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Hormones are the chemical messengers, which help
your body do all it needs to do, and much more.
These chemical messengers (hormones) are created
and controlled by the endocrine system. The doctor
who studies the endocrine system is called an
endocrinologist.
Your endocrine system helps maintain the
steady state of your body. It is the system that
controls metabolism, growth and reproduction, and
helps you adapt to stress and changes. Your
endocrine system also regulates the concentrations
of important substances in the blood, like glucose,
calcium, sodium, potassium and water. The chemical
messengers in this system are called
hormones.
Medical scientists in the early 1900s identified
hormones and have been able to extract them from
natural sources (eg plant sources) or reproduce
them as synthetic hormones in the laboratory.
There are many kinds of different hormones. Sex
hormones are the hormones that remind the body to
follow a male pattern if they are male hormones, or
a female pattern if they are female hormones.
The sex hormones travel to different areas, for
example, breast tissue, hair follicles and fat
tissue under the skin, as well as to the sexual
organs carrying reproductive messages. These
hormones travel throughout your body via the blood
stream.
All hormones are produced in your body by
glands. The glands that produce most of the male
sex hormones are called testes and those
that produce most of the female sex hormones are
called ovaries. A small quantity of
testosterone is also produced by the adrenal glands
(above the kidneys) in both sexes.
The hormone responsible for female
characteristics like breast development is
called oestrogen.
The hormone responsible for male
characteristics like beard growth and voice
deepening is called testosterone.
Testosterone Hormone Therapy
If you take a different sex hormone to what is
produced in your body, the new hormone will slowly
block the message from your own glands and
introduce a new message. So a person identified
female at birth who takes the male hormone
testoserone, over time will naturally
develop male secondary-sex characteristics to their
physical body. Physical development occurs slowly,
similar to that of natural puberty.
Testosterone is the single most effective
treatment prescribed to a person identified at
birth as female, who seeks to correct their
physical body to male. An hormone specialist
(endocrinologist) prescribes the testosterone
hormone.
If you have no natural form of producing your
own testosterone in the amounts to masculinise your
whole body, then it will be necessary for you to
have this medication for the rest of your life, in
order to maintain your appearance and bone
health.
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"I
don’t know why, but it seems my body
is designed to run best with testosterone
levels at about the usual male range. This
gives rise to a range of physical features
which mean I am habitually perceived as
male." —
Eric,
Queensland, 2003
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Testosterone Information
