Most endocrinologists agree that estrogen patches are the best form to obtain it, and that’s what I’ve been using for a year and a half.

Spoiler

"best" is not necessarily better, and can be very subjective

most endocrinologists recommend patches because injections are generally very expensive even with insurance, and doctors would prefer you take injections in their office as opposed to at home, which drives the price up further

ultimately, the reason patches are recommended so highly is because they are safer than oral HRT, cheaper than sublingual and subcutaneous, and both cheaper and safer than intramuscular

patches offer the most stable estradiol levels of any form of HRT, but are not good for late-transition doses and most comparisons praising how much safer they are than pills do not take into account sublingual delivery, which is the next most potent method behind injections, and does not put any strain on your liver or put you at risk of blood clots

additionally, I've not heard of anyone being able to stop taking anti-androgens on patches without a resurgence of testosterone, but that's just based on testimonials I've heard personally

so the conclusion?

if you're sensitive to hormones and therefore will never need a dose comparable to 8mg sublingual daily, if you're taking bicalutamide (spiro is very bad don't take it even for a little, let alone permanently, cypro is okay for about a year but after that it starts to cause brain damage), or if you really just can't afford injections, patches may very well be the best option for you, it really just depends on you

what kind

subcutaneous estradiol valerate into belly fat

I'm pretty adamant about not incorporating them into my wardrobe.

I mostly wear button downs or solid color tees. I would definitely wear some of those dumb anime meme t shirts tho like this.

skipped through the video

Ian I'm worried about you...
Do you really watch this crap?

I pretty much exclusively drink coffee.

Quote from: Solonoid on May 29, 2020, 03:28:03 PM

Well, I spent the last year traveling the country and training under some really talented chefs. I had been reading some econ and ethics books along with some political ones, until my glasses were destroyed while I was spending some time in the Rockies. Got some new skis and unfortunately had to cancel my March work trip to Colorado so never really got to break them in. And I've been embroiled in a drawn out battle over some of my possessions with my mother, including my recipe book and some key work things, since she got arrested for assaulting me at the beginning of April.

In the last year I think I've made and spent more money than I have in my entire life. Mainly not in super great shape financially rn because I decided to take some time off in February and covered it out of savings, and shortly after I returned to work the quarantine started, so I've been living off savings again since mid-march, and frankly I'm gonna be tapped out soon.

But it's definitely been an interesting year.

I remember you.

Hello, yeah, it's been a while.
Not much, how 'bout you?
I'm not sure why I called,
I guess I really just wanted to talk to you.

Does HRT for trans dudes come with a pair of balls? I don’t know if it does, let’s find out lmao

ngl the transphobic stuff you've been posting is not a good look for you

please don't

I remember also hearing someone paying 1200$ to someone to play with his mother (in a safe way) and they done it and was happy about that.

christ jesus fuck

Quote from: FatherlyNick on May 22, 2020, 09:57:06 AM

You had a golden opportunity to not post this.
Now you have a golden opportunity to delete it before I find you.

https://twitter.com/ethanchaotic/status/1263562617953693696?s=09

Quote from: Solonoid on May 20, 2020, 08:16:52 AM

lmao people get schizophrenia because they're weak willed bro

If u had Verbatim's force of will psychosis would just go away

modern studies seem to point toward dopamine?
dopamine inhibitors are an effective treatment of schizophrenia and other psychoses?

no dude they're just not organizing their brains well enough

if they were smarter they wouldn't have such disorganized minds

i don't remember saying shit about schizophrenia

if you forgot, this is about breaking the interdependence of physical and mental health on the basis that they have no logical correlation, and that i'm capable of differentiating between logically-induced positive moods and biologically-induced positive moods, and recognizing that the former is intrinsically more meaningful to me

i'm sorry if you're not capable of doing that, i guess? but i am

do you not understand, based on the text you just read, that schizophrenia, and other mental illnesses, are caused imbalanced brain chemistry, and your assertion of being able to ignore that by just thinking about it logically would obviously also apply to mental illness if it were true at all

also, this is not the first time I have mentioned mental illness or even schizophrenia itself in this thread

I also mentioned that healthy eating and exercise habits reduced the severity of symptoms

you aren't capable of anything you think you are. when your brain gets dopamine you feel something, and you can't logic your way around feeling it, or decide to ignore that feeling because it's literally happening to you and you have no choice but to feel it

if you take wellbutrin, you'll notice you're incapable of feeling bad, and this is from personal experience

you can think to yourself "I'm such a piece of shit" and go through all the motions to try and make yourself miserable in your mind, but you literally cannot stop feeling good, because you have been stripped of the ability to feel like shit

it doesn't matter what you value or what you think, when the drugs (hormones) hit they hit, and you can't just willpower your way into being sober (not happy) by thinking about it logically, because your brain is a physical organ that feels the things it's told to feel by your body

when you think negative thoughts, you're not creating some mental cloud in which you control your feelings, you're just decreasing the stimulus to the part of your brain responsible for dopamine or serotonin creation (and if something else is actively stimulating that part of your brain its going to be very hard, usually impossible to destimulate it)

these things that you think are in your control are actually exactly the same as the things that aren't, and that's why it's so ridiculous to claim you have the power to force a change over something that you are literally powerless against

but please, like I said about all that energy devoted to not being on edge when your blood sugar drops, go on, get fit and then spend every moment of every day meditating on negative thoughts until you're no longer in shape

eventually you're going to get distracted and just start feeling good again, and after a few days you're going to forget about your negativity project altogether and enjoy the boon to your mental well-being until you're unhealthy again

lmao people get schizophrenia because they're weak willed bro

If u had Verbatim's force of will psychosis would just go away

modern studies seem to point toward dopamine?
dopamine inhibitors are an effective treatment of schizophrenia and other psychoses?

no dude they're just not organizing their brains well enough

if they were smarter they wouldn't have such disorganized minds

Quote from: Aether on May 20, 2020, 07:31:48 AM

Quote from: Verbatim on May 20, 2020, 07:17:35 AM

Quote from: Aether on May 20, 2020, 07:10:50 AM

I don't see how someone can be physically unhealthy and it not affect their mental health in a negative way. Physical and mental health are very interdependent. My personal experience with this fact is very visceral.

this is a graver insult to the intelligence of humanity than i could ever personally muster up

What, are you trying to say that the two things aren't interdependent?

i'm saying it's a sign of lower intelligence if you don't actively try to put the mental at the forefront

you're not your body

do you really think that the health of your body will have absolutely no effect on your hormones or the chemistry of your brain, or are you just convinced that you alone have learned how to completely separate your consciousness from your physical mind and can overpower the factors that determine how your brain is going to function

Quote from: Solonoid on May 20, 2020, 05:51:23 AM

I mean, you would literally feel physically better. Losing 70lbs has made my whole life better.

Being fit isn't just a vanity project, it will actually improve your mood and well-being.

and in a matter of time, i'll be able to refute this

that is 100% an assumption, and I think you realize that

How strongly should we consider the argument of "othered" persons or groups?

It depends on how alien that person or group's perspective is to the way you perceive and comprehend the world. Sometimes, conflicts in understanding are rooted in a belief so fundamental to how you process the reality of the world that trying to see their side becomes futile. I recently had an argument with someone who believed that monopolies based on market dominance were completely justified, and that companies should be able to extract any price from dependent consumers they please because, in his opinion, the market is always just. In his opinion, if you make a product that is superior to all other similar products to the point you squeeze competition out of existence, even if that product is something people, or society as a whole depends on, you should be able to charge much more than a reasonable profit margin, and he did not see that as taking advantage of consumers. It's not that I'm unable to understand his viewpoint, I'm just completely unable to understand how he could justify something like that. Should I even consider his argument when my fundamental values are so misaligned from his that where he sees acceptable business practices I see blatant abuse? Honestly, I don't think it would even be possible for me to seriously do so; what we believe is just too different on a very basic level.

When is it okay to censure one prior to engaging in material?

Again, when something becomes so alien to your most basic understanding of the world we live in that you literally cannot comprehend their point of view. Some cultures believe (or have believed) it's okay to marry and have sex with children, but there would be absolutely no point in me watching some child pornography to attempt to understand the sexualization of minors. I don't even need to see it to know that I will never agree with it or view it as anything other than criminal. Conversely, if you come from a culture in which twelve year old girls are made into brides and that's your tradition, though I might see it as my moral duty to put an end to it, your worldview would be so fundamentally misaligned with mine that my arguments would be laughable and not worthy of consideration. The only way to snuff out something like that is to indoctrinate the youth at a very early age to understand your point of view, before the traditional understanding becomes cemented.

When is criticism necessary and when is it pedantic?

Same answer again. Criticism is only necessary when it can be effective, and becomes pedantic when there is an outstanding conflict in two moral viewpoints. Look at Congress as an example. The legislature only exists to make compromises and concessions in the areas least offensive to the opposing party. Radical agendas are so incapable of gaining traction because Republicans simply do not understand humanity in the same way Democrats do and vice-versa. Conservatives have a fundamental view that humans do not have the capacity to do good with the sole intention of doing good, rather that acting in one's own self interest is neither good nor bad, and people, given the opportunity, will always make the decision most profitable to themselves. However, by trusting the collective wisdom of society, and trusting centuries of accumulated tradition, we can benefit from wisdom much greater than any individual could muster, to the ultimate good of society. Liberals on the other hand, believe that humans are capable of doing good with the sole intention of doing good, and that by trusting the articulated wisdom of experts, we are able to defy backward and abusive traditions to the ultimate good of society. Because of this diametric opposition, radicalism on both sides is eschewed, and moderate policy prevails. This system oy works because each side's pedantic and ineffective criticism of the the other ends up being totally ignored (though it does often consume a great deal of time), while necessary and moderate criticism of each other shapes compromise into law without the opportunity for radicalism.

Finally, the most broad question: at what point ought one call into question how they identify themselves, or define themselves by external subjects?

Whenever there is an opportunity to truly see a situation through the lens of another. In my first example, I was totally incapable of understanding how the guy I was arguing with could come to the conclusions he did, though I did understand the conclusions he came to. However, if my alignment were slightly different, and I could really consider his beliefs by virtue of the logic he had used to arrive at that conclusion, then even if I might not necessarily be convinced to change my stance, I would see it as worthy of my consideration. Anytime the lens someone sees a situation through is comprehensible to you, you owe it, not to them, but to yourself to look through that lens and understand what they are saying with an open mind. That doesn't mean that you will ultimately agree with them, merely that you have considered their point. You should always be reconsidering your stances when possible. If you do, and your stance does not change, then you will have a better understanding of why you believe what you do. If your stance does change, then you will be likely be happier and more complete with your new viewpoint than you were with the old one. Unfortunately though, seeing it the other way is not always possible, and attempting to do so when you really just can't will only cause confusion, consternation, and unresolvable self-doubt.

the unemployment office owes me over $3,600 and my savings are dwindling

I am very mad