Frequently Asked Questions
These FAQ are left in place as an archive as they may be still of help.
About us
Why / when to buy homebrew?
How safe is homebrewing
Webshop and buying process
Can you offer other payment methods than crypto?
Help with crypto payments
Carriers, Delivery Cost and Delivery time
Post boxes, poste restante and shipping to pickup points
Our products
Stealth Label
Dosage
Opening the vials
Materials Needed
Application
Storage and shelf life
Toubleshooting possible Issues with a vial
Can vials be made without benzyl alcohol?
Other
Links, Resources and further information
Homebrewing Guides
About Us
You cannot buy from us anymore, so suffice to say that we hope that you do not have to buy any homebrew at all. If you have access to trans HRT health care that cares for you adequately without legal obstacles, year long waiting times and arbitrary gate keeping, or bad/outdated treatment methods – and if you can afford it: please make use of it.
Buying HRT privately from online pharmacies is sometimes possible, some places even help you getting prescriptions from doctors online. Buying homebrew HRT a last resort, and we are sad that it is sometimes the only option available.
How safe is homebrewing
Homebrew is not as safe as prescription medicine. But what you are getting when buying from vendors verified by the community is something that is used by many, many people with great success and is made with highest care and added love. Our products were what we were using ourselves:
- Ingredients selected to be as universally safe and allergy free as possible. The carrier oil is MCT made from palm oil (not coconut oil) or grapeseed oil, both with low risk of allergies. Their viscosity does not require the use of a solvent, lowering chance of skin irritation. (We do use 2% benzyl alcohol as preservative necessary for multi-use vials.)
- We use preparation surroundings with air filters and procedures as clean and safe as possible. Vials and lids are alcohol washed and depyrogenated using dry heat for 90 minutes and the product is batched and filtered at .22 micron. Sealed vials are terminally sterilized for another 90 minutes at 121°C.
- We have both ingredients and final product professionally lab tested for concentration and contaminants with foreign substances, mold or bacteria, and we publish verifiable lab results here, and also on the corresponding product pages.
Our listed example dosages are based on our own experiences and publicly available information. They work and are way inside safe ranges. That said, we cannot offer professional medical advice (for what that is worth). While the dosages are medically safe, hormones do have effects that can influence your mood and wellbeing. Please use good judgement when chosing or changing your dosages and listen to yourself, your mind and body.
Similarly, our product is not unlike to what you could produce with some care for yourself. We use our own products to great effect but you must chose whether you feel comfortable using it.
Webshop and buying process
Can you offer other payment methods than crypto?
Unfortunately no. Crypto payment is the only way of payment we can offer. But don’t worry, it is safe and not at all that hard to use, please see our help section on crypto payment.
Help with crypto payments
Please see our dedicated Payment Page, where we give an overview over the payment process in the shop as well as an explanation of what you need.
Carriers, Delivery Cost and Delivery time
We are very limited in which carriers we can use to send the parcels. This means we cannot always pick the most convenient, fastest or cheapest option. The prices and delivery time we put in the shop and the Shipping Page are the best we can offer at the moment.
Post boxes, poste restante and shipping to pickup points
With the limited option of carriers we especially have no control over what carrier will transport the parcel once in the destination county. This is reason we cannot accept many post boxes or poste restante option: the actual carrier might not deliver to your country’s post offices at all, etc. In order to be safe, please always use your home address unless the Shipping Page states otherwise.
Our Products
Stealth label
The vials come with a stealth label. But you will know exactly what you’ve got: The colour of the cap and the product code on label always show the correct content.
Dosage
Dosage is very individual and depends on various factors. For monotherapy without an anti-androgen/testosterone blocker you will need to aim for higher values than for use with blockers or after orchi/GRS.
Some suppliers do not like to give suggestions, other suggest really high values without any explanation. We have decided to list suggested starting doses together with an explanation as a guideline on how to use the product safely.
We list a low and a high dosage together with possible application frequencies. The low dosage is a good starting point for monotherapy. The high dosage can be used to really ensure high enough estradiol levels where no blood tests are possible.
| EEN 40 mg/ml | 7 days | 10 days | 14 days | Vial lasts for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Low (5 mg/week) | 0.12 ml | 0.18 ml | 0.26 ml | 18+ months |
| High (7 mg/week) | 0.17 ml | 0.25 ml | 0.36 ml | 13+ months |
| EEN 50 mg/ml | 7 days | 10 days | 14 days | Vial lasts for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Low (5 mg/week) | 0.10 ml | 0.15 ml | 0.22 ml | 21+ months |
| High (7 mg/week) | 0.14 ml | 0.21 ml | 0.30 ml | 15+ months |
| EU 50 mg/ml | 14 days | 21 days | 28 days | Vial lasts for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Low (6-7 mg/wk) | 0.25 ml | 0.40 ml | 0.55 ml | 14-16 months |
| High (7-9 mg/wk) | 0.27 ml | 0.45 ml | 0.60 ml | 12-14 months |
| EU 100 mg/ml | 21 days | 28 days | 31 days | Vial lasts for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Low (6-7 mg/week) | 0.2 ml | 0.28 ml | 0.30 ml | 14-17 months |
| High (7-9 mg/week) | 0.22 ml | 0.30 ml | 0.35 ml | 12-14 months |
For sprays it is really hard to predict, doses can range from 2 to four sprays per day, split between morning and evening if possible.
All of these are safe to use, but there is no need to use more than required in your situation. If you have access to blood test, you can settle on any dosage in this range that still keeps your testosterone levels under about 50ng/dl.
Levels will only be stable 4-5 applications after starting with injections (this will be as many weeks for EEN and as many months for EU). After adjusting dosage while already at a stable level, do give it at least 2-3 applications to fully adjust.
Try avoiding frequent or large jumps in dosage and give yourself the time to adjust and to feel differences and changes. Do not change more than one factor at a time, like blockers and estradiol, to better judge the effects.
Opening vials
To open the vials before the first use lift and remove the circular center part on top of the metal cap, using the tip of a knife or your finger nail. The exposed bit of the rubber cap is where you will insert the needle to draw from the vial. Do not fully remove the metal cap from the vial, it is needed to keep the rubber stopper fixed in place!
Our vials come with the all-metal type cap (as seen in the following picture) we find it gives the best control when opening.
(In case of other brewer’s vials please note they might come with a plastic cap on top of the metal that is attached to the center part, in that case opening the vial means lifting the plastic cap carefully the first time.)
Materials needed
Our vials are made to support subq application as which are very easy to do. Recommended materials are:
- single use alcohol pads
- insulin syringes (recommended: “BD Micro-Fine+ 0.5 ml (29G) 12.7 mm”)
Chosing a syringe with a U100 scale is easiest as 1 unit on the syringe is 0.01 ml (ie. draw 15 units for 0.15 ml).
On an insulin syringe with U40 scale 1 unit is 0.025 ml (ie. draw 6 units for 0.15 ml).
The following suggestions assume that you use a syringe of that sort or similar for subq injection.
Application
We suggest the following procedure for subq application: Disinfect the top of the vial before drawing, as well as the place of injction with an alcohol wipe, using a new syringe for every application to avoid health risk and contaminating your vial.
Start by drawing air into the syringe to about the level you want to draw estradiol from the vial.
Insert the needle into the exposed circular bit of the rubber stopper.
Inject the air into the vial and then draw from the vial while holding the vial above the syringe. This can take 30 seconds because of the viscosity of the MCT oil. You’ll see the liquid be drawn in slowly and air rising to the top. You can draw a bit more than needed, and push it back into the vial together with the last air bubble. Do not worry about tiny bubbles of air that may be left, they do not do harm.
Most people find subcutaneous application into upper outer butt the easiest, but thigh and belly works nicely, too. Losely grab a fold of skin and fat and insert the needle at 90°. Push the plunger slowly, take a pause if you need to, and then wait some 10 to 20 seconds before removing it. You can apply light pressure to the injection site for a short while.
Replace the cap onto the needle and dispose of the syringe, preferably in an appropriate secure container.
Wipe the top of the vial again after use to prevent small drops of oil from remaining on the surface and going rancid until the next injection.
Store the vial away from sunlight (in a drawer, closet or in the cardboard box it came in.
Storage and shelf life
Store vials (opened and unopened) in a dark place at room temperature, for example in a drawer or inside their cardbord box.
The shelf life of unopened vials is printed on the label and typically is at least 3 years. Opened vials can last until fully used up, if they are stored in the dark, kept clean and only drawn from with new syringes each time.
Toubleshooting possible Issues with a vial
- Colour: Through contact to air and light the colour of the oil can darken over time (take note of the colour when new, some carrier oils are darker to begin with). A slight darkening is normal, as long as the liquid does not turn cloudy.
- White mist or white ice-like crystals: Most likely this is estradiol falling out of suspension due to cold temperature. It is more likely with highly concentrated EU. Slowly heat the vial in a pot of hot water, just under boiling temperatur and give it an occasional shake to let the estradiol ester dissolve again. If this does not help however, assume contamination as the cause.
- Leaking vials are a reason to dispose of them, regardless whether they leak because of lose metal band arohnd the stopper or just though a hole in the stopper.
Please discard vials if they show signs of contamination or other noticable defects to the vial or the seal. Take special care when using large needles to draw, as they run the risk of coring the vials, meaning cutting out a piece of the rubber when inserting the needle. This might leave the vial open for contamination and render it unsafe.
Can vials be made without benzyl alcohol?
No, for safety reasons always use 2% of benzyl alcohol in the vials, which is needed for vials that are multi-use and are supposed to last many months.
In case you are asking because of possible negative reactions/allergies to it, please do not confuse the essential benzyl alcohol with the ingredient benzyl benzoate which is used in products with valerate and/or castor oil and which may lead to irritations at the injection site.
Other
Links, Resources and further information
For more information about HRT, transgender healthcare, sources for equipment, etc. see the following external sites:
https://transharmreduction.org
Homebrewing guides
https://hrtcafe.net/Homebrew/injection-tutorial.html#hrt-injection-tutorial (Small scale personal use homebrewing injections)
https://hrtcafe.net/Homebrew/transdermal-tutorial.html (Homemade transdermal spray for estrogen or progesterone)