Transfem

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A community for transfeminine people and experiences.

This is a supportive community for all transfeminine or questioning people. Anyone is welcome to participate in this community but disrupting the safety of this space for trans feminine people is unacceptable and will result in moderator action.

Debate surrounding transgender rights or acceptance will result in an immediate ban.

Please follow the rules of the lemmy.blahaj.zone instance.
Bigotry of any kind will not be tolerated.
Gatekeeping will not be tolerated.
Please be kind and respectful to all.
Please tag NSFW topics.
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Please provide content warnings where appropriate.
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This community is supportive of DIY HRT. Unsolicited medical advice or caution being given to people on DIY will result in moderator action.

Posters may express that they are looking for responses and support from groups with certain experiences (eg. trans people, trans people with supportive parents, trans parents.). Please respect those requests and be mindful that your experience may differ from others here.

To make such a request, at the start of the body of your post, not in the title, the first line should look like the this: [Requesting Engagement from _________]

Some helpful links:

The Gender Dysphoria Bible // In depth explanation of the different types of gender dysphoria.
Trans Voice Help // A community here on blahaj.zone for voice training.
LGBTQ+ Healthcare Directory // A directory of LGBTQ+ accepting Healthcare providers.
Trans Resistance Network // A US-based mutual aid organization to help trans people facing state violence and legal discrimination.
TLDEF's Trans Health Project // Advice about insurance claims for gender affirming healthcare and procedures.
TransLifeLine's ID change Library // A comprehensive guide to changing your name on any US legal document.
Gender Spectrum // Resources for youth, parents and family, educators, mental health professionals and faith leaders.

Support Hotlines:

The Trevor Project // Web chat, phone call, and text message LGBTQ+ support hotline.
TransLifeLine // A US/Canada LGBTQ+ phone support hotline service. The US line has Spanish support.
LGBT Youthline.ca // A Canadian LGBT hotline support service with phone call and web chat support. (4pm - 9:30pm EST)
988lifeline // A US only Crisis hotline with phone call, text and web chat support. Dedicated staff for LGBTQIA+ youth 24/7 on phone service, 3pm to 2am EST for text and web chat.

founded 2 years ago

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Sublingual Estradiol Offers No Apparent Advantage Over Combined Oral Estradiol and Cyproterone Acetate (pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov)

submitted 14 hours ago* (last edited 14 hours ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

7 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Abstract

Purpose: Chronic gender-affirming hormone therapy (GAHT) with sublingual estradiol (SLE) has not been studied. We aimed to compare GAHT with SLE only, to combined oral (CO) estradiol and cyproterone acetate, in treatment-naive trans women.

Methods: Twenty-two trans women enrolled into either the CO arm or the SLE-only arm (0.5 mg four times daily) in this 6-month prospective study. Anthropometric and laboratory variables were collected at baseline and 3 and 6 months. At the study beginning and end, body composition was measured by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry and bioelectrical impedance, and gender dysphoria, sexual desire, and function were assessed by validated questionnaires.

Results: Subjects in the SLE were older, 26.3±5.8 years versus 20.1±2.3 years, p=0.006. All anthropometric, body composition, and laboratory variables were identical at baseline. Although dysphoria appeared greater, and sexual function lower at baseline in the CO group, this canceled out after age adjustment. Both treatments induced similar biochemical and hormonal changes. Creatinine, hemoglobin and cholesterol decreased significantly, while testosterone was suppressed to the same level in both groups: 3.22 [1.47-5.0] nmol/L in the SLE group and 2.41 [0.55-8.5] nmol/L in the CO, p=0.65. Significant changes in body composition toward a more feminine body were noted in both groups. Dysphoria did not significantly improve in either group, while sexual desire and function decreased at six months in both, p<0.001.

Conclusions: Both treatments achieved similar clinical changes. At this stage, SLE, which repeatedly induces alarming excursions of serum estradiol throughout the day, appears to offer no advantage over the CO approach.

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

Dysphoria did not significantly improve in either group, while sexual desire and function decreased at six months in both

💀

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

Why the skull?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

Sexual desire & function decreasing is commonly seen as a negative thing, and dysphoria not improving is clearly negative - so I am attempting a kind of sympathetic humor at the unfortunate irony of a treatment being unsuccessful. It makes me sound monstrous, now that I have to explain it.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 hours ago* (last edited 3 hours ago) (1 children)

Thank you for explaining.

Personally we do not think desire decreases completely, but in our own experience it has changed and made us wish for different functioning. Perhaps we always had that to some degree but the problem is that medical science is not really a place for many of us to feel congruent in our desires and functioning, that is why it is a problem for many trans femmes, we believe.

As for functioning without the medical science currently able to provide us what we require, this can be true somewhat. However, it can be mitigated by alternative practices.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 hours ago* (last edited 3 hours ago) (1 children)

Estrogen increased desire significantly for me, but I personally wish it had decreased desire and functioning. I like the atrophy (esp. when I started to think of myself in normative terms as a woman), and I would prefer a much lower libido, I think I would (selfishly) be happy with no libido.

Part of the problem with this study is that it has such a small sample size, dysphoria clearly decreases for many trans people when they take HRT and there are many, much larger and better studies showing this.

I don't really follow what you mean about medical science and congruence with desire and function, or what you mean by alternative practices.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 hours ago

We mean that medical science cannot give us certain body parts that would increase sexual functioning such a clitoris, certain glands nor ovaries, a womb etc (yet) and by alternative practises we mean kink or possibly certain cultural practises like tantra etc.