So, I made the step of visiting a therapist, and since I seem to be a clear case, I could probably get on T within a half year. Yeah. But I have worries regarding the fact that I suffer from Visual Snow, and wonder if T could have negative effects on it. Since Visual Snow is just as rare as being trans, doctors don't have any experiences. So, is here ANYONE having Visual Snow and got on T then, and can tell me if anything bad happened?

It seems to me that if nobody knows the effects, the decision ought to be up to you whether you want to risk it or not.  If you're in the US and you run into trouble with people not wanting to give you a prescription, you could always go the informed consent route.  Some Planned Parenthood clinics offer HRT for trans people, and they do informed consent.

This really needs to be discussed with your doctor but searching the internet, I didn't find this to be gender related. I did find that it could be migraine related so if anything, it's possible that T might benefit you as migraines seems to be more likely with estrogen.

I get it sometimes.  I also have chronic migraines, however I have never noticed any direct connection.

I don't think I have noticed it that much since goin back on T in December. I have been super stressed about other stuff, so I am not sure if I would have even taken note of it, though.

I did have a neurologist tell me that visual effects like snow, static, auras, spots and so on are actually pretty common. He said it was only important if it was disruptive or associated with migraine. Not sure if that is correct thought.

Yeah, it is or rather was thought to be migraine related - in a way - but still different. I myself never had migraine-ish headaches. I might have had one event of migraine aura, but it's not 100% sure if it was that or a severe panic attack, but it's ages ago anyway. Currently, Visual Snow is linked to hypermetabolism in the right lingual cortex. The question would be if T could affect this in any way, if they have an idea about it at all, as the brain and medications effects on it are not fully understood yet. I wouldn't get any problems getting on T, doctor's are even rather ignorant towards VS. Whenever I asked if certain medicaton could affect it in a bad way, doctors where  just like "Don't think so, just go for it.". I want to ask my doctor if he can contact on the doctors from the VS study to ask what he thinks. But since it's not so common it remains a lot of guesswork.

I used to get a lot of migraines before T. There's a proven link to headache and migraine with high estrogen, isn't there? Since T though, I've had only one migraine in well over a year - the only one I've ever had with aura. It's killed them off I reckon.

Since my next doctors appointment is still weeeeeeks away, I googled a bit myself.

- Visual Snow, according to the LATEST study, is linked to hypermetabolism in the right lingul gyrus.
- The right lingual gyrus does have plenty of androgen receptors - would'nt that mean, T would get in there? Of course even that wouldn't necesary mean that it will have any effect on the VS, but I'd say that sounds like it will get in there.
- I found a study about cis-kids, that during adolescence, testosterone in boys increases activity in the right lingual gyrus (yes, that very brain region), and estrogen in girls decreases the activity. This did lean boys and girls to perceive interpret visual stimuli a little bit different. I wonder through what activity means, 'cause it doesn't necesarry have to mean metabolism. Good thing to mention is, I'm part of VS groups all over the internet since a decade, and I never ha the impression hat one gender is more affected than the other.

Oh and before someone mentions to ask in the VS groups - yeah, of course I thought about it, but I'm worries about transphobic responses, especially 'cause many VS sufferers have severe health anxiety, which I can understand very well, but many guys and girls like to scare others with that crap.

Please keep our thumbs crossed that any of my doctors would contct the doctor working on the VS study, 'cause this makes me so damn worried! I have sleepness nights 'cause I'm worried that I might be unable to transition only 'cause of that damn thing!

While it may be best not to mention this in your discussion group, should you decide to there may be a way to do it. Consider if testosterone makes a difference, it's possible other drugs might work the same way. Spiro is used to block testosterone so might have the same effect. A possible treatment might be of sufficient interest to overcome personal bias.

idk if this helps,
but i never suffered from both migraines and eye floaters/Myodesopsia in my whole life.
Since i started T i started suffering from both. Eye floaters are black in my case, and stay there the whole time. They are pretty annoying - but they should be free of consequences, if i understood correctly.

I told my doctors about it. Nobody linked that to T (but they just were not there before, so i "know" it was T). I now know they just won't go away, so i must live with em. I am trying to ignore them each time i can, i just hope they won't get worse.

rory, thanks for your reply. I have floaters as well. they are not related to VS and something the majority of people get sooner or later in life, so your doctors are probably right about it having nothing to do with T. I got floaters very early in life, which is typical for near-sighted people. And yeah, they can be bothersome, but become almost never a serious issue. I know some folks who got them laserd (Lasik) and all say it's not even worth it, 'cause noe they see worse. So as long it's not really a problem I woukd leave the floater buddies alone. A pair of good, dark sunglasses are helpful on suny days in my experience!

Quote from: JumpingPancakeFrog on March 18, 2018, 01:01:43 PM
rory, thanks for your reply. I have floaters as well. they are not related to VS and something the majority of people get sooner or later in life, so your doctors are probably right about it having nothing to do with T. I got floaters very early in life, which is typical for near-sighted people. And yeah, they can be bothersome, but become almost never a serious issue. I know some folks who got them laserd (Lasik) and all say it's not even worth it, 'cause noe they see worse. So as long it's not really a problem I woukd leave the floater buddies alone. A pair of good, dark sunglasses are helpful on suny days in my experience!

Thank you for your reply! I heard that floaters sometimes come because of issues with the collagen in The eye.  since t is well known to hinibit collagen synthesis, I think it could maybe have been a trigger for them in my case. But I am ignoring them and that's all! I also am experiencing a pain in my eye, which in bothersome, but the eye doctor says it's not dependent on my eyes, and the neurologist says it's not something to be referred to him... I am starting to think it's the edema I get in my eyelids which causes troubles! But that's a different topic