Can medical treatment lead to crossdressing?

[Vikky]

Hi Folks

I have written before that my first serious interest in crossdressing started back in October/November last year and I have recently realised that it may have been triggered by medical treatment I have been having. I would like to know whether others have had similar a experience.

About a year ago I was found to have a pituitary lesion (prolactinoma) and was given Dostinex (Cabergoline) to treat it. Another medication for the same condition is Bromocriptine.

My lesion has reduced by about 50% which is good, although the reduction has slowed up recently. My testosterone levels have shot up and the prolactin is much reduced.

However the cross dressing bug caught me in October/November and soon I was buying underwear and outer wear and underdressing, joined this forum - which is brilliant by the way. My own research on this forum has tracked down a fellow CDer (fellow – that’s a contradiction in terms!) and she has had a similar experience to mine.

I saw my consultant endo the other day and mentioned all this to her, but she didn’t know of this possible link to CD, nor did her colleagues. I said I would see whether anyone else is out there. Well is there, and what has been your experience?

Please let me know as this may be a line worth investigating further. If you feel it more appropriate by all means PM me rather than post on the forum.

Vikky

[Marcelle]

Hi Vikky,

Sorry as I don't have much to add to your question. Just curious, prior to the treatment you had no desire to dress at all in your life. Most here tend to have feelings about dressing as a girl which go way back. Did you have any similar thoughts as a child or young adult or did it just hit you after the treatment?

Hugs

Isha

[kimdl93]

Cause and effect are pretty difficult to establish. As my stats professor liked to say, correlation does not imply causation.

[Helen Grandeis]

Excess testosterone has been known to accelerate all "urges" including cd.

[Michelle Fox]

During your research, did you happen to find this article, "Cabergoline side effects turned me into a sex-crazed transvestite (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1334049/Pete-Shepherd-Cabergoline-effects-turned-sex-crazed-transvestite.html)"? It's anything but scientific evidence, but it does highlight the fact that some of the side effects pointed out by more reliable sources include compulsive behavior. Typically this side effect is seen in higher dosages used to treat Parkinson's disease, than a prolactinoma.

I guess there are now three of us in the forum who have experienced this condition. In my case it was an interest in crossdressing that died off as my testosterone was dropping off due to the tumor, then came raging back when the drug treatment (cabergoline and testosterone). I have been off cabergoline for about two months now, but still think about crossdressing every day, so I can't say that the cabergoline is fueling my desires.

[Vikky]

Hi Isha

Yes I had some interest since teenage years (puberty), but never got so far as trying on female clothes/underwear. Interest died down on marriage, life, kids etc but came back very strongly as I mentioned at the end of last year.

Vikky

Hi Michelle

Yes I have seen that article, but thanks anyway. You may be right on the testosterone levels. Further responses from other Forum members could prove interesting.

Vikky

[Drovah]

Medical treatment of any kind can always lead to something none expected.
It depends on individual.
Interesting article though.

[Kelly DeWinter]

Vikky;

I can answer this one ! Yes,No,Maybe,Sure,You'r Kidding,No Way,Works for Me,Let me get back to you. Now those are the professional opinions expressed over the years in various forms. Truthfully no one really seems to know. If your explanation gives you comfort and peace stick to it. As you post more, your fitting more along the reasons written by the author of the book "My Husband Betty". It's a good read I'd suggest it.

Medical treatments and medications do lead to changes in the body and mind. I take a medication for Bradycardia, and as a result my senses of (touch,smell,taste,hearing and eyesight) have improved dramatically. At fist this was disconcerting because water was always just water to me, Now I can actually taste, feel and smell the difference between tap,filtered and bottled water. When I spoke to the doctors about this, they say, Who knows ?

Be well

Kelly

[Deedee Skyblue]

Vikky, some medications can relax the effect of inhibitions. So for people who might have had an inclination to dress previously, lowering inhibitions can lead to an increased acceptance of dressing. I'm not a doctor, so this is only me repeating what I have heard and read and thought about, but it seems to be true for some of us. I did a google search on crossdressing and wellbutrin, see this URL: https://www.google.com/#q=crossdressing+and+wellbutrin

This search points to a LOT of threads here which reference wellbutrin and the urge to crossdress.

Deedee

[Krisi]

I think the desire to dress in women's clothes is in your mind and most of us don't know why we desire to do this. If there was a medication that caused crossdressing, there would be a medication that "cured" it.

If your crossdressing is fuelled by sexual desires, medicine could induce it. If it's for some other reason, I don't think so.

[JamieQ]

I too think that CDing is pretty much a mind thing, but with that said I do think that medications could up or suppress it in many. I think that fluctuations in hormones may play a major role...

[chelyann]

i have dressed sense i was about 8 or 10, i had some medical issues 5 years ago and urge to dress thoughts of transiting got stronger ,,
(IN THINK ITS THE GUITARS)

[Karren H]

Vikky already knows that I have the same ailment..... and while I started crossdressing at 7.... after I started treatment for my prolactinoma... my crossdressing went ballistic... I can make it all fade away if I stop my medication. I've done it a number of times as an experiment... and I have chatted with others with similar experiences...

[dianne_1234]

For me, supplementing testosterone has seemed to accelerate the urge to cd. But it didn't cause it.

[Beverley Sims]

Taking female hormones when I was 20 sent me right off the tree.
It stabilised when my doctor withdrew the treatment.

[darla_g]

interesting thought, not sure the correlation is anything more than coincidence.

[Confucius]

Can medical treatment lead to cross-dressing? Yes. However the scientific literature usually associates this as a side-effect to dopamine enhancing medication. Typically this would be used in things like Parkinson's disease. http://neuro.psychiatryonline.org/article.aspx?articleID=179737&resultClick=1

Children with Asperger's have an increased incidence of cross-dressing. It is interesting that this condition is also associated with increased levels of dopamine.

Also some illegal drugs which enhance dopamine levels are believed to heighten the cross-dressing experience, but what about testosterone? Well testosterone is associated with increased sex drive, but not necessarily cause cross-dressing. If you are already a cross-dressing and your cross-dressing is used for sexual gratification then testosterone will just make you want to cross-dress more. It is interesting that androgen therapies have been used to get some people off their cross-dressing urges: http://healingcd.wordpress.com/2014/02/09/guest-post-dons-testimony-anti-androgen-medication/

So while testosterone increases your sex drive and makes cross-dressing more of an experience about sexual gratification, for many cross-dressing is more about comfort, well=being and bonding. For those reasons I believe that cross-dressing is linked more to neurotransmitters like dopamine, than it is about testosterone.

[Kelly DeWinter]

If we go by the posts that 'meds' cause an increase in crossdressing, then my trigger med has to be aspirin, because ever since I've been taking them on a fairly regular basis since childhood, it must be Procter and Gambol's fault ! .

[CynthiaD]

There's also a psychological effect that comes with surviving a major illness. You start thinking " life is so short, why don't I just go ahead and..." Perhaps you've been surpressing the desire for a long time, and finally decided to confront it. Just my two cents.

[Deedee Skyblue]

I can make it all fade away if I stop my medication. I've done it a number of times as an experiment... and I have chatted with others with similar experiences...

Karren, when I realized that my medication might be involved, I asked the doctor to raise the prescribed dose!

Deedee

[Karren H]

Karren, when I realized that my medication might be involved, I asked the doctor to raise the prescribed dose!

Deedee

Funny but my endo reduce my dosages and I started feeling like I was doing better at the higher dosages.... so I tainted my blood tests by not taking any meds for a week prior to the test.... she put the dosage back up when she saw my prolactin levels elevated.... something you need to lead the doctors to the conclusion we want.... lol

[devida]

Why wouldn't it be the pituitary lesion rather than the medication? Anyway, the reason that clinicians don't know the answer is because the behavioral effects of all kinds of diseases and all kinds of medications just have not been studied, especially when it comes to something as difficult to study as the effects on gender identity. We are only just beginning to understand that gender identity is variable. People assumed forever, and most still do, that the gender with which you identify is the sex with which you are born or assigned. It will take many more years before we understand in detail what is obvious in general. Most drugs and pretty much all diseases affect the brain and may fundamentally change personality and behavior. If it helps you to feel all right about your cross dressing by ascribing it to medication or disease, fine. Whatever gets you through the night, as the song said, is all right.

[Karren H]

Why wouldn't it be the pituitary lesion rather than the medication? .

Actually it was the Prolactinomas growth and secretions that made my crossdressing fade away..... and it was the successful treatment that brought all back..... with a vengeance.....

[Chickhe]

I know someone who had an undiagnosed kidney urine infection for years and after treatment the desire to CD decreased. I've never did hear of any connection to drugs related to depression. I know personally in the mornings sometimes I feel more desire to CD than other times so I beleive there is some chemical chemical signal...how it works as a system, anyone's guess.

[Vikky]

Hi Everyone

Thanks for your responses to my post. I now think it is the increase in testosterone levels triggering a predisposition to being CD.

I will consult with my endo and if anything worthwhile comes out of it I will let you all know.

Be good, but if, not enjoy it.

Vikky.

[Sophie Yang]

Vikky,

I reviewed a book about crossdressing by a crossdresser several years ago. One of the things that sticks in my mind from the book were at least two crossdressers who had lost their desire to crossdress. They both had low testosterone. After they started taking testosterone, their desire came back strong. It is just anecdotal. I remember the low testosterone diagnosis, I do not recall if there were other symptoms and diagnoses.

[sometimes_miss]

I think the desire to dress in women's clothes is in your mind and most of us don't know why we desire to do this. If there was a medication that caused crossdressing, there would be a medication that "cured" it.

It doesn't work like that.

[Deedee Skyblue]

I think the desire to dress in women's clothes is in your mind and most of us don't know why we desire to do this. If there was a medication that caused crossdressing, there would be a medication that "cured" it.

I don't think anyone here said that 'medication causes crossdressing'. I think a lot of us think that if one already has a predisposition to crossdress, medication might help increase one's enjoyment of crossdressing. But I would never say 'crossdressing cannot be caused by a change in brain chemistry'. Our brains are very sensitive to changes in brain chemistry.

Deedee

[BLUE ORCHID]

Hi Vikky, I think mine was caused by a medical treatment called child birth, My own.