The linked tumblr post explains in detail a dangerous scam going around twitter’s trans community.
A product called “I can’t believe it’s not estrogen” is being advertised as a natural replacement for estrogen. It is packaged in a trendy, eye-catching way and it is sold as an OTC supplement for people who can’t get access to actual HRT.
In reality, it is at best a scam that will never ship and it aims at collecting trans women’s personal details in order to harass them later on. At worst, it is a scam that directly aims at physically harming trans women. The substance contained in the advertised pills is ashwagandha, which boosts the production of the hormones your body produces on its own (i.e it would boost T production for a trans woman). Furthermore, the dosage found in these pills increases anxiety levels. If taken for several weeks in a a row, it will cause something called “serotonin syndrome”, which will send you to the ER, potentially at death’s door.
If you are in queer twitter circles, spread the warning around to keep our community safe.
This was pretty blatantly stupid. What would be REALLY scary is if someone really clever and really evil were to do it, actually entering the real gray market and gaining good reputation first, then slowly introducing bad stuff into the product and quietly passing all the personal information to neonazis. >_<
I guess it would make sense to create fake identity to protect yourself.
My main concern would be ordering over the counter medicine online from a non-licensed or unverified pharmacy which is incredibly irresponsible and quite frankly stupid to do so. If you have to find medicine, do it at the store in person. They are regulated and have to go through so many red tapes before they can make it to the shelf, online though, there is no red tape and by the time you find out something is wrong, it could be too late and you end up dead.
I can just buy estradiol in a pharmacy no questions asked (VAMOS ARGENTINA CARAJOOO) but people in most countries—especially in Europe—can’t. Prescription means really require a prescription over there, and it’s not all informed consent there, there are often horrid waiting lists or requirements and so on.
So people do order online, and there are very reputable vendors like Otokonoko who make their own stuff, as well as services that just get officially made product from pharmacies in countries where it is de facto over-the-counter and shipping is cheap/easy (namely Turkey).
We really need access to proper care in the US, it’s unfortunate that so many people have to turn to OTC products when there’s malicious people out there like this.
The actual real product needs to be OTC!
