Most intriguing...
I sometimes get the nagging feeling that the annoying things I used to suffer from when I was a boy with stunted growth and staggered puberty, is what I may re-encounter if I go on HRT.
1. My hands look ancient as they used to crack and bleed all the time up until I was about 22. Skin also very dry & itchy on extremities and legs, but soft on face and torso.
2. I've always had "bad circulation" as well, meaning I get cold very easily, and the cold seems to sink deep into my body, so I quickly feel agitated and tired when cold.
3. Blood pressure has always been low. When I donate blood - the nurses make me lie down, and ply me with biscuits and sweet tea BEFORE donating, as well as after :p
Oddly though, estrogen is supposed to generate effects the opposite to those. So perhaps I'd potentially actually benefit instead??
1. Despite skin-thinning, women's soft skin is supposed to be more supple and thus less prone to ageing and cracking. Though damage to the skin may be easier to cause.
2. Subcutaneous fat retains more heat which can protect the muscles as they vent alot of heat. (perhaps why women can stand wearing short skirts and no tights in winter?)
3. Estrogen slows the metabolism and thickens the blood, hence blood pressure can tend to be higher for women, on average.
So, ultimately.... nothing makes sense. Despite proven evidence about how male and female bodies work regarding its structure and endocrine systems - when exposed to HRT, trans* patients' bodies seem to behave and react at random, rather than following the documented paths and behaving in the documented ways.
I'm amazed just how varied each report is regarding HRT's effects. There appears to be no rhyme nor reason, ultimately. The understood models of how bodies should react to hormone washes don't seem to apply when it comes to HRT. The body's natural reactions to dealing with cross-hormones, and its ability to work with them in a predictable fashion, seem to break-down resulting in a random plethora of effects, that for some are exactly what they want, and for others, renders them incapacitated in many ways. Medical transitioners are un-witting pioneers in the science of gender and biology. Soooo much can be learnt from trans* patients' reactions to HRT. The effects could perhaps answer so many questions about what happens when external hormonal influences enter our bodies.
I don't think there's a better way to play blindfold biological Russian roulette with your body, than to take HRT and see whether you kill yourself or ruin your functioning-form in the process. The effects produced seem to be as wildly different and extreme (if not more so) than the effects from, say, taking illegal street-drugs at a nightclub. It seems to easier to predict what ecstasy or magic-mushrooms could do to your body, than to predict what could happen on HRT. And that's SCARY.
I wish cis-people and society realised that being transgender is such a real and devastating affliction that sane people are willing to play Russian roulette because they feel they have no other choice. Perhaps society would then realise that trans* people don't need and cant stand social, economic and religious issues heaped on top of that stark issue. Hats off to all those that are brave enough to transition via HRT, doesn't matter if you felt forced into it, you're still riding a sh*tstorm on purpose & continuing to go through with it. That's brave in my book.
