Hi Friend, a tiny caveat I haven't seen mentioned: cats are unable to metabolize minoxidil, and even a tiny amount of topical minoxidil such as from laying on your pillow can be dangerous for them. Oral minoxodil avoids this problem, but causes increased body hair as well. A bonus for some people, but maybe not for folks on this sub in particular.

Thanks for saying this. It feels like there's a eugenicist bent to the conversation around this kid, which feels like it should be alarming to anyone who is queer-adjacent.

Most people with CP have no marked cognitive disability. Perhaps twice as many don't as do. Just among the subset of people with CP who have difficulty speaking, a significant number will be related to muscle control issues rather than cognition, and even among those with language disorders there may not be other marked cognitive disability... Just someone who can't speak

You know what they say: Two is a coincidence, three is a pattern. Have you or your children had your endogenous testosterone levels checked?

Knowing you have higher than usual endogenous testosterone for someone assigned female at birth does not confirm that someone is or isn't trans. But it could help you understand why this issue seems to run in your family.

Cis men post circumcision experience desensitization compounded by keratinization. I.e., protected, hyper-sensitive mucosa becomes more like normal skin.

I'm not aware of any research on this in trans men or detransitioned women, but thought I'd point out the potential parallels.

Hi there! Testosterone per se does not increase the risk of uterine cancer. Excess testoterone, on the other hand, is converted by the body to estrogen. If your body is not also making progesterone at normal female levels, the estrogen can increase your uterine cancer risk.

All that said, your risk is low. Only one case reported, ever, in scientific journals. See this article from UCSF. (Edit: Endometrial cancer is the most common type of uterine cancer, and what people are usually referring to.)

If you're worried about it, folks who keep more moderate T levels would be at less hypothetical risk than folks with higher T levels, because it's the high levels that trigger aromatization. Same idea for folks who avoid the once a month spikes by doing weekly shots or using patches or gel. But this is not a "you must do this" sort of surgery. And even if it were, you could still opt out.

Your body, your choice.

Please let me know if I can be of further help.

Approximately 1 in 10 American women have a condition called PCOS, often undiagnosed. The most obvious symptoms is abnormal, irregular, or heavy periods. Among trans men, this may be as high as 1 in 2. That's not to say that having PCOS invalidates anyone's trans identity--the only reason we don't consider it an intersex condition is because it is so common. However, you asked if something else might be "bubbling" underneath, and PCOS could be almost literally bubbling.

I can't give you medical advice over the internet, just information, but it sounds like you are on the right track here. Someone who has been without a period and starts bleeding unexpectedly should talk to their doctor. It sounds like you've already done that, but talking to them again about this specific risk couldn't hurt.

You're probably thinking of spironolactone? It's generally not damaging to kidney health. It does have hormone-like (or perhaps better put, anti-hormone-like) affects on the kidneys, in a way that causes you to pee out more salt + more water. So you're definitely not imagining that there is an affect. It just isn't a particularly dangerous one. I get it being scary, though. My husband gave away one of his kidneys, and while I'm super proud of him, I'm also like, dude you only have two! It wasn't exactly extra!

Now, on the cancer part, you actually might be on to something. It hasn't been linked to cancer in humans, but it has in animal models. So, that's always something to consider. Most folks aren't aware. The general medical consensus is, "don't use it unless you need it." What exactly it means to need it comes down to what alternatives are available for a given indication in a given patient. Sometimes, it is still the best option. It's used far more for cis patients than for trans folks.

"You can only ban safe abortion."

As a medical professional, I have concerns about the amount of DIY in the trans community. If the gatekeepers shut the gate entirely, folks will go around back and climb over the wall. Plenty are already doing it.

Despite the rampant and ultimately justified rumors of his own issues vis-a-vis memory loss and confusion, President Reagan suffered a near-fatal lack of interest in or empathy for people suffering from mental health problems. And I mean literally near-fatal, given that he was almost assassinated by a man with schizophrenia.

One particular pet project of his, both as California governor and later as U.S. president, was the de-funding of programs to proactively treat mental health disorders, shifting the emphasis from social safety nets and mental heathcare to jails and law enforcement. I'll note here that this approach did not save taxpayers any money. But what is more relevant to your situation is that community programs for the promotion of mental health and prevention and treatment of disorders, part of the Mental Health Systems Act of 1980, were repealed at Reagan's urging in 1981.

There are lots of ways to answer your question, but I think this one might be best: What if, instead of two years after you inquired about HRT, you'd been able to get mental healthcare preventatively two years before? If care were more readily accessible, I don't think you'd be here to ask this question. The ACA (aka Obamacare) helped, to be sure. But the 30+ years we lost to Reagan are time we can't get back. I'm sorry for how it's affected you.