Not great. Currently being ghosted by the office admin of an FFS provider while my insurance servicer cannot confirm nor deny that my plan even has coverage. So on the slight chance that I can actually get the care I need, I might be teaching my kids how to survive on the street.
yea :c
yes, chef!
the preferred gender neutral honorific
To go further, even the instruction "by the mouth" is ambiguous and could mean orally, buccally, or sublingually. Those all have different absorptions with the latter two being mucous membranes and therefore bypassing the liver, leading to different (generally better) bioavailability of medications dependent on the health of those tissues and the type of medication.
This is the way
Sadly sometimes it's two pieces. cries in lack of ffs coverage/affordability to manage unfortunate gene luck
Sorry for the book...
This is anecdotal and varies highly by person, but I'll drop my experience here since raloxifene reports are still few and far between (and I was recently searching far and wide for them). Ralox was relatively effective for me but not perfect, but I do owe the initiation of my hrt journey to it. Overall I would say that it isn't a long term solution, but it can be a useful tool in determining what is right for you.
As a non-binary transfem person, I initially went on Ralox along with E (and Spiro) about 1.5 years ago. R blocked (or at least slowed) the majority of my boob growth for basically the whole year I was on it, paired with E doses of under about 6mg taken orally (or only 2mg E taken sublingually due to higher metabolized peaks). E doses higher than that tended to overpower Ralox and I would notice chest sensitivity within a few days, guiding me to lower my E. (Fwiw I did this 'experimentation' with my doctor's approval and under their care).
Within those ranges, my chest had minor growth but it was largely due to general fat redistribution (for note I am a fairly avg body type/weight), I would say that I stayed within the Tanner stage 1 or beginnings of stage 2. This would be the sweet spot (for me) to avoid any real breast growth. My ass however, got thicc pretty fast - which was honestly amazing to watch grow lol.
Eventually I really started to love being on E, and my brain and body wanted more of it lol. I began on 6mg E taken sublingually, and rather quickly saw some boob growth (bumping me into tanner 3), but they... sorta grew on me? Before long I dropped ralox entirely and am now leaning fully into E 😅.
All in all I am happy that I started off with Raloxifene + E, primarily because it gave me the comfort I needed to start E at all. Once on E for a while, it really rewired my brain and made me realize my hold-up on having breasts was largely due to social fears of transition. It's still scary and hard sometimes, but I'm so much more self-confident just through the biochemical benefits that the E therapy has provided. I still don't want large breasts by any means, but it's no longer a big concern of mine in the big picture of my transition.
Sorry again for hijacking this thread, I just felt compelled to share in hopes that it may assist in someone's journey!
I can definitely hear the banjo playing in this image
Currently Sleep Token - Euclid, if not the entire Take Me Back To Eden album
No mind to think. No will to break.
or path of pain