transgender and your body won't shut down

[groudon17]

Hey,

I'm not looking for medical info or suggestions necessarily, as I've brought these things up with my doctor and therapist. More than anything, I'm looking to see if anyone here may have ever heard of anything like this, because even my doctor isn't sure entirely how to ease the issue because it is so unheard of, and I've scoured the internet with no answer.

I am a transgender male who has been on testosterone for about a year and seven months. after one year, my ovaries had not shut down, in fact, monthly pain and bleeding had somehow gotten even worse. I asked someone online anonymously if it had been heard of, and I was told to contact my doctor, so I did. my doctor also works with many transgender patients. I was prescribed a depo shot, and while it never fixed anything, it helped on and off. even then I was still having issues that I discussed with my doctor at a follow up several months later. this week, from tuesday night to last night (thursday) i had horrible back pain from it that I hadn't experienced in awhile, and though not a ton, a lot more bleeding than I've been having for a long time. I don't need my next depo shot for a few more weeks. I'm concerned because I can't find anything like this, and it seems I'm an unfortunate case. I don't know why my reproductive system will not slow or shut down as it's supposed to. my doctor suggests that in the future, I should get an oophorectomy (removal of ovaries, not a hysto, i want the smallest amount done possible) but she also suggests not getting this right away.

I will be having another regular blood draw soon and will address these concerns at the appointment, but wanted to ask an outside source.. has anyone experienced themselves or heard from family or friends anything like this? if so, is there any way they have relieved pain until they got a kind of operation? or even, is there a better suggested forum to be asking this question? I came here because a friend had suggested it, so I thought I would try.

if anyone does not have an answer, maybe they'd have an answer to this: have any trans men lost their sex drive after an oophorectomy or hysto? i cannot find this out through the internet, anything similar to the answer of what i want is from cis women, and when i try to find it through transgender pages, all i find is pages on how the operations work, and possible side effects, with no one talking about personal experience. i saw one old article once, the only one of its kind, on cis women who got hystos and lost their sex drive, but were able to regain it back by being prescribed very, very low doses of testosterone. would this apply to me, being prescribed a higher dose already than the women and people who may do this?

I'm sorry if this isn't a good place to ask this, as this is my first time trying to reach out for help rather than just searching, since it hasn't gotten me much of anywhere. If there is a suggestion of another forum too where I may receive more possible answers, that would be very helpful to me! thank you!

[Mo]

Hi groudon17, and welcome.

I'm really sorry to hear about your experience continuing to menstruate after being on testosterone for so long! I certainly know guys who still menstruate a few months after starting testosterone but I don't think I know anyone who's had it continue so long unless they were on a very low dose. Sadly I don't have a medical recommendation I can make, but if your main doctor just isn't sure I'd ask if there's a specialist they could refer you to. Clearly this is something that's causing you pain and distress, and it really would be good for you to have a solution other than getting your ovaries out when you aren't ready to do that.
I get that your doctor might not be sure what to do, but only suggesting a surgery in the future, and not trying to work with you to find ways to alleviate your pain and discomfort now, isn't great! It's always ok to lean on a doctor a bit more if they aren't really actively problem-solving with you (although I know that can be intimidating).

I don't specifically know of trans men who've had a loss of or decrease in sex drive after a hysto or oophorectomy, although I don't want to say it's impossible - and so many factors can impact this that it can be hard to draw a direct link from changes in sex drive to specific causes. I can speak from my own experience (I had a hysto a little over two years ago) and say that it had no impact at all.