This is your pleasant and kindly reminder from your kindly older trans gal that tucking is not good and also bad for you and your body and should not be done.
Seriously. Don't tuck. It's so bad for you and your body.
I know some folks, eventually, will tag or add comments like "HELL YEAH GIRL! SLANG THAT THANG!" and yes, that's cool and fine and slang that thang etc etc...
But also, imagine I am your trans mom for a moment. I am gently grabbing your face, telling you I care about you and your body and your health, and that tucking can be very dangerous and hurt you and that I care very much if you get hurt and I do not want you to be hurt.
So please do not tuck. Don't do it. Okay? Good girl.
People are saying “wait I never heard it was bad, what!?” and asking “what can happen?”
So here’s just a small (non-comprehensive) rundown:
Testicular Torsion which can cause even more complications and health risks and requires immediate medical attention/surgery to fix. If not fixed quickly it can cause tissue death/necrosis and do even worse damage to the entire area surrounding it.
Permanent skin irritation and tearing that can lead to infection which can, again, if left untreated turn into way worse things that will quickly turn life threatening.
It can also cause inguinal hernias, which increases additional risks, and must -again- be handled with surgery. And if you’re looking to get bottom surgery down the line you -cannot- get bottom surgery until all the inguinal hernias are handled and you recover from them. AND once you get a hernia you are now predisposition to get more at an increased rate afterward even IF you’re careful from then on.
Tucking can also cause urinary tract infections, which can lead to a kidney infection if left unchecked or improperly handled. Which, even if it doesn’t lead to kidney infection, will greatly increase your risks of bladder and prostate cancer.
… and again, these are just the tip of the iceberg, there’s lots of lower risk issues and other things and depending on preexisting conditions AND even if you’re even able to see a doctor, you have no guarantee that they’ll know how to or even care to examine you properly due to their own biases.
As for the final question I got, “What about safe alternatives for those of us with major dysphoria?”, I don’t really have a good answer… the best I can say is get breathable but slightly tighter underwear or light compression shorts… but even THEN wearing those for extended periods (even just a couple hours, 4 or less) can lead to risk of heath issues or problems. There really isn’t a “good solution or alternative” that is actually fully safe-safe.
Again, please, take care of yourselves and your body.
