HRT: injecting estrogen / applying estrogel onto chest

Parent Cafe
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<p>This is advised against, but I’m going on a major cutting regime with the help of OEP (going from 185 pounds to 135 pounds) and I’m going to basically lose at least 20 pounds of fat and 20 pounds of lean body mass (muscle, connective tissue, etc.) but I’m worried about losing my breasts. If apply estrogel or inject estrogen directly into my breasts would it save them while doing some majro cutting?</p>

<p>I know there’s an increased risk of breast cancer but my family doesn’t have a history of breast or any type of cancer.</p>

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<p>evita, there are darn few people on this forum who will know anything about this. What does your doctor say?</p>

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<p>Evita, you might be better served by looking for transgender-specific forums to pose these questions. There’s really only one person on here (to the best of my knowledge) who has knowledge / experience in this area, and she’s very careful not to pretend to dispense medical advice.</p>

<p>More importantly, Veryhappy is right. These are questions for your doctor(s). It seems as though you’ve played fast and loose with seeking medical advice. I am sure I speak for most parents here when we suggest that it is most important for you to be under the care of a series of a doctors to handle both your physical / transition-related AND your emotional needs.</p>

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<p>No kidding! OP, why in the world would you approach this transition so haphazardly? If you want the best result which will give you a good transition while preserving your health, you need to be under a doctor’s care! I really don’t get why you are doing this.</p>

<p>Physicians who specialize in transition know all the issues which are involved from the physical to the emotional and everything in between and can give you great referrals to these resources. You are playing with fire it seems to be doing this if not on your own, without the appropriate medical supervision. And no one here wants to see you hurt.</p>

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<h1>inappropriate</h1>

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<p>Complik, sometimes someone turns to a place and people with whom they’re familiar, even if it’s not the “perfect fit.” In this case, people here are encouraging that individual to find professionals who can help because this isn’t layman’s territory. Wishing you well as you find your way, Evita.</p>

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<p>evitaperon, this really isn’t a good place for you to get answers to these questions. I’ll say again what I have said before: you need to stop the “do it yourself” approach. You need to be under medical care. Whether it’s at Callen-Lorde or somewhere else. </p>

<p>That said, I am sure that there are online forums and message boards – even yahoo email groups, if such things still exist! – for young trans people, in which you can ask just about anything and get an informed answer. There are also plenty of places with information about hormones for trans people.</p>

<p>And Pizzagirl is right: I am not a doctor. I can tell you, however, that you should abandon any and all harebrained schemes like the ones you mention. Think about it. Estrogen – whether in patches or gel, and certainly not when you inject it – is NOT a topical medication. Injecting it where you suggest isn’t going to make any difference at all in where it has an effect or how much of an effect it has. It goes in your bloodstream, and doesn’t somehow magically know where you’ve injected it and decide to stay where you put it! Do you think that injecting it in your rear end or your thigh (I was taught at Callen-Lorde how to do the latter, even though I fainted the first time I did it to myself!) specifically affects those places? It doesn’t. And I"m pretty sure that the same is true of gel and patches. The reason for those delivery methods has nothing to do with where the estrogen has an effect; it has to do with reducing certain risks of oral estrogen, like blood clots, effects on the liver, etc. </p>

<p>The very fact that you ask questions like these concerns me, and convinces me even more that you need to be under a doctor’s care. </p>

<p>The massive weight loss you’re planning sounds medically dangerous to me as well. And please don’t think that you have to be a certain weight in order to be perceived as a woman. It’s just not true. One of the main reasons to go through this whole process in the first place is to be more comfortable in your body, and I’m not sure that a starvation diet is good way to achieve that. </p>

<p>But please, please find a doctor to whom you can raise these questions, and who can address all your medical needs. I’m certainly not qualified – and, equally certainly, don’t want to undertake responsibility – for giving you medical advice. So as much as I do care, I really don’t want to keep having to try to answer these kinds of questions for you. </p>

<p>Please take care of yourself, by allowing someone to take care of you.</p>

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<p>Complik, people – especially, but not exclusively, young people – ask all sorts of questions at CC. Including questions about health and medicine. Whether or not this is really the best place to ask them. I really hope that it isn’t the subject-matter that makes you think it was “inappropriate.”</p>