We Are Guinea Pigs

There isn’t much research in the off label use for Cross Gender Hormones for us, so we are the researchers guinea pigs.

This is from a 2014 article that is worth repeating…

Largest Study to Date: Transgender Hormone Treatment Safe
Medscape Medical News
By Kathleen Louden
July 02, 2014

CHICAGO — Cross-sex hormone treatment of transgender adults leads to very few long-term side effects, according to the authors of the largest study to date to examine this issue.

More than 2000 patients from 15 US and European centers participated in the retrospective study, called Comorbidity and Side Effects of Cross-Sex Hormone Treatment in Transsexual Subjects, and nearly 1600 received at least 1 year of follow-up, the authors reported.

"Our results are very reassuring," principal investigator Henk Asscheman, MD, PhD, who heads HAJAP, his clinical research company in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, told Medscape Medical News. "There are mostly minor side effects and no new [adverse events] observed in this large population."

Some of the results that they found were,
Venous Thromboembolism Lower Than Prior Reports

The primary serious side effect, venous thromboembolism, occurred in 1% of persons undergoing male-to-female (MTF) transgender transition and was due to estrogen treatment.

Dr. Asscheman said although this incidence is still high, it is lower than reported in the past.

For us ladies the areas of concern are…

Type 2 diabetes 3.2%
Morbid obesity 2.5%
Prostate cancer 0.4%

Yes, we have to have our Prostate checked! There still is a slim chance but why gamble on your life?

For the guys the areas of concern are…

Morbid obesity 2.5%
Hypothyroidism 2.3%

The article mentions Hypothyroidism in trans males,

Unexpected Findings: Hypothyroidism and Male Cancers
An incidence of hypothyroidism greater than 2% in a population that was largely younger than 40 years is surprising, according to Dr. Asscheman, who said he would expect it to be closer to 1% in these younger adults.

What it all boils down to is “Treat the body, not the gender.”