Testosterone

[Guest My_Genesis]

It doesn't take years off your life, but you have the same risk of heart problems that men have (more if it runs in your family) because men don't menstruate. This is easily fixed by donating blood regularly.

I didn't know this!! I've been wanting to donate blood, but I've only tried once, and they didn't like my RBC count - it was normal but they wanted it to be higher lol. So I couldn't donate. I'm in school now so blood donor places usually come to campus, I'm hoping I'll have more chances to do it.

^ and when i said "easily fixed," I mean that it's something that is good for ALL men to do, not just transmen. Most guys don't though, and they live long enough.

It's definitely a mutually beneficial way to improve the health of both the donor and the recipient.

You are awesome for citing your source.

There are lots of factors that could contribute to men's lower life expectancy. First, remember that we are talking about averages here, or at least some other measure of central tendency. These numbers are affected by outliers. Men are more likely than women to have dangerous jobs and to avoid seeking medical care for ongoing health problems (diabetes, high blood pressure, etc...). Both of these could contribute to lower life expectancy independent of some general tendency for men's bodies to "expire" sooner than womens'.

Another important thing to consider is "individual differences". It isn't like switching from female to male automatically subtracts some constant from your life span. There is no one going "oh...minus five from that one for being a boy". It doesn't work that way. As OneSmallStep points out, there is CONSIDERABLE variability among both men and womens' lifespans. You're individual risk factors are probably a better predictor of your lifespan than group averages.

It's prudent to take care of one's health, no matter who you are.

I think there is a lot of misinformation going around about the risks of testosterone. I've heard all kinds of stuff ranging from "it will turn you into a raging anger factory" from "you'll have cancer within 5 years". There may be some negative effects of testosterone on female bodied people, but as far as I know, research on this is limited to non-existent. Anyone that makes confident assertions about long term effects of testosterone therapy in FTM's is probably vastly overstating their knowledge. There have been very few systematic, long-term studies. When studies do find elevated rates of reproductive cancers in FTM's, some of that could be accounted for by a lack of preventative care and the elevated rate of PCOS (polycystic ovary syndrome) in FTM's, which is also associated with having a higher risk for reproductive cancers.

It seems like there is some general tendency to want to make testosterone seem more sinister than it is. Everything has risks. Be smart about risks and take care of yourself. End of story.

My mom, dad and I all saw my therapist together before I went back to school. (this is not my GT, btw.) My dad told my therapist that he read that transmen have lower life expectancies. I asked him where he got this info because that's not true. My dad seems to have been hearing/reading/whatever these myths and misconstrued things about transmen and testosterone and I want to just shout "YOU'RE WRONG! I KNOW WHO I AM AND I'D RATHER BE WHO I AM FOR A SHORTER AMOUNT OF TIME THAN HAVE TO LIVE A LIE FOR THE REST OF MY LIFE! DON'T TELL ME WHAT TO DO BECAUSE YOU KNOW NOTHING ABOUT ME!" ...I must have a lot of pent-up anger about this lol. I am kinda frustrated with my parents. But I digress.... speaking of anger lol.... I already have some anger issues. Most of them are trans-related, though. Like being envious of guys who are like me because it makes me think "why couldn't that be me?" and it really upsets me. And of course the thing with my parents. And the feeling that I have to prove myself to everyone. I think being on T will actually help my anger issues. That stuff about T and aggression isn't really true. Men have as much right to blame aggression on their "raging hormones" as women have to take out their anger on other people because of PMS

OK, just thought of something else: how early would you need to take T for it to affect ur height? Not sure it'd do me any good, cuz my mom was 6'(she shrunk), my dad is 6', & my aunt is 6', while my uncles are all over 6'. I'm like, 5'7&1/2"(at least; I might be 5'8") right now(13&3/4yrs), but I'd jump at the chance to inrease my height. If taking T would help, then I'd need to know what age would be a good time to ask my mom for it(something I'm dreading).

I dunno but I am 20 and I am in denial that I'm done growing. I have PCOS and all my wisdom teeth aren't in yet... so I came up with these (probably BS) theories that your plates don't fully fuse until all your wisdom teeth are in, and that PCOS messes up your monthly crap, so it can also mess up the signal telling your body to stop growing. That, and I am going to start drinking protein shakes with stuff in em to promote HGH and I am going to buy ankle weights which can stretch your legs out. yeah, I'm that desperate. lol.

[Guest Sam_P]

I didn't know this!! I've been wanting to donate blood, but I've only tried once, and they didn't like my RBC count - it was normal but they wanted it to be higher lol. So I couldn't donate. I'm in school now so blood donor places usually come to campus, I'm hoping I'll have more chances to do it.

Yeah I didn't know about that either - I'll have to remember that! I've been meaning to anyway.

[Guest Sam_P]

Does anyone else feel like being trans should come with a bloody great handbook?!?

'So... You're A Transman...

Here's What You Should Know!'

Anyone up for making one as a collab? I need a summer project.