Manual

This manual covers everything from receiving your package, to taking your first dose. Its an updated form of the cryptpad guide that used to be on our twitter page.

Immediately, upon receiving your parcel, inspect the product inside for any damage. Report anything you see to us here.

Your product will be in a sealed bag, with a label sticker on it. Open the bag with scissors, do not try to rip it open, if you do it too hard, the vials can fall out of the bag, and shatter on the floor. (Think of ripping open a bag of cereal, and tearing it open and having to get it off the floor, same principle applies.)

Make sure to also inspect your vials for any impurities, the risk of that is near zero, however we still ask you to check, and report anything, just in case.

Once you have finished inspecting your product, move on to step 2.

The Estrapen, uses regular insulin pen needles. In the previous guide we recommended 29G 12mm needles, right now however we recommend using 8mm 30G needles. Don't bother with buying "safety" or "comfort" branded pen needles, because the Estrapen cap does the same thing as those pen needles.

Here are a few examples for which needles you could buy:

For the US, Amazon has a wide variety of available cheap pen needles.

For the UK, online pharmacies are hard to come across, however any chemist should carry them, and you can get them without doctor approval. Just make sure you specifically ask for 8mm 30G (0.3mm).

For the EU, you have to look up "insulin pen needles" in your local language, many online stores sell them for cheap, and just like with the UK, most pharmacies carry them.

For Australia, Amazon has cheap pen needles, any chemists will also have them in stock.

For anywhere else, please try looking up "insulin pen needles" in your language, if you can't find them, feel free to ask us for help with looking.

Note, make sure you buy the 8mm 30G ones. Many pharmacists will try to sell you smaller ones, which would be okay if we were taking insulin. Our medicine is a lot more viscous than insulin, so it needs a larger gauge.

Here is a video, where you can see how to set up a new pen. It's not the best quality, because in order to protect our privacy, we used a guide from a wholeseller who stocks the same pens we provide, and we added our guide to it.

Here is a written guide in case the video is unclear, or if you cannot access it.

1. Take the vial out of the pouch.

2. Pull the pen cap off, then unscrew the plastic chamber.

3. Slot the vial in, screw the chamber back on, and screw a needle on.

4. While pointing the pen up, turn the bottom scrollwheel and gently push it. Observe the tip of the needle, if you see a drop, stop pushing, and make sure none leaked onto the pen.

5. You are done, you only have to do this process when loading in a new vial. All you need to do now is screw on a needle, select your dose, put the cap back on and take your dose.

Do not take out the Refill vial until its empty. Taking it out may interfere with the small piston that is pushing out the medicine out of the vial, possibly leading to an inaccurate dose.

Since the Estrapen is a subq device, we will be taking this dose into a fat fold. My recommendation is the abdomen, however you may also try your buttocks, or the upper outer thighs.

Here is a graphic demonstrating where you should do your injection.

Choose your injection site, then pinch the fat layer like on the image when taking your dose.

First, you are going to need a alcohol gauze pad. You can either buy presoaked ones in the pharmacy, or buy a bottle of disinfectant a pack of dry gauze pads, and then soak them yourself.

Wipe the rubber stopper on the vial with the gauze pad once, in one direction. Then wait around 5 or so seconds for it to dry, and screw on a pen needle.

Pull off the first big cap off of the pen needle, and put the pen cap back on, hiding the needle inside of it.

Select your dose on the scrollwheel, divide the number in the window next to it by 2, and that is how many mg of EEn you have selected.

Use the gauze pad from before to wipe your chosen injection site, do it just once or twice in the same direction again.

Take the small needle cap (usually colored) off, and push the pen into your injection site at a straight angle, like on the image from the previous point.

Slowly but with some pressure, push the bottom of the pen, keep pushing it until you can't hear it clicking anymore

Countdown from 15, and pull the pen away. In case there is any blood coming out, wipe the site with a gauze pad, and maybe put a band aid on it.

Done, discard the needle by putting on the big needle cap, and screwing it off.

Note, for some injection sites, you might feel a burning/stinging sensation after your injection. To minimize that, avoid taking your doses into your thighs, or closer than three fingers to the left or right from your belly button.

You do not have to store your estradiol in any special conditions, just keep them away from sunlight to avoid them turning yellow.

Keep your pen dry and make sure no estradiol drips down it after an injection, the plastic housing can get brittle and crack if that happens.

Useful links:

The DIY HRT Directory 2.0

Injectable estradiol simulator by Transfeminine Science