My Life, My Body And The Road Less Traveled

Comment by Jillian Munsell on August 26, 2012 at 3:37pm

Hey Jac...
You make a great case.. Yes, al conventional thinking is to go under a doctors care, but I to am becoming jaded by their true lack of knowledge.
At the very least, you are wonderfully articulate, and I enjoyed your first entry into the collective knowledge that is PEt.
I see a therapist, whom I love, but doesn't have anywhere close to the amount of information available here. I have encouraged her to join PE, to gain further insights to what we go through, but seems to discount it.
That is starting to tell me a bit more about the medical community
I look forward to your next blog and hope you will accept my friend request..comin at ya
Jillian

Comment by Jillian Munsell on August 26, 2012 at 3:39pm

So I'm using an iPad with this crummy keypad...sorry about all the typos

Comment by Melanie Cee on August 26, 2012 at 4:32pm

You'll get no argument from me.  My 1st prescription arrived in my mailbox from a NZ source. However having dealt with migraines all my life I was well aware that  even the most innocent of substances could have a negative effect on my well being.So after making an appointment with my PCP I gathered up every bit of information with regard to hrt therapy along with my package of salvation and a copy of the Standards of Control Care with the Reduction of Harm clause. I was fortunate enough to have insurance and a doctor willing to help with the coding to allow me to get a baseline of my hormone levels. I walked out of his office with my script. I did not want to be sitting waiting for the mail to arrive. There are now Informed Consent Clinics across the U.S. and Canada with no gatekeepers that RachelMarie listed in a blog. My main issue with the soc are that once I was deemed not crazy and my therapist "agreed with my path" why did I need 2 letters to correct a physical abnormality ( at least from my perspective) for an area of MY body that the only people who would ever be privy too would be my  partner(s).  Granted this is life altering experience,but we've seen the cosmetic surgeries of women who look like the cat woman and the lizard man.Did they need to get permission? I am surprised that my therapist had any hair left after dealing with me as I was a active participate in my therapy. What I mean by this is that they did not dictate what I could do and couldn't do. I have other issues with the soc but they are unrelated to this subject.There is no one path in this journey and each is unique to the person and those who choose to make the journey with us.

Comment by Dal Maxwell on August 26, 2012 at 8:05pm

Jacqueline - While I am not going to attempt to tell you you are wrong to feel as you do, please allow me to add some thoughts to the mix.  I want to start, though, with why I think my perspective has weight.

1 - I have been on hormones now for almost 17 years; both large and nominal doses.  I have friends who have also been on hormones for years. 

2 - I have other non-related but critical medical issues that require me to be monitored ocassionally anyway. 

Besides those two 'facts' of mine, I've had a tremendous number of trans people pass through my life.  And here's what I suspect I know from all of that time:

No one goes into this thinking that anything will ever go wrong. 

Everyone who starts; transition, hormones, whatever; think that they will be the one to beat the odds. 

Nothing I have ever told anyone will benefit me one iota; it is for the welfare of their continued successful existence.

So here's what I think; You ARE free to do this however you think it will suit your purposes.  But have you really considered the consequences fully? Natal women are at risk for taking prescribed, measured amounts of hormones. And the older you are (as are most of us when we started) the higher the risk factor. WE are messing with our inherent biology; the risk for blood clots CAN be substantial; I know that all too well. To take any estrogen from an 'unknown' source, in unregulated doses, without any medical supervision of any kind is like playing Russian Roulette with your health. 

You may think that if you are careful this won't happen to you.  Most of us face myriad issues when we contemplate transition at all and hormones is often a stickier point.  You don't have children but you do have hopes that your SO will stay with you.  What does SHE do, and how will you feel, if your logic fails you and you have a stroke.  Not all strokes are minor and if you think hormones are a life-changer try a massive stroke.  Luckily, I haven't had one of them but I have friends and family who have.

What I am saying is that if you are doing it this way because you don't want anyone 'in your business' then please pick an issue that doesn't involve near-fatal possibilities.  If it's a matter of cost, unless you are unemployed and/or uninsurable, you CAN get hormones through your doctor.  And you still don't know the quality or consistency, or even the ingredients in what you have, from those unregulated far away sources.  Perhaps even a compromise, where you get your own hormones but tell your doctor what you are doing so you can get some labs done a few or more times a year.  This isn't always so black and white and there are variables to this equation.  Please consider some of them; for your own future, the future of your relationship, and for your own longevity.

Comment by Keri Ellen Abrams on August 26, 2012 at 9:52pm

Jacqueline,

Do what you want, but there are doctors that DO know what they are doing, they do know a thing or two about hormones and their effects on the body. Even trans bodies. And whether you want to except the facts or not,  self medicating without being monitored can KILL you. Do you know what excessive potassium causes? Heart attacks. Do you know what can cause excess potassium, over medicating  using spiro or other t-supressing drugs. And over medicating with estrogen can literally kill your liver. I have a very close friend who almost died from this. The last thing any of us here on PE ever want to hear is one of us being rushed to the hospital with a heart attack or liver failure. Or worse yet, dying. I know what it is like to not have hormones. But seriously think of the consequences to self medicating. We would all like for you to be here for a long, long time!

Comment by Jacqueline Waters on August 27, 2012 at 5:53am

I appreciate the sincere concern being shown in the comments. I really do and perhaps I was not fully clear. I mentioned in my post that there is enough information on the subject. What I mean by that is I can walk into any clinic at any time and get any lab work done that I want done. If you do research and you can read, you know exactly what the doctors will do. I am not a stupid girl that is just going to pump myself full of foreign substances without MONITORING MYSELF....monitoring is still happening just not in the Standards of Care sense of the word. I know what T levels are, I know where they should be and I know what tests to have done. I guess I didn't make that clear. As far as blood clots etc, every single person who undergoes HRT with or without supervision has the same exact risk, do you think because you have someone with a white coat on "supervising" you that these same things won't or can't happen to you? They don't have magic wands that prevent the risks, the risk is the same.

Comment by Erin Detty on August 27, 2012 at 6:12am

A Doctor is there to monitor your blood levels not to hold your hand, Myself I just care if you want people to stop caring than I know who the people that would be left for you are.

Do what you want, you will anyway, just understand I'm not Criticizing you and it's really not Criticism you need to worry about. Pe is a place to go to for many things, it's mostly a tool but there are many other things you can walk away with, Good useful Information is what we all need and you will find it here.

I just try to do my part because I know how important that is, I'm in my Fourth year of transition, I wish I could do it all Yesterday but it don't work that way, it all takes time. I wish you well, please don't be angry at me:) 

   

Comment by Chelle Munroe on August 27, 2012 at 9:49am

Having been down the path you speak of makes me say I agree with you that you have to decide what is best for you. I just went to the trans clinic in Boston and the Dr. told me that I did an incredible job because what he would recommend is just about the same thing as I was taking on my own. All my vitals and blood-work bear out that everything I was doing was okay. I made sure I exercised and had blood-work done to monitor how my system was handling the hormones. Cost of mones is really what made me seek supervision and, being as I'm 64, thought it wise to get supervision just to be cautious. I have finally reached a point to live my life as a female and I want to be able to have the years to do it and thus want to hedge my chances as best I can. I enjoyed reading your article and wish you all the best in your transitioning as you are right that we know ourselves better than anyone else. The main thing is to be attentive to your body's changes and to keep up with monitoring your health as you go.

Comment by HELEN BRADY on August 28, 2012 at 1:14am

Jacqueline I could have written the above myself about myself. I went online and found all of the places that treat ftm's and mtf's, and the dosages they use for feminization and masculination. They are all over the place.

Also, there is no one size fits all. Our bodies are all different and will respond differently, and no doctor can possibly have any clue how we will respond until after the fact.

So after phytoestrogens and saw palmetto for years, I decided in Jan 2011 to ask my new doctor for HRT.
  She said, but you are 77 and don't need it.  I then said: "Its for feminization." She didn't realize I was a transwoman, as neither did the other two female doctors until I told them. So she looked in her laptop, said, oh here it is, GID, and prescribed my estrogen and spiro. In a dosage that was reasonable and tabulated in my research.

A year later, not happy with the T level, and with a new male doctor who I suspect never had a transwoman patient, after several months with him and blood tests, I told him I wanted to double my spiro dose as the T was still too high. No argument, he simply wrote the RX.

A doctor that will listen to you and want to play the "ME GOD, YOU CRAP" game is a good person to have in your life. I won't ever deal with the other kind.

Next blood test, my E midrange for women, and my T way down, more than female range, but still very low.

Comment by HELEN BRADY on August 28, 2012 at 1:18am

OK hate this, no way to edit: should have read:

A doctor that will listen to you and NOT want to play the..........

I swear the computer leaves out words I type, and they are ALWAYS critical words like NOT.

Comment

• ‹ Previous
• 1
• 2
• Next ›
• Page