Hormone therapy may improve psychological functioning in transgender individuals
http://www.news-medical.net/news/20160210/Hormone-therapy-may-improve-psychological-functioning-in-transgender-individuals.aspx
News-Medical/Mary Ann Liebert, Inc./Genetic Engineering News 02/10/2016
"Transgender individuals may experience significant improvement in psychological functioning after as little as 3-6 months of hormone therapy, with improved quality of life reported within 12 months of initiating therapy by both female-to-male and male-to-female transgender individuals, according to an article published in Transgender Health, a new peer-reviewed open access journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. The article is available open access on the Transgender Health website."
This is the state of modern medicine?
Well it improved my psychological functioning!!
*
Take this research and add it to the 'Study: Paying for Transgender Health Care Cost-Effective' article also posted here at Susan's Place and you have an ever-increasing, powerfull message to lawmakers and the medical community.
I can clearly state for myself that beginning ERT was a major boost - physically, mentally, emotionally - at a critical time of my life. It marked a milestone to my progress.
A geographical move to Utah where no physician would accept me put me off meds two years. I sought alternative goals to overcome that let-down. I studied and learned phyto-estrogens to maintain ERT results as best as possible. I felt relieved when I resumed ERT; I was again moving forward.
*
Just the letter helped me a lot. I have hope! Something I did not have before.
That confirms what a whole lot of us have been saying here for a long time. It has certainly worked for me.
Sapere Aude
Obligatory "duh" here.
Well, at least it's 'official' now.
Well, I suppose it's still "breaking news" in some circles!
Quote from: itsApril on February 15, 2016, 06:50:11 PM
Well, I suppose it's still "breaking news" in some circles!
Maybe for those whose intellectual development was stalled in the Neolithic era.
Sapere Aude
So what is the methodology for this study? I can't find it online.
Here's something interesting. I mentioned this to one of my endos and the med student assisting her and they both acted completely unsurprised. Albany Medical School seems to have a top notch endocrinology program don'tcha think?
Other studies have found that the death of a loved one leads to increased incidence of depression.
Granted, obvious result is obvious, but efforts to quantify results and try to better understand the degrees we're talking about actually are useful. When you consider what happens when a layman reads the DSM for the first time and diagnoses himself with everything in there, it helps to remember that quantifying things is the real trick.
I absolutely agree, Colleen, but that's not the point. Too many people think that the emotional changes from starting HRT are merely relief or elation from STARTING HRT, not a physiological reaction. I've known doctors and even trans people who thought so. It's obvious to most of us, but non obvious to the majority.
My psychiatrist said that GD explains most of my problems. She also explained to me that hit will resolve most of not all of my issues or at least take the edge of most. I don't believe it to be a big secret.
It did certainly help me!
Joelene