Hair loss continues- Point of No Return?

 Hi all! Earlier this year, in May, I posted about the annoying fact that my hair is thinning. It's now December 2023, and a lot more hair has "left the building". I switched from intramuscular injections of testosterone, with the intention of getting rid of big peak levels. The idea was that a low, steady, daily dose if T would slow down my hair loss. This has not shown to be the case. 

Hair loss is caused by a variety of things, effects of  testosterone converting to dihydrotestosterone (DHT), and one of them is heredity, which we can't do anything about..yet. No matter what you do, those genes are with you! Anyhoo, T gel was not the magical solution for me. It may be for someone else, but my family has women with thinning hair and one bald grandfather. The odds aren't good for me. I recently got a prescription for a topical spray scalp treatment that includes monoxidil and finasteride. Finasteride, a specific and competitive inhibitor of 5α-reductase enzyme Type 2, inhibits the conversion of testosterone to DHT. DHT thins hair follicles to the point where the hairs are sooo thin that they break off immediately and the follicles die off.

I will use the product for a few months and report back if I see any improvement. I'm also doing some research into flavonoids in food that block DHT. Wish me luck..and hair! Happy holidays to one and all :)

Aging as a transguy, where's my hair?!

 Hi! It's been a while since I posted, and my body is still changing. I'm still in Portugal. The testosterone I was injecting here is a little stronger than the US "equivalent", and my hair loss started accelerating. When I first decided to transition, I felt that I was OK with going bald, but it's different when it seems like either a long ways off or a low probability of actually happening. Well, the probability isn't low anymore and I can see it happening. 

I check my testosterone levels a couple times a year and I was aware that they were high, between 1000 and  1,200 ng/dL. High testosterone will likely damage your hair follicles. I talked to my doctor about it and switched back to using a topical gel and it's a lot easier to control my levels that way, although I do get hot flashes if I'm even a couple hours late with application. I've been using the gel for a couple months and some of my hair is returning, but if the follicles are dead, they're dead and nothing will bring them back. 

Elsewhere on my body, like my back, I have some 3" long hair. I joke about braiding it, but I'm not limber enough to do that lol.

Other changes: 

Belly fat

I mentioned that I live in Portugal. Portuguese pastries and breads are amazing. They are also my nemesis. To stay trim, I just can't eat sugar or carbs! At the moment I'm planning on going low carb AGAIN. 

USA Insanity

I go to the US for business reasons for a few months every year. It's just getting worse. I was prescient about what COULD happen, so I got me and my wife out of there, but it's still really hard seeing how crazy folks can get when they are in a group. Never thought that I'd quote Black Sabbath, but, "If you listen to fools, The mob rules." 

I have safe haven in Portugal and would be happy to provide info to anyone interested in emigration.

Old transguy living in Portugal

 My wife and I left the US and moved to southern Portugal officially this year. The move made it easier to escape the Covid crisis, but we decided to move here mostly for safety and health reasons before Covid. Portugal has actual laws that protect LGBTQ people in employment, housing, and health. Portugal is one of the safest countries on earth. Portugal has universal healthcare. Portugal is relaxed and extremely beautiful ❤️. 

My wife has been here since February 2020. We had a 2 month stay planned so we could explore and decide what area to get a house Then the pandemic happened and we were trapped for about 5 months. At that point we found a place and I returned to the craziness of the US and made arrangements, packed, sold stuff, and got paperwork done. 7 months went by many cancelled flights as well. No US airlines were flying pets that didn't fit under a seat so I drove from Oregon to NJ with our dog through a few blizzards in Feb. 2021. Barely made my flight back to Portugal and reunited with my wife! 

We have been renovating our house (built in 1840s) and socially distancing in a rural area. Portugal is now over 70% vaccinated. I have met a couple transguys on a FB group and met up with them in person. The pics in this post of the coast are from that visit.

Ok, more trans related stuff now. After a year of wearing a shirt and protecting my scar tissue from sun I go without a shirt enough to have evened out my skin tones. Top of chest used to be white, belly brown. Now all tanned!  My right nipple graft decided to grow a little more nipple tissue and is no longer exactly "round". I don't care. I have a considerable amount of chest hair, a few if which are grey. Hey, I'm 57 now! My beard first came in brown, now I have about 10 gray hairs in it. That is less grey beard than my 35 year old son has 😂. My hair has thinned slightly and my hairline changed a tiny bit, but I think I'm not rushing towards baldness. I am still using intramuscular T injections and the T comes in single use 1ml glass ampules here. I prefer the kind in bottles with stoppers, but it's not available that way. My doctor speaks English and acts somewhat bored with me. She was interested in seeing a chart of my T levels over time. She said "Oh? You have that?" I'm bringing her a printout next visit.

Differences between testosterone gel and injections on transition

I'm going to write a bit about my thoughts about the differences between Androgel, the topical testosterone gel, and testosterone intramuscular injections. I've used both so I have some experiences to share here. I did some research on both before using them and what I read said that there wasn't much a difference in transition speed. I was concerned about injections making my body have to deal with large amounts of "T" immediately after the shot and being on an emotional roller coaster ride while dealing with peaks and troughs of hormone levels. I was particularly wary of this because I am married to a wonderful woman who I didn't want to subject to a bunch of chaos. Anyway, I decided to go with the gel as it would provide my body with a steady, equal amount of hormone every day. I used the gel for about a year. However, physical changes were fairly slow and I was OK with that since I hadn't talked to my entire family about transitioning yet and I wanted to go about the process slowly for the reasons I already mentioned. My voice got a little deeper, (like I had a slight cold), I grew a lot of unwanted hair on my butt, and I checked my hairline for thinning (because I am vain about my hair). I grew a few hairs on my chest and chin.
After I talked to my family and got chest surgery, I got more impatient about looking more masculine. I switched to injections. At this point I have been using the intramuscular injections for 3 months. Within that period of time I've grown a lot more body hair. Before beginning transition I was virtually hairless besides some blonde arm/leg hair, and fine blonde facial hair that women normally have. I now have brown, coarser body hair in places that I never had like inner thighs, legs, and the backs of my shoulders. I also have more facial hair coming in brown on my sideburns, neck, jawline, and a "dirtstache". It's a lot of changes over a short period of time and I attribute that to the higher inputs of "T" even though it may be the same amounts averaged out over time, the shots give bursts that apparently have caused these changes to happen. Along with more body hair, my face has changed because fat goes to different places, it doesn't distribute evenly, it goes mainly to my stomach. Ugh.