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WARNING ABOUT SPIRONOLACTONE
I don’t take Spironolactone any more – I had a severe allergic reaction to it earlier this week. I had only taken 25 mg of Spironolactone the night before, then another 25 mg the following morning, and I found I got a really bad rash, that looked like hives, all over my legs and back. I also got a headache, felt giddy and queasy. I felt so bad that I phoned the emergency G.P., who told me to come down immediately. He confirmed I had a severe allergic reaction to Spironolactone, and said I needed a blood test as soon as possible.
My wife took me straight to A & E at our local hospital, where I had a blood test. The results were that my potassium levels were low, but I wasn’t about to drop dead, fortunately! I was advised to have another blood/liver test in the next few days.
Is very worrying to think that the Trangender Care website (http://www.transgendercare.com/medical/resources/tmf_program/tmf_program_regimens.asp) says you can take up to 200 mg of it per day!
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Has anyone else found that taking female hormones and anti-androgens makes you grow what looks like labia on the midpoint line of one’s scrotum? This has happened to me, and I have seen two female doctors who have never seen anything like it, but agree with me that it really does look like the lips of a vagina growing there. It’s a long line of skins tags in the shape of the edge of the labia, and they go up into the outline of a vaginal opening in sort of dots on the skin of the scrotum! Am I actually changing sex spontaneously? Nothing actually opens there, it’s just the appearance of it. We took some photos, and you would think it actually was the female pubic parts – the labia – starting to appear on my scrotum! Weird eh?
If anyone else has heard of this condition, please let me know. Can taking female hormones have this effect? It seemed to appear about the same time as I starting wearing Estrodot 50 transdermal patches, as well as taking 2 mg Estofem pills.
Please comment if you know anything about this!
Hello Girls,
I don’t know if any of you are serious about really becoming girls, but if you are, my advice would be to seek medical advice in the first instance. If you do choose to self-medicate, which can be risky, below is a ‘typical’ transsexual MtoF feminizing medication regimen from: http://www.transgendercare.com/medical/resources/tmf_program/tmf_program_regimens.asp.
This is a U.S. site and some people have suggested (see comments) that the doses recommended here are far too high. It is best not to self-medicate at all if you can get hormones through a Gender Identity Clinic or from your GP. If you must self-medicate, start off with a relatively low dosage, like 2 mg of Estrofem or similar a day, and see how you go.
This is how I started, and together with the 5mg Finasteride which I was taking anyway for prostate problems (BHP), was sufficient to cause breast growth.
The following full transsexual regimen, which I have been taking more recently (minus the Spironolactone), certainly promotes full feminisation fairly rapidly:
Feminising Medication Regimen
- 4 mg Estradiol (Estrofem) (sublingually – under the tongue) daily – one in morning, one in evening
- Two 50ug (mcg) Estradiol (Estrodot) patches applied weekly Saturday morning and Tuesday evening, or any other two days in the week, three and a half days apart – but stick to the same days each week. Alternatively you can use transdermal gel rather than patches – see the above website.
- 5 mg Finsasteride in the morning (in the U.K., you can get this from your G.P. on the NHS, if you have a dodgy prostate – BHP – Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia).
- (Optional) 25 mg Spironolactone (Spirotone) in morning, 25 mg Spironolactone in evening – building up to 50 mg Spironolactone in morning, 50 mg Spironolactone in evening after 6 weeks, and thereafter optionally building up to as much as 200 mg per day, according to the transgender care website (http://www.transgendercare.com/medical/resources/tmf_program/tmf_program_regimens.asp) BUT BEWARE! I don’t actually take this myself, because I had a severe allergic reaction to Spironolactone.
- (Optional) Progestin : 5 mg daily for 10 days at beginning of the month.
From: http://www.transgendercare.com/medical/resources/tmf_program/tmf_program_regimens.asp
PLEASE NOTE: I am not a doctor or medically trained. You should NOT start taking feminizing hormones unless you are absolutely sure you want to do this. In my case it came from somewhere so deep down in my psyche and subconscious that it was inevitable that I would do it eventually.
It SHOULD be done under medical supervision. If you don’t want your transition to be medicalised and controlled by an ‘expert’ gender identity clinic, involving psycho-sexual psychiatrists and psychologists, endocrinologists and SRS/GRS surgeons, whether private (or if you are in the U.K., at an NHS clinic such as the one at Charing Cross Hospital), you can obtain the feminising hormones from a reputable Internet supplier such as InHousePharmacy – I can recommend this company without reservation. They deliver anywhere in the world, it’s the real proprietary medicine, and thay are prompt and reliable on delivery. In the U.K., you may have to pay 20% V.A.T. plus £8 handling charge to the Post Office when you import the drugs, but this is quite hit and miss. The last two deliveries from InHouse Pharmacy I had to pay it, but on the most recent one I didn’t, so it seems to depend on the efficiency (or otherwise) of the local Post Office.
It is wonderful and truly liberating that one can control one’s own feminizing drug regimen, and it has only been possible to do this since the advent of the Internet – certainly no one could do it in the 1970s, or 1980s – or I might have started a lot sooner.
BUT, and here is a very important point, you should still at least tell your G.P. what you are taking, in case there is any conflict with other medication. My G.P. (who is female), knows what I am doing, and so far she has been pretty good about it. She hasn’t commented on the full transsexual drug regimen, as above, as she admits honestly that she is not an expert in this area.
UPDATE: I am about to start sessions with an NHS Gender Identity Clinic (October 2011), and I am guessing they probably won’t be that pleased that I have been self-medicating. I hope they don’t tell me off too much! Hopefully I will finally receive some advice from an expert clinician in transgender endocrinology and be able to get the hormones on NHS prescription in future.
Please be warned: it is best NOT to do what I have done. Taking female hormones has well-known risks associated with it for women or men. If becoming the woman you have always felt yourself to be is important enough to you, you will no doubt proceed in spite of the risks – but be aware of them.
I was surprised to realise recently, looking back on my invoices from Inhouse Pharmacy http://www.inhousepharmacy.vu/transgender/transgender.html that I have been taking female hormones for over 5 years, so I guess it’s not surprising that I have boobs and a curvy shape – my hips have broadened, and my fat distribution is pretty female – my arms and legs look feminine, and it has also feminised my face.
I did not begin with the full pre-SRS MtoF transsexual feminising regimen as above, but started with just 2 mg of Estradiol (Estrofem or Progynova) for most of that time, building up to 4 mg per day. That is enough to promote breast growth and body feminisation- you start to see the difference after 6-9 months.
I was lucky in that I started with a fairly un-masculine body to begin with – I am not that tall, I can wear a normal female size of shoes and clothing, and I have always had broad hips and rather narrow shoulders, and not much musculature – so my body lapped up the female hormones from the beginning. I am also blonde, which means that body hair has not been a great problem, and it has now reduced to a female level anyway.
I have had quite a lot of laser hair removal treatments to get rid of facial hair, and can now manage with only light foundation or no foundation at all. I will probably also have to have electrolysis eventually to get rid of the remaining facial hair, as I want to look as natural a woman as possible. I would love also to have Facial Feminisation Surgery (FFS), but I am frightened to do it. My face is reasonably feminine anyway, and since I went full-time as a woman from July 2011, I haven’t really had any problems so far. (However, see update below about Facial Feminisation Surgery – I have decided to go for FFS.)
I am able to go shopping en femme with my wife, and I don’t get stared at. I can go into the female changing rooms – I guess I just look like a woman. I can hardly believe it myself! My wife says when we are shopping and she looks round, she just sees another woman – and doesn’t always realise it’s me!
I have my own shoulder length blonde hair, and so don’t have to wear a wig, and my boobs are big enough to give me some cleavage. I dress sensibly, and wear what other women around my age wear. It’s great to be able to spend as long as I want looking at lingerie and women’s clothes and shoes without feeling embarrassed! I have debit and credit cards in my female name, so paying is no problem. I am working hard on developing a feminine voice – so far without much success – more on this is a future blog.
UPDATE: I AM having Facial Feminisation Surgery this November 2011 at the Facial Team Clinic in Marbella, Spain – and I am still frightened! But I am going ahead anyway, as I think it will give me more confidence that I just look like any other woman. I will post about this nearer the time and after the surgery.
I hope this has been some help to a few of you – please do let me know by commenting.
Hugs and kisses x x x
Amber (Kate)
