So because getting to see the GIC is seemingly impossible, we are currently being prescribed three things by gender G.P (who have become decreasingly helpful over time):
- Finasteride (started 2-ish years ago)
- Estrogen patches (started 2-ish years ago)
- Progesterone (started a year in)
Current prescription states:
- Finasteride - 5mg taken in the morning, once daily
- Estrogen patches - 150mcg released over 24 hours, changed twice weekly.
- Progesterone suppository - 200mg taken once daily in the evening
We were watching a video debunking sci-show’s video about HRT and it said that finasteride is a not an AA and effectively only stops hair loss (which we don’t think we had before starting).
We have some problems as our chest seems to have either stopped developing or ran into problems and seems to have developed tubular breasts syndrome (they’re an okay size but a bit triangular and don’t look quite ‘right’ to us) but we aren’t sure if this is because we did something wrong or not?
So our questions are:
- Should we stop our current regimen of finasteride?
- Did we start taking progesterone too early?
- Will our chest continue to grow and work its way out of this shape/problem?
I don’t know much about finasteride, but if you are worried about it not properly suppressing your t, then I think it would be a good idea to get it tested.
Also breasts come in many different shapes, so it is possible that there is nothing wrong with them. I had a period of time where I thought my breasts were weird too, and it seems like that is not an uncommon experience.
Boobs grow in mysterious ways, stopping and starting throughout life. Another thing to consider is putting on a bit of weight, even temporarily. It might help fill things out a bit.
I am not a trans woman but I was hoping I could chip in with a bit about Finasteride as I used to be on it.
Finasteride is not a general anti androgen, but it does block DHT, which is what some T gets converted to and is the most potent/effective form of T. I’m a guy and I was briefly on it for hair loss but I stopped because it made me depressed (dysphoria) and I also felt a little weaker. So at least from my experience, I would call it an anti-androgen, even if it works specifically against DHT.
One side effect of finasteride reported by some men taking it is breast development, so I would be very surprised if it has anything to do with what you are noticing with your chest.
Have you had a blood test recently? If that’s all good, breast growth can take a long time (several years), and ofc the full extent of it varies from person to person.
Stopping or stalling development in the second or third tanner stage isn’t uncommon. There’s woefully little study of how different medication combinations affect our bodies, but Powers suggests progesterone (p2) when attempting to continue breast development if you’ve stalled. But you’re doing that.
It may make sense to ramp up estrogen to a method with more bioavailability. I don’t know what the bioavailability of patches is, but I know that sublingual is more effective than oral, and that intramuscular estradiol valerate has the highest bioavailability. I jumped straight to injections, but I’d probably ramp up from a lower dose and availability if i were starting again, to mimic typical puberty.
We have informed consent in Massachusetts, so we have a lot of options if you find a cooperative doctor.
I also use bicalutamide to reduce testosterone rather than more common AAs, because it isn’t a diuretic.
Obviously you’d have to talk to your doctor, but that’s some of what I gathered in the course of my own transition.
Thanks!
Our E seemed pretty high before (on 200mcg daily) so we’re guessing the bioavaliability was fine but perhaps.
We can maybe get sublingual, but injections are out of the question as one of us has a fear of needles so couldn’t do it ourselves and the one GP surgery we’re legally allowed to go to, (we have weird rules in the UK) are pretty useless in this area because they have no easy way to be contacted and when they are they keep wanting information and so we send them the information via the one email address they are allowed to be contacted via (this GP surgery is really bad for communication) and then they ask us to physically bring in the information we have already sent them and we don’t understand why. Family are somewhat transphobic, so we doubt they’d help and we don’t really have friends we could see regularly enough.
Gender GP which is a business are the only effective way for us to get all the hormones we need at the moment but as we said, they are pretty bad at communicating, hopefully the GIC (Gender Identity Clinic) contacts us but they’re overworked and have a longgggggg waiting list, so not much of a chance there, the only other thing we could do is go DIY but as might be seen from our post we need someone to liase with and to keep us safe since we don’t know how to interpret the results ourselves.
We really appreciate the information though.
We could try talking to the local doctors again but considering how they soft ignore our requests (they talk to us and then do nothing with the information we give them) we don’t hold out much hope.
Unfortunately it’s really difficult to quantity how medication is going to affect you, as it’s different for everyone. I have had really good results with Cyproterone for an AA, and I switched from patches to pills about 2 years into HRT because I was forgetting to change them.
Progesterone has unclear effects, so it’s hard to say you started it “too early”. I don’t think there’s harm in starting earlier, but there’s not much research into it so it’s hard to say.
Breast growth can last up to 5 years, but you may want to manage your expectations around it. Breasts come in all shapes and sizes, and yours isn’t ‘wrong’. Everyone is different - for me, they are quite shallow and learning to love my body has been a really difficult journey.
