Taken Care Of Ourselves

On a trans forum one time I posted about having our Prostate checked annually and I had a lot of backlash from the other members. But the reality is that we still have to check our legacy organs.

What Transgender Women Need to Know About Their Risk of Prostate Cancer
Self
By Korin Miller
July 21, 2017

It’s pretty well known that prostate cancer is a disease that should be on every man’s radar. After all, it's the most common cancer among American men, and an estimated 161,360 new cases of the disease are expected to be diagnosed this year, according to the American Cancer Society. But things are a little more muddled for transgender women—and experts say that trans women need to be aware of their prostate cancer risk.

Even people who have undergone gender-affirming surgery will typically still have a prostate, Zil Goldstein, assistant professor of medical education and program director for the Center for Transgender Medicine and Surgery at Mount Sinai Health System, tells SELF.

Prostate cancer can and does happen to transgender women. A 2013 case study published in the Canadian Urological Association Journal, for example, reports the case of a transgender woman who was diagnosed with metastatic prostate cancer (meaning, it had spread beyond her prostate to other parts of her body), 31 years after she transitioned. Another case study published in JAMA tells the story of a transgender woman who was diagnosed with prostate cancer 41 years after her transition.

And then for the heart…

Hormone Tx Tied to CVD Risk in Transgender Adults
Transgender health issues need more study
MedPage Today
By Kristen Monaco
July 24, 2017

Although cross-sex hormone therapy (CSHT) is tied with improved psychological well being in transgender persons, it may come with an increased risk for cardiovascular disease, researchers reported.

In a narrative review, CSHT was associated with increased cardiovascular (CVD) risk factors among transgender men (female to male), especially among those also on testosterone treatment. Such risk factors included increased blood pressure, insulin resistance, as well as lipid derangements, according to Carl G. Streed Jr., MD, of Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, and colleagues.

As for transgender women (male to female), there is a link between CSHT with an increased risk for thromboembolism, they wrote in the Annals of Internal Medicine.
[…]
Streed's group advised healthcare providers should monitor patients on CSHT closely given this increased CVD risk, and recommended patients consider lifestyle modifications, such as not smoking and a healthy diet, in order to mitigate such risks.

We are the Guinea pigs; let’s face it the big drug companies really don’t care about 0.5% of the population. The FDA doesn’t care about and only a handful of doctors care about us.

As much as we hate it we need to have our legacy organs checked regularly.