The hormonal treatment is the beginning of the physical transformation and lived as a liberation for patients transgender. There are different types of hormones administered in different ways (orally, dermally or through injections).
At transgender men, they are given male hormones, namely testosterone. Transsexual women instead take female hormones, i.e. estrogens and androgens. Estrogen intake should be for life, while antiandrogens will no longer be necessary after sexual reassignment surgery. Testosterone intake should also be for life.
You will have to perform checks every 6 months. Once you have undergone a gender reassignment surgery intervention, the controls will be annual.
The hormonal changes are more or less rapid, depending on the patient and are similar to those experienced during puberty:
FtM: The voice changes, the body and facial hair increases, the clitoris changes shape and increases in size, the muscle mass and the silhouette change, the bones become stronger, and the skin is thicker. We also experience physiological changes, such as increasing the frequency heart and blood pressure changes of body odour, increased libido and loss of menstruation.
MtF: The nipples and the thorax develop, the testicles are atrophied, the erectile function and the muscle mass are reduced, the body fat is redistributed, the face and skin is softened and thinned, the baldness stops. The following changes are also observed: decreased libido, decreased heart rate, inability to have an erection and create sperm or ejaculate.
In addition, you must know that during an MtF transformation, hormones have little or no influence on the voice. Therefore, you will have to take diction classes or consult a speech therapist to help you change your diction. The same goes for body hair; the hormones do not remove it, so you will have to undergo a laser hair removal process.
It is also important that you know that some effects of hormones are reversible, while sexual reassignment interventions are not. Hormones can make you sterile, so you must talk to your doctor if you want to have children in the future to take the necessary measures.
