Has anyone transitioned or known anyone that has transitioned with cancer? Did it mess up starting hrt or knock you off it? If it is melenoma, did that (or would that) negate the possibility of srs given they need that skin?

Is there a point of even trying to transition if you MIGHT have only a couple years left? Ten years left?

The disease may have a psychological component.

There are books written by an author called Luise Hay. They were read a few million times.
She had that herself and developed a few strategies which helped her.
Basically its lettting completely go of anger, resentment and other negative feelings.
Some people made serious changes to their lives.

As said many people reported it helped.


Some other people reported a nutrition with added tomatoes helped.
There are studies showing that there are components inside tomatoes which indeed might be helpful.
Raw tomatoes with oil for better absorption, or slightly cooked.
Additionally there might be a factor of happiness from hrt which might be helpful.
Talk this all through with your doc.

Concerning skin imo grafts can be taken from elsewhere. It just leaves a scar then...
usually surgeons take skin from the groin and try to hide it in a fold.


Well the future is for you to write...
there are people who have transitioned in their 80s.
Do you intuitively feel there would be more happiness if you transition ?


*hugs*

i should have noted that i'm not writing this about me. Someone i knew recently died of melanoma. Just got me wondering.

Hi Bridget,

I'm not 100% sure how cancer treatment would affect HRT, but several cancers do have a hormonal component which could potentially be helped with transgender HRT. Indeed, one of the primary 'on-label' uses for cyproterone acetate is in fact to treat prostate cancer; its use as an antiandrogen for MtF spectrum people (though very common) is really completely "unofficial" as far as the pharmaceutical companies are concerned!

As for whether it would be worth transitioning if you knew you didn't have much time left... I've spent the last 8 years building up the courage to transition, scared how others would react, what if it is a mistake... the usual doubts, fears, what-ifs. Any time in that 8 years, it is quite possible that I could have lost my life in an accident, or suddenly passed away, and not even my close friends would have really got to know the real me. Yet had I been diagnosed with a terminal illness, I've positive the very next sentence to my friends and family after "I'm sick..." would have been "I've decided to transition". I'm finally doing it now, so better late than never, but thinking about this really brings it home for me. Life's too short; we really do need to make the most of every minute.

Hi Bridget,

I am an science oncologist in a specialised area of cancer. I am not a specialist in melanoma.

But melanoma would not be a contraindication to HRT.

Very few cancers would be, breast and prostate obviously may be.

To be honest if we can put a patient into a good place where they want to live that would negate most side effects.

(I posted a long while ago about doing a clinic with an elderly presenting male who had asked to see me. He had refused treatment for his lymphoma. He held my hands as he told me he was a she and wanted to meet the transgender doctor he had heard about. He thanked me and hoped one day everyone would be accepted. But for her the fight was over.)

I went to her funeral and never let her secret out, of course.