schristopher
in
ftm
acne, idiot doctor
This is mostly venting, but if anyone has advice--or even just some comfort--it'd be appreciated.
I'm in my early 30s now, and I went on T at the beginning of this year. I've have acne all my life, pretty badly, and I've been on Accutane twice, which both times cured it immediately with virtually no side effects. Each time, I'd first been through the whole battery of antibiotics and retin-A and benzoyl peroxide and everything else, and finally when my skin was all torn up the dermatologist would put me on Accutane and Presto! end of problem. It took a few years for the scars to fade each time, but I could wear makeup then to hide them.
Given this history, I figured it'd be another round of it once I started T. So I told the dermatologist I was seeing that it was probably going to go that way, and did he foresee any problem putting me on Accutane once I was on T. He said, "Sure, no problem, we can do that."
So I planned my transition around this. XX folks must be on two documented forms of birth control to be prescribed Accutane, so I also discussed this with the doc who was going to be prescribing my T. Barrier methods are one acceptable form, but what to do about the second? She said maybe we could put in an IUD or something. I thought that was ridiculous. Put me on T and then put extra female hormones in my body for birth control? Screw that, I said, and resolved the whole issue by having a hysto. I also hurried into the top surgery (when I couldn't really afford it) because due to issues with the grafts you can't have that surgery while you're on Accutane. So, hysto done, top surgery done, I was able to start T and I did. A few months in, my face has exploded, as expected. Pimples so big and pus-filled that I'm sometimes ashamed to show my face in public, and I'm on everything under the sun (which, due to these medications, I'd better not be under) so that my face is in agony. AND I can't take the needed calcium supplements (post-hysto) because for a four-hour window they interact with the antibiotic I'm taking twice a day for the acne. And I'm still getting zits--and scars even though I learned long ago not to pick at the zits. They scar by themselves because they're so deep. So I went to the dermatologist and said, "Well, here we are, and we've tried everything else so let's do Accutane."
His answer?
"Well, I'm not sure I want to prescribe it because has it ever been given to someone on testosterone before?"
O M F G.
I'm in my early 30s now, and I went on T at the beginning of this year. I've have acne all my life, pretty badly, and I've been on Accutane twice, which both times cured it immediately with virtually no side effects. Each time, I'd first been through the whole battery of antibiotics and retin-A and benzoyl peroxide and everything else, and finally when my skin was all torn up the dermatologist would put me on Accutane and Presto! end of problem. It took a few years for the scars to fade each time, but I could wear makeup then to hide them.
Given this history, I figured it'd be another round of it once I started T. So I told the dermatologist I was seeing that it was probably going to go that way, and did he foresee any problem putting me on Accutane once I was on T. He said, "Sure, no problem, we can do that."
So I planned my transition around this. XX folks must be on two documented forms of birth control to be prescribed Accutane, so I also discussed this with the doc who was going to be prescribing my T. Barrier methods are one acceptable form, but what to do about the second? She said maybe we could put in an IUD or something. I thought that was ridiculous. Put me on T and then put extra female hormones in my body for birth control? Screw that, I said, and resolved the whole issue by having a hysto. I also hurried into the top surgery (when I couldn't really afford it) because due to issues with the grafts you can't have that surgery while you're on Accutane. So, hysto done, top surgery done, I was able to start T and I did. A few months in, my face has exploded, as expected. Pimples so big and pus-filled that I'm sometimes ashamed to show my face in public, and I'm on everything under the sun (which, due to these medications, I'd better not be under) so that my face is in agony. AND I can't take the needed calcium supplements (post-hysto) because for a four-hour window they interact with the antibiotic I'm taking twice a day for the acne. And I'm still getting zits--and scars even though I learned long ago not to pick at the zits. They scar by themselves because they're so deep. So I went to the dermatologist and said, "Well, here we are, and we've tried everything else so let's do Accutane."
His answer?
"Well, I'm not sure I want to prescribe it because has it ever been given to someone on testosterone before?"
O M F G.