update: boobs

[sistawendy]

Remember fifteen months ago when I started progesterone? Well, I have three weeks' supply left, and I'm thinking I won't trouble Dr. Funnyname for a new prescription. Why not?

1. It's pretty much done what I wanted it to do. I haven't had to go bra shopping yet, but my breasts are a much nicer shape now: rounder, less pointy and flappy.
2. Waking up in the wee hours to pee like a horse is a drag. Progesterone makes you excrete salt.
3. Progesterone isn't without its risks, namely clotting and blood pressure. The sooner I'm off of it, the safer I'll probably be. It isn't meant to be a maintenance medication for anyone.
4. I don't know for sure if Dr. Funnyname would sign off on a new prescription, and he readily admits that he hasn't had experience managing trans women's hormone regimens.
5. One of the nice things about being a lesbian is that my sexual partners have realistic expectations about breasts. I'm just not a curvy gal, so I fit those expectations these days. Barely.
6. I have no ambitions in the adult entertainment industry.

Comments

[maellenkleth]

I'm a Ph.D. not an M.D. (and especially not an endocrinologist), so what follows is not intended to be medical advice for you.

I started out on oral estrogens in the 1970s, and presently received formal endocrinologist's advice to add medroxyprogesterone, first orally and (when the dosage form came on the market) as a renewable time-release implant. Before heading to China the first time, I switched to transdermal estradiol and oral micronised progesterone. Every specialist I dealt with in that period of time advised that the source of danger was estrogen unprotected by co-administered progesterone. That's my take, too, on reading the literature (but see that disclaimer at the start!)

Still on dual regimen. After my stroke, my stroke doc (a refreshingly-blunt dyke)strongly advised continuance of hormones as before, further counselling that the risk of osteoporosis is much greater than the risk of errant clots.

Being of pensionable age, I see and hear enough about age-related osteoporosis, so am motivated to stick with what are now perigeriatric meds. Who'da thunk it? ^_^

I was not aware that progesterone was (on your side of Checkpoint Charlie, at least), considered to be not a maintenance med. My endocrinologist and stronke doc both think it is, at least in my situation.

Bottom line is that none of us have cookie-cutter biology, and so approaches and results will vary. (I can hear my transguy buddies chuckling and chortling.)

[sistawendy]

My first ever hormone doc, Dr. Leather Bear, didn't want to prescribe progesterone to anyone over 40, but he was the same guy who didn't believe me when I told him that estradiol makes me horny.

[maellenkleth]

Your ursine physician might have been thinking of progesterone's widespread use in reproductive medicine, and your likely being over reproductive age.

Progesterone makes me sleepy, and so I take it at bedtime. Estradiol doesn't do much for my libido, but I think it might make me slightly happier. Hard to tell.