t work super well on their skin. Relatively cheap when you do DIY.
• Spray. Some find these don’t work super well on their skin. Also relatively cheap on DIY.
• Pills, sublingual. Slightly higher rate of side effects (very small). Article on oral vs sublingual.
• Pills, oral. Higher rate of side effects (small). Another article on oral vs sublingual.

Injections can be scary but they are very convenient. With valerate you take injections every five days, with enanthate you take injections every 7 days. Undecylate can be taken once a month.

Most routes require that you take blockers which can come with their own side effects and risks. Injections and implants do not need this, and some can even do HRT without blockers on patches, gel, or spray, but this depends on the individual. I therefore recommend injections as the safer and most comfortable option.

If you do patches I recommend building a stockpile of reserve HRT in case patches are hard to get for a while. This has happened many times and will happen again. You should ideally have a little stockpile for every route, but it’s extra smart on patches.

Gel/spray is a great option too, but you do need to apply it once or even multiple times per day. It can be a bit of a hassle.

Most pills can be taken sublingually but not all. If they can be taken sublingually then there’s really no reason not to. You might need to take less pills this way too meaning pills become cheaper in practice, or that you can build a stockpile easily if they are prescribed.

All routes are equally effective in terms of results.

Also visible scarring from needles is not much of a thing.

People report this all the time regardless of what switch they make. It’s indeed very anecdotal