Inside The Seedy World Of ‘Homebrew’ Transgender Treatments

Homemade hormone cocktails known as “homebrews” are being shipped across the United States by domestic and international leftist activists to facilitate do-it-yourself transgender procedures, raising significant safety and legal concerns.

These homebrews are sent to transgender-identifying individuals who want to pursue a so-called “gender-transition” without the oversight of traditional medical providers or in line with federal drug regulations. The compounds are purchased using cryptocurrency and appear to largely be shipped to individuals without prescription or actual age verification, a Daily Wire investigation found. 

The homebrews typically offered by secretive websites are estrogen compounds that can be taken through injection or spray bottles. These products are used by gender-confused males who identify as women. Some also offer pills that can inhibit healthy hormonal production. 

While many of the sites claim they don’t sell their products to kids, the verification process appears to just be a personal affirmation. Many of the sites, some of which are based overseas, suggest that their efforts are a response to crackdowns on transgender medicine, which are primarily targeted at children.

Since coming into office last year, President Donald Trump has aggressively pushed back against transgender procedures on kids, cutting off federal funding for entities that push puberty blockers or cross-sex hormones on children. At the same time, over two dozen states have passed laws to protect kids from sex change procedures. 

Dr. Jared Ross, an expert with Do No Harm, likened the safety of activist-synthesized homemade estrogen compounds to basement-cooked meth. 

“People cook up meth and things in their basement, people cook up hormones in their basement,” he told The Daily Wire. “These are sold or sometimes even gifted to people without a prescription.”

Often, they will repurpose pharmaceuticals meant for animals and convert them to humans. 

“Sometimes these are contaminated. You really don’t know what you’re getting here,” he said. “This is potentially some of the most dangerous, because these are really industrial animal research compounds that are not intended for human use and are being used by humans.”

The Distribution of Black Market Transgender Hormones

Ross told The Daily Wire that there are largely three main ways that transgender hormones are illicitly distributed. 

One is drug diversion, where legitimate prescriptions from doctors are resold or gifted to a person seeking the treatment. The other is on the “gray market,” where pharmaceuticals are sent into the United States without prescriptions. The third method is “black market” homebrew, where medications are synthesized and sold out of Americans’ homes. 

Estrogen, the main drug being sold, is regulated by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Testosterone falls under the purview of the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), which has more resources to crack down on illicit distribution. Ross said this is the reason that most of the so-called homebrewers were distributing the former, not the latter. 

Ross previously got a homebrewing website shut down after making numerous reports to the internet provider hosting the page, but said it was a game of “whack-a-mole” because the sites kept cropping up. 

Transgender Hormone Hubs

One of the main hubs for information in the world of “homebrew” transgender procedures is a website called “HRT Cafe.” HRT Cafe provides a directory of domestic and international vendors who will ship hormones to gender-confused individuals.

“Homebrewing injections is a potentially hazardous activity. We are sharing this information because there is a lack of public homebrewing information after recent takedowns and evidence online of misinformation that could lead to people seriously harming themselves, most notably through lack of preservative use or filtering,” HRT Cafe says. 

HRT Cafe declined to comment for the story.

Other hubs that promote domestic and international homebrewers are “DIYHRT.Market,” which also lists a variety of activist groups that will ship things like estrogen pills, patches, and injections as well as anti-androgen pills. Anti-androgens block the effects of testosterone. 

“In our view, DIY is an unfortunate but inevitable consequence of a transphobic medical system that does not trust trans people to know who they are,” DIYHRT.Market says. “We do not aim to give advice or opinions about how to use these medications, only the best possible information on sourcing while occasionally signposting useful information or studies that may not be well circulated so that you can make well-informed decisions about your own body.”

OPEN GATE LABS

One of the homebrew vendors listed by HRT Cafe is a group called Open Gate Labs. Open Gate Labs boasts that it produces “premium, vegan, fully tested vials” that it ships to the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. Open Gate Labs is based in the United States. 

They claim to be a “collective” comprised of individuals with experience in software development, cyber security, biochemistry, engineering, logistics, and pharmaceutical compounding. 

“We’re proud to be the largest collective with a diverse set of skills dedicated to offering accessible, affordable, and life-saving healthcare to individuals primarily in North America,” the Open Gate Labs website says. 

They sell a variety of products that are used to increase estrogen levels, including substances like estradiol enanthate (a synthetic estrogen injected into the body) and estradiol undecylate (a compound used to increase estrogen levels not widely available in the United States that has been used for male sex offenders). They also offer a variety of pills used to treat hormone conditions.

Open Gate Labs offering.

The collective doesn’t issue dosing recommendations, but leaves that up to individuals who purchase the compounds. 

“We use our products ourselves and have provided them to our local community and other trans collectives,” the website says. “There is a distinct lack of opportunity, especially in certain states of medical care that Open Gate Labs is devoted to solving.”

According to the group, they have spent tens of thousands of dollars developing their products. 

Who are their products for? For those who can’t access hormonal treatments or afford to go through the doctor, according to the collective. 

“While we have one of the best, if not the best equipment in homebrew, this is still homebrew. We can not, and will not guarantee to be up to the full standards and consistency of a pharmaceutical manufacturing facility,” the website says. “The legit route, if possible is always the best route. Our service is provided for those who do not have access, or cannot afford healthcare the traditional route.”

They claim to not provide their products to children. 

”WE DO NOT PROVIDE PRODUCTS TO THOSE UNDER THE AGE OF 18, BY ORDERING YOU AGREE YOU ARE NOT, AND WILL NOT TO PROVIDE THESE PRODUCTS TO THOSE UNDER 18 OR THE AGE OF ADULTHOOD IN YOUR COUNTRY.”

The only acceptable form of payment is crypto, which the group says is for “security reasons.” For those worried about packaging giving away what’s inside, they ship in discreet boxes. 

“Nothing on the package itself will indicate what is inside. If your order is international the label on products will be a stealth label, while domestic orders will have a regular label,” the website says. 

Open Gate Labs encourages others to start making their own homebrew products. 

“A few hundred dollars is all you need to get started, you’ll be doing yourself a favor and strengthening the decentralized flow of life saving medication that it seems like endless people want gone,” the website says, noting that it doesn’t take a “chemist” to make injectable estrogen to “distribute locally.” 

Otokonoko Pharmaceuticals

Another homebrew vendor is Otokonoko Pharmaceuticals, which is based in Brazil but ships all over the world, according to HRT Cafe. It also claims to only sell to adults and takes payment in crypto. 

Its website is filled with bizarre anime-style illustrations. Otokonoko is a Japanese word that can roughly translate to male cross-dressers and can be used as a pop culture reference for males who identify as females. 

Like Open Gate Labs, it primarily offers a variety of estrogen compounds in addition to anti-androgen pills, which block the effects of male hormones. 

A number of reviews are posted on its website, including one from a father who claims to have located pills in his son’s room. 

“I’d like to know where you get these pills from, as I found a box in my son’s room, not only am I deeply disappointed with him but worried, these seem very unsafe to consume, I’ve taken a sample to my local pharmacy and they themselfs [sic] didn’t know what was in that thing, please my son is very ill and I would like a response in my e-mail,” the person wrote. 

Otokonoko Pharmaceuticals claims that it doesn’t distribute its products to children, but its main safeguard appears to just be self-affirmation. 

 “If you’re of minor [sic] in your country, please do not try buying at our website,” it claims on its webpage. 

Other reviews highlight people claiming to have purchased products from Otokonoko, including one who said he bought 100 pills of 2mg estradiol “to supplement my legal prescription.” 

Another reviewer said that he found “white powder” surrounding the pill bottles when he opened up his package. “I hope the powder is the same material as the pills and not an unknown contaminant,” the reviewer wrote. 

Another reviewer wrote about attempting to get the products without notifying his parents. It was unclear what age the reviewer was. 

“I didn’t want these pills going to my home address because I live with my parents and wasn’t ready to answer questions yet, but FedEx let me go to the shipping center in person and pick up the package,” the reviewer wrote. “Fortunately, the package arrived at the beginning of Mother’s Day weekend, so I was able to pass off that trip as getting my mother a surprise gift (which I also did).”

Panacea Pharma/Astro Vials

Panacea Pharma is an Australian-based homebrewer that ships worldwide, according to HRT Cafe. They sell a variety of estrogen compounds in exchange for cryptocurrency. Their website says that they are currently taking orders from the United States after they “sorted out the tariff issue on our end.” 

Like the other vendors, they note that they can’t take payments from debit or credit cards because of “security reasons.” They also note that the shipments they make internationally come with “obfuscated labels.” 

The website also notes that there “is no law to require that your legal name be the same one on the package.”

Products sold by Panacea.

One purported customer worried that his vial had arrived without a label, so he didn’t “know the concentration.” 

“So I can’t take it unless panacea comes back from their hiatus and I can get the product info again,” the person wrote. 

Astro Vials, which has also purportedly shipped internationally, is a European-based homebrewer. They note that they have “suspended shipping” into the United States because of tariffs. 

Its website notes that because its products are homebrew, it “cannot be as safe as prescription products.”

Astro Vial products

Testing of Homebrew Compounds

Inside the world of homebrewing, there is a group that conducts testing of the various hormone products available on the market. One of the major groups that does this testing is referred to as Trans Harm Reduction. 

“We organise laboratory testing of HRT sources commonly used by trans people who are self-medicating,” the group says.

It acknowledges the dangers of homebrewing and says that its role is to ensure that products are as safe as possible.

“One risk of self-medicating is using homebrew forms of HRT, which are not subject to the same standards as prescription products made by regulated pharmaceutical companies,” the website says. “Testing indicates whether the advertised concentration is correct and whether a given source might be contaminated or unsafe to use for any other reason.”

Apart from the risks of taking homemade hormone cocktails, taking cross-sex hormones also comes with a plethora of other health risks.

Ross noted that putting men on estrogen can lead to a 46% increase in breast cancer, increase in chances for thyroid and prostate cancer, risk for brain tumors, decrease sperm production and lower quality sperm, risk of stroke, blood clots in the legs and lungs, increase risk of heart attacks, and stones in the gallbladder.

The groups shipping hormones throughout the United States mirror the efforts of other activist groups to ship abortion pills into states where medication abortions are technically illegal. These groups also promise to use discreet packaging and take cryptocurrency payments.