Hormones 2016

How to Take Your Tablets.
This last point with the indexing system may mean that you have to ’out’
yourself if the records are in your ’male’ name instead of your present
female name for transwomen. And vica versa in the case of transmen.
Other forms of medical records are our notes at our GP’s, which in their
paper form seem to follow us around the country when we move. Hopefully
the use of electronic versions will enable them to get to your new doctors in
a considerably quicker time than the paper version does. Dental records
don’t seem to follow us, but remain at the dentist who provided the
treatment. Presumably there are time limits, and space constraints too, on
the records storage there.
How to Take Your Tablets.
There is at present some discussion going on in various forums about
the best way of taking your tablets. There is anecdotal evidence that
sublingually 122 is best for some. Basically if the tablet can be easily crushed,
i.e. it doesn’t have a hard coating, (‘enteric coated‘ is the technical term,
meaning that the coating dissolves further into the gut rather than the
stomach) then it can be taken sublingually. However, you may get a funny
taste in your mouth for a while. The advantage of this method is that you
will absorb more of the drug into your bloodstream far quicker than by
swallowing the tablet, and it bypasses the liver thereby hopefully reducing
the strain on the liver. However, some of the tablet will have dissolved
into the saliva produced by the mouth, which is then swallowed as normal.
So a proportion of the medication will still be administered orally. Please
note, if you take Premarin by this method it dissolves very slowly, and
once the enteric coating is dissolved, its equine origins will become very
evident! It is not advisable to take Ethinylestradiol by this method, because
it triggers the oestrogen receptors within the liver several times because of
the hepato-intestinal recirculation (basically it circulates in the blood stream,
and oestrogens are excreted with bile into the intestine. They then get
absorbed back into the blood stream, travelling with the blood through the
veins into the liver and again triggering oestrogen receptors, and starting its
cycle off again).
Research of medications via different routes, indicate that pessaries may
deliver around twice as much as oral medications, for any given dosage.
Oral capsules reach the blood within the first hour (dependant on what
the medication is and its absorption) and peak within hours afterwards.
Pessaries peak over 6 hours or so but could be better taken as a split dose.
Oral medications seem to be most effective taken with or just after food,
since the oils in the food aid absorption and minimise any potential for
gastric irritation.
122 Beneath the tongue
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