You really need to read the numerous reports derived from the Women's Health Initiative and pay special attention to the forms of HRT used in the study.The WHI specifically looked at women using Premarin and Depo Provera, which are probably the two forms of HRT with poorest efficacy and the most deleterious side effects. The Livestrong article makes the erroneous assumption that since Depo Provera caused significant health risks for women participating in the WHI, all forms of progesterone are equally risky.
ALL estrogen containing drugs are not equivalent and Premarin is as nasty as they come. The same can be said of Depo Provera (it is a synthetic progestin and NOT equivalent to progesterone), only more emphatically. This form of progesterone is particularly nasty when combined with Premarin, which is why the investigators TERMINATED the study years before it was scheduled to be completed!! If, for obvious moral and ethical reasons, the investigators could no longer ask study subjects to take medications that significantly increased the risk for cardiovascular, cerebrovascular and pulmonary events, why are these drugs still on the market and being prescribed? Alternatives do exist after all. For transgender women the risk is even higher since they routinely take higher doses!
Premarin is so much less effective than estradiol (in any form: pill, injectable or transdermal) that a MtF transperson has to take so much of it that the side effects are EXTREMELY troubling. Depo Provera has a similar track record with regard to nasty side effects and is NOT equivalent to progesterone produced by natal women, or micronized progesterone that is now available.
Think again before someone claims it wouldn't be dangerous or they wouldn't sell it to so many women. Big pharma doesn't give a rat's a__ about the health of women, let alone the health of transgendered individuals.
The long and short of it is that the correct forms of estrogen (some formulation of estradiol) and progesterone (some formulation of bioidentical progesterone such as the many USP creams available or micronized progesterone available by prescription) do NOT have the same side effects or level of risk as taking Premarin and/or Depo Provera, but especially the combination of the two. This does not mean you don't still need to consult a physician, but you will be much more likely to achieve your goals if you become an informed consumer of health care services. Insist that your physician do their homework (I found the information, so can you and so can your physician!) and DO NOT let them put you on either of those medications since MUCH SAFER, MORE EFFECTIVE and MUCH CHEAPER alternatives are available.
