Testosterone and Why It’s Needed

Have you ever wondered what our sexual hormones Estrogen and Testosterone really do in our bodies?  I say our bodies because we humans have both in our system at all times. Most of us never even heard of an endocrinologist till we decided to begin our transformation. The job of this doctor is to sort through our lab work and symptoms to diagnose, and adjust the hormones so the body can return to normalcy and function on its own. In my research of this subject and all of what happens in the body when change takes place, I got writer’s block due to the influx of information I received, and of the many different ways any one hormone can react with little or none of the other seemingly benign hormones. And if that doesn’t sound bad enough, our fat is now categorized as the largest organ in our body and yes, it too sends hormonal information to the adrenal gland (one of the smallest) as well.

Biologically, we male and female human beings are not much different until you start speaking in terms of reproduction.  Men have heard about testosterone their whole lives, but women might not have stopped to consider testosterone’s role in their bodies. While testosterone is the main reproductive hormone in males, it is also made by women, though in much smaller quantities. Women make testosterone in their ovaries and adrenal glands. 

According to the Mayo Clinic, the exact function of testosterone in women is not completely understood. However, testosterone levels in women are important in sexual function. It contributes to the sexual maturation of the vulva and vaginal tissues and the brain. It also affects female sexual behavior, specifically desire and the arousal response. Also, the mayo clinic did a study where promiscuous women and porn stars had 3, and sometimes 4 times the testosterone levels that average women have. But even though these levels are considered high, they still don’t come close to the levels in a man.  In a young mature male in his prime, levels can be 12-15 times that of any other time in his life to function, and 40-50 times the amount in a women’s body in his early years for development. However, if taken when older it can cause extreme cardiovascular problems. But this is also where things get really complicated, really fast.  The female body requires testosterone for her vaginal health and lubrication as well, but if too much is used it can cause accelerated health issues at any time in her life; while pregnant and sometimes in menstruation her estrogen levels can be 20 times the normal level. 

So, what makes it ok for our bodies to tolerate these high hormone levels early to mid-life, but not too young and never old or elderly? The answers lie in the adrenal gland (respectively) after the person has matured into the sex they were born into. This, it seems is where everything receives its hormonal signals to accomplish what our bodies are setting out to do. We transgender individuals are turning our bodies 180 degrees in the other direction, and for reasons unknown, at this time our bodies don’t seem to mind all that much, if you think about it in layman’s terms.

There are 4 different types of estrogen in women if you don’t count phytoestrogen from soy, or xenoestrogen, and two types of testosterone in her body.  A man has two different types of testosterone in his body and one form of estrogen called estradiol. Most of this combines while developing and maturing leaving only the main two, Estradiol and Testosterone. The Mayo clinic’s study claims that the adrenal gland helps to sort things out with the help of many other factors and levels of seemingly benign hormones and chemicals.  The problem with studying testosterone levels in females is its ability to be here and gone almost instantly, and our most modern lab equipment isn’t sensitive enough to register accurate results in the testing procedure. So, any interruption, as in surgical removal of ovaries or menopausal syndrome, often causes a whole slew of health and psychological issues.

The good news for the M2F’s is that when we receive our oriectomy to have our testicles removed to allow the estradiol to change us, it doesn’t really cause us any dire health issues while transforming.  Even if we are administered too much estrogen, our bodies can still function and adjust, if you don’t count moodiness and anxiety as a problem. The bad news is since we have neither testicle nor ovaries, our bodies have no way of making a larger amount of Testosterone to afford a descent libido, and in some cases where we suppress T with Spironolactone it can take years to return the bodies libido. I know this firsthand and if able to go back and do things different, would have gotten an Oriectomy first to elevate the use of the spironolactone.

But in F2M’s, when the ovaries are removed and the estrogens cease to exist, an improper level of administered testosterone will oftentimes harm the transgender person with a whole slew of problems including psychological disorders. So care must be taken take for these individuals when a doctor is prescribing, and the patient taking, this hormone for their change. Testing is key and also needed more often with F2M’s as so her dreams of becoming male don’t go downhill on this very slippery slope. 

I hope this helped you in your plight to change. Hormones are tricky and unpredictable unless produced and distributed by a normally functioning and healthy body itself. It seems that adding hormones or taking them away from our bodies can be a bit of a “crap shoot”, especially if the patient has an underlying problem that they don’t yet know they have.  So be very careful when taking what is prescribed to you and please report any side effects and/or undesirable reactions to your G/P or Endo. We are at the forefront of assisting our doctors in learning about transgender humans. In a nutshell and as this is written, doctors know more about the reproductive/hormonal system of the Beluga Whale in the Antarctic region, than they know about us transgender individuals on the entire EARTH.  So please help them understand us better so that someday when transgender individuals finally become recognized as gender race, they will have all of the information needed to better assist our sisters in waiting.   

Huggz Tia