’Roid rage is not the same as road
rage or FTM rage. Those who criticize
transsexual people because they take hormones
are simply people who have the luxury of
(relative) hormonal balance. Do non-diabetics
criticize diabetics because they take insulin to
manage their health? Insulin is an injected
steroid hormone, too, but diabetes is recognized
as a debilitating disease that can cause pain,
suffering, even death. Transsexualism looks
different and affects fewer people than
diabetes, but it can be mighty painful for those
who have to manage it, and it too has been known
to lead to death — through murder, neglect,
or suicide — in more than a few cases.
Some people talk about testosterone poisoning
as if just having testosterone in one’s
system is enough to make you stupid, angry,
violent — in short, a MAN.
But surprise: Everyone has testosterone in
his or her system.
Testosterone is largely responsible for
libido (sex drive) whether you are male or
female. In the last decade physicians have begun
to prescribe low doses of testosterone for
post-menopausal women to prevent them from
losing interest in sex.
Testosterone helps elevate mood and increases
appetite, so it’s given to people who are
HIV-positive to help increase their overall
health. Bodybuilders and other athletes have
long known about testosterone’s effect on
energy and muscle mass and density. But just as
with insulin, everyone needs to be sure all
their hormones are maintained at the proper
levels. Too much testosterone doesn’t make
a person “more male.” Any excess
actually seroconverts into estrogen, the
so-called “female” hormone. Men who
take too much testosterone can expect to grow
breasts and stop producing viable sperm —
how “male” is that?
Many FTM guys I’ve known have talked
about their anger and violent behavior. What may
surprise some readers is that most of these
transmen experienced this anger and violence
BEFORE they started transition to male
physiology. Most of them found that testosterone
made them LESS angry and violent than they were
before taking it; in some cases inappropriate
anger completely disappeared from these
men’s lives.
One man I know had recurring fantasies of
violence, particularly toward men, that stopped
within weeks of his first injection.
Personally, I have a better handle on my
anger now, since I feel more in touch with
myself. I am quicker to express my discomfort
with any bad situation, but I don’t think
that is just due to the testosterone itself;
more likely it is because I am more sure of
myself and less likely to acquiesce just to
accommodate others. I’m less inclined to
take physical risks now, too, because I value my
body and my life in a way that I didn’t
before.
What to expect: So what does testosterone do
for an FTM? Testosterone acts on receptors in
the body, receptors that are genetically coded
to predispose the body toward certain
characteristics? and not every body responds in
the same way.
Testosterone acts as a catalyst to actuate
physical capacity that is already genetically
present in the body. Without the receptors, it
would pass through the system with no
effect.
In general, the effects that testosterone has
on a female body are increased libido, increased
muscle mass and density, fat redistribution
(from hips and thighs to a spare tire), an
increase in body and facial hair, thickening of
the vocal cords, clitoral growth, changes in
skin texture and body odor, and (in some people)
male-pattern baldness. Usually menstrual
bleeding stops within a few weeks of initiating
treatment. Some people will have vocal changes
that are noticeable in a few weeks; others will
need many months of treatment before any audible
change occurs. Many people get acne, which goes
away in one to three years.
Hormone treatment puts you through puberty
all over again. You have many of the same
feelings and social responses as you did when
you were a teenager, except this time you have
more perspective, and thus a little more control
over your feelings.
On the other hand, society is set up to
expect teenagers to behave in certain ways and
adults to behave differently. It isn’t
always easy to be re-experiencing puberty while
people are expecting you to (for example) hold
down a professional job, manage other people, or
possibly be the parent of a teenager
yourself.
Safety: Many people think transsexual people
are doing something dangerous by taking
hormones. The most extensive long-range study
done to monitor transsexual hormone usage (Van
Kesteren P, Megens JAJ, Asscheman H, Gooren LJG,
“Side effects of cross-sex hormone
administration in transsexuals,” published
in Clinical Endocrinology, 1997, 47:
337-342) documented a total exposure of 10,152
patient years using hormones, and concluded that
cross-sex hormone administration provided by a
knowledge-able medical expert is an acceptably
safe practice.
Risks that FTMs need to be aware of are
increased serum cholesterol levels, the
potential for stress on the liver, and
aggravation of any abnormality in the uterus and
ovaries, such as fibroids or polycystic
ovaries.
But generally exercise, avoidance of drugs
and alcohol, and a hysterectomy will keep these
conditions under control, though some people may
struggle with obesity no matter what they
do.
Dykes who want to take testosterone to
“butch up” need to be aware that the
effects of testosterone don’t entirely go
away when you stop, especially if you take them
for more than a couple of years.
Also, testosterone won’t
make you into a man. That’s another head
space that hormones don’t control. If they
did, there wouldn’t be transsexuals!
—©Jamison Green,
1994
Reprinted here with permission.
