About

A huge proportion of people taking hormone therapy in the UK are self-medicating with drugs they got without a prescription (also known as DIY HRT). Many people import pills, patches and other medicines from foreign pharmacies. Another popular way of getting HRT is to purchase from a homebrewer. Homebrewing means mixing (compounding) ingredients outside of a professional setting. It’s been done for decades, particularly in bodybuilding communities, to create drugs for injecting.

Are homebrewed products safe to use? Compared to using a licensed pharmaceutical product made in a real lab, it is less safe. Vials can be contaminated, especially if they were made in an unhygeinic environment or not sterilised properly. Overall, however, the risk of getting an infection is low if you inject safely and keep an eye on your vial for signs of contamination.

Like other homebrewers, my HRT is not made in a professional lab and I am not obliged to any standards of good laboratory practice. I have relied on my training and experience in microbiology to make my products cheaply while still being good quality and safe to use. I use the following procedures to make my vials:

• Depyrogenation of glassware (held at 240° for 40min)
• Microfiltration of product (0.22µm nylon filter)
• Terminal heat sterilisation (InstantPot max pressure held for 30min)
• Laboratory analysis of final product

You can learn more about what these mean in the Guides section of my website.

If you’re still sketched out, that’s completely understandable. Keep an eye out for when I start making gels, or try getting a bridging prescription to access hormones through the NHS without having to wait. If you have one of my unopened vials but don’t want to use it, don’t throw it away! My vials are in very high demand, so please give it to someone else who wants it.