What does hormone therapy do for transgender?
Feminizing hormone therapy helps male-to-female transgender individuals (transwomen) achieve a more feminine appearance. It uses anti-androgens to block male hormones. Taking estrogen and progestin helps you develop breasts, softer skin, rounder hips and more.
What hormones are used for transgender?
Exogenous testosterone is used in transgender men to induce virilization and suppress feminizing characteristics. In transgender women, exogenous estrogen is used to help feminize patients, and anti-androgens are used as adjuncts to help suppress masculinizing features.
What is the meaning of hormones therapy?
Listen to pronunciation. (HOR-mone THAYR-uh-pee) Treatment that adds, blocks, or removes hormones. For certain conditions (such as diabetes or menopause), hormones are given to adjust low hormone levels.
What does hormone therapy do to a man?
Hormone therapy lowers the amount of testosterone in the body and this affects your ability to have and maintain an erection. This may get better within 3 to 12 months after the treatment ends. For some men, erection problems are permanent. It depends on the drug you are having and how long you have been taking it.
How is hormone therapy done?
Hormone therapy can be given in a few ways: Oral medication – Taken by mouth. Injection – Given by an injection under the skin (subcutaneous) or in the muscle (intramuscular). Surgical intervention – Removal of the ovaries in women, or testicles in men, causes lower levels of hormones being made.
What do female hormones do to males?
Those who receive estrogen hormone therapy during adolescence (around the age of 16 years or older) may avoid the development of male secondary sexual characteristics, such as a deepening voice and the growth of body hair.
What causes female estrogen?
The woman's ovaries make most estrogen hormones, although the adrenal glands and fat cells also make small amounts of the hormones.
Why would hormone therapy be recommended?
Hormone therapy is mostly used to treat certain kinds of breast cancer and prostate cancer that depend on sex hormones to grow. A few other cancers can be treated with hormone therapy, too. Hormone therapy is considered a systemic treatment because the hormones they target circulate in the body.
What age can you start hormone therapy?
If used in an adolescent, hormone therapy typically begins at age 16. Ideally, treatment starts before the development of secondary sex characteristics so that teens can go through puberty as their identified gender. Many trans girls are treated with a medication to delay the start of puberty.
Why would a man take hormones?
Masculinizing hormone therapy is used to induce the physical changes in your body caused by male hormones during puberty (secondary sex characteristics) to promote the matching of your gender identity and body (gender congruence).
How do men get hormones?
The major sex hormone in men is testosterone, which is produced mainly in the testes. The testes are controlled by a small gland in the brain called the pituitary gland, which in turn is controlled by an area of the brain called the hypothalamus. Androgens are crucial for male sexual and reproductive function.