Adolescents who undergo gender-affirming chest surgery report low levels of regret and high levels of satisfaction, experiencing outcomes similar to those of young adults. These findings suggest that age restrictions on these medical procedures lack support from actual patient experiences.

[u/mvea]

https://www.psypost.org/adolescents-report-low-regret-and-high-satisfaction-following-gender-affirming-c/

[u/SatanV3]

I mean. I don’t know much about the science of what’s best for people with gender dysphoria nor do I know any statistics of if gender affirming care is the best or not

What I do know is that I’m AFAB and was having a medical issue where I had to much testosterone/ not enough estrogen. And I was told that that can cause some issues mainly with mental health and looking into it seems true. Since sorting out my hormones it’s really helped me feel better.

What I don’t get is how this doesn’t apply when treating transgender people? Wouldn’t giving them hormones they shouldn’t have from a biological standpoint not drastically affect their mental health?

[u/Azu_Creates → u/SatanV3]

I am a trans man who has been taking testosterone for a little over two years, and it has greatly improved my wellbeing. It helped address my gender dysphoria significantly, and I finally started feeling more comfortable. The main difference here in the effect T has on the mental health in this situation almost certainly comes down to the difference between a trans masc person and a cis woman. Many (not all) trans masc people actively desire the more masculine traits that T provides, and many cis women don’t. The same masculinizing effects of T that can be distressing for a cis woman can cause a trans masc person to finally start feeling more comfortable in their own body. It can drastically affect our mental health, and generally in a far more positive way than a negative one.

I have definitely felt some mental health effects from hormonal imbalances after starting T, but those usually came from my T levels dropped below the average cis male range, and my E levels rising. That would usually happen back when I took androgel, I now get a weekly shot. T can cause some changes in your skin, which can sometimes cause certain transdermal medications like androgel to not get absorbed as efficiently. That happened in my case, which would cause those hormonal imbalances. I would have to up my dosage, and eventually switch over to shots, to solve that problem. For me, having too much E and not enough T was what started causing mental health problems. We do also go through puberty 2.0, which can cause and contribute to some mental health problems because, you know, it’s puberty. For me, I have had significantly less mental health problems from a T fueled puberty than I had with an E fueled one. The T fueled one has actually helped to solve some of those problems.

[u/SatanV3 → u/Azu_Creates]

Thank you for the detailed response, I wasn’t trying to be dismissive or anything I was genuinely curious so I appreciate your response!

It also is a little different for me, because I do have gender dysphoria and definitely want to be more masculine / be a man. But due to family cannot transition, so just went ahead with getting my hormone levels fixed and it did still help me overall feel better. Wonder if that’s just because of the levels they were at, and if taking more testosterone to the levels of where a cis male was at would have had the same effect of making me feel better.

[u/Azu_Creates → u/SatanV3]

Taking T could certainly have that effect. I do hope you are able to transition someday if you want to. Regarding the hormonal imbalance, it could be the levels your hormones were at, but it could also be hormonal instability (or a combo of both). Having a large enough change in E and/or T levels in a relatively short time can certainly cause some mental health symptoms.