Question about HRT - which stuff is better?

[Veron1ca]

Hey everyone,

I apologize if I sound like a total newbie but I am one and I'm ready to start HRT and I've saved up enough hopefully for my transition and a boob job.

I'm in New York and I need some advice regarding which estrogen pills are recommended for softening skin, filling out and especially what can I take to reduce hair loss, help with hair regrowth. I already have long hair but it's falling out by the chunks everyday almost like a golden retriever.

I would appreciate any and all advice.

Thank you,
V.

[Leah Lynn]

This is a question for the endocrinologist. What's working for me, may not be suitable for you. My endo wants me on oral premarin, due to health issues. He's the professional, so I go with the program. There are many factors to be considered, so discuss it with the pro. That's the safest way.

Good luck,

Leah

[Frances]

Estrogen is used to achieve female chemistry. Softening of the skin is side-effect. Please ask a doctor about HRT.

For hair, there is Propecia/Proscar, which works for some, including me.

[Veron1ca]

Thank you for the reply.

I was thinking of going to Cullen Laude in NYC. Maybe that's the right place for these answers as they have HRT (atleast according to their website).

[Laura912]

Please carefully choose your endocrinologist to manage your medications. Hopefully someone from here can offer experience with people near you. Whether your estrogen is taken orally, transdermally, or subcutaneously depends on a lot of factors, among which is costs to you. For example, there is no generic form of Premarin but there are cheaper, equally efficacious substitutes. Ask a lot of questions about why a particular form is chosen.

[LeaP]

Callen Lorde.

Can you describe what brought you to this point and why you think you are ready for hormones?

[Veron1ca]

I was in Thailand recently and I was so inspired by the openness and acceptance of the locals towards the transgender. I feel as if I don't have to hide anymore, might as well live happy for a little while rather than be miserable and put up a front all the time.

[celeste26]

Welcome to the forum Veron1ca.

This process you've chosen will take a long time and require some pain. It should not be taken lightly because there are things that become irreversible after awhile.

A GG takes from 4-6 years to fully grow her breasts to their final appearance, don't expect your own to be any faster. Their final size is determined by your genes so look to see the potential with your mother's image probably. The second most important feature is your beard, electrolysis (killing each and every hair in your beard) will also take time and there is pain to be dealt with as that occurs. Depending on your particular beard could take more than 2 years and will cost $thousands. Remember that electrolysis requires your beard hair to be long enough to grip so usually three days growth is enough. Walking around en femme but having a three day old beard could be difficult for some to deal with, so don't get ahead of yourself.

The worst thing to do is to try and jump the fence, do it all at once, suddenly change completely. It practically guarantees losing all your friends, job and maybe your family too. The long slow approach has proven successful more often than not. It offers the greatest chance for those around you to come to accept the changes as they come.

Learn to BE a woman not just to look/act like a woman. Join some women's group and simply be a "woman among women" rather than be a trans among women. While joining trans support groups is not a bad thing, it mainly addresses being trans not being a woman. Lastly it is always best to consider integrating both sides of yourself into a complete whole rather than excluding one side or the other, no one is really all female or all male in the first place.

[Megan G]

So your ready to possibly blow your life up in ways you cannot imagine because of what you saw in Thailand? Because of how the locals there treated transsexuals there?

The only advice I can give is this and it has nothing to do with HRT or hair loss...

1. Therapy. Make sure that this path is right for you. There is a reason people say to not transition unless you have to!

2. Talk to some transexuals in your home country, state, city and see how warm and welcoming people are to TS in your area. Join a support group and get to know people, learn from their experiences.

This path is not one to be taken lightly and definitely don't jump into the deep end because of what you saw in a far away country, you may very well drown..

Megan

[Aprilrain]

It's good that you are seeking knowledge. Of course you will want a qualified doctor to prescribe for you and monitor your health but gaining all the knowledge about what you may put in your body before hand is just smart.

Estradiol is estradiol is estradiol, yes there are three different types of human estrogens (3 to be exact) but you will be given estradiol.
Premarin is estrogens extracted from pregnant mares urine it contains a number of different estrogens including estradiol. There is no evidence that the other estrogens (like equline, an estrogen specific to horses) have any effect on humans. There is the possibility of greater health risks associated with Premarin and also controversy over how it is obtained. Basically mares are kept pregnant and hooked up to tubes which collect their urine. Needless to say, it's just not nice and it's totally unnecessary as estradiol is easily synthesized and is chemically identical to what a human female produces without all the horse estrogens. All that being said, I haven't even actually met anyone who has been prescribed Premarin, it seems to be an old drug on its last leg.

Anyway....

The only other female hormone you could be prescribed is "progesterone" but it's unlikely and there is no good scientific evidence that progesterone does anything at all for male to female transsexuals. Interestingly the "progesterone" that is usually prescribed is kinda the opposite of estrogen in that the synthesized version is NOT chemically identical to a human female it's close but not exactly the same. If you want a progesterone that is "bio identical" you must turn to a very expensive version produced from yams. Don't even get me started on the awful things they do to those poor yams just so YOU can have progesterone!

But seriously...

The only other transition specific drugs are anti androgens. These drugs are not hormones but suppress male hormones so you don't have to take as much estrogen to achieve normal female hormone levels. There are a number of anti androgens but the most commonly prescribed one is Spironolactone. It's a diuretic who's side effect profile includes blocking the action of testosterone. It's generally well tolerated but does carry some risk which is why you definitely want to have a doctor monitor your health whilst you're on any of the medications associated with transition.

[Veron1ca]

Welcome to the forum Veron1ca.

This process you've chosen will take a long time and require some pain. It should not be taken lightly because there are things that become irreversible after awhile.

Thank you for the pointers. I'm sure the commitment is for me since I've felt this way since I was 7 or 8, always out of place in my own body but I had responsibilities and had to act male for family commitments. I'm finally at a point, I have my own independence, very little friends by choice who are people I've been open with about my trans status and received nothing but support. My work thankfully is web oriented which is why I was able to explore outside of the US and see what I really was missing.

Therapy. Make sure that this path is right for you. There is a reason people say to not transition unless you have to!

This might sound brash but therapy is not for me, not after 20 years of feeling something was wrong and finally knowing what it was. I'm not doing it because I was a tourist for 1 week in Thailand. I lived there for 4 years and found who I was.

I do think I drowned in a way of speaking but drowned in happiness. I miss that.

The only other transition specific drugs are anti androgens. These drugs are not hormones but suppress male hormones so you don't have to take as much estrogen to achieve normal female hormone levels.

Yes I was doing research on anti androgens because it's very easy to get over the counter anti androgens in Thailand and I saw a lot of my trans friends take them with wonderful results. However they were generics manufactured from India but are very likely illegal in the United States. Not only that but I'd like a less risky transition than what some do in Thailand risking silicone injections and what not.

Edit: I want to be sure if I'm putting something into my body, it's good for me.

[PaulaQ]

There are really a variety of forms for HRT. It's important to find a doctor who has some experience with the trans community and HRT, and who will listen to you. Not everyone processes all forms of HRT equally well. Another option you can look at, in addition to pills, patches, etc. are creams. I have had great results with the Wiley Protocol, which uses bio-identical synthetic hormones that are cycled in a 28 day rhythm, mirroring hormonal changes during the menstrual cycle. On the other hand, one of my friends had trouble absorbing the hormones in these creams and had to have her dosages adjusted. (The creams themselves are also somewhat problematical depending on your lifestyle, relationship status. You don't want to get them on a male partner, for example.)

There are differing opinions on whether or not progesterone is helpful or not. This can be a little bit like a science project - your responses to individual medications and forms of delivery may well vary from the next girl's.

I'd advise you to educate yourself on this as much as you can - because you may well need to be an active participant in this, because depending on where you live, your physician may simply not have that much experience doing HRT for trans women.

BTW, I wouldn't personally use premarin unless it were the only option available to me, just because of where it comes from:

Premarin is the commercial name for a medication consisting primarily of conjugated estrogens. Isolated from mares' urine (pregnant mares' urine), it is manufactured by Wyeth Pharmaceuticals (part of Pfizer since January 2009) and has been marketed since 1942. It is available in oral (0.3/​0.45/​0.625/​0.9/​1.25 mg), IV, and topical (vaginal) form.[1]

Many of us use it and have no problems and get good results though. This is why I suggest you do lots of research for yourself. Yes, it kind of sucks that you have to do this. Hopefully you live in an area with really excellent physicians who have wide experience with HRT. Not all of us do, unfortunately.

[Veron1ca]

Hmm yes, that sounds gross.