Hormones and Transsexual women
Most men who are looking to find and date a Transsexual woman on iDateTranssexual know about the various operations Trans women undergo. They are aware of breast implant surgery, facial feminization and gender confirmation surgeries, for example.
Many men have also heard that most T-girl take hormones to enhance their feminine appearance. This is often called Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT). But what does this really entail and what exactly does taking female hormones achieve?
It’s difficult to suddenly start asking a Transsexual woman you have just met on iDateTranssexual all about what hormones she is taking or how her HRT is progressing. In the US, UK, Europe and non-Asian countries, the ingestion of hormones is tightly regulated and courses are prescribed by specialist doctors. Dosage can depend on things such as an individual’s body weight, stature and metabolism. HRT course are carefully monitored.
Transsexual women take a “cocktail” of hormones during HRT
Without getting overly technical and/or complicated let’s have a look at some of the hormones your Trans friend or girlfriend may be taking or thinking about taking.
But, firstly, let’s consider how do Transsexual women take hormones?
As with many medicines (as that’s what hormones essentially are), T-girls take female hormones either by injection or orally. Or they can use patches which can be placed on their arms or stomach or gels which are rubbed on to the lower stomach.
An injection is a preferred method as this gets the hormones into the bloodstream quicker. If a Transsexual woman decides to take tablets orally then the dosage has to be higher as much of the effective content is absorbed by the liver before circulation around the body. This is not always great for the liver (as with many other medicines!). Yet many times people prefer to overlook this. Tablets may be synthetic (chemically made) or bio-identical which have more similarities to the human body, often being made from plants or natural products.
Most Transsexual women will take at least two types of hormones, an estrogen and anti-androgen. However, this largely depends on their medical adviser or their own objectives. It can also depend on their own genetic make-up (for example how much natural body hair they have). Or, as mentioned above, the dosage can also be affected by their stature, bodyweight etc.
Summary of three types of hormones for Transsexual women
Here are the types of hormones typically taken by a Transsexual woman:
- Estrogen: the main effects of estrogen are to soften the skin and eliminate some of the harshness associated with male features and skin types. It also helps stimulate the growth of breast tissue and works on redistributing fat to, for example, the hips. This helps give the Trans women a more feminine shape. Some well-known brand names which your T-girl friend may be using include Estradiol, Estraderm or Climera;
- Anti-androgens: these drugs help to hamper growth of body hair and eliminate the effects of male pattern baldness. Obviously, both effects are very important to all Transsexual women. Shaving and facial hair is the bane of many T-girls. No Trans woman wants to have a “five o’clock shadow”. And most men do not want their very feminine beautiful T-girls to have one either! The natural lack of body hair is one of the key advantages most Asian Transgender women have over their non-Asian counterparts.
Having long hair is the aspiration of almost all (younger) women. If you are looking to date a Trans woman with a beautiful mane of glossy hair, you hope that she is going to be able to keep it for the long term. Enter the anti-androgens! Common anti-androgens include Aldactone, Spironolactone or Finasteride;
- Progesterone: this is often an “optional” hormone which will only be prescribed to a Transsexual woman after consultation with a specialized doctor. As one of its main objectives is to effectively neutralize the effects of testosterone in a (male) body, progesterone can have major side-effects. There might be some swelling of the breast tissue but this is usually temporary. However, the main effect of taking progesterone is loss of sex-drive and usually the inability to get or maintain an erection. Often the testes and penis will appear smaller in size too. For those T-girls who still have a penis and wish to use it in sexual activities, this is, clearly, not desirable!
As you can appreciate from reading the above, HRT can be quite complicated. It really is well worthwhile asking your Transsexual girlfriend or wife to make sure she is taking the right hormones and treatment. And in the right dosage. Most specialist doctors will set up a regular program of examinations tests to ensure that your Trans woman is staying healthy. It’s hard to generalize on possible side effects of mis-use of HRT but they can be serious. So, whenever you have got to know T-girl well on iDateTranssexual, do your best to find out what HRT regime she is working to. And that she is seeing a doctor regularly.
