Helpful Hormone Treatment Info

I found this on Facebook, and it has a lot of helpful information. I thought I'd copy and share it here. Here's a link to the source: https://www.facebook.com/vellumandvinyl/posts/2027475120679222

The only changes I made were to correct some grammar and spelling, and remove some unnecessary profanity.

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Tumblr user 8deadsuns:

TRANS WOMEN: HERE'S SOME STUFF YOUR DOCTOR WON'T TELL YOU ABOUT HRT

1. Progesterone: Not for everyone, but for many people it may increase sex drive, and WILL make your boobs bigger. Also effects mood in ways that many find positive (but some find negative). Most doctors won’t prescribe this to you unless you ask. Most trans girls I know swear by it.

2. Injectable estrogen: More effective than pill or patch form. Get on it if you can bear needles because you will see more effects more quickly.

3. Estradiol Cypionate: There is currently a shortage of injectable estradiol valerate. There is no shortage of estradiol cypionate; functionally they do the same thing.

4. Bicalutamide: This is an anti-androgen that has almost none of the side-effects of spironolactone or finasteride. The girls I know who are on it are evangelical about it.

Tumblr user naidje:

@euryale-dreams

Tumblr user joyeuse-noelle:

Are there HRT medications that don’t increase blood clot risk? I’m already at risk because of my blood pressure, and my doctor won’t prescribe HRT that increases clot risk while I’m on the medication, meaning I may never not be on the medication.

Tumblr user euryale-dreams:

Absolutely.

The concerns surrounding venous thromboembolic events as a side-effect of hormone replacement therapy can mostly be traced back to one particular study known as the Women’s Health Initiative. This study was an enormous undertaking which, unfortunately, demonstrated significant adverse effects of the hormone therapies studied. As a result of this, the use of hormone replacement therapy in postmenopausal cis women was dramatically reduced, as the medical community began to question whether the therapy caused more harm than good.

Naturally, trans women have been suffering from this fallout ever since.

What physicians seem to fail to recognize is that the study examined a very specific hormone regimen which was, arguably, outmoded at the time the study was conducted. It examined the use of conjugated equine estrogen (Premarin) with or without the use of medroxyprogesterone acetate. Neither of these drugs are regularly used for the treatment of transgender women.

The estrogen most commonly used to treat transgender women nowadays is 17β-estradiol either in pill form or in the form of a sticky patch that you apply to your skin. Esters of estrogen (e.g. estradiol valerate) are also sometimes used either in a pill form or as an intramuscular injection.

Transdermal estradiol patches are the gold standard when it comes to treating women who are at high risk of a venous thromboembolic event. It simply does not increase the risk of developing a venous thromboembolism. The only thing you should keep in mind is that patches are not always well tolerated because of the lifestyle changes required to keep them from falling off and the fact that they tend to irritate the skin.

Fortunately, oral 17β-estradiol appears to be safe, regardless of the increased risk. At least one large study has shown that the use of oral estradiol in trans women is not associated with venous thromboembolic events. An individual woman’s risk would need to be substantial in order to contraindicate the use of oral estradiol.

For those who have significant risk of venous thromboembolism because they have had a previous thromboembolic event, because they are paralyzed, or because of some other factor it is good to know the relative risk between oral and transdermal estrogen. The latest research indicates that the use of transdermal estrogen lowers your risk of a thromboembolism to 80% of what your risk would be using oral estrogens.

It’s difficult to find hard numbers regarding the relative risk of venous thromboembolic events with regards to hypertension. The best I could find after an hour or so of searching was this study regarding VTE in lung cancer patients. Hypertension increased the risk by a factor of 1.8.

However, to put that into perspective being of African descent increases your relative risk for deep vein thrombosis by a factor of 1.3 when compared to Europeans. Europeans are, themselves, at increased risk when compared to Asians and Pacific Islanders by a considerable margin - a four-fold increase.

I should point out that being ‘male’ is also a risk factor for developing a thromboembolism and hormones are likely to be a contributing factor. Also, menopause is another serious risk factor. Given this information, it is likely that the use of transdermal estradiol will lower your risk of thromboembolic events significantly.

As far as the anti-androgen is concerned, the primary use for spironolactone for cisgender people is as an antihypertensive.

Even if the risk of thromboembolism was truly significant with modern hormone replacement therapy, it wouldn’t justify what your doctor is doing to you. The fact is that mortality in the transgender community from suicide, caused in part due to the lack of access to hormone therapy, is substantial. The quality of life lost when a trans woman is denied hormone therapy is substantial. The fact that your doctor does not appear to be taking this into consideration when they weigh the risk of thromboembolism against not receiving necessary medical care is deeply concerning.

I strongly recommend that you seek a doctor who is more sensitive to your medical needs as a transgender woman.

*Sensitive Content* My Transition - Recovering From Trauma

This is continuing off my introduction post. If you haven't read it yet, click here to view it.

Sensitive Content!

I talk about sexual organs in this post, as well as sexual assault. If you don't want to hear about this stuff, you best skip to the end.

So where was I...

For those who may have noticed, I haven't been very good about catching up on the continuing months after month 13. I was thinking about why I'm having so much trouble with this, and why sitting down and writing, an activity I used to enjoy quite a bit, suddenly makes me feel anxious.

Sexual Assault

I think what it boils down to is sexual assault. As implied in my Month 12 post - I was sexually assaulted that month. 

It's been a bit of a ride recovering from that, even though it wasn't the first time. It was, however, the first time it had happened in which the other person perceived me as female. It was different.

I can joke all I want about how the guy had no idea how to work this bizarre sexual organ that's in my pants. Treating it like a penis was ultimately a failure, and he clearly had no idea what he was doing in his attempt. If he expected me to do any form of penetration, he was very sorely mistaken.

But through those jokes, I'm processing it all. It's sinking in. I joke about it as a means of talking about it, because talking about it prevents it from being completely bottled up. It hurts. I was drunk, high, and asleep, at a St. Patrick's Day party. There's no possible way for me to consent to anything in that state, and the fact that it was someone in my friend group makes it worse.

After that happened I stopped feeling comfortable publicly talking about myself. I didn't feel comfortable showing my body for a while either, wearing thick sweaters and loose baggy clothes that hid my figure. I stopped wearing makeup and push-up bras. My anxiety changed and worsened, and I started having flashbacks to previous sexual assaults. Writing about sensitive details in my life became far more difficult. 

I also had a chain of other issues in my life, including a law suit against my apartment manager, insurance deciding not to cover expensive electrolysis treatment and leaving with a $3,000+ medical bill, and many struggles amidst moving that put strain on my romantic relationship. I have also encountered a lot of painful discrimination, direct and indirect, ranging from people scowling at me to people deliberately calling me a man to my face. There's plenty of chaos to list, but I don't really feel like talking about it in detail right now...

I won the law suit. I'm beginning to recover from the blow the insurance issue did to my bank account. My boyfriend and I are still going strong, and we're now living together. I have a new career as a school district technician that pays more with less stress. Things are getting better.

Catching up...

I would like to be able to say that it will soon be easier for me to regularly talk about my transition in detail on this public medium, but I don't know how long it will be before I feel up to it again.

I have to say, biologically speaking, not much has been changing, to be honest. It's pretty much just more of the same. Breasts continue to fill out, voice still bothering me, facial hair still bothering me, and I still want bottom surgery.

The only major thing that's happened, I think, has been that I have dyed my hair and I have bangs now. And I love my new bangs! I think it further refines and completes my look. This picture is from month 19.

I have just put together a timeline of pictures from before hormone treatment up to just shy of month 20. I'll be releasing that on here at some point.

So rather than continuing the month to month recap, I'm thinking I'll just release bits of information related to individual subjects.