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One of the first steps taken in gender reassignment is hormone treatments. These treatments consist of injections of large amounts of hormones that slowly change your body over the span of a few months to years. You have to be okayed by a psychiatrist before you begin treatments, and the treatments themselves are actually administered by a psychiatrist. Insurance does cover it sometimes but you'll have to check with your provider to see if they cover it for you. Regardless of whether you're an MtF (Male to Female) or FtM (Female to Male), you should note and be aware of the side-effects of hormone therapy. For MTFs this means eventual sterility and shrinking of the testicles as well as diminished strength, less hair growth on the body, slow formation of breasts, loss of ejaculation and erection, smoother skin, redistributed fat, and all of the other physical changes you'd associate with what happen to a girl in puberty (with marked differences involving the reproductive organs, obviously.) For FTMs, the effects are sterility, more hair growth, lower voice, larger clitoris, increased sex drive, sterility, increased aggression, beginning of balding patterns, increased acne, and so on. FTM testosterone treatments CAN also have the side effects of: * Breast cancer * Cancer of endometrium * Diabetes * High cholesterol * Hypertension * Liver disease MTF estrogin treatments, on the other hand, can result in: * Benign pituitary tumors * Gallbladder disease * Hypertension (high blood pressure) * Hypothyroidism * Liver disease * Migraine headache * Tendency for blood to clot, causing related conditions: ---o Aneurysm ---o Deep vein thrombosis (DVT) ---o Pulmonary embolism (can be fatal) * Weight gain * Worsening of depression (if present); increased sensitivity to stress Despite all of the risks (remember that while some of these seem like huge side-effects, some of the medication you may already take might list "heart attack leading to death" among many other major side effects on their bottles, too...it doesn't mean that you'll automatically contract any of those diseases) you're probably still dead-set on it. If you are then more power to you and I completely understand. This varies from state-to-state and country-to-country, but for the most part you have to be 18 years or older OR have parental consent to undergo the treatments. Unfortunately the psychiatric analysis a transperson has to undergo to be cleared for surgery is sort of odd and assumes some things about people in general. Your answers to their assessment will be compared against the guidelines set forth by the American Psychiatric Association for the diagnosis of Gender Identity Disorder (GID). I'm not saying I agree at all that our condition should be considered a disorder...that kind of maddens me...but if you look at the logic behind the word, coming to terms with the label of GID is easier as we're way out of society's regular supposed order for things. There's a lot more you need to consider and look into, and I hope that you can manage to get to at least some of this material while at school. Here's a few places you may want to go read up at (some of which I referenced in writing this note): Transgendercare.com www.transgendercare.com/medica… LGBThealth.com lgbthealth.healthcommunities.c… FTM Info Network www.ftminfo.net/ TS Roadmap www.tsroadmap.com/index.html - the TS Roadmap list of forums where you can seek help from people that have undergone it or are undergoing treatment www.tsroadmap.com/info/transge… ~Alex(andra) ;) Please send a note to kproductions for more information in confidence, or post about it in the forum if you want multiple opinions (just please note that if you do this, your questions will be public.) |
Why So Proud? "Hello, I have a question that is not an insult. I am uhm. Andro. Anyway, I would like to know why you say ' pride ' if you are born with it? Like being proud of good looks, you don't do much for them, you just are born with them." ========================= Well it's very similar to an African American person being proud of their heritage. There truly is no difference between African Americans and everyone else in the nation (or world) other than their skin tone, but many are proud nonetheless. I wouldn't consider being proud of good looks to be the best analogy in this situation, as someone that has good looks is almost always boosted up by our society. That constant positive energy from people because of their good looks naturally leads to pride. The reason it's important for Lesbians, Gays, Bisexuals, Transgendered people, and so on to be proud is because society has yet to fully accept us. Same sex marriage is still illegal throughout the majority of the United States, crimes committed against LGBT people out of hate are still not considered hate crimes by federal law, police still raid gay bars at the drop of a hat (just happened last week in the town next to mine), LGBT people are forbidden from joining the armed forces, and on top of many other problems there's still a general misunderstanding about and disdain for the LGBT community throughout the nation and worldwide. The pride that we feel and proclaim so visibly and vocally is our inner voice and strength pushing our respective nations towards equal rights for everyone. Rather than gather our pride from others through compliments for our good looks or anything like that, we generate our own pride from within to help keep ourselves motivated in our fight for equality in the face of discrimination. |