{"id":600,"date":"2014-09-30T15:11:20","date_gmt":"2014-09-30T19:11:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/typingmonkeys.com\/blog\/?p=600"},"modified":"2023-03-30T13:31:28","modified_gmt":"2023-03-30T17:31:28","slug":"so-theres-that-day-8-hormones","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/typingmonkeys.com\/blog\/so-theres-that-day-8-hormones\/","title":{"rendered":"So There’s That, Day 8: Hormones"},"content":{"rendered":"

So There’s That: Adventures in Transgendering chronicled my transition in 2014. One hopes the gentle readers will forgive any awkward or anachronistic language within. <\/em><\/p>\n

\u2014<\/em><\/p>\n

Remember when my therapist told me to get my blood checked? And how I stalled before telling my ex-wife, who already knew I was transgender, that I was transgender?<\/p>\n

You can probably work out where I stand with setting up an appointment for my blood work.<\/p>\n

A little background is in order.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve done a lot of online research about hormone therapy. And we all know how reliable the internet is. In fact, my Nigerian investment should be coming through any day now. So self-medicating hormones based on online research, what could possibly go wrong?<\/p>\n

You see, it\u2019s not that hard to get prescription drugs through places like Canada and India. So over the past three years (and law enforcement folks, please note this is what we like to call in trade \u201chypothetical\u201d), I\u2019ve experimented with various hormones and hormone blockers to see what would happen. Kinda like dropping Mentos in a 2-liter bottle of Coke.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve taken hormones in fits and starts\u2026 usually stopping in a panic with internal dialogue along the lines of a) have you lost your mind!?!?! b) is my chest getting puffy? c) I don\u2019t usually cry this much, d) don\u2019t I have a doctor\u2019s appointment next month?<\/p>\n

Long story short, I\u2019ve taken about nine months worth of hormones and anti-androgens (male hormone blockers) over the past three years. Specifically\u2026<\/p>\n

\u2022 \u00a0<\/b>Estradiol:<\/strong>\u00a02mg daily
\n\u2022<\/b>\u00a0\u00a0Estradot Patch:<\/strong>\u00a050mcg twice weekly
\n\u2022 \u00a0<\/b>Provera:<\/strong>\u00a010 mg first 10 days of the month
\n\u2022\u00a0<\/b>\u00a0Spironolactone:<\/strong>\u00a0100mg daily
\n\u2022 \u00a0Fincar:<\/strong>\u00a05mg daily<\/p>\n

So to fulfill my promise to make progress every day, I decide to set up an appointment to get my blood checked. My therapist gave me two names and I do some online research. And hey, look, I can make the appointment online. No terrifying phone call required.<\/p>\n

But something inside of me stirs. Am I being a coward? Again. When will I stop being ashamed of who I am? If I can\u2019t accept myself, how can I expect others to?<\/p>\n

Screw it.<\/p>\n

I pick up my phone and call to make my appointment. I share my name and explain I\u2019m transgender and need to come in for some blood work. The person on the other end of the line is extraordinarily nice, but her thick accent means I\u2019m not 100% I know what I\u2019m committing to. She starts talking about hormone injections\u2026<\/p>\n

WOAH!<\/p>\n

I explain I don\u2019t think I\u2019m ready for\u00a0that,<\/i>\u00a0so let\u2019s just set up the appointment (for next week) and see where it goes.<\/p>\n

I hang up the phone and can\u2019t suppress a smile. I’m doing this. I\u2019m actually doing this. And that\u2019s pretty cool.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So There’s That: Adventures in Transgendering chronicled my transition in 2014. One hopes the gentle readers will forgive any awkward or anachronistic language within. \u2014 Remember when my therapist told me to get my blood checked? And how I stalled before telling my ex-wife, who already knew I was transgender, that I was transgender? You […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-600","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-so-theres-that"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/typingmonkeys.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/600","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/typingmonkeys.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/typingmonkeys.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/typingmonkeys.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/typingmonkeys.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=600"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/typingmonkeys.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/600\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":605,"href":"https:\/\/typingmonkeys.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/600\/revisions\/605"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/typingmonkeys.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=600"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/typingmonkeys.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=600"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/typingmonkeys.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=600"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}