The Times “Why HRT is safe — but super-high doses might not be”

[Startinganew07]

Article in today’s Times curiously addresses possible risks of long-term HRT, including long-term use of testosterone for women, but ignores the possible impact on transwomen and transmen. Does anyone study long term impact of estrogen on men (transwomen) or of testosterone on women (transmen). Shouldn’t recommendations regarding impact of hormones on women be extended to consider impact on trans people. Or is the fiction going to be prolonged that HRT is natural for trans people because it allows them to live as their true selves and therefore doesn’t carry the same risk as for women?

Thanks for the post MissingLynx the comparison in the care you have received is interesting.

@MissingLynks would you mind sharing which of the UK clinics it is? I'm trying to understand which ones give information in the most ethical way, and which ones gloss over the side effects.

I'm sure that'll be a relief for you all to hear given your great all-encompassing and ever present concern for the health and wellbeing of trans people.

Yes, I'm concerned when people with as high a profile as Freddie Mc( who has had substantial input to policy in some areas) claim to have been ignorant of the consequences of some of the realities of transition-related interventions (NHS England, afaict).

I, too, would be pleased to learn about the clinics that demonstrate good practice in this area although that would be useful on a separate thread, as it's not the emphasis of this one.

HRT prescribed to menopausal women without muddying the waters.

It is refreshingly novel to see a woman-focused account of something that affects women. I'd hope to see something like this forming the basis of continuing attention to women's health in the NHS Consultation.

It’s a good, informative article about using HRT for menopause.
its not an article about using cross sex hormones.
🙄

Indeed! When FM declared that they were not warned that having a double mastectomy would mean that they could not breastfeed, that was a bit of a light bulb moment for me. For several reasons.

And we have enough other personal reports from others stating they were not told that we know that in the past, such statements about making sure that consent is more comprehensive would seem to more of an exception.

I was seen at Nottingham. But that is the standard pattern of care across the UK GICs, there is no one who won't have been told what testosterone does and what the risks are, no one who wouldn't have signed a consent form to that effect, and no one who wouldn't be having follow-up bloods. I don't think even detransitioners like Keira Bell try to argue they literally weren't told what testosterone would do (probably because that would be extremely easy to disprove by producing their signed consent form), the argument has been around capacity to fully understand. Again, I can only speak for the UK, and I understand people here would like it to be true that GICs give hormones out like skittles with barely a conversation, but that isn't what happens.

It’s good to hear Nottingham are being thorough and useful to hear your experience. Do you have friends who have gone down the private route? If so, do you have any insight to how closely their experience matches yours?

God that is so dumb.

I initially got a diagnosis with Gendercare, Gendercare follow the same process as the NHS, only without the several years long wait.

To be honest I don't see what gains trans people with a penis have from taking oestrogen- it would be expected to cause weight gain, reduce libido and increased risk of blood clots. No idea what the medium to long term impact on breast cancer risk is - might see an increase, doubt if there are any stats available. Genuinely, what benefits are there?

A brief search finds breast cancer in males being described as more common in those taking oestrogen for prostate cancer or gender based reasons - but the reference for the latter is from 1968 so I assume there is very little research with transwomen (otherwise there would be a more recent publication referenced)
Interestingly males with Klinefelter's (XXY) have a greatly increased risk of breast cancer, likely due to hormonal reasons (but that's more complex than just taking oestrogen as an adult)

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PM

@MissingLynks
https://ncth.nhs.uk/download.cfm?doc=docm93jijm4n10817.pdf&ver=19967

Would this be the list if side effects?
Thanks.

That might have been the document I was sent in my referral pack (several years prior to actually getting an appointment). I'm pretty sure the actual consent to treatment form was different.