So I got a copy of my pre-HRT labs in the mail yesterday. Yikes! Polycythemia! Moderate kidney failure! Testosterone off the scale!
Took about 10 minutes to notice that the doctor had considerately entered "sex" as female. After I got my blood pressure back down I checked online: yep, significantly different normal ranges for male bodies and the labs had thoughtfully put high-visibility scare flags on all of the out of range stuff. Good to know, I guess. Anybody know if red cell counts and creatinine normalize to female range during HRT?
Julie
All I'm aware of is that ranges for females and males differ from hematocrit, hemoglobin and and RBC (red blood cell count).
For over a year, my doctor has been telling me that my RBC is low and he suspects possible internal bleeding. He has in the past told me that hormonal imbalances can reflect strange readings with blood tests. I however am XXY so my readings are both male and female and according to my research on the net, my readings are fine within the female range. So we the my last blood test I was sent a card for a liver specialist. My problem has been that I never told him I was XXY so as far as he's concerned I'm male. Recently I had tests done in Colombia and in did tell the doctor of my intersex status so when I got my results back they were perfect.
That brings up an interesting point. We have our birth/assigned gender, our mental/actual gender, our legal gender, and apparently our medical gender. I wonder when or if the medical one changes. It occurs to me that in might actually depend on the medical area in question. Some areas might be considered female and some might be considered male.
Medical cannot be changed. We will always be classified as transitioning person's medically labeled per birth sex. Yes, Intersex will be judged differently as per genotype and other factors.