Dangerous “Estrogen-Alternative” Scam Reported on Twitter
EstroLabs “I Can’t Believe It’s Not Estrogen” won’t raise estrogen and may cause serotonin syndrome.
by Kerrick Goodman-Lucker
On June 6, paid Twitter user @TheQueerQuirk posted an ad for a product claiming to be “like your very own magical, hormone-boosting fairy godmother.” The problem is the product is a scam, and has levels of an herb that may actually raise testosterone, in doses that could be dangerous or even fatal.
“I Can’t Believe It’s Not Estrogen”, produced by EstroLabs, contains 1600 mg of ashwagandha. Ashwagandha (Withania somnifera), an Indian herb that is reported to be adaptogenic (meaning that it may improve the body’s ability to deal with stress), has also been used widely by cis men to increase testosterone. According to Dr. Will Powers, posting on Reddit, ashwagandha may raise the body’s levels of luteinizing hormone, which increases the amount of sex hormone produced by the gonads naturally. This means in people with testicles it may increase testosterone and in people with ovaries it may increase estrogen. Here’s more from Powers’ Reddit post:
screenshot from www.reddit.com/r/DrWillPowers
Ashwagandha may also increase levels of serotonin in the brain, similar to many commonly-prescribed anti-depressants such as Lexapro. Unfortunately, too much serotonin building up in the brain can cause a dangerous side effect called serotonin syndrome, which may be fatal if untreated. It is not known whether this supplement combination can cause serotonin syndrome by itself, but ashwagandha has been implicated in serotonin syndrome in people also taking SSRIs for treatment of depression.
As reported by multiple sources on Reddit, Tumblr, and Mastodon, @TheQueerQuirk appears to be a new identity of an anti-trans hate account formerly called @transaretr8tors. Users speculated that another motive for the scam post might have to do with harvesting trans people’s personal information.
At the time of this writing, @TheQueerQuirk has locked their posts and EstroLabs.com returns a 404 not found error. A domain name lookup for QueerQuirk.com and EstroLabs.com provides the same address and phone number for the registrant, a virtual office space in Iceland which is also the address used by the “Phallic Cafe”.
Unscrupulous individuals preying on transgender people who can’t access or afford hormones is certainly nothing new, although likely now more widespread since many states are restricting access to HRT. This case sounds the alarm about the dangers of taking supplements, which are not regulated by the FDA, in place of medical hormones. Be careful out there.
Kerrick Goodman-Lucker is a trans man, a father, and a former teacher. He studied to be an acupuncturist and traditional Chinese medicine practitioner, but was never licensed to practice medicine of any kind.