Transgender medicine is a medical specialty that focuses on comprehensive care for transgender individuals. You are defined as transgender if you have a different gender identity from the one you were assigned a birth. You can realize you are transgender at any age, but it mostly happens when you are young. New York transgender medicine involves using hormones and other treatment techniques to help you achieve a successful transformation. Your specialist will do a thorough medical examination to determine the hormones to help you achieve your desired goals. The commonly used hormone therapies include:
Feminizing hormone therapy
Feminizing hormone therapy helps transwomen to get a more feminine look. A transwoman is assigned male at birth but identifies as a man. It uses anti-androgens to block male hormones. Your doctor can combine this therapy with gender affirmation surgery to achieve maximum results. Doctors use feminizing hormone therapy to treat dysphoria, where you have differences in physical appearance, causing distress.
Additionally, you can choose to have feminizing hormone therapy if you are non-binary or intersex. Non-binary means your gender identity does not fit traditional male or female groups. If your reproductive characteristics do not include traditional perceptions of a male or female body, you are termed intersex. You may have conditions affecting your gonads, external genitals, or chromosome patterns.
If you are assigned male at birth, you produce low estrogen levels. Feminizing hormone therapy will promote physical and emotional changes related to feminine anatomy and behavior. In this therapy, you can receive different hormone treatments like:
- Anti-androgen therapy: Anti-androgen medication blocks the production of testosterone hormone. This treatment leads to reduced muscle mass, fewer erections, changes in sex drive, smaller testicles, and thinning facial and body hair.
- Estrogen: This hormone promotes physical changes that relate to feminine looks. You will experience changes like softer skin, full breasts, more fat on your hips, buttocks, and face, and changes in mood, anxiety, or depression. Progestin therapy also causes similar changes to those of estrogen.
Masculinizing hormone therapy
Masculinizing hormone therapy is used if you were designed female at birth to help you feel more comfortable with your body. It will help you change your appearance and appearance to match your gender identity. The masculinizing hormone can also help you treat dysphoria. When you are designed female at birth, your body produces less testosterone and more estrogen. More estrogen production causes secondary sex characteristics like rounded breasts and hips.
Masculinizing hormone therapy helps reduce estrogen levels and boost testosterone production. It will help change your muscle mass, body fat distribution, end of menstruation, stimulate libido, vaginal atrophy, and increase body and facial hair. You can notice changes a month after hormone administration, but it may take longer to see maximum results. How quickly your body responds to testosterone therapy will depend on your age and genetics. For complete results, you have to get frequent sessions of testosterone therapy.
Hormone therapies for transgender transition are safe and highly effective. Once you start your treatment, you need lifetime follow-up, medical care, and support from your healthcare provider. To get transgender medicine services, schedule an appointment at Matt Pabis, MD, to eliminate your physical, emotional, and mental transgender disorders.
