I've seen a few guys talk about having to stop T a few weeks before having top surgery. Just curious what the reasoning is behind that.
Also, I've had a complete hysto so would anyone know if that would change things?
it's a potential healing and bleeding issue, I'm not 100% sure why. Firstly T increases your blood pressure so if there was any potential for bleeding it would increase with higher blood pressure. There could be more reasons, and there probably are.
Well it's not something that everyone does. Dr. G leaves it up to the person's doctor. My doctor did not see any reason to stop and I know of several other doctors who didn't make their patients stop either. The surgeon might decide or might leave it up to the individual's doctor. I am on the t-cream so I had t the night before, but maybe since I apply it myself I might have missed a couple days post-op.
Liam, I don't know where you doctor would get such stats (Maybe cis men taking T??) There just aren't this sort of specific stats on our community, in my understanding. Cis men taking T wouldn't be comparable, imo. The Center for Excellent on Transgender Health, which has a lot of info on trans men, doesn't include this info.
I heard it's almost universal for bottom surgery but kind of a bit hit and miss (some guys stop and some do not) for top surgery. I wonder if the blood flow for bottom surgery is rather specific. We know how blood kind of gets to that area. LOL.
--Jay
My understanding the total complication rate of all top surgeons is about 4%, that's for any reason whatsoever, so the rate isn't that high really. I don't think that T is considered in that, but I don't know.
--Jay
Ok, gotcha. I more than likely wouldn't have to stop post hysto I would think. That would leave someone living on the tiny bit of hormones the adrenal glands produce. It's enough to keep someone alive yet feeling like a hot mess. Interesting thought, once a guy has had all the internal plumbing removed and is on T for an extended time would the adrenals still produce estrogen without the synthetic T or would they now produce predominantly testosterone? Hmm...
I wasn't told that I had to stop T.
I don't really understand the logic behind having to stop it beforehand - would they castrate a cis-male before surgery for the same reasons? Just curious.
I'm with Kreuzfidel here. To me the idea of having to stop is silly when cis guys get surgery all the time. Yeah, T maybe raises blood pressure and blood count etc...just like cis guys! Lol. My BP is 110/70, and all other blood work is well within normal ranges, so I wouldn't buy that excuse myself. There's nothing I can even think of in terms of the oil suspension that would cause an issue, I honestly think the idea is that the difference in blood and blood pressure is their reasoning but if they don't castrate cis guys, it's obviously not that huge a deal.
A lot of research on stuff like this is dubious at best. It's the same as the idea that we need hystos because of increased risk of cancer, yet this is a lie as there's no legit research that shows that's a problem at all. It's assumptions alone that can't be proved. If they've done research and trans guys recover better without T in a small number of cases, it still wouldn't convince me to stop. I took T knowing it would potentially reduce my life expectancy, cause bad changes in lipids, and make me bald. If they had research that showed that sometimes women recover better from surgery than men, I'm not going to stop T because of that. I'm in this for all the bad that comes with the good. I don't think it should be the surgeon's decision here. I didn't have to stop, but even if I was told to, I wouldn't, unless I had specific medical issues that would make a big difference, and honestly, I can't even think of what that would be! How would they know anyway? That would make me dubious of any research too. How were they sure the positive results were from guys who really did stop?
After a hysto, I'd say you couldn't stop anyway. That'd be more counterproductive than any good they could claim.
Quote from: Jack_M on January 02, 2014, 02:30:30 PM
I'm with Kreuzfidel here. To me the idea of having to stop is silly when cis guys get surgery all the time. Yeah, T maybe raises blood pressure and blood count etc...just like cis guys! Lol. My BP is 110/70, and all other blood work is well within normal ranges, so I wouldn't buy that excuse myself. There's nothing I can even think of in terms of the oil suspension that would cause an issue, I honestly think the idea is that the difference in blood and blood pressure is their reasoning but if they don't castrate cis guys, it's obviously not that huge a deal.
A lot of research on stuff like this is dubious at best. It's the same as the idea that we need hystos because of increased risk of cancer, yet this is a lie as there's no legit research that shows that's a problem at all. It's assumptions alone that can't be proved. If they've done research and trans guys recover better without T in a small number of cases, it still wouldn't convince me to stop.
After a hysto, I'd say you couldn't stop anyway. That'd be more counterproductive than any good they could claim.
Yeah my point too. There just aren't adequate stats to prove anything. Even if one asked half the surgeons who do top surgery (I doubt that has been done) the complication rate is really too low to determine too much. Could one compare it with breast reduction or gynecomastia? Do you block T in cis men for surgery? Obviously not. Suppose the rate of complication was 4% instead of 3.80, would that be worth stopping, because I'm not sure it would be. And you can't even really tell, if someone had a hematoma, was that because of T, I don't know if you could tell that. I also think if it was a huge number that someone like Dr G wouldn't be allowing their patients to take T. There are meds like aspirin that you aren't allowed.
Same with the problem re: hysto and cancer. There just aren't stats on it. I know there is a lot of lore about this, I'd pretty much call it lore.
--Jay