ForeverCurious

ok, so I was watching this episode of law & order SVU and it had the main topic of a guy who was beaten and hurt sexually and they think that his son who wanted to be a daughter was tied to it. I cant remember the term but its where someone thinks they were born the wrong sex. it got me thinking... if transsexuals can can change themselves from female to male or male to female.... why the hell cant us pcos'ers friggin be fixed to be what we were born to be?

I dont remember ever seeing mention of HRT on SC before... but Im curious if this is something that could actually help with pcos symptoms? I did some reading on the whole process and was talking to a friend about it and I just think that if they can turn a guy into a chick, why cant they turn a girl with more male hormones into more of a "female", shape wise, body/facial hair wise and etc?

anyways it got me thinking that maybe some cysters are already doing this or have done it so I wanted to post and see if anyone has seriously looked into this before or done it and what their experiences has been?

I'm really thinking about bringing it up to my dr next apt...

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August

I think the word is transsexual or transgendered. I think that a cyster (who was willing to be open minded and respectful) could probably learn a thing or two (at least) from the male to female (MTF) transsexuals. I think that there is a certain area of the brain that has specific characteristics for men vs females as seen on an MRI but that if you take a MRI of the brain of a MTF Transgendered person that area of the brain will very likely look like a female's MRI. My understanding is that often they use some of the same medications (especially the anti-androgens) as we do. They also very often take estrogen or other female hormones - that is probably an area of knowledge and a possible treatment option that a lot of women with PCOS might benefit from learning more about.

MTF transexuals probably have some of the same emotional responses to their condition as we have to having PCOS and probably some of the same or similar insecurities re: feeling like a "real woman" and being treated a valued as a "real women" etc. If you think that the world can be unkind to you because of your physical symptoms of PCOS - you probably have not experienced anything close to what transgendered people experience.

Probably the main thing that does not translate well from what transexuals do with medication to what we do has to do with insulin resistance - which is very important in understanding PCOS and may be close to the root cause. Often in women with PCOS if you can improve insulin resistance with drugs, diet exercise or perhaps alternative treatment - or some combination -you will be rewarded with lower androgen (male hormone) levels and better balance of sex hormones.

August

Regarding HRT - one could think of birth control pills as a form of HRT - although the possibilities for HRT for women with PCOS are limited to BCP's - for example you could take one of the various forms of bio-identical progesterone with or without a bio-identical estrogen product. I actually know that I have low estrogen levels and I use hormonal contraceptives as part of the treatment for that - the other thing that I take is a little extra bio-identical estradiol (estrogen). If you are interested in learning more about how female hormone affect PCOS and the possibility of using HRT (when appropriate) as part of a PCOS treatment you might want to look into reading the some of the books by Dr Vliet - there is one specifically on PCOS called “The Savvy Woman’s Guide to PCOS” and there is or will be one on estrogen too called "The Savvy Woman's Guide to Estrogen".