Originally Posted by unhung1
A risk I’m willing to take. This is a very respected Dr in the trans community. I got nothing to lose because nothing else ever worked.Once I find a way to get it, I’ll make a progress thread and update it every 3 months.
Well, it’ll be good to see your reports. That’s a protocol with more risks than I’d take on the evidence we currently have. And you definitely have more to lose. If you choose to do this, that’s your choice. But don’t ground yourself in the belief that you have nothing to lose and nothing but upside to gain. High DHT levels are also associated with hair loss and prostate enlargement, so at a bare minimum you should be keeping an eye on those. Messing with your hormonal levels can have MANY side effects.
Can you get in touch with the doc you’re citing? Sounds like they’d LIKE to research this further. They might be happy to have you as a case study, and it’d be safer having a knowledgeable doc to check in with.
Originally Posted by TenaciousD
Female-to-male trans patients don’t have to concern themselves with this because as natal females they don’t make much testosterone (so suppressing their natural production is rarely noticeable in the short term) and they usually are on testosterone therapy anyway. So they are on TRT while using DHT and usually are on it for the rest of their lives after being done with DHT.
The doc’s talking about trans women (i.e. M->F). And if I’m reading it right, they’re talking about ones who had lost use of their dongs following their hormonal regimen, who were looking to recover use of their dicks. Not trans men who were trying to grow a clitoris into a functional penis. Different hormonal setup, that. Also he mentions suspecting the patients in question were 5-alpha-reductase deficient, which could have resulted in sub-standard growth before their transition. If the doc’s guess is right, might be the T-cream just caught them up to the size they would have been if they weren’t 5AR deficient.
The current prevalent hypothesis is that androgen receptors in the penis downregulate after puberty, stopping further growth. By that hypothesis, even if you add additional androgens, the systems that would notice it in your dick and interpret it as a signal to grow more have been dismantled. It seems like folks who are underdeveloped can catch up to where they might have grown by adding androgens, but I haven’t heard of folks who were already fully developed getting additional growth that way.
For example, you don’t hear about bodybuilders who are "using gear" developing huge units. Rather, the opposite. You hear horror stories of the steroids interfering with their natural hormone cycle, rendering them impotent. Or developing gynomastia.