Gender-affirming care
Patches, gels, pills and injections
Practical handling by route: what makes a patch stay on, why a gel needs care around other people, and how to store any of it. The things that are obvious once someone tells you.
Patches
The main complaint is adhesion, and most of it is fixable. Skin should be clean, dry and free of lotion or oil. Avoid areas that crease or rub against a waistband. Press firmly for a good half minute rather than smoothing it on. Rotate sites so skin gets a rest.
Heat — a hot bath, a sauna, a heating pad — increases absorption, which matters more than people expect. If a patch lifts, whether to replace it or press it back depends on how long it has been on, and that is worth asking rather than guessing.
Residual adhesive comes off with oil rather than scrubbing. Scrubbing is how people end up with irritated skin they then blame on the medication.
Gels
The thing that genuinely matters with a gel is transfer: it can move to another person through skin contact before it dries and absorbs.
Let a gel dry fully, wash your hands afterwards, and cover the area before close contact — particularly with children and with anyone who is pregnant.
Apply to the site your prescriber specified, because absorption differs by site. Let it dry properly before dressing, and leave it a while before swimming or a shower.
Pills
Some are taken by mouth and swallowed; some are meant to dissolve under the tongue or against the cheek, and those are not interchangeable instructions — the route changes how the medication is absorbed and processed.
If a dose is missed, what to do depends on the medication and how late it is. That is worth asking once and remembering, rather than improvising each time.
Injections
Technique, needle sizing and sharps have a page of their own, because they deserve more than a paragraph.
The handling points: store as directed, keep vials out of direct light, do not use anything cloudy or discoloured or past its date, and note when a multi-dose vial was first opened — it has a shorter life once punctured than the printed expiry suggests.
Technique taught properly, the right needle sizes stocked, and somewhere to bring the sharps back to.
Injections, supplies and sharps →Storage and disposal
The two rules that cover most of it
Not the bathroom. Heat and humidity degrade medication, and the bathroom cabinet is the worst place in most homes. A bedroom drawer is better.
Nothing goes in the bin or the toilet. Bring unused or expired medication to any pharmacy for disposal — ours or anyone else’s. Sharps go in a proper container, never loose.
Common questions
Why does this page not name any medications?
Canadian law restricts what can be said publicly about a specific prescription drug. Handling advice by route is accurate regardless of manufacturer, and the product-specific detail belongs in a conversation where it can be matched to what you actually have.
Can I switch between forms?
Only with your prescriber — doses are not equivalent across routes and swapping is not a like-for-like substitution. If a form is not working for you, that is a very good reason to raise it, because there are usually alternatives.
What if I’ve been storing things badly?
Bring it in and ask rather than binning it or carrying on regardless. Whether it is still fine depends on the medication and how badly.