#dihydrotestosterone

[pluralsword]

TLDR on our HRT journey (nearly 4 years now), very glad that we may be ending the chapter of our body’s life similar to how Phase 1 Arcee felt about her body lmao and moving on to feeling more euphoric with our organic frame (it is what is, we love it even though even our oldest headmate/our body desires metal, guess making shapes EVA foam will help compensate someday on occasions that would feel safe to do so):

Okay so, four days in on finasteride with estradiol (having given finasteride enough time to bond with our body tissue, takes four to five days) after switching out of spironolactone with estradiol (which we were on four almost four years) and personally;

finasteride is fucking fantastic so far:

- feel much more cogent/less brain fog (we’re told this is due to being more hydrated)

- it’s easier to plan doing things and then to do them

- body feels less unhinged/off-kilter

- sensation actually feels better/more intense, it’s easier to appreciate and immerse in touch and thus we don’t crave intimate relief as often, all of which has helped with our health a lot

Hopefully whatever “masculinizing” traits might resurface due to finasteride interfering with dihydrotestosterone instead of testosterone like spiro does won‘t be a bother, but from what we’ve seen/read/heard from folks a lot of people’s experience of it is okay. Finasteride is apparently recommended for folks who tend to get/are sensitive to side effects from medications (we definitely are).

For us personally, pre-HRT testosterone was no fun, it left us rather angsty and having difficulty with feeling a sense of composure, apart from the dysphoria, so spiro with estradiol was a remarkable improvement in all regards. Just with various psychological experiences piling up in the last three years on top of stuff from the rest of our life, spiro no longer felt tenable, so we had to switch to something else, and weren’t willing to take gender stuff by needle for personal reasons. Interestingly; a trans man we used to work with said that estrogen before HRT also left him feeling off-kilter in the head, and that taking HRT helped clear things up. This is just an experience some gender expansive folks have we suppose. :3

So yeah, here’s to the future! Whatever happens to our psyche for other reasons aside, we’ll probably be writing and doing art more consistently. We have some more thoughts about spiro and Arcee in regards to canon below:

To some degree though (this is going to be a very unhinged artist take, but more than anything it’s us processing what we went through), we’re glad we did spiro because of the effects it had we wanted that will carry over, and also because it did give our non-Arcee headmates and bodily experience personal insight into how much of a pain the aft sensory side effects and brain fog especially from something that was supposed to give euphoria is.

Given- we knew what many of the side effects could be going in, our gender affirmation providers did their best to inform us and we are deeply appreciative of how they’ve helped out all these years including by being supportive of our xenogender stuff and plurality when we finally felt comfortable talking about it. And, we know that having contracted the original strain of Covid in early 2020 could have left us with long covid which also can cause brain issues, and then there’s all the additional baggage of our psyche from how our brain is wired and living in the world, which we’ve done our best to compensate for with other medications, learning wisdom techniques from dialectical behavioral therapy and philosophy and various orgs and studies and contacts and experiences in life, seeing a therapist as needed, and so on.

So, it’s not as if it was just spiro, just as for IDW1 Arcee, it wasn’t just her surgery; it was also everything else going on in her life that was so hard, and she eventually found a way to reconstruct her life and be happy, just as we continue to attempt to do, appreciating happiness when it does come our way. This is all to say that there’s always hope; even if spiro had been the only thing in the world at the time, we would have clawed onwards, we wouldn’t be as happy but we would still try, for all the love we are lucky to have and make.

[trans-i-am]

“Will I bald if I go on T?”

Many will tell you that you should look to your moms side of the family for indications.

Why is that?

The predominant balding gene is carried on the X chromosome which for cis men, comes only from the mother (in most cases however we will be basing this information on the XX XY model as it is standard). So if a cis boy has a bald father, but the men on his mother’s side have a full head of hair, he will likely not bald because there is no indication that the mothers X chromosome will pass it down to the baby.

For a cis girl to bald, she typically will need the gene on the mothers and fathers X chromosome to activate, and even then, the pattern of balding is often very different from men. This is because DHT (dihydrotestosterone), which it the component is testosterone responsible for masculization, is very damaging to the follicles on the head and women typically don’t have anywhere the near the amount required for damage.

As many of you may be aware, trans men have two X chromosomes and therefore have equal opportunity to inherit the trait from the mother or fathers side. It is not known whether this may increase the opportunity to bald, however, because the X chromosome is not the only factor, it does not appear to significantly increase the chances, but further research is required.

This is a very valid fear to have, believe me, I’m someone who has begun down the path of the balding man. This may be an opportunity to consider what you’re willing to put up with in order to achieve the body you want. If you go on T, you need to be willing to accept that you will bald. If you’re not willing to accept balding as an exchange and think “it won’t happen to me” you may not be ready for that kind of commitment. I had hair that was so thick and dense that every SINGLE time I got my hair cut, the stylist would make comments about my hair and how “at least I’d never go bald”. I didn’t think it’d happen to me but it has. You must be willing to accept that it will. And if it doesn’t, that’s great! At least you were prepared and knew it was still the right decision despite the possible consequences.

There are a few things you can do to cope with balding, but we just don’t have the options that a cis man has to stop it from happening. Rogane may be able to slow the hair loss if applied daily, however it will not necessarily reverse hairloss and is ABSOLUTELY toxic to cats and should never ever be risked even with indirect contact such as a pillow. Propecia or finasteride is made to block DHT which will allow the restoration of the follicles, but taking testosterone and blocking the effective component may just end up canceling each other out and at that point you would likely be doing the same thing as ending your testosterone intake.

If you’d like a firsthand account, I have found a good one for you:

https://transguysupply.com/blogs/news/ftm-hair-loss

FTMs and Hair Loss: I Tried Finasteride So You Don't Have To

On testosterone and worried about hair loss? Thinking about taking Finasteride? Read this first...

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Andractim 2.5% DHT cream.

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Regaining Lost Hair: Busting Myths About Hair Regrowth

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Regaining Lost Hair: Busting Myths About Hair Regrowth

Start treating your hair loss at the first sign of thinning by visiting Pharmacy Planet to buy Propecia Finasteride Tablets online in the UK