No I swear I didn't fall off the face of the earth! I know its been an age since I posted, and I am sorry! I have a question though for those FTM and Non-binary folks with PCOS. Mostly ones who have transitioned. Apologies as well, for those of you who have read my posts before this, you know I'm long winded. And I don't always have the easiest time getting out what I want to say. For those who haven't read my past posts, you're about to find out lol.
I am working with a doctor on my weight issues (I'm about 55-60 lbs overweight... at least from MY healthy weight. Since I'm built muscular, I'm lean at 130, despite recommended weight being 120 for my height). He thinks one of the first steps in my weight journey after getting my reflux in a better place, is managing my pcos. Which is great. He's one of the few docs who even knows what PCOS is, let alone how much it affects a 'woman's' body. (Yeah that's in quotes for a reason) BUUUUT with that comes the fear of birth control. And I have sworn off birth control. That was before I even realized I was transgender too.
I didn't think medically speaking being trans would come up this soon after figuring out that I am in fact transgender. Well... sort of. I should say I didn't think actually dealing with my PCOS again would come up so soon. SOOOO basically, I'm prepared to say, I flat out refuse to do birth control. I've never liked the damn stuff or the way it made me felt, not realizing in the past birth control was inducing my dysphoria. I've been wanting for quite some time to have a hysterectomy/oophorectomy... but that's a little more costly than we can handle right now. (Yay for deductibles, right?) So basically, we're back to square one... Deal with it the old fashioned way.
Basically, if I had to do hormones, I would rather do T. (I phrase it that way because I'm still trying to figure out if HRT is right for me.) So finally here's where my question comes into play. Without surgery, traditional treatment for PCOS is to make you more 'feminine' if that makes sense. Because we're put in a female body that (to me it feels like this, I don't know about others) wants to be masculine, it also increases our risk for other health complications, like high cholesterol, diabetes, inexplicable weight gain/loss, infertility, etc etc etc... (The list is long unfortunately. I HATE YOU PCOS)
Obviously it wouldn't do much for the infertility issue, but that is a non-issue for me as I don't plan to have any more kids (story for another time). However, I'm curious if adding more testosterone to the mix has helped fix the health complications associated with PCOS or if its made it worse. Have your medical providers said anything about this? Is there research done on this particular subject? Etc. And if you've done HRT have you felt the need to have your 'insides' removed, or do you not notice the issues having them brings as much? (IE the pain in your ovaries)
But this also brings up a second issue. I live in Utah. The number of doctors who openly state they provide care to transgender patients, I can count on one hand. And most of those are surgeons. As you might have guessed, Utah is also not the most LGBTQ+ friendly state, (For example having recently not allowed an Orem LGBT facility participate in a freedom parade.) So my big fear is telling my doctor that birth control is a no, because it only furthers my dysphoria. I probably wouldn't say anything at this point about doing testosterone, but it would inevitably bring up the conversation that I feel like my body is trying to say, 'Dude... this is supposed to be a male body!' I'm afraid that if I say this though, suddenly I'm without medical care again. Is there a way to avoid saying such things and yet still get the care I need?
