Unusual question re. HRT

[Red Shoes]

I wasn't sure what section to put this in so apologies if it needs to be moved. I will eventually be speaking to a health professional about this, but I would like to ask if anyone knows of any cases where male-to-female transsexuals who also have ME/CFS have undergone female hormone replacement therapy. MTF transsexuals often undergo HRT as part of their transition to living fulltime as female. Just to be clear, I'm talking about people born with a male body taking female hormones. Would ME/CFS exclude someone from such treatment? Because of the multisystemic nature of ME/CFS I'm inclined to think that such treatment would simply not be viable.

 

[peggy-sue]

I do know a chap who is currently taking male hormones (but obviously, he's FTM). He does find having male hormones makes a lot of stuff easier - in particular only being able to think about one thing at a time, and not getting stressed and worried about things he can't do anything about.

I would imagine it should be ok - you'd just end up suffering as only women know how!

 

[chilove]

Hi there,

I don't think it would be any different than a ciswoman with ME/CFS taking HRT. I would recommend considering BHRT (bioidentical hormone replacement therapy )as a more natural option. I started taking BHRT during a very bad adrenal/CFS crash and the hormones helped me feel MUCH better.

 

[taniaaust1]

I wouldnt think it would exclude someone from that treatment if one wanted a gender change. The issue is that 75% of ME/CFS cases are women and quite possibly something to do with hormones made us more susceptable to the illness.

Thing is, no one knows exactly what makes us more susceptable so who knows what the outcome of such a decision would be. No one would be able to tell you what would happen doing this as far as this illness goes (it would be an interesting case.. would that make someone going from a male to a female sicker or not?).

I think Ive read somewhere that the ME specialist Dr Sarah Myhill tells her patients to avoid HRT (but do check up on that)

 

[taniaaust1]

here you go.. just found something on that http://www.whale.to/vaccine/pill_and_hrt.html

 

[Tally]

I'm sorry if this is a stupid question, but since women are more susceptible to CFS/ME, is it possible that getting hormone replacement therapy from female to male would make CFS/ME more mild?

 

[taniaaust1]

I'm sorry if this is a stupid question, but since women are more susceptible to CFS/ME, is it possible that getting hormone replacement therapy from female to male would make CFS/ME more mild?

Thou testosterone seems to be low in many of us (girls too) with ME...replacing it.. dont seem to help us .. most of us, myself included, seem to be super sensitive to testosterone (hence ive not currently got a testosterone implant).

 

[xks201]

It is possible it could improve symptoms female to male. Going from a male to female though in my mind would make the symptoms one thousand times worse. There was a famous scientist, Alan Turing who as a punishment was given female hormones by the govt a while ago. Pretty sure he committed suicide. In one study men given estrogen had a lot of heart attacks and some died. I think that is a horrible idea.

Having extensive hormone replacement experience myself I can honestly say that if there are gut problems, good luck fixing them with hormones.