Susan's Place Transgender Resources

Hepatitis C is a blood borne virus that primarily affects the liver, ultimately leading to cirrhosis and then liver cancer. The standard treatment for hep C has been a lengthy course of injections (several months) with some unpleasant side effects however there are new treatments coming onto the market. Extremely expensive but also very effective - a daily tablet course of 12 weeks with few if any side-effects and a high rate of success. The stupidly expensive price on this medication ($US1000 per tablet, yes 1K) has meant most people are only accessing it through government subsidy (as will soon happen in Australia and other countries) or by acquiring much cheaper generics from countries like India (eg a Buyers' Club for hep C).

If you do have hep C and intend to get it treated using these new direct acting anti-viral medications and you are on HRT you might want to check out this article... Hep C Drugs Pose Risk of Drug-Drug Interactions (http://www.hepmag.com/articles/drug_drug_interactions_2501_28236.shtml). It does mention Aldactone (spironolactone) as one of the drugs a number of the study participants were on, but that doesn't necessarily mean that there are any specific issues with Spiro.

To be on the safe side, if you are going on the new hep C medication it would be a good idea to discuss with your doctors what issues it might have with any HRT you are also on.

While this is not an issue for me, since I don't have hep C, I will raise it with my endo at my next appointment to see if he knows anything more.

Should also be covered by some insurance plans here, not just Government subsidy. But I don't have hep C so I wouldn't know for sure.

There are alternative anti androgen drugs and your doctor should check for interactions and change to another if necessary

When I went thru this (long time ago) most of the costs were covered by my insurance but was very expensive and I had a copay which was not cheap. I gave myself shots for 1 1/2 years-I called it chemotherapy and they say I no longer have a viral load but still get annual checkups. While I was taking the meds I was sick all the time, hair fell out and never came back thick like before. But I give credit to this process for my still being alive today!

As far as I know, spironolactone is prescribed to patients WITH liver cirrhosis and there only have been two reported cases in the literature with the use of Spiro. No reported cases with bio-identical estradiol or progesterone.