What happens after the end of the second year of hormonal transition, once all the doctors say you've seen everything you're going to see. Why is it that basically everyone sees... well, a heck of a lot more?
This week on #StainedGlassWoman, we're talking about Transition Timelines, and the science--and lack thereof--of later transition!
I didn't have much breast growth even with an aggressive HRT regimen at transition. Didn't want BA surgery. Eventually learned to appreciate my androgynous build. 3 decades(!) later there was a big spurt of growth, with no obvious cause (I hadn't changed E maintenance dosage or anything else related). Puzzled but pleased.
@Impossible_PhD thank you for both the "what" and the "why". I can't say I'm terribly surprised, but it does suck. Puts way too much demand on "community wisdom", which definitely sustained humanity for generations, but which we can out-do with science these days, given the will, the funding (just another kind of will), and the time.
@Specialist_Being_677 Agreed! And the hard part is that a lot of times, community wisdom and common sense (and this is WAY more than a trans community thing) have turned out to be nothing more than an instance of the correlation/causation fallacy.
It's such a frustrating place to be. We can build knowledge, but it's sooooo fucking slow.
Goddamn the quality of evidence is so shitty... and I was laughing at the idea that anyone thought cis puberty was as short as 2 years because have they ever observed a human?
It makes me laugh again at the levels targeted for my cis wife's post-hysto hrt... which is to say "what levels? oh that's all too varied to target anything, we go by feel"
@Impossible_PhD at 20 months into HRT this was exactly what I needed to read today.
I mean I already knew it - - I've also moaned about the short and tiny studies and paucity of data (I can't even find good information on trans breast development and tanner staging) - - but I needed to hear it again today.
Now it can just find a good paper to convince my endo that progesterone is worthwhile (she feels she ethically can't prescribe it, given the lack of data, but will help you find an endo that will, and she is happy to continue your care and accommodate your progesterone program) as I want to start sometime in my third year of hrt.
There is virtually no research that's more than an early slice of transition. Just doesn't exist.
On prog: maybe direct her to the WPATH Standards of Care v8 statement on it--which comes down to "there's no good data, but the risk is heckin' low, so it seems fine if people want it."
@Impossible_PhD@EmilyGB2023 My GP is skeptical about prog and doesn't recommend it. She says none of her patients that have tried it found any positive effect.
I think she would give me a script if I insisted. I'm just trying to work out at what point that would be a good idea...
I disagree. Having been part of the DIY community for a couple of years now, i've seen people collecting data and refining lore, building pharmokinetics models for estradiol esters, logging the effects over years, aggregating all sorts of things.
Don't discount the research done by trans folk, just because it's not academic.
@theartlav That research is not systemic, and is not done in a way where ethical, randomized participation can be ascertained. From a systematic scientific perspective?
It's a total waste. We won't be able to build on their results no matter what they find.
@Impossible_PhD Which is why the fight is to remove the doctors out of the equation. The system is not broken, it's working as intended, and needs to be dismantled. Building on top of it is a total waste.
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