kobalent
Kobalent
She/Her || i post a lot of splatoon and general things i like!!
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so,,,, today i confronted my doctor about my estradiol dosage.
in late january i talked to her to swap over from patches (my sensitive skin didn't like them :c ) to tablets, but since my doctor couldn't find a direct conversion chart from patches to tablets, she put me on the lowest dose (0.5mg twice a day) to err in the side of caution...
[cw: gender dysphoria]
over the last few months i started noticing some changes, mostly facial hair growing faster, body odor returning to what it was pre-transition, breasts stopped growing, and other symptoms in line with what my body was doing before starting HRT.
i knew i had an appointment schefuled for today, so i mostly just stuck it out. it was clear to me that my estrogen levels were lower than with the patches —i was wearing 3 patches a week by the time i stopped; a bit of a high dosage— and i knew that was to be expected from going into the smallest dosage for tablets, which i used sublingually for better absorption since many transfem friends had recommended that beforehand.
what i was not ready for was the result of some blood tests i took a little over a week ago in preparation for this appointment.
my testosterone was higher than the first blood test i took when starting on patches two and a half years ago, and my estrogen was lower at 45.6pg/mL, which is absurdly low for the purpose of HRT. basically, i had been off of HRT for the last three months. all the symptoms that were causing me dysphoria were in fact caused by being prescribed what is a negligible amount of estradiol. the moment i saw the results i doubled up on my doses.
i asked a bunch of transfem friends what their dosage is for estradiol tablets, and most of them responded 8mg a day, and a few with 6. i was on 1/8th of a dosage. for three months.
so, today that i had my appointment with the doctor, i asked her to put me on 8mg. she was hesitant at first; her intention was to slowly crawl up the dosage starting with 2mg for the next month. i kept insisting, pulling up receipts after receipts that taking this slow right now would just be a waste of time, especially since i already was on a decent dose with the patches beforehand. after some back and forth from her being hesitant to make much of a jump and me insisting on 8mg, we landed on 6mg for the next month, getting lab tests near the end of may, and then considering a jump to the full 8.
i am happy i could successfully advocate for myself in this occasion, but also endlessly frustrated that even in what is considered a very trans-friendly part of the u.s. i have to do all the research for my doctor and pay her so i get the ~privilege~ to teach her what appropriate trans care looks like.
i don't know how to end this post. just,,,, kinda venting my annoyance at the current state of medical care in the u.s. and the consequences of treating trans care specifically as this mystical "new" science that "no body knows how to deal with". the information IS out there. there is a LONG history of HRT for the purpose of transitioning, but the fearmongering from bigots blocking access to this branch of medicine cause ripples even in places that label themselves as "safe". ripples that cause harm from negligence and incompetence paired with the unwillingness to listen from medical staff that admit to being inexperienced in this particular field.
HRT is not some dangerous experimental science. it has been done for decades. it is reliable. and it sucks that the only reliable resources available on the matter are community anecdotes.
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how r u gonna call them love handles and then try to convince ppl thats a bad thing. insane to me
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the idea that restrooms, locker rooms, etc need to be single-sex spaces in order for women to be safe is patriarchy's way of signalling to men & boys that society doesn't expect them to behave themselves around women. it is directly antifeminist. it would be antifeminist even if trans people did not exist. a feminist society would demand that women should be safe in all spaces even when there are men there.
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I must sleep. Sleep is the mind-healer. Sleep is the big-life that brings total ability to fucking do anything. I will face my bed. I will permit the blankie to pass over me and snores to pass through me. And when sleep has gone past I will turn the outer eye to greet the new morning. When the sleep has gone there will be everything. Energy and will to live will remain.
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they used to make smackable technology. you used to be able to hit your tv when it didn't work good.
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Thinking about when CG was used exactly one time in the entirety of spongebobs pre-movie 3 season run
Like, they could’ve easily just had him instantaneously burst through the wall and get roughly the same joke across, but the fact the writers wanted him to slowly push through the wall like that SO BADLY that they went out of their way to implement the cg effect to do so is so fucking funny to me fndmmsmsms
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somehow the poor cops who we were told are simply too understaffed and underpaid because of Woke to deal with 'rampant rising crime' have found the strength to beat the shit out of college students across the whole country for peacefully saying "divest from the country killing innocent palestinians in the tens of thousands"
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beastie boys music is funny as hell one of them will say a line and then the other two will say a completely unrelated line
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U.S. conservatives always talk about creating jobs but get SO MAD whenever anyone mentions banning prison labor like imagine the insane ammout of jobs that would be created literally overnight if companies in your country had to actually employ people instead of using slave labor from people that got caught with weed 10 years ago.
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actual criticisms of academia:
cost of education acting as class barrier
exploitation of graduate workers
colonialist past and present
ties to military industrial complex
danger of power structure entrenching and justifying orthodox views on social issues
criticisms of academia that get made:
those damn ivory tower academics are wasting money learning about things
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