Hello everyone. A little background on me: I'm a transwoman, I've been on hormones since my mid-teenage years, and I'm in my early twenties now. I've been wanting to get an orchiectomy for a LONG time, as it's extremely important for my transition. I've been watching this thread with a LOT of interest since it was posted, and I've waited quite a few months to see how everyone else (SplitDik, Something, and BrookeTS) fared.
I decided a little over a week ago I was going to go ahead and do this. I've spent COUNTLESS hours researching everything I could get my hands on about CaCl injection, as well as studying this thread and its posters. I purchased Food Grade CaCl from ebay (same stuff Something purchased), and a 100 pack box (I couldn't find any 10 packs) of 1cc insulin needles from an online medical supplier.
Yesterday (4/26/13), after having the supplies with me for a few days, I decided to go ahead and do it (basically on a whim, I thought I'd chicken out). I had NEVER stuck any sort of needle into my testicles before, and my experience with kinky CBT is very limited (I'm very sensitive, a light slap makes me go into panic mode), so I was very nervous.
I grabbed two needles out of the box, as well as my bottle of CaCl, some alcohol, and some neosporin. I washed my hands vigorously and sanitized my area as best I could. I poured copious amounts of rubbing alcohol on my scrotum, to try to reduce any sort of bacterial presence. I took the needle out of the sterile packaging, took the top off the bottle (I did this as quickly as possible, as to not give it too much access to open air), and filled up the syringe with about 1cc (though I wasn't going to use this much, but I have like an 8oz bottle so it didn't matter). I took a deep breath, super nervous, and started pushing the needle into my right testicle (at the bottom part of the testicle, with the testicle pushed as closely to the skin as possible). To my surprise, it was actually almost painless, just slightly uncomfortable. I was taken aback, as I expected it to be excruciating, having something stuck into your testicle! But nope, no real issue. I started pushing the syringe into it, and got about 0.15-0.25cc into my right testicle before I got nervous and took it out. No pain was present at this point.
I capped that needle and put it aside, opening up my next sterile needle, filling it up about 0.75cc, then tried to do the same with the left testicle. However, this time, I think I didn't stick it in at just the right angle or the right spot, as unlike the painless entry in the right testicle, at about 1/2 way in with the needle, I got this sudden feeling of extreme discomfort. It was like having your testicle squeezed REALLY, REALLY hard. In hindsight, I have a feeling I may have touched/pierced the epididymis, and not gone into the meat of the testicle as I had with the right one. At this point, I panicked a little, took the syringe out about 1/5 of the way, and maybe squeezed out about 0.15-0.25cc into this testicle. After removing the needle, no pain was present.
I cleaned up, and after about 5 minutes realized that I hardly put any into the testicles, and maybe I should just put some more in real quick before they start hurting. So I grabbed two more sterile needle packages, and accidentally touched the first one on the side of the CaCl bottle while trying to fill it up. I decided that probably wasn't very safe, so I capped and set that one aside. I took the other syringe out of its package and very carefully filled up the syringe to the full 1cc. After squirting out the air, I pierced my right testicle again (with much better aim this time around, compared to the left!) and put the needle all the way to the center of the testicle. Slowly pulling out, I pushed down on the plunger so as to spread the CaCl as much through the testicle as possible. I ended up putting about 0.5cc into this one. I could immediately tell, as it was a bit larger than before (maybe 30-40% larger). I did not end up re-injecting in my left testicle, as I ruined the first needle and was not about to use the same one twice, and didn't really feel like going to get another one (I sort of talked myself out of it, as I was nervous considering the pain from the first injection in this testicle.)
After all that, I cleaned up, took a couple aspirin ahead of time, and laid down. No pain was present, I ended up falling asleep for an hour. After about 2 hours, my right testicle had swollen up to about double its normal sized and was very tender. My left testicle hadn't noticeably changed, though it was also sore. The pain steadily increased and by about the 4-5 hour mark, it was pretty bad. Now, I've broken quite a few bones (more than 10), had many surgeries. This was not the most discomfort I've experienced, by far. However, the thing that is really terrible about this pain, is although it's maybe a 5.5-6/10, it's CONSTANT. It does not go away or change. It's this constant 6/10 dull ache and throb, it doesn't come or go. I found taking a very hot bath and soaking in it for about 20-30 minutes temporarily relieved the pain, but for no more than 10-15 minutes after getting out. After that, the pain would return. I believe it was BrookeTS who posted something about being ready to not be able to sleep for about 16-24 hours - this is VERY TRUE.
Both testicles throbbed non-stop between about 5 hours post-injection, to about 16-18 hours post injection. After this, my right testicle actually stopped hurting. It was tender and sore, but the throbbing stopped completely (unless it brushed against something or something touched it, as just getting up tends to cause your testicles to swing a little between your thighs! I got up very slowly after that first time :]). My left testicle, the one I assume I must have pierced the epididymis (and I assume injected some CaCl in that area), did not cooperate in the same fashion, however. It continued to throb terribly and CONSTANTLY (aspirin did not help, I was wishing so bad I had some hydrocodone!) until about the 25 hour mark. I basically was bed-ridden between 2 hours post-injection to 26 hours post-injection. I took about three baths between this times, as it was my only reprieve from the constant dull ache, though a short one. The pain was not as much in the testicle, as it was in the epididymis area and a vague discomfort going up towards the inguinal canal (but into it). I did not experience any sort of pain in my pelvis region or back, as some other posters experienced. My pain was solely focused on the testicles themselves.
Now I'm ~27 hours post-injection, and both testicles are tender and sore, but the ache is completely gone. There are no signs of ulceration or bruises at this point. My right testicle is still 2x the normal size, and my left testicle still does not seem affected. I expect I will have to re-inject my left testicle in a few weeks, as I'm guessing the rather small amount (0.15-0.25) I injected into that testicle did not actually affect any leydig cells, but merely tortured my epididymis for 25 hours
. So Dvdbll, please do get back to us on how your second shot ended up, as I expect I will be doing the same at some point! However, my right testicle definitely got a very good dose, so hopefully that will turn out excellently.
SplitDik asked a few posters how they felt emotionally, so I figure I'll delve into that a little bit. I'm very excited and hopeful, and though the pain wasn't fun, the entire time I was in the mindset of "This is only temporary, this is worth it. This is important for your future." The pain almost felt cleansing, it felt like I was finally removing this harmful and counter-productive organ from my body. So it was a good thing, and currently I'm in a good mood, especially since the pain has died down considerably. Though it may return at some point in the next few days, who knows.
As far as sex drive, I don't know if it was the pain or it has anything to do with the injection (I'm thinking pain), but I felt significantly more in control of my sexuality. Now, I've been on hormones for a long time, and currently I'm experiencing a shortage of hormones due to loss of insurance, but I've always been very sexual even without testosterone. My need for removal of the testicles is purely to aid feminization and reduce the amount of medicines I need to take. So I actually masturbated a few hours ago, no pain or anything (other than avoiding jostling my testicles). But for some reason, I felt more like I was in control of WHEN I wanted to be aroused, rather than arousal just coming and going as it pleases. Most likely just a placebo effect (or the fact I was in a lot of pain), who knows, but just a little anecdote.
I'll keep everyone informed over the next few months as to what happens. Thanks everyone, especially SplitDik, Something, and BrookeTS for contributing to this thread and being guinea pigs! It means a lot, and allowed me to get the courage to hopefully rid myself of this issue once and for all.
Thanks,
thequietone
