What did @axoneymay__ actually say?
Almost nothing, technically. The creator said "Oh my god I did it. That is an experience I would never forget." That's it. There's no medical claim here, no dosage advice, no physiological assertion. What we have is a raw emotional moment: someone documenting their first testosterone injection as part of gender-affirming hormone therapy. The video's context, the hashtags #1yearontestosterone and #ftmfemboy, tells us more than the words do.
To be clear: an emotional reaction to a first injection is not a medical claim. It's a personal milestone. Fact-checking the feeling itself would be absurd. What we can do is use this video as a jumping-off point to examine what starting testosterone actually involves, and whether the broader cultural framing of "first shot" moments on TikTok reflects accurate expectations.
Does the science back this up?
There's nothing to directly confirm or contradict here, but the emotional intensity is well-documented in the literature. Starting gender-affirming testosterone therapy is associated with significant psychological impact, and not just physical change.
A 2022 study by Tordoff et al. in PLOS ONE found that access to gender-affirming care, including hormone therapy, was associated with a 60% lower odds of moderate or severe depression and a 73% lower odds of suicidality in transgender and nonbinary youth. The first injection, as a concrete act of beginning that process, carries real psychological weight that isn't hyperbole.
On the physical side, testosterone administered via intramuscular or subcutaneous injection typically begins producing noticeable changes, including voice changes and increased body hair, within weeks to months. The Endocrine Society's 2017 clinical practice guidelines (Hembree et al., Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism) remain the standard reference for initiation protocols in gender-affirming care.
What did they get wrong (or right)?
They didn't get anything wrong, because they didn't make a factual claim. Credit where it's due: not every TikTok creator feels the need to editorialize about what testosterone does or promise results they can't guarantee. This one just showed up and said it was memorable. That's honest.
Where the broader ecosystem of "first T shot" content on TikTok does sometimes go wrong is in creating unrealistic timelines. Viewers seeing transformation content attached to similar hashtags may expect dramatic changes faster than physiology allows. Research published by Unger (2016) in Transgender Health outlines expected timelines: voice changes may begin in 3-6 months, significant body composition shifts often take 1-2 years. First-month expectations are frequently overstated in viral content, even when individual creators aren't explicitly making promises.
This video doesn't do that. It's straightforward documentation.
What should you actually know?
If you're considering testosterone therapy, whether for gender-affirming care or hypogonadism, there are a few things the TikTok format will never tell you but that matter clinically.
First, injection technique matters. Intramuscular injections into the wrong site or with poor sterile technique carry real infection risk. Subcutaneous administration has become increasingly common and evidence supports comparable bioavailability with potentially less discomfort (Spratt et al., 2017, Journal of Endocrine Society).
Second, baseline labs are non-negotiable. Hematocrit, lipid panels, and liver enzymes should be monitored before and during therapy. Testosterone increases red blood cell production, and elevated hematocrit is a documented risk requiring monitoring (Hembree et al., 2017).
Third, the emotional response to a first injection, whether relief, fear, or overwhelming joy, is clinically recognized as part of the process. Mental health support alongside hormone therapy produces better outcomes than hormones alone, per findings from the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) Standards of Care, Version 8 (Coleman et al., 2022, International Journal of Transgender Health).
A telehealth provider who's doing this right will give you injection training, a monitoring schedule, and access to mental health resources, not just a prescription.