Hormonal Transition when you already have an (hormone related) health issue?

[Bunter]

I'd like to hear from others who have some sort of illness that could be affected by taking hormones, especially people with hormone related illnesses, people who already have to take hormones for health issues, people with birth defects or specific health risks.

I fall into most of these categories and doctor's can't tell me what will happen should I start to take hormones (T).

How do you deal with such a situation? I'm pretty sure I prefer health to transitioning as I have been sick half my life. But that's not the point. It's more about the specific situations that we are in when we have the double-whammy of being trans and have health issues that might be impacted by transitioning.

I'd really like to talk to people who get that.

[ImagineKate]

Interesting.

I had low T naturally, just below 200. (I am MTF). Worked well in my favor. I have other disorders like diabetes and high blood pressure as well as high cholesterol. I take meds for those and they had to be adjusted for hormone therapy. Actually now I am very good, my blood pressure is great and my diabetes is well managed. My primary care and hormones are done by the same doctor and clinic. Not only that I've lost weight

For you I know a number of FTM guys have PCOS and this plays into the whole thing I suppose.

My advice is if you're getting HRT you should use the same doctor as your primary/GP. This way they can work your hormones together with your other medications if you are taking any and there won't have to be back and forth between your endo and your primary doc.

[HughE]

The impression I've gained is that way more of us have hormone-related problems than is the case for the cis population, which is one reason for thinking that transness is a kind of intersex condition. I myself have congenital secondary  hypogonadism, which had worsened to the point where I was experiencing a lot of health problems due to low T prior to starting on hormones. I certainly feel much better now than I did then, and the last time I had my blood work done, everything looked OK too.

If you've got existing hormonal problems then your body clearly isn't doing a very good job of managing things on its own, so I'd have thought that (provided it's done correctly), HRT should, if anything, help to improve the situation!