Taking hormones without loosing sexual function?

[ChristineRenee]

Thank you for posting this link ... I had not read this one before. The warning page is going to be very useful for me and for some trans girls I know, if not for stopping or reversing our path, then at least for making a very thoughtful decision on each step while we go forward.



As I think I have mentioned before on this website, I think transition should only go as far as is necessary to feel comfortable with oneself. For some it means part-time cross dressing. For some others, it means taking anti-DHT medications only. For some, anti-androgens are necessary to block more testosterone. For some others, full range of HRT becomes necessary. For some, mere beard hair removal or FFS (for cross dressers eliminating masculine characteristics) could resolve their entire gender issue letting them cross dress and pass at will. For some, FFS could include more feminization. For some, transition means doing everything for social transition, but not SRS. For some others, it means having SRS too. Each person is different.

Once you get to a point where you feel "right enough", don't do something further just because everyone else is doing so and just because someone else proclaims how happy they are with how far they went with SRS and just because "it felt good so far with transition and it should be even better further ahead". Also, don't continue on the path just because you have made a commitment to yourself or to others. It is okay to be inconsistent with your statements when new evidence arise that increase the reason to question your rationale. It's your life ... if you once said you wanted a vagina down there and now you change your mind and decide to keep your penis, you have the complete authority to change your mind and it is nobody else's business to question or comment about your decision not to proceed further.

Finally, Rosie mentioned in her original message that she feels she is masculine to a certain extent and feminine the rest. I agree with Raquel's statement about this. If you believe that you need to take hormones and not lose sexual function, it could be possible depending on your body and the dosage and duration of hormone intake. It is up to you and your doctors to come up with a plan to do that. Do what you need to feel right about yourself and only to the extent that you really must. Consider other options also which could probably give you what you are seeking (eg. laser for body hair).

Go only as far as you really must go with transition. You have the option of stopping at any point.

This is a good post that anyone considering transition should read. You need to find who you are INSIDE before making any decisions...especially any that are irreversible...to chemically or surgically alter your body. Know who you are and how and where you want to be with who you are becoming before make life changing alterations to yourself.

[Sejd]

The best thing you can do for yourself is to get connected to a sexologist or a good gender therapist. This forum is great for every day support and ideas, as you already know, but the issues you are confronting, especially since you have a partner, are not really great for working out in the public. I whish you luck in finding a loving and caring professional who can help you in your transition.
hugs
Sejd

[Hephaestus]

I've already located a great one, I think. Dr Maxwell, in atlanta, if anyone's heard of him? I even got my father to agree to help with the expenses, understanding I wasn't going to tell him the issue at hand...

[Kaitlyn Michele]

H,
I think that's great, I hope your therapist is a good one and somebody down atlanta way can confirm it
...btw I googled hephaestus...awesome...

As far as the posts on regret etc.....there are many roadblocks to transition, and they are scary as hell....IMHO there is only one way to get through it and that is self acceptance...

full stop. If you blame others, including therapists, i think that is a huge cop out...if somebody gives you a stock tip and you buy the stock and it goes down, its not their fault, its yours...you bought the stock (although you may wish you never got the tip- just like you may wish you werent transgendered)..

I'm not saying its easy to accept this about yourself....transphobia, family, religion, money and passibility all impact how well you can accept yourself..i did everything i possibly could to NOT accept this and live a "normal" life, and I suffered an extended period of pain and depression, but as I come to accept myself, my problems become just like anybody else's and I try my best to overcome them

[Beth-Lock]

It was discovered after WW2 that some men generate enough testosterone elsewhere in their bodies to do them even if they have lost their testes, (the cases in question being having them blown off by a land mine developed by the Germans and designed to do this).
The study of the generation of other hormones other than in endocrine glands, has developed since in medical science.

[Raquel June]

blown off by a land mine developed by the Germans and designed to do this

That's so silly. I would LOVE to see any evidence that the Germans designed a landmine specifically to blow off testicles. Did it have a little mechanical arm that came out and put a hand grenade down your pants when you stepped on it?

[Anna the Dub]

http://209.85.173.132/search?q=cache...&ct=clnk&gl=us

I suppose a lot of transexuals don't mind if they fail to achieve or experience a potentially "earth shaking, soul stirring, intensely emotional, stress reducing" climax. Still, it must be upsetting to find out that the operation wasn't as promised. I vaguely recall the story about Renee Richards. I had never heard that she was having regrets until I came across this article.

Interesting article. Personally, I couldn't care less if I never orgasm again for the rest of my life, but that's just me. And surely these people in that article must take responsibility for going ahead with the surgery. No matter what the gender therapists tell us, we know ourselves what we really want, and a lot of us only need their validation because we have to jump through the hoops that the medical profession require of us. I can't understand how someone could go through all of this pain, and therapy as well, and not question whether they were on the right path.

[Sammy777]

That's so silly. I would LOVE to see any evidence that the Germans designed a landmine specifically to blow off testicles. Did it have a little mechanical arm that came out and put a hand grenade down your pants when you stepped on it?

While not specifically designed to go after the family jewels, this mine did do a pretty good job of doing just that. WW2 German S-mine or Bouncing Betty

[Empress Lainie]

[SIZE=4]I attend a group of about 40 transgendered people some of who are ftm, and a very few CD only.

One night a visitor asked the group about our sex drive.
Everyone there that night was on hormones or in my case phytoestrogen, several were married to the partners they had years before transition. EVERYONE OF US said that we had very little or NO sex drive.

So at least from that small sample I think you will find that HRT erases or at least lowers your libido, and then you don't care whether you have sex or not.

My answers to virtually any question regarding sexuality adn feelings is now completely different from what it would have been years before my transition. Men and women definitely think differently, and from what I know my current thinking is strictly female.
[/SIZE]

[morgan pure]

Hi,
Only one year on es and a little pro. Still very sexual. My new features turn me on and guys too! AND get a little harder a little easier. The doctor said that my trouble that way was not physical. But he gave me viagra anyway.
M