Susan's Place Transgender Resources

So I had my Orchiectomy. At first my doctor told me to continue taking finasteride but stop spironolactone. A weel kater he told me to stop Finasteride.  What puzzles me is that finasteride is supposed to grow hair plus I have never heard of anyone post orchiectomy taking it. Could anyone please shed some light on the subject of hair growth or any reason why one would continue finasteride after an orchi?

Other may be able to provide more detail but post surgical HRT varies somewhat on the doctor. Sometimes a T blocker is continued after surgery because the body may continue to produce T for a while after surgery. Finasteride reduces DHT so it might be continued until the risk of high DHT levels has passed. It's possible that the doctor wanted to see a blood test to verify the levels of both hormones had dropped before discontinuing Finasteride.

Finasteride prevents the conversion of T to DHT, the main culprit in male hair loss. Post-orchi, your T levels will be about the same as a cis female, so levels of DHT are much lower. Finasteride really isn't needed at this point. Some trans woman cry enough that their doctor will continue to prescribe it - some patients can't be told.

Quote from: Dena on June 07, 2018, 12:49:51 AM
Other may be able to provide more detail but post surgical HRT varies somewhat on the doctor. Sometimes a T blocker is continued after surgery because the body may continue to produce T for a while after surgery.

Of course the body continues to produce T, it's one of the functions of the adrenal glands  - it's where women get their T from. Once the testicles are gone, there is no T from them - outside of what T remains in blood and tissue, which is rapidly depleted.

Post-orchiectomy and SRS, transwomen actually have LESS T relative to ciswomen because the latter also secrete T from their ovaries in addition to the adrenal glands while we only have adrenal glands. Some may need to supplement with extra T (like me) because T is too low, or not. It depends.

T is quickly knocked way down post-op (within 24-48 hours) and it is rare that more T is temporarily produced (due to stress and adrenal gland overdrive). What seems to occur more likely is that in those taking anti-androgens pre-op, when anti-androgens are stopped, androgen receptors remain temporarily more sensitive so react more strongly to even low levels of T and DHT. It's temporary and will settle within months, usually.