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Medical Question....

Started by Vincent E.S., August 23, 2011, 11:40:28 PM

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Vincent E.S.

This isn't a question about trans-related medical stuff, but it is about my reproductive system. If any of you have experience or knowledge, either personal or from/about someone else, please help me with this. My doctors are all confused as well.

So, I am a female-to-male transsexual who is pre-op, pre-hormones, pre-everything. For what it's worth, I do not currently take any medications and haven't for a while. I don't smoke cigarettes or do any sort of drugs (including marijuana). The only times I drink alcohol are with  parental supervision and I only ever have about a quarter of a serving, while eating a large meal. Now that that's out of the way, time for the situation.

I hit puberty at about age 11 and it progressed perfectly normally. My menstrual cycle became regular just as it should and everything was exact, average, and "by the book" both in terms of overall timing (stages of puberty) and the timing when referring to my period. But then, about two years into puberty, everything started slowing down and (to some extent) reversing. My cycle got more and more irregular, and I got periods further and further apart until they just stopped. Meanwhile, my secondary sex characteristics stopped changing into feminine ones and started becoming masculine, but not all the way like a transman on testosterone, the masculinization continued just until I reached a fairly ambiguous state, then it stopped too.. For example, my fat distribution is not like that of a female, but also not like that of a male. Instead, it's somewhere in the middle, kind of a hybrid mix between the two.
It's almost like I started to go through puberty again, but as a male, but without any hormone treatment.
On the one hand, I am somewhat happy because I don't have to deal with periods, and the secondary characteristics issue helps me to pass because I come off as so androgynous (but apparently leaning towards masculine)that people will accept any gender someone tells them as the correct one. But on the other hand, I know that this could mean a pretty serious medical condition of some sort, and that something is definitely wrong.
I haven't had a period for a little over two years now. I haven't had any strong pain. Every now and then, I'll get a dull ache in my back down near the "floating" ribs, but that's it and it doesn't happen that often. My mother took my to a gyn who prescribed me some sort of female hormone type thing in order to jumpstart my mentruation, but it didn't work. Then the gyn put me on a birth control pill for the same idea. It didn't work either. Both "treatments" just gave me absolutely terrible side effects, one of which was extreme pain in that general area.
To make things even more bizarre, when I got my hormone levels tested, it was discovered that my DHEA level was ridiculously high, my estrogen and progesterone were a bit low, and my androgen levels were quite high.
I've heard that stress can make you miss your periods, but I'm always stressed and the time when I had the most stress was during the time just before and during my time of normal puberty. Since then, I'm been much calmer and more relaxed.

Any ideas of what it could be, or what I should ask the doctor to check for?

EDIT: I was talking about this with a transwoman earlier today and she suggested that it may be some sort of intersexed type condition, or something similar to that. Would that actually fit, though?
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Alexmakenoise

I can think of possibilities, but I'm not a doctor.  You should see an endocrinologist who specializes in this kind of thing, probably one who is knowledgeable about intersex conditions.  It sounds like something unusual enough that a regular gyn wouldn't know what to look for.
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Sharky

Similar thing happened to me. The doctor just said it was PCOS, they scanned for cysts didn't find any. I had high T, I don't think she checked anything else. The doctor said the diagnoses didn't really matter because the treatment was the same. She actually refused to tell me how high my T levels were. I took an estrogen based birth control for years. The side effects sucked. I was only 14, but I wish I stood up for myself. But it made my mom shut up about laser hair removal and surgery. Im under the impression if you have had a period before, then you can't be intersexed.
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Vincent E.S.

Quote from: Sharky on August 24, 2011, 05:24:15 PM
Similar thing happened to me. The doctor just said it was PCOS, they scanned for cysts didn't find any. I had high T, I don't think she checked anything else. The doctor said the diagnoses didn't really matter because the treatment was the same. She actually refused to tell me how high my T levels were. I took an estrogen based birth control for years. The side effects sucked. I was only 14, but I wish I stood up for myself. But it made my mom shut up about laser hair removal and surgery. Im under the impression if you have had a period before, then you can't be intersexed.

The gyn my mother took me to said that it wasn't PCOS (my mom was particularly worried about that, so she asked). My T has never been high, though. The doctor who ordered the hormone test (a full hormone panel) had a bunch of other doctors look at my results and apparently my hormone levels were like those of a girl who had been bulimic for several years, but I've never had bulimia.

That's what I thought about being intersexed, but since she said that, I wasn't sure if there could have been some weird partial thing.
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Vincent E.S.

Quote from: Alexmakenoise on August 24, 2011, 12:14:27 AM
I can think of possibilities, but I'm not a doctor.  You should see an endocrinologist who specializes in this kind of thing, probably one who is knowledgeable about intersex conditions.  It sounds like something unusual enough that a regular gyn wouldn't know what to look for.

I don't really have a doctor at the moment. Do you think I should tell my gender therapist? She may know someone to refer me to.
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Alexmakenoise

Yes, your gender therapist could refer you to an endocrinologist.  That would be a good place to start.

And not all intersex conditions prevent you from having periods, or have obvious effects on the genitals.  For an example, see nonclassic congenital adrenal hyperplasia:

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/congenital-adrenal-hyperplasia/DS00915/DSECTION=symptoms
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Pinkfluff

Biology isn't my area, but it seems to me like it would fit to be some kind of intersex condition.

You should definitely see an endo. Get a referral to one so that you get a good one.
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