Treating Gender Dysphoria Without Transition

[Guest nymphblossom]

As I think about starting hormones this week, I have been wondering how many of us could avoid transition if we had simply been able to start HRT sooner. It seems that the medical profession's pendulum has swung from right to left. For years they tried to cure transsexuals with aversion therapy and bombarding us with the hormones of our biological sex. Now the only cure they recognize is to make the body match the brain.

Social pressures and self denial often keep us from seeking therapy until our gender dysphoria has advanced to the point that transition is the only option. But why must those whose condition has not reached that point be forced to waste valuable time bringing them to the point of no return by the gate keepers before we are prescribed HRT? There are no extreme dangers, risks or permanent effects for short term hormone use. I have often read that someone suspected of being a transsexual should consider a 3-6 month experiment of HRT therapy. In almost all cases the effects of long term use are completely hideable within the existing gender role.

If we could get the hormones our brains need to help our dysphoria BEFORE our conditions got to the point that transition was the only option, more of us might be able to live contently in our biological sex and avoid the heartache and expense of transition.

Blossom

[Sally]

Dear Blossom,

I am not sure if your theory is correct or not as I am one of those beyond any other option but a study should be made.

After all the use of HRT while relativity safe does have its risks and SRS is a very invasive procedure with long term recovery issues not to be taken lightly, especially by us older ladies.

It would seem that if one could be happy in their unaltered body it would be a wonderful thing.

Interesting theory, keep on thinking and posting - I love the challenge to my brain.

Love ya,

Sally

[Guest julia_d]

I think the older members would say that is a very dangerous road to walk.. we can never be happy in our biological birth sex.. never. While some of us may accept things as our lot or our chain to carry, we are never happy.

Your idea sounds very much like "reparative therapy but with pills" .. it's been tried and it failed.. Just feeding somebody small amounts of hormones may change the mood somewhat but it doesn't change the physical facts.

[Guest nymphblossom]

Julia wrote:

I think the older members would say that is a very dangerous road to walk.

Please explain the danger. Early commencement of HRT does not preclude transition as an option, but may prevent the need for some.

Julia wrote:

we can never be happy in our biological birth sex.. never.

The idea would be to begin HRT treatment before the patient reaches this point.

Julia wrote:

Your idea sounds very much like "reparative therapy but with pills" it's been tried and it failed.. Just

Exactly and the "but" is the key difference, the difference that has not been tried and failed. To my knowledge there have been no formal studies of reparative therapy with the recognized medical treatment for gender dysphoria.

Julia wrote:

small amounts of hormones may change the mood somewhat but it doesn't change the physical facts.

I am not suggesting small amounts or hormones, but full HRT regimens to help fool the brain into believing it is in the correct body, as a minimum help control the dysphoria of being in the wrong one. The body can never be completely changed, but if the brain can be satisfied, the conditon is alleviated.

Blossom

[Guest julia_d]

No.. that's abusive chemical reparative therapy.. I had forced T injections for 14 years trying to make me into a boy (I'm kind of intersex, I have 2 birth certificates 3 months apart.. the first one says "IND" and the second says "BOY" but the T gave me fully male physical attributes).. from being born to being 14 .. and guess what.. By 15 I was dressing and living as a girl. It took 4 months of no T to swing me back to what I should be. It's been tried and it doesn't work!

You can't "trick" the hardwired brain gender.. it's set before birth. That is why your idea is walking a dangerous road, and one better left alone. There are dangerous quacks peddling just such nonsense right now.. these people KILL people.

[Sally]

Julia,

As I understand the topic, she is not suggesting boosting the body's natural hormones but istead giving them the HRT at an earlier age to see if the lessening of the effects of the wrong hormones on the body can be reduced and they would have less of a problem accepting their own bodies and not require SRS to feel good about themselves.

This is what has never been tried - the contra hormone treatment early to lesson the need for a complete transition - increase hormones have been tried and have failed miserably and that is why I get a little irratated when someone talks about how their mind has been changed by hormones - opened, reactivating dormant areas with the right fuel but never changed - merely finally supported.

Love ya,

Sally

[Guest julia_d]

No.. it doesn't work.. the high suicide rate in our community is a result of such "treatments"

transition can't be avoided by any form of medical intervention.

[Guest sarah f]

I understand the concept but my question is after you take them for 3 to 6 months how long will it take before you need to take more HRT to make you happy. After taking HRT off and on it would probably start to take effect on your body. I am not a doctor but it just seems it is only a temporary fix.

Love,

Sarah F

[Guest Pól]

OK, let's take a second here to clarify things. It seems like we may be talking about different things.

To make this concrete, let's take a hypothetical example and say that we have a prepubescent MTF girl.

Is the suggestion here to give her female hormones before she reaches puberty so that she does not have to endure puberty with dysphoria?(1)

Or is the suggestion here to give her male hormones and therefore her brain would 'think' it was male, thus no dysphoria? (2)

My understanding of the subject is that typically gender identity is not mutable. I say typically because I know there are people on the forum here who sometimes feel male one day and female another.

But since many members here have described having feelings of dysphoria as small children, this raises two problems for me (if we are talking about suggestion #2). One problem is diagnosis -- if the idea is the prescribe male hormones to prevent dysphoria, then wouldn't the child need to have already expressed dysphoria in order to be treated? In which case, the hormones would give the person more male characteristics (and possibly severely exacerbating the dysphoria). A second problem is age. If a male-bodied child expresses severe dysphoria at, say, three years of age, it is completely and wholly inappropriate to give that child testosterone. The hormones we take as transsexuals induce puberty. I cannot imagine a single argument for why anyone should go through puberty at such a young age. That strikes me as extremely dangerous, gender identity aside entirely.

A third point is the one that I think Julia is raising -- to my knowledge, there is little or no medical evidence to support that hormones actually change how your brain perceives its own gender. I obviously haven't read every piece of medical literature on the subject, but I'm really not sure how you could ethically conduct a study to see whether giving a male-bodied gender dysphoric (is that a word? ) child testosterone would alleviate or exacerbate that child's gender dysphoria.

This is a very sensitive topic though, so let's try to keep things from getting too heated in here. It's an interesting idea, but I think it's something we need to approach on a theoretical level first.

[Guest JCinDenver]

Having been on FULL HRT for just over 3 years now, I agree with Blossom.

I have no immediate plans for SRS (but not ruling it out down the road).

The conflict between having a brain wired female with a male body still exist.

But, I find the struggle much more manageable now.

I'd be willing to bet that the vast majority of people on this site will never fully transition.

I'd rather live in both worlds, than the way things were before HRT.

Jamie

[Guest julia_d]

Y'know.. I had a bit more of a think and I'm still in the same place.

I am a living walking example of why this chemical hrt from a very young age can't and won't work.. It can't .. I was abused and had EXACTLY the kind of forced hormone full cross hormone treatment talked about.

I have learned male attributes.. spatial awareness.. map reading.. all kinds of things that I have consciously learned.. They are skills like welding or driving.. may be second nature now but learned all the same. I know when I am using them because they feel different and ever so slightly unnatural. It's like my brain knows what is a natural genetically built and hardwired asset compared to a learned skill.

As for HRT changing the brain wiring.. it doesn't, but what it does do is modify the chemical balance which alters the switching pattern.. like running a different program in the same hardware.... delete "male" {enter} load "female"{enter}. Well accepted fact the brain is noting more than a very complex biological computer. I have had a stroke 8 years ago.. I know a lot about how my brain works and how it has been rewiring itself as time goes by. I couldn't play the guitar for 3 years .. I tried and it didn't work.. One day I just woke up with a head full of music and I could again.. rusty but working. Now I need to work on remembering a whole song while I'm playing.. I run into blanks... I know what should be there but it isn't.

I think this discussion has come to the end of the line.. it's a dangerous form of reparative therapy.. plain and simple.. it's been tried in many forms.. some documented and others not. I'm sure my parents and the doctors thought they were doing what was best for me in 1966.. but they weren't.. they would have been better leaving well alone and seeing what happened. Even when given the hormones that seem appropriate (a german girl last year) she still needed and wanted srs.. case proved.. cross hormone treatment doesn't lessen the physical mismatch between the brain and body.

What this proposes is shoving cross hormones into people and then denying them a final physical outcome.. c'mon Sally.. what would you do if tomorrow you were told "That's it hun.. no srs for you.. ever.. not because of medical risk but because you cope well enough and pass OK on the pills"

Now do you get why it's a dangerous path to walk?

[Guest nymphblossom]

Long term use of HRT is the medically accepted treatment for gender dysphoria. I have never heard of an increasing need for HRT in patients and am not suggesting intermittent use of hormones. The Benjamin Standards of Care, V6, acknowledges that hormones can be given to those who do not want surgery or real-life- experience. Section VII, Page 14 states:

Hormone therpay can provide significant comfort to gender pateients whow do not sih to cross live or undergo surgery, or who are unable to do so. In some patients, hormone therapy alone may provide sufficient symptomatic relief to abviate the need for cross living or surgery.

Blossom