#I'm thinking of course about that one post by the doctor about menopausal symptoms of cancer

[cervinelich]

PSA FOR TRANSMASCS

And afab people in general. There's gonna be some TMI here so I apologize in advance.

So, I was using some nipple suction things for sex reasons when I noticed that a tiny bead of sticky fluid had come out of one of my nipples - and, firstly, you should always tell your doctor if you are having nipple discharge.

I told my doctor about it and she referred me to get a mammogram and breast ultrasound because this can be a sign of cancer or infection. It can also be caused by hormone irregularity (for instance, if you are on testosterone).

Due to a bunch of insurance shit I wasn't able to get in to my mammogram/ultrasound until 5 months after the initial discharge and in the meantime I was still using the nipple suction bc 1. I like it and 2. I kind of had a morbid curiosity about the discharge tbh.

Here's the MOST important part.

It wasn't until I spoke to the ultrasound technician 5 months later that she told me under no circumstances should I be intentionally expressing the discharge.

My results all came back negative and it turns out it was just hormonal, however my regular doctor had not told me that expressing the discharge opens up your mammary ducts to infection. The more they open, the more likely they are to get infected. And, according to the technician, it is not easily treated with antibiotics and is extremely painful - and sometimes requires surgery.

Unfortunately for me this means no more suction devices, rip, but since my doctor had neglected to tell me about this I thought it was worth spreading the word.

#medical #afab #transmasc #psa #its always weird to me the way that every PCP who learns I'm on testosterone gives me weird condescending lectures #about how hormones affect the body and do I really know what I am doing #and yet there are constant never ending stories of doctors simply not telling afab people really basic warning signs about their bodies #I'm thinking of course about that one post by the doctor about menopausal symptoms of cancer #anyway if you are on testosterone this might happen to you and even if it is caused by hormones you should still tell your doctor #just in case

[overtlydinosaurian]

I'm reading this article about auto-immune diseases and especially how these disease seem to affect women FAR more than men (70%+ of people with auto immune diseases are women). The study suggests that this is likely due to the major changes in our hormone cycles we go through in our lives- primarily Puberty & Menopause, (and the more optional pregnancy & breastfeeding) and how those hormones interact with our immune system.

But it was this line in particular that got me thinking:

"Concentration-dependent effects of estrogen on the immune system; the role of progesterone, androgens, leptin, oxytocin, and prolactin; and the interplay between Th1 and Th2 immune responses together maintain a delicate balance between host defense, immunological tolerance and autoimmunity. "

I genuinely wonder what role HRT may play in autoimmune disease, and how 'gender affirming care' might unintentionally lead to autoimmune disease. After more research on this subject, it seems there are some small studies finding various auto-immune issues in transgender individuals after receiving HRT when they otherwise showed little to no genetic predispositions for said diseases. Even more curiously is one study noted that a MtF transitioner's disease IMPROVED after being administered testosterone saying: "One case report described significant improvement of cutaneous lupus in a transgender woman after initiating testosterone treatment"

I found another article saying:

The research, led by the Murdoch Children's Research Institute (MCRI) and published in Clinical Epigenetics, found that hormone therapy could affect certain regions of DNA, [which is] the first step in understanding how [HRT] may impact the immune system. The researchers have begun to tease apart whether the hormone therapy influences immune function and susceptibility to autoimmune disease or infection risk, which affects the sexes differently.

So already some people are noticing a connection between hormones, the immune system, and auto-immune diseases. However there's little, if any, research on this topic, with the known information being anecdotes.

"For example, a young person with a strong family history of autoimmune disease may wish to know if hormonal therapy will increase or decrease their risk of developing disease. Others may worry about hormones altering their susceptibility to infections, which is relevant given the current COVID-19 pandemic. At this stage, we don't know the answers to such questions..."

This article is from 2022, and as of the time I posted this it's 2023. With the increase in trans people seeking medical transition it's scary to see a complete lack of research and knowledge on this subject. A journal from Frontiers published in summer of 2022 says that most research on auto-immune diseases (despite the massive sex discrepancy) is focused on male, cis-gendered men. The journal's abstract also points out the truth that's starting to become more and more apparent:

There is an unmet need for detailed treatment follow-up of the transgender community- little is known of the potential benefits and risks of hormonal supplementation on the immune system, nor indeed on many other health and disease outcomes.

We don't even know if HRT can affect one's ability to heal from infections, and seeing as many who start on HRT later go on to have surgeries that are often quite invasive and have a long arduous healing process, this is very worrying.

Sure, all medications have side-effects. Sure, people are willing to put up with said side-effects so long as they don't face the original symptoms that they're treating. But when is it too much? That doctors are harming their patients? Of course, we just don't know the full effects and correlation, but what we do know is worrying.

Once again, trans healthcare is under-funded, under-researched, and could potentially lead to undue harm, putting thousands at a risk they aren't even aware of. Is it really informed consent if we don't know the side-effects? is it really informed consent if we're learning the effects as we go along?

Sources below the cut:

https://www.mcri.edu.au/news-stories/gender-affirming-hormone-therapy-can-influence-gene-activity (no embed 😢)

#radical feminism #transgender healthcare #radblr #autoimmune disease #medical misogyny #medical transphobia #medical system kills #the data gap #invisible women #radical feminists do interact