Transmissions:
A tangled web of hair

Published 09/20/2012
by Gwendolyn Ann Smith

http://www.ebar.com/news/article.php?sec=news&article=68080

I'd forgotten all about this somewhat embarrassing moment in my life until recently, when the story of a woman named Mandi McKee started to hit the news. McKee was a guest last week on Anderson Cooper's talk show, Anderson Live.

McKee, a 38-year-old living in Tampa, Florida, began taking finasteride, the generic form of Propecia. The drug is primarily used to treat male pattern baldness. Not coincidentally, the drug is also said to have some anti-androgen properties, which have caused some to use it as part of hormone replacement therapy. In this use, it's a lot less effective than medications like spironolactone.

Yet, after some months of taking finasteride, McKee claimed her body was feminizing, that she was experiencing breast growth, and that her emotions were changing. Eventually, it all became too much for her and she sought out therapy and transitioned.

As you can guess, I have a lot of doubts with McKee's claims.