[RGMCjim]

Hi all,

Hormone imbalances cause all kinds of health problems. Depression is a big one, and the female group is the culprit for that.

Excess testosterone gets converted to estrogen. I'm really suprised to hear that it works the other way too.

Too much attention has been given to trying to make our bodies conform to ordinary male/female patterns. Not enough has been done to figure out what our unique bodies require to be healthy, often a custom fit. IE. if you were assigned female they feed your body female hormones, if you were assigned male they feed you male ones. This doesn't always work for us! As others have stated, some of us can't utilize some hormones but can utilize others. What makes us healthy doesn't always match our genders, and normal for us isn't always the same as what's normal for plain males and females. Sometimes we need to fire our doctors and find new ones.

When it comes to hormones "balance" is everything. Healthy bodies need all the sex hormones. Testicles and ovaries produce the same stuff, but in different proportions. If we don't produce all those hormones or can't use some of them it screws us up and then it's all about damage control. We need doctors who know enough about the subject to tweek our systems from the outside. Not that easy to do. Most endocrinologists have far more knowledge about the other hormone systems. You have to shop around. My Dad was really lucky to have found a good one for me when I was 16(?).

To everyone trying to figure out what works for them, don't give up!!

Jim Costich