side effects of hrt on reconstructive surgeries. as well as on vision.

[whatsinaname]

Hrt is a ways down the road for me but i am facing one to two more reconstructive if i decide to go through with them, i've already had three over the years.  I know that i would lose muscle mass, and i'm okay with that but well i guess my question is; based on others experience how much muscle mass is lost because without the surgery the muscles are pretty much all thats keeping my shoulders funtionable.

I'm not in a rush to have the surgeries and not entirely sure if i'll have them as i'm only being given 60 percent odds on moderate success.  I know its a question i need to ask the doctor but i was hoping someone had some moderate experience with something similar enough to give me a general idea.

My other question about the eyes is: if i'm already far sighted with estigmatism in one eye that's already fairly bad. Hormones will change the eyes and after watching several transition vids i noticed that several women went from not wearing glasses to wearing them.  So for anyone thats farsighted before hrt (far sighted the eyes are too small unless i'm missimformed)  afterwards has your vision improved? And would there be any positve effect on estigmatism?

Every where i've tried looking has been sort of vauge just mentioning that the eyes will change shape or size and no real mention on its effect on nearsighted or farsighted or even eye related issues such as estigmatism. 

[Brenda E]

Eyesight - very interested in hearing experiences about this.  My eyes haven't changed thus far, but I'm kind of hoping they will so I can wear cute glasses.

Muscle mass - does disappear slowly.  Strength and endurance in my upper body has rapidly deteriorated - e.g. push ups are half what they used to be after only a couple of months.  But it's not so huge a change that I couldn't compensate for the loss of muscle mass by really working on exercising those muscles.  That is, if I needed strong shoulder muscles, I think I could still have strong shoulder muscles - I'd just have to work harder at it.

[Teela Renee]

yea eye site can change on HRT, its another reason alot of lasik places wont do it till after you have had a kid and blah blah blah lots of medical blah blah blah.  In a nutshell big changes in HRT can change your eye site. My ability to see fine detail got better but my astigmatism got worse.

[michelle666]

I think the HRT has done something to my vision. I'm having issues seeing things at a distance and driving at night is horrible. I have a full eye exam coming up on Tuesday so I'll see how much worse it got.

[nikkit72]

Hiya, with regards to loss of strength possibly due to the loss of muscle mass, I too have been concerned with this due to a cervical spinal cord injury that has switched off parts of most of my muscles from the neck down. I have adjusted by working out to maintain what little strength I had and, so far, I have noticed no negative difference in my strength or ability to do things that I could do before commencing HRT. Like with all aspects of transition, everyone responds differently, and many other factors play a part, such as lifestyle. I am an active person, so that may help, and I know If I become a couch potato, then I will deteriorate rapidly, so for me I must move and stretch continually. No rest for the wicked etc..

I think that because of the random way HRT affects people, the only way to find out, with medical supervision of course, is to try and see what happens. You can always stop and build your strength up later. It my also be wise to get some advice from a physiotherapist with regards to toning exrcises for the affected areas.

Another way to look at is is to look at the physique of female track athletes. Plenty of muscle mass going on there.

As for eyesight, I have noticed no difference yet.

Nikki

[LordKAT]

I don't know about reconstructive surgeries.

Farsighted does not mean you have small eyes. It means the light doesn't focus on the retina like it should and you see things better at a distance than you do up close. If you are young that is not such a bad thing. As people age, your vision tends to get more nearsighted.

I am nearsighted, have astigmatism, and cataracts. The HRT hasn't made the difference, age has.

[CrysC]

HRT does change the curvature of the eye.  I definitely have had changes to vision and became a little more nearsighted.  The only annoying thing is more trouble at dusk when driving. 

Keep working the muscles you want to keep and you should be fine.  There are a number of shoulder exercises you can do to keep strength in your shoulder.  Look for women's sexy and shapely shoulder exercises as a start. 

[LordKAT]

All the reading I did was to find that excessive E may cause eye problems and the most common thing with a lack of E is dry eyes.