DISCLAIMER: This is not medical advice, engage in DIY HRT at your own risk; the intent of this post is harm reduction. This information is not intended for minors; by reading further you agree you are over the age of 21.
DISCLAIMER 2: This is not rigorous scientific research. I conducted this experiment over the course of a work day, carrying out my actual work while trying to not arouse suspicion. That being said, I am using these results to inform my own DIY HRT.
Earlier this year, I bought estradiol enanthate (EEn) from Dragon Ordnance ( dragonordnance.io or dragonordnance.com ; .io seems to be down but they’re run by the same people). Shipping was expensive ($50 I think) because they are located in China, but the prices are low ($5 for a gram that will last over 2 years). You have to email them for information on how to send payment, either sending cryptocurrency or a cash transfer via the Wise app. The people are really nice too; the person processing orders had COVID when I ordered and my order was delayed a week or two so they sent me double my order. I’m sitting on a 25 year supply now so I’m going to be giving away a lot of E to friends.
I also bought MCT oil as a solvent for the injectable solution and benzyl alcohol as a preservative from Dragon Ordnance. I used a volumetric flask to make a 50 mg/mL EEn solution with 2% v/v benzyl alcohol, but if you don’t have access to volumetric flasks you can make a vial with 500 mg EEn, 0.2 mL benzyl alcohol, and 9.35 mL MCT oil. This wiki is a good resource for DIY MtF HRT, but the owner of the group is an outspoken anti-communist. I plan on injecting 0.3 mL (15 mg EEn) every 14 days, but this wiki recommends 0.22 mL (11 mg EEn) every 7 or 10 days. Use distilled water to determine which liquid is MCT oil and which is benzyl alcohol. The MCT oil will float on distilled water, while the benzyl alcohol sinks. Also, 1 mL of benzyl alcohol will dissolve in 25 mL of water if you mix it thoroughly, while MCT oil will not dissolve in water.
I happen to be a chemist who has access to a variety of analytical instruments so I ran UPLC to test for purity and GC-MS to verify that the chemical is actually estradiol.
The UPLC chromatogram indicates very high purity (>99%), as only one peak was visible.
The extracted UV-Vis spectrum of the UPLC at 8.429 minutes (the sole peak above) was consistent with the expected UV absorption of estradiol esters.
The GC-MS chromatogram similarly indicated the presence of just one compound at 26.628 minutes (the first peak is the solvent I used, and the following two peaks are solvents commonly used in our lab and are likely only present in this chromatogram due to residue on the sample injection needle). The small peak between 14 and 15 minutes is likely a breakdown product formed in the harsh GC conditions.
The mass spectrum at 26.628 minutes indicates the compound is estradiol enanthate. The NIST library we use indicated a >90% chance that the compound is some estradiol derivative based on the fragmentation. The base peak at 384.3 m/z is sufficient evidence to identify the compound as estradiol enanthate, which has a molar mass of 384.56 g/mol.
I am confident that the powder sent by Dragon Ordnance is high purity estradiol enanthate and would highly recommend this vendor for their low price, quality product, and good service.
This wiki is a good resource for DIY MtF HRT, but the owner of the group is an outspoken anti-communist
how can you be like this as a trans person handling DIY shit
Great work! You think you could try submitting this to resources like https://transharmreduction.org/hrt-testing that have more visibility?
This is a really good post, thank you. I was wondering how you’re planning to sterilize your injectables? I know Lena says you can boil them, but is that actually a reasonable thing to do? Or do you have access to an autoclave?
Thanks! I don’t have access to an autoclave but tbh you don’t really need to even boil them. The benzyl alcohol will kill anything in the solution except the endospores. The autoclave kills bacterial spores IIRC from my microbiology course, but the risk is very low for IM injections (not an expert on this so look into it further if you’re worried). Boiling will NOT kill endospores, so IMO, there’s no difference between boiling and just using benzyl alcohol.
For my own comfort, please make sure that anyone else using your stuff is made aware of the possibility. You mentioned giving away some of the excess.
you can use an oven that goes up to 200C – estradiol won’t break down at this temperature. to be safe, I recommend lowering the temp to 180C and doubling the time – i.e. 1h instead of 30m – in the oven as oven temps aren’t always the most precise. you can get a small oven for this purpose on Amazon for fairly cheap.
I can vouch for this poster
Thanks for using instrumentation to get real results, and reporting them scientifically. Lack of equiptment to verify purity is one of the big sticking points for diy hrt injectibles. Unfortunately this doesn’t guarantee that the supplier will be pure in the future.
How many samples did you run to verify homogeneity? How do you plan on storing it? Does estradiol decompose at this time scale?
Just one sample haha. Was trying to do it quick to not to get fired. I’m not too worried about problems with homogeneity since the powder appeared to be that of a pure compound (fine, white powder).
Fair enough, I get nervous with injectables. Any thoughts on storage and decomposition?
Once in solution you can store in a cool, dry, dark place and it should be good for 3 years. Powder should be stable for a lot longer though
