My understanding is that the mechanism is different from bica, spiro, and cypro and that it's not really an anti-androgen, just something that can be used to supplement them. From what I can gather, finasteride stops your body from converting testosterone to DHT. DHT is a much stronger version of testosterone, which is converted from testosterone using a chemical called 5-α-reductase which is produced by the body. However, while DHT is stronger than testosterone, it doesn't travel around the body as easily and tends to concentrate in the places where it's made, which are the tissues that produce 5-α-reductase, and that's where it has noticeable effects. Finasteride works by reducing the amount of 5-α-reductase produced by the body, which reduces the amount of DHT in those tissues, essential reducing the effect of testosterone on those areas.
However, because the effects of DHT are local, the effects of finasteride are also limited to those tissues which produce 5-α-reductase (I think mainly hair follicles, but I'm sure other stuff too). Because of that, although it can help with hair loss, it doesn't really reduce the effects of testosterone on the rest of the body, and in fact it's primary use is for preventing hair loss in cis men, precisely because it doesn't reduce their testosterone. So you might take finasteride for hair loss or other stuff, but you still need another anti-androgen unless you're doing estradiol monotherapy.
As for bica, spiro, and cypro, bicalutamide works by just preventing testosterone from having any effect on your body, cyproterone acetate directly stops you from producing testosterone, and I think spironolactone actually works by a mixture of reducing how much testosterone you produce and reducing how much it's absorbed by the body, although I could be wrong about that.
Got my first laser session scheduled in a few weeks! Tbh I'm feeling kinda nervous since it's permanent and, unlike HRT, it's not gradual (well, it is, but hopefully each session should have a noticeable effect, so it's abrupt in that sense), so it's not like I can just "dip my toes into it" and stop if I don't like it; if after that first session I decide I actually don't want it, then that's still gonna be a bit of my beard gone forever. But on the other hand, I really want it gone. I'm blursed with dark hair and pale skin, so while that means that laser should be effective, it also means that no matter closely or recently I've shaved it's always visible, and I realized I haven't seen my own face without some kind of beard shadow in over a decade. So yeah, I'm pretty excited for laser. The downside is that I have to avoid all sun exposure on my face.
Friendly reminder that if you want to be a girl you can just be a girl. The deep state doesn't want you to know this but you can actually change your gender
What about reading weirdos on the internet argue with each other? Also, I wasn't expecting a phone quite that small, but now I kinda want one, if just as a toy.
a long post about myself and my thoughts on 1 month hrt
Deciding to actually transition was a huge step for me, and I'm kind of proud of myself. I'd known I was trans for a very long time but transitioning always felt like something impossible and always out of reach. When I was younger, I desperately wished I could transition, it was the only thing I really wanted, and the only way I could imagine a future for myself. But when I finished puberty, the shame, both over what had happened to my body and that I hadn't been strong enough to stop it, combined with the fact that "the worst had already happened" and metastasized into this kind of indifference. Transitioning never stopped being something that I knew I needed and wanted, but it was no longer something that I felt I needed in the immediate future, and I learned how to just passively live with my AGAB and to ignore what made me uncomfortable.
Eventually I realized what I was really doing was neglecting myself, and that I couldn't keep putting it off. When I realized that, and when I realized that I was now closer to 30 than 20 and had been living basically my entire life "on pause", that desperate need to transition came back and stronger than before. It was like I had been living in a filthy, dilapidated hovel the entire time but not realizing it until I turned on the lights.
So with all the courage and discipline I could muster, I climbed myself out of that mental hole and asked my physician for a referral. He said the wait time for gender services was about 1-2 years. When I heard that, part of me was devastated, but the other part was like "I know how to handle this", and I climbed back in that hole, turned the lights off again in my metaphorical hovel, and waited patiently.
It didn't work as well that time, and I made it 6 months before deciding to order diy off the internet. The day it arrived I received a phone call from the doctors office the gender clinic had begun offloading their wait list onto, asking to schedule an appointment. It was two more weeks of excruciating waiting and another week of getting blood tests and scheduling follow-up appointments before I finally started hormones.
It's been a month now, and I know I shouldn't be expecting much, but that burning desire to transition hasn't left and it's making me sad that not much has happened yet. On top of that, now that I'm actually paying attention to myself and my body, my coping mechanisms if dissociating or just ignoring or repressing my feelings aren't working and my dysphoria's worse than it's been in years. And that's good, those aren't healthy coping mechanisms and I don't want to rely on them and I don't want to hide from who I am anymore, but it's still hard.
But transitioning is self-care and self-care is hard. Even so, it's something I deserve and something I owe myself.
Part of the problem is that I live with my parents, and even though they know and are supportive, I still haven't properly come out to them, and I'm too scared to present more fem at home, which makes relieving the dysphoria harder, but writing this post I think I've figured out what I need to do.
At least now when I'm sad I can actually cry, which, as weird as it sounds, is wonderful.
Anyway, does anyone have recommendations for more stories/books like "Show Girl" by Alyson Greaves? I could use some happy trans wish fulfillment right now.
·1 year ago
·1 year ago
