Just curious if anyone knows how quickly HRT makes one permanently sterile?
Just read the wiki about testi volume (in response to the decrease in Leydig cells and Sertoli cells which produce sperm) being reduced by about 25% (or 50% for more higher doses) after a year or so, but I'm not sure what this means in terms of actual quality of sperm. I'm assuming that sperm is still generated during this time but would definitely not be safe for conception. Is this true? if so, when's the absolute cut-off date? I only want the hard facts..
Apart from just guessing at their milky ejaculate - I imagine there's some way of finding out in some medical lab...
Finally I know it sounds ridiculously hopeful, but has anyone heard of someone slowly going off HRT - even after one year - just to bank sperm?
It depends but anywhere from 6 months to a year on HRT, after that it's the point of no return! :o
It's usually agreed upon that after 6 months of anti-androgen usage, one becomes permanently sterile. There are exceptions, though, as some more or less retain the ability to ejaculate, meaning that in theory, they could still concieve a child.
It's said that if you go off the AA's before the sixth month mark, there is some chance that it returns to the primary state.
Quote from: Maja.V on January 07, 2012, 01:27:05 AM
It's usually agreed upon that after 6 months of anti-androgen usage, one becomes permanently sterile. There are exceptions, though, as some more or less retain the ability to ejaculate, meaning that in theory, they could still concieve a child.
It's said that if you go off the AA's before the sixth month mark, there is some chance that it returns to the primary state.
I read on the forums that YMMV. To be technical, what is the definition of "sterile"? After 7 continuous months of AA, estrogen, & progesterone, I stopped HRT for a while and my sperm count returned. Last time I got my swimmers checked, I was close to sterile:
Normal Forms2 => 4 % (I'm at 2%, which is below the lower threshold of 4% to be considered normal)
Abnormal Forms98 < 96 % (I'm at 98%, which is higher than the higher threshold 96% to be considered normal)
Technically, I am sterile since 98% of my swimmers are deformed. It'd be hard to get a girl pregnant with these stats. Though more function could have returned months later on, but I haven't been tested since.
Just know that estrogen interferes with the process of producing sperm. Even after months of stopping HRT, estrogen levels will still remain in your body albeit in lower levels. Residual estrogen levels will remain for a while so I my guess is that you'd have to wait quite a while for the estrogen levels to be at a level of a normal male. Even then, there is no guarantee that your sperm count and form will return to normal.
Completely sterility is little vague term with today reproductive medicine
Even if you can't have baby natural way if you have some cells in tests alive they could take them and let them grow and produce sperm in laboratory
So definitive completely it is just after knife