Jump to content
  • Welcome to the TransPulse Forums!

    We offer a safe, inclusive community for transgender and gender non-conforming folks, as well as their loved ones, to find support and information.  Join today!

HRT and heart disease


Charlize

Recommended Posts

On 4/19/2012 at 5:59 PM, Guest Melissa.1957 said:

Dr. Becky Allison discusses the study and how it relates to MtF woman. Dr. Allison is a cardiologist and a transwoman. It is a very good read

http://www.drbecky.com/hormheart.html

This answers one of my concerns about my 11 yr old son if he eventually gets HRT.  His mother has Factor V Leiden.

Link to comment
  • Forum Moderator

Hello Scott.  I think the take away from this article is this.

"A much better drug is estradiol, a naturally occurring estrogen.... This not only gives better absorption, but avoids the metabolism by the liver which might stimulate more blood clotting problems. Estradiol can also be given by injection or by transdermal patches, but the sublingual route seems to me to be the best. I believe the use of estradiol rather than CEE will reduce a person's health risks, and urge physicians to change their patients to estradiol."

 

don't believe many, if any endocrinologists are prescribing CEE any longer as the benefits of bio-identical are superior.  

 

Jani

Link to comment
  • Forum Moderator

Heart disease and stroke are one of the reasons we are here at Trans/Pulse.  Many folks self medicate for many reasons but it is a dangerous practice.  I have severe coronary artery disease (CAD) and am monitored quite regularly.  Topical estradiol is a much safer route as Jani pointed out and with a good endocrinologist, who know a persons medical history risks are greatly reduced.  I may not have a great many innings left due to my heart disease but the peace of mind and absence of the stress i had throughout my life is so much reduced it feels that that should be a factor as well.

 

Hugs,

 

Charlize

Link to comment
  • 4 weeks later...

I have occasional AFIB and PVC's (heart palpitations) and I have asked over and over again if it is still safe to be on HRT. I asked my Endo, family doc, cardiologist and even the dermatologist and each one said no problem. My endo just waved her hand in the air and said, "Psst, no problem". 

Link to comment
  • 1 year later...

Hello everyone. I have been browsing these forums for a while now and decided to finally sign up. I did not want to start a new thread because there was this one already posted.

 

For the last 32 years I have struggling with who or what i am and for a while now i have known. This year I decided to start to take the steps to achieve a more comfortable me. However I feel it might all be for nothing.

 

When I was 17 I had a pulmonary valve replacement. I know no one here can give me a straight answer that will have to be for my dr. to do but I fear my replacement will keep me from being able to go on HRT.

 

I am just wondering if anyone else has had a replacement valve and still was able to go on HRT. I have been freaking out for years about my valve and it is what has kept me from talking to my dr. about it because I do not think I can handle being told no.

Link to comment
  • Admin
Just now, Krysten said:

I am just wondering if anyone else has had a replacement valve and still was able to go on HRT. I have been freaking out for years about my valve and it is what has kept me from talking to my dr. about it because I do not think I can handle being told no.

 

Some of this is going to depend on what support medications you are on now as far as blood clotting and antirejection meds.  While not a heart valve replacement patient, I have had blood clot problems and am limited to topical delivery systems that pose the least risks of blood clotting.  Transdermal patches and a couple of skin creams or sprays would be options.  Oral medications would probably NOT be an option since they affect your liver in ways to enhance the chance of blood clots.  You do have hope.

Link to comment
Just now, VickySGV said:

 

Some of this is going to depend on what support medications you are on now as far as blood clotting and antirejection meds.  While not a heart valve replacement patient, I have had blood clot problems and am limited to topical delivery systems that pose the least risks of blood clotting.  Transdermal patches and a couple of skin creams or sprays would be options.  Oral medications would probably NOT be an option since they affect your liver in ways to enhance the chance of blood clots.  You do have hope.

Thank you, I am not on any medication for my heart. I have asked if I needed to be on a thinner and was told no. But the fact you say i have hope brings hope.

Link to comment
  • 10 months later...

Last Wednesday I woke up and my right arm felt funny. Called the VA telehealth nurse, describe what as going on and told to call 911 and go to hospital. As it turned out I had a stroke. By Friday I had almost all the use of my right arm again. Stroke caused by tiny blood clots. I was put on Plavix to thin blood.

i am really afraid the endo is going to tak me off estrogen and that scares the hell out of me. I only really met myself two years ago at 68. I like who I am, I like who I have become and I don’t want to go back.

Link to comment
  • Admin
41 minutes ago, Erikka said:

i am really afraid the endo is going to tak me off estrogen and that scares the hell out of me.

 

It will depend on what type of E you were on.  I had a pretty good size DVT in my right leg, and they put me on Warfarin to control it.  I had to quit oral E, but when they were sure the clot had stabilized my endo put me on patches which is where I have been for 4 years.  You could be on a vacation from it, but I lost nothing from the time off other than a little bit of sanity.

Link to comment
  • 10 months later...

HI there,

 

I recently had a Cardio event, (Heart Stopped Twice) however not a heart attack. Cardiologist has put me on Statins and Asprin to manage it, The main issue is my cholesterol levels, I have been advised it is reversible at this point in time.

 

I have only just started my Journey and have not yet started on HRT, I am concerned that my cholesterol levels may stop or postpone this?

 

Has anybody come across this?

 

I tried accessing the above link http://www.drbecky.com/hormheart.html but link was dead.

Link to comment
  • Forum Moderator

Hey @Michala_72! Welcome to TransGenderPulse!

 

While not 100% where you are... well, close. I mean I came out when I was 48 (well, TECHNICALY 47, but only by like a month) I once had a cholesterol level of 300. Second highest my doctor had ever seen. He was not impressed when I smiled and said, "So I can go higher?" So yeah, when I came out the very first thing I started to do was take care of myself. Part of that was exercise. I dropped fifty pounds in the first six months or so. My approval for HRT was still a little dicey, but with commitment to my exercise regimen and eating better my endo has completely relaxed.

 

What exactly your endo will do depends on your liver and kidney numbers. However, HRT and other transition measures are hard on the body. I strongly recommend that you do your very best to maintain that body as best you can. Fortunately, I found that that comes easier once you don't hate yourself so much so it's a positive feedback loop.

 

Start light. You don't want another cardio event. I started with a hour and ten minute exercise video. Just cardio dance intervals with some light weight training. It was $10 on Amazon. In the beginning I was EXHAUSTED when the end credits rolled, but I kept at it. I'm down about 100 pounds now and looking to lose some more if I can (though it's turned into more of a give and take now because I'm building muscle mass).

 

Once again, welcome! We're glad you're here!

 

Hugs!

Link to comment

Thanks @Jackie C. Good to be here.

 

Yep my GP has put me on a exercise regime to get my weight down, I'm in Australia and we must use different measures for Cholesterol, I was at 7.5 which apparently high, he wants it down to 2.

I'm currently 220 pounds and I have to get down to 176 by May, (Doctors Orders) Admittedly most of that is muscle Mass which I am hoping will go once I'm on HRT, I want to get down to around 147 Pounds which is pretty light from my frame.

So going to try and not do weights and stick to cardio and light resistance weights if needed, don't want anymore Muscle.

Link to comment
  • Forum Moderator

You'll lose about 30% of your muscle mass within 2 years of MtF HRT, so there's that. You're also WAY ahead of where I was. I was about 300 pounds when I started. I've been going between 190 and 200 for the last six months or so while my metabolism adjusts. I'm thinking I'd look pretty good around 175, but I have a friend who thinks I can make 150, so we'll see.

 

Hugs!

Link to comment

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Who's Online   5 Members, 0 Anonymous, 97 Guests (See full list)

    • Heather Shay
    • KathyLauren
    • Pip
    • Karen Carey
    • April Marie
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
  • Forum Statistics

    • Total Topics
      80.6k
    • Total Posts
      768k
  • Member Statistics

    • Total Members
      12,015
    • Most Online
      8,356

    Quillian
    Newest Member
    Quillian
    Joined
  • Today's Birthdays

    1. Bowie Ellis
      Bowie Ellis
      (19 years old)
    2. Damien Mcknight
      Damien Mcknight
      (18 years old)
    3. JJ
      JJ
      (77 years old)
    4. KathyLauren
      KathyLauren
      (70 years old)
    5. memyselfandwe
      memyselfandwe
      (44 years old)
  • Posts

    • Heather Shay
      Relief (emotion) Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org › wiki › Relief_(emotion)         Relief is a positive emotion experienced when something unpleasant, painful or distressing has not happened or has come to an end.
    • Heather Shay
    • Heather Shay
    • Heather Shay
    • April Marie
      Loving this woman I am becoming.
    • April Marie
      Good morning, everyone!! I was up early again - already on my third cup of coffee having walked/fed the dog and read the local paper.   We have a birthday party for a friend to go to this afternoon but no real plans otherwise.   I hope to be able to attend tonight's TGP Zoom session. It's been weeks since I've been able to participate with the illness/loss of our dog, two horrible colds in succession and our trip to chase the solar eclipse.   Have a wonderful day and look for the goodness in it.
    • April Marie
      I think we tend to be overly critical of our looks, whether we're trying to express ourselves as masculine, feminine or anywhere along the gender spectrum. For me, I use photos as a way to track my progress, to help me find my style and look and to help me find ways to improve myself in posture, looks, make-up, style......   I didn't really think about our FB avatar being public but then realized that when people search they do see it.   Since I'm not out to anyone but my wife, therapist, priest and people here, my FB page remains "that guy." I have created a Bitmoji that is relatively androgynous moving slowly towards the feminine. Long gray hair, earrings, softer features...I'm transitioning it along with myself. :-)
    • April Marie
      I so very much enjoy your posts. This one, though, hit home with me for many reasons. I was commissioned in the Army in '77, as well. Like you, I was not overly masculine in the way that many of our contemporaries were. I (still do) cried at weddings, pictures of puppies and babies, when I talked about bring proud of what my units accomplished and was never the Type A leader. In the end, it worked for me and I had a successful career.   This is, of course, your story not mine so I won't detail my struggle. It just took me much longer to understand what the underlying cause of my feelings was and even more to admit it. To act on it.    Thank you for sharing your story, Sally.
    • Sally Stone
      Post 6 “The Military Career Years” In 1977 I joined the Army and went to flight school to become a helicopter pilot.  To fly for the military had been a childhood dream and when the opportunity arose, I took advantage of it, despite knowing I would have to carefully control my crossdressing activity.  At the time, military aviation was male dominated and a haven for Type A personalities and excessive testosterone.  I had always been competitive but my personality was not typically Type A.  And while I could never be considered effeminate, I wasn’t overtly masculine either.  Consequently, I had little trouble hiding the part of my personality that leaned towards the feminine side.    However, serving in the Army limited my opportunities for feminine self-expression.  During this period, I learned that being unable to express my feminine nature regularly, led to frustration and unhappiness.  I managed these feelings by crossdressing and underdressing whenever I could.  Underdressing has never been very fulfilling for me, but while I was in the Army it was a coping mechanism.  I only cross-dressed in private and occasionally my wife would take me out for a late-night drive.  Those drives were still quite private, but being out of the house was clearly therapeutic.    I told myself I was coping, but when it became apparent the Army was going to be a career, the occasional and closeted feminine expression was clearly inadequate.  I needed more girl time and I wanted to share my feminine side with the rest of the world, so the frustration and unhappiness grew.  Despite my feelings regarding feminine self-expression, I loved flying, so I wasn’t willing to give up my military career.  Consequently, I resigned myself to the fact that the female half of my personality needed to take a back seat, and what helped me through, was dreaming of military retirement, and finally having the ability to let Sally blossom.   About Sally. Ironically, she was born while I was still serving.  It was Halloween and my wife and I were hosting a unit party.  I looked upon the occasion as the perfect excuse to dress like a girl.  After a little trepidation, my wife agreed I should take advantage of the opportunity.  Back then, my transformations were not very good, but with my wife’s help, my Halloween costume looked quite authentic.  Originally, my wife suggested that my presentation should be caricature to prevent anyone from seeing through my costume.  But that didn’t appeal to me at all.  I wanted to look as feminine and ladylike as I could.   To my wife’s and my amazement, my costume was the hit of the party.  In fact, later in the evening, my unit buddies decided they wanted to take me out drinking and before either me or my wife could protest, I was whisked away and taken to one of our favorite watering holes.  Terrified at first, I had an amazing time, we all did.  But on Monday morning, when I came to work, I learned that I had a new nickname; it was Sally, and for the duration of that tour, that’s what I was called.  Well, when it came time for me to choose a feminine name, there weren’t any other choices.  Sally it was, and to this day I adore the name, and thank my pilot buddies for choosing it.   And this brings me to my last assignment before retiring.  I was teaching military science in an Army ROTC program at Mercer University in Macon, Georgia.  I had been a member of TRIESS (a nationwide crossdressing support group).  I wasn’t really an active participant but when we moved to Georgia, I learned there was a local chapter in Atlanta.  I reached out to the membership chair person, and joined.   Because the chapter meetings took place in Atlanta, a trans friendly city, and because Atlanta was so far from Macon and any of my military connections, I felt it would be safe to let my feminine hair down.  The monthly meetings took place in the Westin Hotel and Conference Center in Buckhead, an upscale northern Atlanta suburb, and the hotel itself was 4-star.  The meetings were weekend affairs with lots of great activities that allowed me to express myself in a public setting for the first time.  It was during this time, that Sally began to blossom.   I have the fondest memories of Sigma Epsilon (the name of our chapter in Atlanta).  Because the hotel was also a conference center, there was always some big event, and in many cases, there were several.  One weekend there was a nail technician conference that culminated in a contest on Saturday evening.  When the organizers learned there was a huge group of crossdressers staying at the hotel, they reached out to us looking for manicure volunteers.  I volunteered and got a beautiful set of long red fingernails that I wore for the duration of the weekend.   During another of our meeting weekends, there was a huge military wedding taking place, and imagine what we were all thinking when we learned it was a Marine wedding.  Our entire group was on edge worrying we might have to keep a low profile.  It turned out to be one of the most memorable weekends I would experience there.  First off, the Marines were all perfect gentlemen.  On Friday night and throughout the day on Saturday before the wedding, we rubbed elbows with most of them and their wives in and around the hotel, and at the hotel bar.  In fact, we got along so well the bride invited us to the reception.  Somewhere, there is a picture of me with a handsomely dressed Marine draped on each of my arms, standing in the lobby of the hotel.  Sadly, I never got a copy of it because the woman who took the picture used a film camera (yes, they actually took picture that way in ancient times).    My two-years with Sigma Epsilon was the perfect transition.  I went from being fully closeted to being mostly out.  I enhanced my feminine presentation and significantly reduced my social anxiety.  It also signified the end of one life and the beginning of another.  I had a great career and never regretted serving, but I was ready to shed the restrictions 20-years of Army service had imposed on my feminine self-expression.  My new life, Sally’s life, was about to begin, and with it I would begin to fully spread a new set of wings, this time feminine wings.    Hugs, Sally
    • Sally Stone
      Ashley, for a very long time she clung to the term crossdresser, because for her it was less threatening.  Over the years, though, she has come to recognize and acknowledge that I have a strong feminine side.  And like me, she now has a much better understanding of where my transgender journey is going, so me being bigender, isn't the threat she might have perceived it as, years ago. 
    • Carolyn Marie
      https://apnews.com/article/title-ix-sexual-assault-transgender-sports-d0fc0ab7515de02b8e4403d0481dc1e7   The revised regulations don't touch on trans athletes; which I totally understand, as that's become a third rail issue and this is an election year.  But the other changes seem pretty sensible, and will obviously result in immediate right wing lawsuits.   Carolyn Marie
    • missyjo
      darling you have wonderful taste..I especially love the red dress n sneaker outfit   enjoy   missy
    • Carolyn Marie
      Very well said, @Abigail Genevieve, and very true.  Thank you.   Carolyn Marie
    • Susan R
      Trans Group Zoom Meeting Tomorrow!!   Trans Group Zoom Meeting Times: April 20, 2024 6:00 PM Pacific Time April 20, 2024 8:00 PM Central Time April 21, 2024 11:00 AM Australia/Melbourne   Message me for the meeting link if you’d like to attend.   *Hugs* Susan R🌷
    • Susan R
      They may win a few battles but not the war! as @Davie pointed out there is little truth if it full of lies, inconsistencies, and ignores evidence to the contrary. I saw this article earlier and have to agree here. Truth will win. This isn’t the first time this tactic has been tried. Always stick with the truth!
  • Upcoming Events

Contact TransPulse

TransPulse can be contacted in the following ways:

Email: Click Here.

To report an error on this page.

Legal

Your use of this site is subject to the following rules and policies, whether you have read them or not.

Terms of Use
Privacy Policy
DMCA Policy
Community Rules

Hosting

Upstream hosting for TransPulse provided by QnEZ.

Sponsorship

Special consideration for TransPulse is kindly provided by The Breast Form Store.
×
×
  • Create New...