Rose Moon

1. Progesterone: not for everyone, but for many people it may increase sex drive and WILL make your boobs bigger. Also effects mood in ways that many find positive (but some find negative). Most doctors won’t prescribe this to you unless you ask. Most trans girls I know swear by it.

2. Injectible estrogen: is more effective than pill or patch form. Get on it if you can bear needles bc you will see more effects more quickly.

3. Estradiol Cypionate: There is currently a shortage of injectible estradiol valerate. There is no shortage of estradiol cypionate. Functionally they do the same shit.

The concerns surrounding venous thromboembolic events as a side-effect of hormone replacement therapy can mostly be traced back to one particular study known as the Women’s Health Initiative. This study was an enormous undertaking which, unfortunately, demonstrated significant adverse effects of the hormone therapies studied. As a result of this the use of hormone replacement therapy in postmenopausal cis women was dramatically reduced as the medical community began to question whether or not the therapy caused more harm than good.

Naturally, trans women have been suffering from this fall-out ever since.

What physicians seem to fail to recognize is that the study examined a very specific hormone regimen which was, arguably, outmoded at the time the study was conducted: It examined the use of conjugated equine estrogen (Premarin) with or without the use of medroxyprogesterone acetate. Neither of these drugs is regularly used for the treatment of transgender women.

The estrogen most commonly used to treat transgender women nowadays is 17β-estradiol either in pill form or in the form of a sticky patch that you apply to your skin. Esters of estrogen (e.g. estradiol valerate) are also sometimes used either in a pill form or as an intramuscular injection.

Transdermal estradiol patches are the gold standard when it comes to treating women who are at high risk of a venous thromboembolic event. It simply does not increase the risk of developing a venous thromboembolism. The only thing you should keep in mind is that patches are not always well tolerated because of the lifestyle changes required to keep them from falling off and the fact that they tend to irritate the skin.

Fortunately, oral 17β-estradiol appears to be safe, regardless of the increased risk. At least one large study has shown that the use of oral estradiol in trans women is not associated with venous thromboembolic events. An individual woman’s risk would need to be substantial in order to contraindicate the use of oral estradiol.

For those who have significant risk of venous thromboembolism because they have had a previous thromboembolic event, because they are paralyzed, or because of some other factor it is good to know the relative risk between oral and transdermal estrogen. The latest research indicates that the use of transdermal estrogen lowers your risk of a thromboembolism to 80% of what your risk would be using oral estrogens.

It’s difficult to find hard numbers regarding the relative risk of venous thromboembolic events with regards to hypertension. The best I could find after an hour or so of searching was this study regarding VTE in lung cancer patients. Hypertension increased the risk by a factor of 1.8.

However, to put that into perspective being of African descent increases your relative risk for deep vein thrombosis by a factor of 1.3 when compared to Europeans. Europeans are, themselves, at increased risk when compared to Asians and Pacific Islanders by a considerable margin: a four-fold increase.

I should point out that being ‘male’ is also a risk factor for developing a thromboembolism and hormones are likely to be a contributing factor. Also, menopause is another serious risk factor. Given this information it is likely that the use of transdermal estradiol will lower your risk of thromboembolic events significantly.

As far as the anti-androgen is concerned: The primary use for spironolactone for cisgender people is as an antihypertensive.

Even if the risk of thromboembolism was truly significant with modern hormone replacement therapy it wouldn’t justify what your doctor is doing to you. The fact is that mortality in the transgender community from suicide–caused in part due to the lack of access to hormone therapy–is substantial. The quality of life lost when a trans woman is denied hormone therapy is substantial. The fact that your doctor does not appear to be taking this into consideration when they weigh the risk of thromboembolism against not receiving necessary medical care is deeply concerning.

I strongly recommend that you seek a doctor who is more sensitive to your medical needs as a transgender woman.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/08/13/tennessee-camping-felony-capitol/%3foutputType=amp

It’s important to point out that protesting generally hasn’t been made a felony, but rather the camping that the protestors are doing (and the legislation also includes other things to discourage protesting).

This is still really bad though, because the right to peaceful protest is protected in the Constitution, and even if protesting isn’t outlawed outright the government is still criminalizing an act of peaceful protest just because it’s a protest.

Furthermore:

According to tn.gov felons in Tennessee lose their right to vote. This is called Felony Disenfranchisement

So this means that the Tennessee government just passed legislation that would render the protestors unable to vote.

I’m sorry lemme repeat that again

4:54 vs. 5:14. The mere threat of action mobilized a response in 20 minutes.

Strikes work. Withholding your labor works. Threatening working class mobilization works.

[July 28] BREAKING: Bolivia’s COB workers’ federation announces a 72-hour deadline to retract decision to postpone elections. A general strike and road blockades begin Monday in all nine departments if the deadline isn’t met. COB labour leader Juan Carlos Huarachi:

[Aug 2] Road blockades have begun at strategic points around the country, as announced by organized labour last week, as a tactic to exert pressure on authorities to hold elections following yet another delay/rescheduling of the post-coup election.

Midnight march by people in K'ara K'ara, Cochabamba rejecting the postponement of the general election. Sign says ‘Indigenous revolutionary youth.’

District 8 of the city of El Alto, which is what was referred to as the ‘tranca de Senkata’ during the November coup resistance, is now the site of a blockade as workers around Bolivia join the call of the COB to demand September 6 elections. Photos: Vladimir Pacheco

8am - Roads have been barricaded all around Bolivia since midnight with citizens demanding the restoration of democracy through fair elections. Here’s the town of San Isidro, near Villa Tunari in the Trópico.

Local union members are coming together to lay stones to help block the highway connecting Cochabamba to Santa Cruz. Blockades demanding elections are being erected by communities across Bolivia and won’t be easily lifted. #BloqueosBolivia

This resident says the Jeanine Añez regime has failed to respect the Constitution since taking power through the coup and have violated the rights of Bolivians while seeking to privatize Bolivia’s natural resources and education, at the expense of children.

The majority of Bolivia’s highways have been blocked by social movements demanding the restoration of democracy.

Bolivian police repress residents upholding a road blockade on the highway connecting Oruro and Potosi as the majority of major roads are now the sites of pro-democracy demonstrations demanding elections. #BloqueosBolivia

Bolivia’s Indigenous movements of the Tupac Katari Federation, from the provinces surrounding La Paz, have mobilized against the coup government and blocked the highways leading to the city.

[Aug 3] Plaza Abaroa, La Paz: Youth begin a hunger strike “in defense of democracy” outside of the @TSEBolivia demanding respect for the law which says that elections must be held on September 6th

[Aug 4] UPDATE: These young activists were arrested by Bolivian regime security forces during the night. Their whereabouts is unknown

[Aug 4]Hunger strikers were arrested and have been released, others were dispersed at midnight. Today they resume their strike in defense of democracy at the same spot, in front of the Supreme Electoral Court (TSE).

Lauca Ñ, Trópico de Cochabamba: Day two of Bolivia’s national strike and road blockades. Unions demand respect for their right to elect a government in clean elections. #BloqueosBolivia

Bolivia’s defacto Interior Minister @ArturoMurilloS says in press conference that the regime will attack pro-democracy roadblock protests if they’re not lifted in the coming hours. #BloqueosBolivia

Far-right terror/shock group Unión Juvenil Cruceñista (UJC) of the Santa Cruz Civic Committee announces plans to attack the working class protests which are demanding elections. The racist group had a hand in the coup and operates with the backing of the Jeanine Añez regime.

Bolivians have paralyzed the majority of the country’s highways, both east and west, as part of the general strike against the coup regime. Shortly, Beni (green) Chuquisaca (yellow) Tarija (purple), will be joining the protests.

“One of my wife’s distant friends has attempted to invite herself to stay with us, again,” writes the exasperated owner of a prime 2 bedroom apartment in New York City in this Ask MetaFilter question. “She did this last March, and we used the excuse of me starting a new job and needing to do x, y, and z as well as the “out of town” excuse for any remaining dates. This got us off scot-free, but we both knew the time would come again… and it’s here. We need a final solution.”

He goes on to list two different possibilities he can think of for getting this woman to stop asking for free room and board. The first is a little white lie, something about their keys being hard to duplicate. The other is to be vague, to say something like “Sorry, that isn’t going to work for us” and hope she doesn’t ask why.

The first few answers give this poster very direct advice: Just say no. No need to give an explanation, it’s her who’s being rude by asking. Others give him advice that was probably more like what he was expecting: other ways to be vague like claiming that it’s “One of those random `Life in NYC things.’”

Another thread of discussion popped up around whether or not the woman asking for a place to stay was being rude. Some posters couldn’t understand how simply asking to stay in someone’s apartment was rude, while another went as far to say that putting someone in the position “having to be rude and say no” was rude in and of itself.

It is into this context that user tangerine contributes this answer:

This is a classic case of Ask Culture meets Guess Culture.

In some families, you grow up with the expectation that it’s OK to ask for anything at all, but you gotta realize you might get no for an answer. This is Ask Culture.

In Guess Culture, you avoid putting a request into words unless you’re pretty sure the answer will be yes. Guess Culture depends on a tight net of shared expectations. A key skill is putting out delicate feelers. If you do this with enough subtlety, you won’t even have to make the request directly; you’ll get an offer. Even then, the offer may be genuine or pro forma; it takes yet more skill and delicacy to discern whether you should accept.

All kinds of problems spring up around the edges. If you’re a Guess Culture person — and you obviously are — then unwelcome requests from Ask Culture people seem presumptuous and out of line, and you’re likely to feel angry, uncomfortable, and manipulated.

If you’re an Ask Culture person, Guess Culture behavior can seem incomprehensible, inconsistent, and rife with passive aggression.

Obviously she’s an Ask and you’re a Guess. (I’m a Guess too. Let me tell you, it’s great for, say, reading nuanced and subtle novels; not so great for, say, dating and getting raises.)

Thing is, Guess behaviors only work among a subset of other Guess people — ones who share a fairly specific set of expectations and signalling techniques. The farther you get from your own family and friends and subculture, the more you’ll have to embrace Ask behavior. Otherwise you’ll spend your life in a cloud of mild outrage at (pace Moomin fans) the Cluelessness of Everyone.

As you read through the responses to this question, you can easily see who the Guess and the Ask commenters are. It’s an interesting exercise. (#)

Thoughts:

-I wonder how many failed relationships and divorces have mixed ask/guess culture as a component?

-I wonder how many other like me there are-trained in both cultures due to a mixed marriage-and what this does to our own relationships.

-why is this not a widely known thing? Good god it seems a HUGE facet of effective communication and I’m only just hearing about it at 51 years old? Is there a book about this somewhere? Dammit…

-I’m going to be re-examining every personal and work relationship I have (and have had) in light of this revelation.

@aka-killgrave @captainbill-cl

This is incredible and I can’t believe I’ve never heard it put this way before and I’m 54. My family is definitely of the Guess variety because this really explains the crazy lack of communication. My mother is an extreme Guesser and actually gets angry when you can’t just guess what she wants. She is 84 and I chaulked it up to being raised in the 40’s and 50’s when women didn’t ask for what they wanted. She didn’t do this as much when we were little but as we got into teenage years and she had to deal with us as young adults she apparently didn’t want to ask, but got irritated when we couldn’t guess.

When I was a teenager visiting family, apparently my aunt got tired of having to ask me and my sisters what we wanted all the time and asked us to speak up and said ‘if you don’t ask, you don’t get.’ At the time I thought this was partly a lesson in gaining self confidence but at the same time I realized if I just ask and not expect everyone to guess, I can get more of what I need out of life with less stress.

Fast forward to now. My mother is still an extreme Guesser and three of my sister’s are Guesser’s and just make up reasons in their head instead of asking what’s going on. My other sister and I have learned to ask so they think we are rude for asking and we think they are rude for making shit up instead of asking. Wow. I can’t believe there’s a term for this. If this was taught as basic communication skills I think a lot more people would be able to get along. I definitely have to look into this more.

“Okay, I need to ask you something but, first of all, please feel free to say no. You don’t need to give me a reason and I won’t be angry or upset.” 

Then I ask for what I want.

And if they say no, I don’t ask why, I don’t get passive aggressive and I don’t get angry or upset. I don’t dwell on it. They’ve said no and that’s final. I thank them, then I move the conversation on.

3 inch opening: no problem

2.75 inch opening: Easy

2.5 inch opening: doing fine

2.25 inch opening: Bit of a struggle, but as Mr Meeseeks says: CAAAN DOO!

2 inch opening: Alright, lets try chewing the opening a bit, As long as we get the nuts into the mouth (huhuhu) we good I guess…

Uh-oh… Steve is getting greedy

:insert grunts of effort here:

Taking a break…

The guy who made the original video decided after a long struggle to help Steve out.

A New Challenger approaches!

1.75 inchs: Quote Mr Meseeks: “OOOHHH HE’S TRYING”

GIMME GIMME GIMME

He ends up giving up.

Source: Chris Notap - Squirrel ● literally ● bites off more than he can chew ! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sS4ach0CwN4

If Bernie Sanders’ platform was already the law of the land in the USA, this entire economic crisis and national response to COVID-19 would be drastically simpler, easier, and better.  For all of us.  

The current plans being pushed for by Republicans and Democrats are the exact same things Sanders and Yang were mocked for and asked “how are we gonna pay for it?”

“Who pays my medical bills if I get laid off?” Government funded medical care.

“I need to take care of my children, I can’t work!” Parental leave, extended sick leave, universal paid sick leave.

“We need to help the unemployed and keep cash in the economy!” Expanded unemployment benefits.  Universal Basic Income.

“Corporations are profiteering we can’t produce enough supplies for our medical needs!” Boy, let me tell you something.

Line by line, issue by issue, if the populist left reforms were the existing framework for the USA instead of blocked at literally every turn by the Corporatist Establishment, of both the Democratic and Republican Parties, we wouldn’t be staring down an oncoming Depression.