I'm just wondering if, say after 10 years, their biological hormone gets replaced with the introduced one? I'm just thinking that it must suck if you have to give yourself a needle ever week (I think) for the rest of your life.
No. Transpeople always have to use the hormones. Also, injections aren't always the only method. There's patches, creams/gels, subdermal implants, etc
Yeah I thought as much. I've heard that some people go on and off them at different times in their life. Some doctors don't aprove of this though. Oh I know, I was just putting the one I was more familiar with and I believe is more common?
As Sarcastic said, we always have to use them. Hormones have to be generated by something, and unless we figure out a way to make the body do it in the future, there is no other way than artificial hormones. But needles aren't the only method, and they aren't usually every week. The injection I was offered was every 12 weeks. I declined, though, because I didn't want to have to get someone else to do it for me, and I take a gel every day. Really though, the occasional needle isn't that bad.
I gel does sound a lot nicer. Yeah I guess you are right, for example I have to take two allery shot needles every 4 weeks.
Good topic though, so by the time I start my transition, it will be like..Hey I'll inject Testosterone for the rest of my life!I'm just afraid of the complications when I get old. :-(
Yeah. It's a lifelong thing. Hence why transition isn't something you do on a lunch break. I like to think of it as akin to any other needed medication, allergy shots or insulin. It's a way to maintain the treatment for dysphoria- and going back to my example is a disorder (in this case, absence of the correct hormone for a brain wired to receive it) to be managed.
Just a quick add, but that's one of the reasons that a lot of us get gender corrective surgeries later. Once we get rid of the things producing the wrong hormones, we can take smaller doses.