Hello everyone. I hope you’re having a great day, I just wanted to share with you some of my doubts and concerns related to my feminisation hormone therapy since I’m doing DIY due to medical gatekeeping !
I started HRT on September 2021 and so far so good ! I’m pretty happy with the changes I’ve experienced since then. Back in the past, I used to take spironolactone (75mg/day), bicalutamide (10mg/day), finasteride (2.5mg/day) and 3 Lenzetto puffs daily on the inner side of my right arm. In October 2022, I changed my estradiol medication due to constant shortages of Lenzetto in my country to Topasel/Perludil/Perlutan (algestone acetophenide and estradiol enantate 150mg/10mg in oil solution every 21 days), my antiandrogen meds remain the same… a few months later, on January 2023, I added Climodien from Bayer (dienogest and estradiol valerate 2mg/2mg) sublingually while sleeping to my hormonal regimen and reduced my antiandrogen meds intake because dienogest is an antiandrogen on its own, however, since the beginning, I had a hard time supplying the Climodien pills necessary for my regimen, so, in April 2023 I dropped Climodien and got instead the quadriphasic contraceptive Qlaira which ingredients are pretty similar to Climodien pills (it’s the same, the only difference is 2 inactive pills and 17 pills containing 3mg dienogest instead of 2mg). It’s important to stress that I take Qlaira pills sublingually (they melt really quickly since they don’t have the enteric sugar coat Climodien and Progynova have, so, that’s a plus), however, because of quickly melting taking them sublingually gives me an unbearable bitter scent that penetrates my mouth !
I know I ideally should take estradiol hemihydrate pills without a progestogen, but this is not possible because there are no estradiol hemihydrate preparations as a pill in my country. I read on transfemscience estradiol valerate (specifically Progynova from Bayer) may be suitable for sublingual administration, but I can’t afford it (it’s absurdly expensive) and, as long as I know, there are constant Progynova shortages too !
So my question is… if Qlaira pills taste bitter… does this mean my body is not absorbing my EV sublingually ? Is EV from Qlaira micronised and suitable for sublingual intake ?
I’d like to add something: there’re 4 Qlaira pills containing EV alone (2 pills containing 3mg EV, and the last ones containing 1mg EV) and these ones don’t taste bitter… so, I suppose the bitter scent comes from dienogest that sheds on my mouth and I finally end swallowing… is this O.K. ?
Is it worth continuing taking Qlaira pills sublingually ? Should I take them orally ? If yes, is it worth taking Qlaira orally ? Should I drop Qlaira and upped my injectable estradiol dosage ? What should I do, I think I’m lost and I don’t want to detransition or halt my body changes due to imbalanced hormone levels

.
Oh ! Another thing ! In case you suggest I should continue taking Qlaira… do you think if placing my Qlaira pills between my gingiva and upper lip may help to reduce that bitter scent (I think doing so, dienogest that sheds to my mouth shouldn’t reach my tongue, or it could but to a lesser extent making it bearable)? I’ve heard about that méthode but I don’t know if EV from Bayer’s Qlaira can be absorbed that way…
I know they are a lot of doubts, but please, if you can contribute to answering and helping me anything, please, do it! Thank you all for reading my post and have a nice day !
And I’d like to say sorry in advanced because of my poor English skills, it’s not my native language so, if I have a lot of grammatical mistakes and misspellings, please, sorry and don’t be rude

!
XOXO
