lacuna's guide to raw estradiol

This is a guide on how to store, prepare, and take estradiol in its pure powdered form, i.e. "raws" :3

Sourcing

I got my estrogen from directly from a chinese pharmaceutical company, but due to such companies increasing their minimum order quantities as more and more transfems order from them, I no longer recommend this approach. Instead, buy from a reseller. As of 2025-03-01 allie is the only trans-focused one, but some more general steroid vendors listed on hrtcafe also sell raws as well. You want to buy 17 beta estradiol, which is identified as CAS number CAS 50-28-2. It doesn't matter if it's micronized or not.

Storage

The main threat to the stability of your estradiol is oxygen, which can slowly oxidize it into the less potent estrone. To keep it away from oxygen, seal it in a heat-sealed mylar bag with an oxygen absorber. The mylar is completely gas-tight, and the oxygen absorbers will absorb any oxygen left inside the bag before it can harm your estradiol. The metallic layer of the mylar is what makes it gas-tight, so avoid any versions of a bag with a see-through side. You also can use an iron to seal the bags instead of buying a heat sealer, but no guarantees on a perfect seal. You can optionally add a silica gel packet alongside the oxygen absorber to get rid of any moisture as well. Once the estradiol is all bagged up, store it in a cool place without direct sunlight. Estradiol is very temperature-stable, so there's no need to go so far as to put it in your fridge or freezer.

Since you'll have to re-bag and re-seal your estradiol (with a new oxygen absorber!) every time you take some out, it makes sense to split up a large supply into multiple small bags. Even when exposed to some air, estradiol still has a shelf-life measured in years, so what I do is keep a double-bagged ziplock bag of "active estradiol," and refill it with about a year's worth of powder from a sealed bag whenever it gets empty.

Preparation

Next, you'll need to take your estradiol out and dissolve it into oil to use it. This allows you to use volumetric dosing, which you need because doses of estradiol are far too small to be measured with any consumer scale.

What You'll Need:

Steps:

  1. measure the capacity of your storage bottle. You can do this by filling it up with water and then emptying it into your measuring cup 👍 Make sure it's fully dry before you proceed.
  2. pick a ratio to dissolve the estradiol at. I've used 1.5 mg/mL, but people online report dissolving up to 2 mg/mL without issue. The more concentrated your estradiol, the less weird oil you need to hold under your tongue every day, and the less often you need to refill your oil bottle. However, dissolving it gets harder, and at some point you'll saturate the oil and be left with a clump of undissolved estradiol at the bottom - this is really bad because then you don't know how much did or didn't dissolve, and therefore you don't know how strong your oil is, defeating the whole point of using volumetric dosing.
  3. ~~ math time ~~
    Call the capacity of your measurement bottle (in milliliters) C. Your ratio, in milligrams per milliliter, is R. Call the amount of estradiol you need to measure out (in milligrams) E.
    E = R x C
  4. Now that you know E, calibrate your scale according to its instructions and weigh out that much estradiol. Put it into your mixing vessel.
  5. Add C milliliters of MCT oil to your mixing vessel. Then boil some water, then pour the boiled water into a bowl, and put your mixing vessel in the bowl so it gets heated. See picture below for the general idea:
    Glass flask in a larger tub of water
  6. Stir the oil (with the mixing vessel in the hot water) until all the estradiol has dissolved. If you have an immersion blender with a whisk attachment or a handheld milk frother, you can use those to speed up the stirring. At the end, the oil should be clear and not cloudy. This can take a while - dissolving 30mg of estradiol in 20mL of oil took me about 20 minutes. Check to make sure there's no estradiol left by putting the vessel up against a dark background.
  7. Once fully dissolved, let it cool to room temperature and then pour into your storage bottle. Congrats, you're done! Store at room temp or in the fridge, and keep away from moisture and intense light.

Takin' Drugs

First you gotta pick your dose. See the "sublingual E2" row in Table 1 of this paper. These doses represent a good starting point, you'll probably want to adjust your dose at some point as you figure out how your body reacts to estradiol. Note that higher doses of estradiol suppress testosterone production on their own, while lower doses will not do that (as much).

I recommend taking estradiol 3 times a day (8 hours apart) when using sublingual, because sublingual estradiol is absorbed and removed from the body very quickly, so taking it less often can result in an unpleasant daily peak-and-crash cycle. However, some people are okay with just 2x/day, and others feel they need 4x/day to avoid crashes. Experiment!

Finally, know that headaches and even cramps are normal when adjusting estradiol dosage up and down. They should stop after a week at most, and I've found acetaminophen and ibuprofen to be really effective against the headaches. If you have any other questions, I always love to talk about HRT! Just ask me! https://www.reddit.com/r/transdiy is another good resource, but giving places to get medication from is against Reddit policy, so for that you (unfortunately) have to go to the "hrtgen" thread on 4chan's /lgbt/ board.

Once you know how much you want to take at a time, call that amount D (e.g. for 3 mg/day and 3 doses per day, D = 1 mg). Using your small syringe, measure out D / R milliliters of the estradiol oil, and put it under your tongue. Hold it there without swallowing for at least 30 seconds - the estradiol is being absorbed into the blood vessels under your tongue and on the bottom of your mouth via osmosis. The longer you hold the better. Once you're tired of that, swallow and have a little snack to wash out any oil taste.

If your oil is cloudy or you can see powder at the bottom (i.e. it "crashed out"), just make sure to shake before use to evenly distribute the estradiol. The estradiol should also re-dissolve if you heat up your bottle a little bit (just up to body temperature is plenty).

Things To Try Out (i haven't done this)

Other Cool Alternatives (i have done these)

Things That Don't Work