just wanted to pass along that I learnt recently from this comic about “progestin-only-pills” (POP) which can be taken by trans men to eliminate periods without taking estrogen (a lot of birth control pills have estrogen which obviously don’t work for trans men).

As an aside, I do know a trans man IRL who reported hating taking progestin when he was pre-transition, so it’s not like I can personally vouch for this method or know anyone who has done it and reports it works for them. Progestin-releasing IUDs however are something I know cis women have had inserted and who would recommend it (though IUD insertion may or may not be extremely painful, so …).

for me I think I would trade exogenous hormones for endogenous hormones (i.e. having functioning ovaries) even if it meant having a period just for safety and stability reasons - the fact that my sex hormones can be taken away or withheld from me is an awful reality, esp. knowing that in prisons they are often withheld or not administered in the right doses or route of administration

I think she just made a mistake, tbh - she probably was reaching for “injected” and her brain gave her “intravenously”.

You are right, hormones are a depot injection meaning the drug is injected into muscle or fat where it can slowly release over time. Intravenous injections are not a method of depot injection, and you’re right that it would spike (but also, I don’t know what the consequences of injecting an oil into the veins would be - it sounds risky, intravenous drugs are usually formulated in a saline as far as I know, the right electrolyte mix in the saline is important to not disrupt heart function).

Do you normally celebrate when a cisgender woman tells you she has something wrong with her body such that she doesn’t get periods anymore? Oh, so sorry to hear you’re struggling with this condition, but thank god you dont get periods right?

Yes, when a cis woman knows I’m trans, on the topic of periods she often brings up how wonderful it is that I don’t have them and I’m so lucky, etc. - but when I tell a medical worker that I was born without a uterus, they take pity on me (there is no celebratory tone or “wow, I wish I didn’t have periods like you!”). So I think you’re spot on about how cis women treat fellow cis women vs trans women on this issue.

I have definitely internalized that not having periods is a positive and convenient aspect of being a trans woman, but it comes at a steep cost of a lifetime of dependence on injectable medications that my access to is not guaranteed (putting my physical and mental health in a far more fragile / tenuous state), and obviously at the cost of infertility (as well as the other forms of distress that accompany the horrors of being trans, both internal & external).

I really believe cis women who tell me about their period pain and suffering - I do not envy them or wish I had that suffering, and I think it’s completely valid for them to envy my lack of that suffering … but I also understand how awful it can feel when they communicate envy about being trans, or how invalidating it can feel when cis women compare gender dysphoria to body dysmorphia. The empirical evidence shows these are not the same, that treatment & causes differ significantly, even if superficially they seem similar. At best it just comes across as well-intended but ignorant, at worst it feels like a form of testimonial injustice and we aren’t being listened to or taken seriously (ironically something cis women often experience themselves).

Honestly I think it has to do with the way cis and straight allyship relates to queerness, often elevating and glorifying it in a way that is compatible with pride movements … and the reality is that not every queer person feels pride.

Sometimes it feels like allies no longer think of being trans as a serious medical condition, they’ve so internalized that pathologization is wrong (applying the same approach for homosexuality as transsexuality), that they seem to think it’s wrong to think of trans people as having any kind of biomedical issue. This I think explains the way that trans people are often told that they don’t need to feminize to be a woman, that they are valid so why bother with estrogen or surgeries, etc. as if medical transition has become an outdated and even transphobic practice.

And they might be right for some trans* folks, not everyone has gender dysphoria, not everyone benefits from medical transition - that is to say, not every kind of being trans has “pathology” or “disordered” elements that need intervention … but it seems inappropriate to take what is true for a minority and insist it’s true for the rest.

Though to be fair, I think it’s mostly innocent, more a consequence of ignorance and superficial interaction with mainstream progressive ally culture or politically-informed queer culture than anything more intentionally malicious … though it is interesting the way cis anxiety about medical transition finds expression through seemingly supportive language, so it can still feel like transphobia is at the emotional root of telling a trans person to not medically transition because they’re valid without it.

from Imogen Binnie’s Nevada:

Because shaving and putting on a bunch of foundation every day are emotionally exhausting reminders of being trans, she gets a step removed from them by monologuing like she’s explaining them to someone. Secret trick one is to boil water in a kettle on the stove while you get dressed and brush your teeth, then stop up the sink and make yourself a little boiling lake. If the water is so hot that it truly hurts your fingers when you splash it on your face and you kind of worry that you’re doing permanent damage to your skin, you are doing it right. Super hot water makes the shave closer, who knows why. Maybe like how you have to warm up a tortilla before you can make anything out of it? Anyway then you smear shaving cream all over your face. Use the cheapest stuff you can find: sometimes Barbasol has a kind that says Real Man on the side, that’s the best one. Shave your face with one of those triple-blade razors. They’re expensive, but you can re-use them for like a couple weeks. You’ll know it’s time to replace the blade when your face is a gory mess every day after you shave and you keep thinking, you want blood moon magic but you only bleed a couple days a month? I bleed every day.

From my face.

Anything more than three blades is for rich people.

oh interesting, I hadn’t heard that estrogen increases moisture in the genital region (other than like the way vaginal dryness can occur without estrogen, like in trans men or menopausal women) - do you think it’s like the way estrogen makes the skin softer, that has to do with skin moisture or something?

But yeah, that makes sense that moisture and the right kinds of clothes could create an environment where fungus could get into the skin 😱 luckily it’s hopefully not too big of a deal to treat - I would be really interested to hear what ends up working, it’s great you raised this and to have these kinds of experiences discussed - you never know who else might be going through the same thing and would benefit from what you’re sharing here

I really hope it’s easy to get taken care of and it’s not too unpleasant, ugh

(In response to 6/7 men who lost their penis at birth and were raised as girls ending up identifying as heterosexual men as adults. The last identifying as a bisexual woman.)

As far as I am aware, the evidence seems to point to both gender identity and sexual orientation as being biologically fixed and genetic, so it’s not surprising when you take a cis boy and raise them as a girl they end up transitioning back to being boys.

What people don’t seem to appreciate or understand is this is pretty much what is happening to trans people, and the outcomes of doing this to cis people are similar to the outcomes we see in trans people (read: lots of drug abuse, self-harm, depression, anxiety, and suicides).

wasn’t there a recent investigation and initial confirmation by the Pentagon and NYT that the US was responsible?

of course the motivation and will is there for Iran to stage a “false flag” operation to damage the reputation of the US and present themselves as victims to the rest of the world, but the specifics of this case quickly dispel that notion, such as the school being adjacent to an Iranian navy base, and the school house having been previously used by the navy and only later converted to a school, as well as analysis of footage that confirmed the missile that struck the school was a missile the US has access to but Iran does not … so it is far more likely the US just didn’t update their intel and had old target data.

yes, the US is much more insulated from the consequences of its government’s actions than other nations, and citizens here have absolutely no awareness of what life is like outside the US (though tbh, I don’t think most Americans are aware of what life is like for their fellow citizens - there is a profound capacity to rationalize their own suffering and to victim-blame others for the needless suffering they experience).

right, but how do they know 80% of people aren’t straight, then? the question is about evidence and epistemic grounds

I think that’s a fair point and a reason to think there are far more people with a particular sexual orientation that are not aware of or do not identify with their sexual orientation than people with that sexual orientation who are aware and honest about their orientation.

The public health practices around targeting “men who have sex with men” as a demographic sort of confirms we’re not in a neutral context where everyone who actually is homosexual will admit to themselves or others that they are homosexual (even when they’re willing to admit as men they sleep with other men).

But this makes it very difficult to know what the real numbers are, and sometimes even how to define the sexualities, but regardless we don’t have anything like the numbers being floated about only 10% of people are straight, at least as far as I know - like others I would like to see citations or evidence to back that claim.

https://news.gallup.com/poll/702206/lgbtq-identification-holds.aspx

Gallup estimates that 9% of U.S. adults personally identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or something other than heterosexual. This percentage is essentially unchanged from last year but remains more than double the 3.5% from 2012, the first year Gallup measured LGBTQ+ incidence. The current figure is also higher than readings of roughly 7% between 2021 and 2023.

Only 9% of US adults are not straight, of that 9%, more than half are bisexual:

You can get a sense of how many people really are not straight by how the younger generations and women disclose, with 23% of 18 - 29 year old adults identifying as some LGBT+ label compared to much lower numbers for older adults (down to 2% for 65+ year olds), and over 10% for women compared to half of that (5%) for men:

So predictably we can expect older adults and men are much less likely to be aware of their sexuality or to be honest or to disclose it (due to social stigma, hermeneutical injustice, etc.).

Even so, it’s a lopsided figure still where it’s more like 20% of folks are not cis and straight and 80% are cis and straight.

omg, you’re totally right 😱 I misread OP’s description as being burning around the opening of the urinary tract, and thought it was a UTI

upon re-reading it sounds more like she’s describing a fungal infection on the skin of the glans (“thrush”) …

either way my general point still stands, generally a “yeast infection” for cis women indicates a yeast infection in their vaginal canal, not their clitoral glans (though it does look like a fungal infection on the outer labia is possible!)

Either way, if OP is right it’s a fungal infection, it should be treatable through anti-fungal ointments (many are available over the counter if you can’t afford to see a doctor), and the infection isn’t caused by estrogen (cis men get these kinds of infections on their penises, too).

definitely never had that happen, but I would also push back that all women experience infections on occasion (let alone that we can extrapolate this to pre-op trans women).

The mechanism for UTIs yeast infections in cis women is mostly through the vaginal canal and the microbiome getting disrupted and a fungus overwhelming the lactobacillus and getting established; this is absent / not relevant in the case of a scrotum, though obviously fungal infections of any skin is possible, and cis men do get fungal infections on the glans of their penis (this is called balanitis thrush).

Why women get yeast infections vary from woman to woman and a lot of it comes down to hygiene and practices, e.g. penetrative sex is much more likely to disrupt a vaginal microbiome than someone who is asexual or celibate.

Are you taping or tucking with materials that don’t breathe well? I would make sure to wear cotton underwear (not polyester), or just not wear underwear a lot of the time.

It sounds like you already know to wash the area well when you shower (ideally once a day), and allow it to dry well.

You might visit a doctor and have them take a look. I had what I thought was a fungal infection on my hand and a doctor even looked at it and prescribed an anti-fungal cream, but when I followed up with a dermatologist who specializes, she confirmed it was never a fungal infection and I just had eczema. Doctors can be helpful when trying to figure out the causes, and recommend the best way to prevent future issues.

If you can’t see a doctor and you are confident it’s a fungal infection like thrush, I would personally probably buy an anti-fungal ointment over the counter and apply it to the skin (maybe after some research on the best ointment, drug, dose, etc. that is safe for genitals, since that is a sensitive area).

I would not say this is probably not a side effect of taking estrogen.

THE BANANA THO !!!

not everyone gets increased libido from progesterone; I’ve tried 200 mg before, but I think it will probably result in supraphysiological levels, which isn’t necessarily helpful (100 mg taken rectally should get your levels decently high).

Have you tried cycling the progesterone and only taking it while estrogen is coming up and peaking, and then ceasing taking it when your estrogen is lowest? That’s usually what I do (mostly because I use the prog to sleep when my E is high enough to reduce how many hours I otherwise would sleep).

Also, I find my libido is most impacted by estrogen rather than prog, and while I do see a change to my libido from progesterone, it’s not as simple as progesterone causes increased libido - I notice for example as my estrogen wanes, it doesn’t matter if I took progesterone or not, my libido starts to tank.

Also, I find the libido increase is strongest only in the hour or two before bed after I administered the prog, and my experiences and changes in libido varied rather considerably, with sometimes increased libido during the day, but sometimes I don’t notice that at all.

haha, I love this so much

And there are states wih bans on drag in public that are worded so vaguely that a AMAB person wearing a skirt counts as an “Overtly Sexual Display”, especially if a kid sees that…

I lived in one of those states, and that interpretation of the law is incorrect, the courts have a rather high standard and narrow interpretation of what is considered “harm to children”

as the ACLU clarifies:

The legal definition for “harmful to minors” is very narrow and only covers extreme sexual or violent content with no literary, artistic, or political value for minors.

These drag bans absolutely do not apply to trans people walking down the street, and these laws have been in place for years without any enforcement like you are describing. So far they mostly use the law’s ambiguity to threaten legal action to shut down drag performances at pride parades, etc.

One of the fears I had as a trans person living in those states is that overnight I would wake up and the police could just try to the law as an excuse to go ahead and arrest trans people anyway, and then let the mess play out in the courts where conservative judges could find creative ways to ignore or work around the restraints on the law, but this is very unlikely and more just my fear talking than anything like an actual path forward for successful criminalization.

That said, I do think the most extreme anti-trans elements of the GOP are trying to push full criminalization as they can, but have mostly failed to get support even from their own party in the most anti-trans states. In 2025 Texas had a state bill proposed that would criminalize all trans people for “gender identity fraud” and they weren’t even able to get it to a vote.

So, I’m not as confident as you that it’s as certain as “when, not if”, even if I do agree that we might see full criminalization happen in some states. (That’s actually why I left my home and moved to a blue state, I anticipated under the Trump administration that the most anti-trans states will be more motivated to push for full criminalization.)

That said, my anticipation of quick criminalization has not yet come to fruition, and now I wonder why some of those states like Florida haven’t even attempted it.

oh, there’s a difference between that kind of peeking-to-see style staring, and the kind of staring we’re talking about.

Here are some examples of the staring we’re talking about:

1. I walk into a grocery store (this is early transition, so I look more or less like a man in a dress, or a man in a skirt with a blouse, etc.). On the opposite end of the store, there is a group of 20-something men who are all blonde with athletic haircuts, wearing sleeveless shirts showing off their muscular arms, and they’re talking to an older man. When I walk in, all of them start to turn and look at me. They continue to look at me as they talk and move about the store. I am still grocery shopping and minutes later they’re still just openly staring, not looking away when I look up at them. They don’t stop until they leave the store.

2. I am having dinner with three other women (I’m the only trans one, and I still look like a man in a dress). We’re sitting outside on a picnic bench, and there multiple rows of benches. Sitting diagonal to my right is a man maybe in his 50s with his family. Every time I look up, he’s looking at me. He doesn’t look away, even when I meet his eyes. This lasts over an hour, the sun sets and he’s still staring at me.

This is different from normal people staring at me or taking glances because I was visibly trans and they were curious, e.g. one time I was at a table in a restaurant the family next to us started to peek and look at me because at some point in the evening I outed myself and ended up on their radar, but the family sorta had their initial look and curiosity fulfilled, and then went back to their evening. This is a different kind of staring than what OP and I are describing, which is more like the intense / unwavering stare that some (in my experience usually only older, or hyper-masculine) men will do.

Anyway, don’t worry too much about the worker you took a glance at, it’s very unlikely you were perceived as one of these aggressive men.

Hm, maybe - though I’m more inclined to think they just don’t have appropriate social shame (i.e. they’re socially “dumb” or less considerate). Maybe transgressing social norms by appearing as “a man in a dress” pushes them to feel like they have a moral license to violate social politeness norms by staring? I’ve noticed even transphobic women don’t tend to stare, which makes me wonder why - maybe women are just more polite / less likely to violate social norms?

I still can’t disambiguate the reason for the staring, though - it doesn’t feel like neutral curiosity, there is an intimidating or hostile component to the staring, but that never felt like a full or complete explanation. Something always felt weirdly sexual about it, but not that they were sexually interested, which makes it hard for me to pinpoint the vibe exactly.