The following information is from the St. Louis Children’s Hospital Hormone Therapy web page. Children’s hospital. There are two types of hormone therapy (obviously): feminizing hormone therapy and masculinizing hormone therapy. Feminizing hormone therapy This means giving estrogen and possibly androgen blockers to people “assigned male at birth.” (That is a phrase I don’t like. People “assigned male at birth” are male and will be male their entire lives no matter what. Do a DNA test if you have any doubt about it.) Here are the changes you can expect from feminizing hormone therapy: Body fat redistribution Breast growth Decreased muscle mass and strength Decreased libido Decreased penile function Decreased testicular volume Decreased sperm production Slowed growth of body and facial hair Softening of skin To maintain these changes, you need to keep taking hormone therapy for the rest of your life. Masculinizing hormone therapy This involves giving testosterone to… Read more →
EppsNet Archive: Psychiatrists
Johns Hopkins Chief Psychiatrist: Transgender is a Mental Disorder
Real doctors tell people the truth regardsless of who gets furious. pic.twitter.com/mKkmCzUJz1 — Dr. Anastasia Maria Loupis (@DrLoupis) May 5, 2023 I’d rewrite that headline to say Stupid People Furious! Well, that’s a little harsh. Let’s change it to Uninformed People Furious! Let me start my saying that I’ve had a couple of cancerous skin lesions removed, and because the removal was medically necessary, the cost of the removal was covered by my health insurance. I’ve also had a couple of benign lesions removed just because I thought they were unsightly. Those removals were not medically necessary so I had to pay for their removal myself. People identifying as transgender don’t want to pay for puberty blockers and hormone treatments and surgeries out of their own pocket so what we came up with is “gender dysphoria,” a mental disorder. Now everything becomes medically necessary and can be billed to health… Read more →
What Comfort Can You Give Him?
When you get a person to look at the sun as it bakes down on the daily carnage taking place on earth, the ridiculous accidents, the utter fragility of life, the powerlessness of those he thought most powerful — what comfort can you give him from a psychotherapeutic point of view? — Ernest Becker, The Denial of Death Read more →
25 Concepts to Facilitate Judicious Use of Psychiatric Drugs
I’m not a doctor, nor do I play one on TV, but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night . . . I also took a Colgate University class on medicating for mental health and judicious use of psychiatric drugs. A psychiatric medication is only one useful tool among a collection of useful tools. Remember to also consider non-drug options for therapy. The benefits of psychiatric medications are always accompanied by risk. Become familiar with the potential risk of your medication. Be alert to potential risks that might be intolerable to you. Establishing a diagnosis is a difficult and imperfect task, but it establishes the starting point for determining which treatments are appropriate. Engage your physician or a psychologist in a dialogue regarding the structure of your treatment program. Be an active participant in establishing the structure of that program. Having confidence that your treatment program will… Read more →