Megathread SRS and GRS surgeons and associated horrors - the medical community of experimental surgeons, the secret community of home butchers

[batteredpancakes]

Since we're on the topic of UTIs I found a r/ftm post yesterday that people here might find interesting

Link | Archive

Spoiler: Copy paste

T side effects: my "UTIs" weren't UTIs

CN: medical terms for genitalia

I've been on low-dose T for a year and a half, and for the past year have had a lot of UTI-ish symptoms—pain, a funny smell, urinary urgency, sometimes blood in the urine—but half the time cultures came back negative.

Finally, after two bouts of really bad stabbing pain, I went to see a trans-knowledgeable urogynecologist. She explained that T doesn't just dry out vaginal tissues but can affect the whole urogenital system. It can make it more difficult for the urethra to close, so you leak when you sneeze, and it can make all those tissues more prone to irritation, leading to pain, bleeding, and vulnerability to infection. The pain was probably muscle cramps; those tissues are affected too. And as a bonus, if you take too many antibiotics for UTIs (or things you think are UTIs), you can mess up the good flora in your bladder; I thought the microbiome was just a gut thing, but there are helpful bacteria everywhere.

She prescribed Estradiol supplementation (topical, so it doesn't interfere with the effects of T), daily doses of D-mannose (prevents and treats UTIs from E. coli), and drinking at least two liters/quarts of water a day when I have UTI-like symptoms. I'm also using 1% hydrocortisone cream to treat external irritation, and taking Lactobacillus crispatus probiotics to restore the microbiome. For the muscle cramps, she recommended getting or making a rice sock and cuddling it between my legs, especially after sex or anytime the kegel muscles have gotten a workout.

Has anyone else had similar issues? What helped you?

And the excerpt:

I went to see a trans-knowledgeable urogynecologist. She explained that T doesn't just dry out vaginal tissues but can affect the whole urogenital system. It can make it more difficult for the urethra to close, so you leak when you sneeze, and it can make all those tissues more prone to irritation, leading to pain, bleeding, and vulnerability to infection.​

​

This issue alone is awful but compounded by all the problems with phalloplasty would make you absolutely miserable. I just can't see these young girls who get phallo at 18 living a long life with this shit.

 

[blanketdog]

Good point.

I definitely think more research should be done into the anti psychotic route, If gender desphoria and the discomfort with one's body is truly that extreme wouldn't it be preferable to find a solution that didn't require invasive and irreversible surgeries and medications?

I know i'd rather take a pill than feel compelled to chop my bits up. But what do I know?
#TeamCisScum

If we consider, theoretically, gender dysphoria a type of generic emotional and mental discomfort, anxiety or an obsessive thought (also a nervous/anxiety type of disorder), then yes - most modern antipsychotics will relieve the symptoms. They don’t cure whatever is underneath, but they’ll just smooth things over. Antipsychotics are used off label for everything from anxiety to sleep disorders (aside from their intended use to bring down psychosis and psychotic-type states), and are for better or worse considered a bit of a cure-all. Do they help with the symptoms? In many cases yes, BUT; most antipsychotic drugs also have a heavy sedative effect and honestly, if you’re only a fraction conscious and for the most part a sluggish animated corpse, then you won’t feel much anything. You can consider that a cure if you’re being generous with the definitions.

Considering the above - take a pill or take the chop. The answer seems easy if you’re not familiar with the reality of both options. Taking the pill is very seldom just taking the pill, you’re realistically giving up many/some upsides of your life or personality, so it’s always a trade off. Are your original issues more unbearable than the cure? Then yes, take the pill. Picking the surgery will fuck you up in many ways, but is never identical to the potential chemical lobotomy a steady dose of antipsychotics can give you (sometimes people compare it to an emotional or cognitive amputation. Most will describe a feeling of lacking their normal energy and drive, no longer being able to get excited about their interests or in general, reduced creative thinking and output which would be a killer for example creative careers etc. Make of that what you will).

The antipsychotic deal is one anecdotal report from an Australian doctor who documented that antipsychotics totally made the patients “gender dysphoria”/coom urges disappear.

Not exactly a solid study, but def. something that should be investigated.

As for ketamine, I wouldn’t be surprised if ketamine/ibogaine (or a similar drug) combined with therapy could relieve their bodily dysphoria. More research should be done.

Relating to my reply above; yeah, antipsychotics will kill your dysphoria if you’re not able to feel much anything else either. Also likely to kill any kind of sexuality. In light of the wonderful people we have familiarized ourselves with in this thread I’d say nothing of value would be lost and they should take the pills in this case.

But yes. More studies would be welcome but it would seem treating the mental side of it would be too much of a conversion therapy kind of thing for the TRAs and would never fly. It’s not validating for them to look into the core causes and all that. Violence. It’s all so tiresome.

 

[batteredpancakes]

I don't post a lot of orchiectomies because they're usually done by HSTS and rarely get complications due to adequate hygiene and the surgery being relatively simple.
Anyway, here's a gross old transbian u/FridayHelsdottir who's just got evicted.
He refers to himself as a model on his Instagram.

Link | Archive

Spoiler: You can see inside

Spoiler: Copy paste

I had an infection at Week 4 post-orchiectomy. Went in for surgery.
They look like dog favorite tennis ball with a hole chewed in it.
I'm okay. Dysphoria went with the testes, so this doesn't bother me.
My girlfriend is packing me daily.

Spoiler: older pics before the cleanout

I'm guessing the 'girlfriend' is also a tranny.
EDIT: Yup

Spoiler: Copy paste

I've been married to a bearded cis woman with PCOS. I'm now dating a transwoman with a beard, who is slghtly balding.

I love growing my beard on occasion. But I had to shave for bottom surgery. The doctors said if I don't shave my face, they won't perform bottom surgery. To them, not being totally socially acceptable levels of femme meant I didn't really want bottom surgery.

But I fully plan to grow it out again when I'm feeling really pretty and confident.

 

[Got Milk!]

Spoiler: You can see inside

View attachment 5012395

I just saw the female equivalent of this earlier

Spoiler: Exploded lady

 

[Vulvalover1]

Orchi : Absolutely disgusting.
Reminded me to let you all know that r/metoidioplasty is back up.
There is quite a lot there to be getting on with.
The UTI / urethral lengthening query chick made me depressed. I couldn’t laugh at it .. It makes it so obvious how little they know, care to know or are made aware of about these surgeries. I know more than them and I’m not planning on installing the rot cock anytime soon.

 

[Map-Kinase-Kinase-Kinase]

Praying for leaf people.
Implications of this: A bunch of tests that come back 100% negative! Funding then becomes limited.

This might not exactly be the thread for this, but if you ever wanted to hear what motivates heterosexual FtMs (TIFs) (aka. Pooners) here is a fascinating presentation by (a former) one.

 

[Sissyagamben]

Taking the pill is very seldom just taking the pill, you’re realistically giving up many/some upsides of your life or personality, so it’s always a trade off. Are your original issues more unbearable than the cure? Then yes, take the pill. Picking the surgery will fuck you up in many ways, but is never identical to the potential chemical lobotomy a steady dose of antipsychotics can give you

It's very true, especially when majority of troons look like they can fit into more than one diagnosis from Cluster B personality disorders. Their gender thing is just another aspect of the ... licentious life style they have.
the three weeks I was on lowest starter dose was hell, but at the end of the day you can always come off the antipsychotics. And after they chop off their tits/dick theyd becoming back to the dear psychiatrist for a much higher dose of antipsychotics so they dont kill themselves. Maybe a benevolent shrink would also give them a Xanax prescription, these people are basket cases anyways.
It is definitely very understandable when the mentally deficients choose the troon, when both options are offered as hecking valid!!! I recant my old judgments of big pharma and them pushing for drugs as cures for mental illness. It's far better to be on a cocktail of mind altering drugs than any of these stuff in this board.

 

[Systems All The Way Down]

Dr William John Powers, D.O., is a family medicine practitioner that focuses on the treatment of HIV+ and transgender patients.

Spoiler: Practice Information

NPI Number:
1467792564
Provider Practice Location:
23700 ORCHARD LAKE RD STE E
FARMINGTON HILLS
MI

He's been brought up before, mostly in a positive light, since he is very willing to state wrongthink opinions, such as:

Spoiler: Transmed takes

- He believes that AGP is real and that those who have it shouldn't transition

- He thinks MtFs shouldn't participate in women's sports.


- He thinks non-binary identities are bullshit.

Pretty based, honestly, but you may have noticed that he comes off as a bit aggressive. It's normal by Reddit standards, but rather unprofessional for a doctor.

Yesterday, Dr Powers made a pretty odd post on the /r/detrans subreddit. [Archive] [Unddit Archive] [Older archive with replies not hidden]

Spoiler: Post text with bolded highlights

Just a post here from a doctor who is trying to do the right thing.

Hey there, this might shock you, but I'm a physician that has about 3,000 transgender patients and has actually developed his own techniques to improve the care of transgender people and to do HRT more effectively and safer. Despite that, I'm here on this subreddit, and I'm trying to help you as much as I can.
I've been doing this about 10 years, and in that time I have seen major changes in society in regards to what is considered transgender and who is encouraged to start hormone therapy.
I'm autistic, and I have a very rigid sense of justice. To me, I don't really care much about the politics of gender dysphoria and transgender people, I care just that my patients are happy and healthy.
To that, I don't really care if someone is transitioning or de-transitioning, it's my job to help them do that as safely and effectively as possible so that they can live a healthy and happy life.
While I'm aware this is the detrans sub, I hold a moderate opinion. I think that some people really benefit from HRT, and some people, have no business getting HRT and the medical system has failed them by encouraging them to transition. Figuring out who those people are is one of the things that keeps me up late at night. Legitimately, I am feeling psychologically disturbed by the things that I'm seeing in society and in my own practice. I'm not sure how to not exactly break the rule here of "never promote HRT" as I genuinely do believe that for some people it is the right medical treatment. I just don't think it's the right thing for anywhere near the amount of people that are currently getting it.
Also, I break the rule of not being a detransitioner, So I hope an exception can be made by the mods in that regard too, because I'm not here to antagonize anybody. I'm here to help.
So sorry, my existence here already breaks rules 4 and 6.
Lately, I have been de-transitioning more people than ever. I have decided to be more active on this sub because what I want to do is help as many people as I possibly can. I've been through a lot of trauma in my life, and at this point, the only thing that really seems to give my life any meaning is helping people. I really do enjoy taking care of transgender patients, or really anybody that just gets shit on by the universe. I have certainly been served enough plates of fresh soft serve poop by the universe to know that sometimes help comes from strange places. So while it may seem kind of odd that the guy that has more trans patients than anybody else wants to help detrans patients, I hope you understand my reasoning and believe me.
In short, I do not mind if I am tagged in post comments if someone is seeking medical guidance in regards to detransition. Just link my username and I'll get the notification and I'll do my best to reply when I can.
I actually just submitted two papers for publication, one of which is about the restoration of fertility in transgender people. Nobody has ever published on this before because it's always been said that people are just sterile after HRT and that's not the case. I have about a 99% success rate in restoring the fertility of people at least temporarily who have been on hormones for a long time who have not had a gonadectomy.
Many of you often speak like the situation you are in is this irreversible mistake that you made. For some of you, that might be true in some regards, but the overwhelming majority of time it's not. People just don't know what's out there to fix the problems that they have. Because I've been doing this so long, I'm aware of a lot of things that people might not know are even possible. I am really good at feminizing or masculinizing a human body. Regardless of where that body started. I also know that finding doctors that are willing to provide detrans care is extremely difficult, because everyone's afraid of being sued or being canceled. Personally, I have no fear of either. I'm always going to be able to justify what I did by stating that I did what I thought was ethically right and good for the health of my patient at the time. And in terms of being canceled, it's happened to me so many times now that I just don't care anymore. Despite how many times people say it, I still continue to exist. So I don't really care what Twitter thinks at this point.
People are generally told when they decide they want to detransition that they just stop taking the hormones and that's it. It's a lot more complicated than that, or at least, it can be, if you want to help someone get back to how they were before as quickly and effectively and safely as possible. People can be restored back to their original state a lot faster with medical help than they can with just simply stopping the drugs.
There is a lot of medicine and things that can be done to help somebody get back to exactly how they were or nearly exactly how they were before they took a single hormone. This is especially true for FTMTF and so many of these young women think that there's nothing that can be done.
In short, I appreciate the fact that so far, I have been welcomed here, and I more than welcome and in fact invite being tagged by my username in any post that anyone makes where they are seeking some sort of guidance in regards to how to do something in regards to detransition medically.
For me, every time one of my patients comes to me and tells me that psychiatry got it wrong and that they aren't really transgender and they want to go back to how they were before, a little piece of me inside dies because I know that I broke one of the most important parts of the hippocratic oath, "primum non nocere" or "first do no harm". By spending time here and interacting with you guys and girls and hearing your stories, it is making me get better at recognizing who these people might be before they go down an irreversible pathway.
At this point, I'm doing detransition so much that it's causing me a lot of mental anguish and stress. And so in order to feel like I'm still being an ethical and good human, I really want to do my best to help this community. I am trying to not drink the Kool-Aid. I want to do what's right for my transgender patients and for my detrans patients too.
I have been treating transgender patients for 10 years, I have more transgender HRT patients per capita than any other doctor in the United States as far as I'm aware. By like a large margin. I see patients from all over the world, and in nearly every US state I have a medical license. So I see people via telehealth as well. If somebody really needs to see me and I can't help them get the care locally, I can usually do that for people. Or at least one of my trainees can.
That being said, I am not posting this to try and recruit new patients. I cannot express enough that I'm not trying to break rule 8 either. I do not have an ulterior motive other than finding some sort of psychological opiate to make me feel less pain about knowing that some of my patients have been hurt by me. Perhaps my desire to help here is to make me not feel so guilty about those people, but that's as close to an ulterior motive as I have.
I have a waiting list to get into my clinic to see me, but I welcome people asking me questions on here and I'll be happy to reply for free and do this to the best of my abilities. I cannot stress that enough. I have more transgender patients than I can really see, but that is sort of the reason why I know something is wrong. 10 years ago, everybody I saw was absolutely miserable, and after going on hormones, their life was so much better and happier than it was previously.
That just isn't the case anymore. Too many people are being pushed into transition when it's not something that will benefit their life. I want to do my best to help push back against that, and to do what I took an oath to do, which is first do no harm.
Anyways, that's all I really had to say, thanks for giving me the space to do so. I hope I can be helpful. Feel free to tag me in any post and I'll do the best I can to help that person.
Thank you for allowing me to exist in your space even though I'm a bit of a rule breaker just by being here. I really am only here to help. I hope I can prove that to you over time.

He also posted this comment where he tells his life story, which also reads very much like an advertisement for his business.

Spoiler: Image text (Autofellatio) with highlights

Sonderosity [Detrans♀]:

It isn’t strange that a doctor versed in transgender medicine would also be able to help detransitioners; it is refreshing. In my opinion any physician that performs “gender affirming” treatments should be capable and willing to work with patients going in either direction.
It does concern me that you have such a huge caseload, since you can’t possibly spend an adequate amount of time with each patient. This seems to be a problem in the field of medicine as a whole, so I can’t really blame you for it, but if you’re concerned about any of your transgender patients ultimately detransitioning, you have to recognize that you are relying on the competence of all the other providers in that respect. There’s myriad reasons driving people to transition, and you will never be able to barely scratch the surface with 3000+ patients.
Get to know the other providers referring their trans patients to you and stop working with any that you recognize to be incompetent, have an agenda, or otherwise seem untrustworthy in their judgment. And discuss the possibility of detransitioning with all your trans patients, even the ones you are certain that transition is right for.

Drwillpowers:

You would actually be surprised. I have a maximum cap per day of 20 patients that I see.
That's the reason that I'm full. I refuse to see more than 20 people per day because I flat out cannot provide the level of care and the attention to detail that is necessary without doing that.
I was really fortuitous to get invested in crypto back in 2012. It was my hobby for a very long time. So for me, at this point in my life, I'm not really working for the money of it. This is sort of my vocation, it's the only thing that really gives me purpose.
Back in 2017 I underwent a horrific tragedy and I lost literally everything in my life. I almost lost my life at the same time. The thing that got my sanity back after losing it, was the desire to help people again and so many people asking me to come back to work and do my job again. I'm also an HIV specialist and family physician.
But, when I decided to open my own practice, I decided I wasn't going to do what everybody else does, and so I made a completely ridiculously fun clinic with therapy cats and every exam room themed around video games. We welcome people there of all walks of life, no matter what reason you need medical care, we do it without judgment.
The reason I have as many total patients that I have is simply because I've been doing it for so long. But you're quite correct, I'm very concerned about the fact that I'm not able to do the psychiatric assessment myself and then I'm relying on other people for this.
Additionally, because I rely on other people, I have to believe that that doctor has properly done their job to clear this patient. For a long time, I believed That was happening properly and that I could trust the letters and documents I received from therapists and psychiatrists.
In the past few years, I've been getting full wpath letters written by therapists in support of someone's gender transition and then I find out later that they only ever saw that therapist one time. That's horrifying. And it's why I'm here.
I do my absolute best right now to cherry pick the providers that I work with, but it's still very difficult to know for sure.
For every patient that comes to my office that wants the transition, I offer them the opportunity to correct any underlying hormonal abnormality before they do any sort of cross-sex HRT. I find these anomalies way more often than you can imagine. I also have found a very strange association between people with gender dysphoria, and the following conditions, which seem to be linked through a deficiency in an enzyme called MTHFR and a chromosomal locus of 6p21
ADHD, autism spectrum disorder, postural orthopedic tachycardia syndrome, hypermobile joints, Ehlers-Danlos, hashimoto thyroiditis, IBS / gastrointestinal problems, hormonal anomalies (High estrogen in men and high testosterone in women) susceptibility to PTSD, myopia, increased intelligence, being mildly dissociated such that fantasy and alternative realities appeal to these people as well as alternative lifestyles (BDSM community/polyamory / Star Trek convention / tabletop gaming). They tend to often have allergies or mast cell activation syndrome and so far, it seems like the overwhelming majority have a mutation in methylene tetrahydrofolate reductase. It is my belief that a mutation in this specific enzyme is a primary cause of gender dysphoria as well as these things related to other single nucleotide polymorphisms all in the region of this specific area of chromosome 6P21.
There's more then this, but this is the brief summary of it.

Gee, I wonder why there's a "strange association" between gender dysphoria and trendy diagnoses with subjective diagnostic criteria. Must be genetic!

Some /r/detrans users don't see and/or ignored the red flags, and are eager to hop back on the medicalization train and try to reverse the damage done to their bodies. He often replies with pretty specific suggestions, though his Reddit profile states that his posts and comments do not constitute medical advice.

Spoiler: Advice

And some /r/detrans users are not having it.

Spoiler: Critical Responses

This first reply is the best direct response. Love the username, too.
User: "Again, this post is disjointed. You are claiming to want to help, but at the end of the day, it's all about you."


User: "You sound super manipulative dude"

User: "People please be wary and skeptical of any advice this guy is offering!"
Drwillpowers: "Like I get that you have been hurt, but like for real, I don't know anybody else that would come here and try and actually offer good medical advice to people who are suffering. So this is basically convincing me that I'm wasting my time."

This last person went digging around his reddit profile and found some interesting things.
User:
"Should we really trust a doctor that claims to have accidentally dosed himself with a massive amount of estrogen after a miscalculation?"
"You threatened legal action against a website that published an essay that was critical of a lecture you gave."

So what's up with that last comment? The one that references a post that says that he gave himself gender dysphoria by accidentally dosing himself with estrogen cream? And that he threatened to sue some troons that posted an article that was critical of his work?

Edit: Submitted early by accident. I'm wrapping this part up, and I'll post the rest of what I've discovered about this guy in a part 2.

 

[The Hoh Rainforest]

Also likely to kill any kind of sexuality.

What do antipsychotics do to the sex drive? Do they treat "dysphoria" by killing the autogynephilia?

 

[GenociderSyo]

What do antipsychotics do to the sex drive? Do they treat "dysphoria" by killing the autogynephilia?

Many cause sexual dysfunction by lowering the drive or ability to feel sexual pleasure.

 

[Accidental Protege]

Dr William John Powers, D.O., is a family medicine practitioner that focuses on the treatment of HIV+ and transgender patients.

This guy is nuts and seems like a potential lolcow. Maybe he can be our third(?) surgeon after Rumer and Sidhbhbh.

 

[gampboonerisms]

I just saw the female equivalent of this earlier

Spoiler: Exploded lady

View attachment 5012577

Thats awful. But it made me laugh. Where is she. Does it not hurt. Will she put her bra back on to go to the hospital. Just ouch, but lol.

 

[Golden Face]

I'm going to be honest with you. I was afraid that one of these would bamboozle me and I'd have to give up my "Official Tranny Clocker" badge. Some of the cis ones looked a little sketchy (maybe she had her labia cut), but the trans ones were no question. There wasn't a single one that could ever hoped to be mistaken as the real thing.

vulva vary so much woman to woman, some have large labia, others have "innies" where unless you spread it, it looks like they have no labia at all. also sometimes labia can be, generally, weird and floppy looking. there's a reason people compare it to flowers (and roast beef but that isn't as pretty)

this admittedly makes it easy for some neovaginas to pass if they're actually done by a competent butcher instead of an incompetent butcher. however like others have said, lack of clitoris, scarring, and placement also make neovaginas stand out as well. there is no way a neovagina can have a realistic looking clit. realistic looking labia? sure, because labia look weird as hell and have no uniform design. there is no way however, that a clitoris can be surgically created without looking hilariously fake.

the "penis" a transman would get on the other hand, will never, ever pass. no one will ever see a rotdog and be fooled.

 

[Systems All The Way Down]

Dr. William (Will) John Powers, part 2.
Past lolcow behavior

Dr. Powers posts on Reddit a lot, and he has some very unfortunate attention-whoring tendencies. First, let's go over the ones mentioned in the comments of the /r/detrans post.

Spoiler: Bizarre estrogen cream story

Three years ago, Dr. Powers posted this fake-as-fuck story on his profile years ago, back when he was still in the trans community's good graces. [Archive]

Spoiler: Copy-Paste

I debated ever admitting to this publicly as it would add to the "mad scientist" perception people have of me, or me being reckless (which is pretty unfair, I don't do anything that isn't done to humans safely in other branches of medicine, I just combined them under one umbrella). That being said, I think it important to admit to and document just to express what it was like for a cis person to have gender dysphoria.
I'm a dude. Very much a dude. Love being a dude, its great. We're big and strong and durable and fast. We're built for hunting and defense. I have literally never in my life wanted to be feminine or female in any way. I am however a vain SOB, and I want to be young and healthy forever. If I could make myself immortal somehow I'd do it immediately. There is so much knowledge out there that I'll never get to learn because I'll die too soon.
To that, I take certain things to potentially extend my lifespan, and one of my little "tricks" was after noticing the rejuvenating effect feminizing HRT had on my patients, particularly their facial skin. It literally erases wrinkles and makes them look a decade younger. I figured I could exploit this in myself. I've made myself varying formulations of E2, E3, or a combination of both to be applied topically to the face. My current one is 90:10 E2, E3 at 10mg/gram or 1%. I apply 1/5 of a gram to my hand, mix it with some moisturizer and throw that crap on my face once or twice a week. It had a really impressive effect in terms of wiping out some of my "mid thirties" lines on my face. When I checked my serum levels, they remained at baseline (E2 of about 40-60ish usually, T 700-1000)
I was quite proud of this trick, and I had it compounded into a "clicker" which is a dispenser that lets me put out 1/5 of a gram at a time. I recently decided to try pure E2 and Pure E3 to see which was generating the better effect as I always used a blend. When I wrote the RX for the pure E2, I wasn't paying attention, and I wrote for 100mg/gm or 10% cream. I made this mistake by clicking the box I normally click for transitioning patients (as I click that box 99% of the time) instead of the one I have for myself. Thank god I made this mistake on myself and not a patient. I literally have never made a dose calculation error before in my whole career and I made it on myself. It arrived and I didn't notice the mistake. Unlike the usual clicker, this came in a pump. I tried to dispense 1/5 gram, but when I pushed the pump, a whole gram came out. I didn't want to waste it all and I was in a rush, and so I figured screw it, its fine, its only 1%, and I slathered my face up with that and went on my merry way.
Its insanely dry here in Michigan in the winter, and the next day I had some dry skin on my face again. Unable to find any moisturizer in the house, I figured I'd get some after clinic, and I just used one more full pump again and committed to getting some cetaphil on the way home.
And this was a terrible mistake.
The following night, I had a dream that I was developing gynecomastia. It was bizarre to have such a dream, as I literally have never had anything of the sort in my head my whole life. People always think I'm secretly trans or have some transgender family member. Nope. I honestly love what I do because its a puzzle that hasn't been solved by everyone else yet. The biochemistry is fascinating. Regardless, in regards to the gynecomastia dream, I didn't think much of it. I showered in the morning, saw myself in the mirror, all was well, just a dream. Flamed on to see patients. Had a good day, went to bed.
I woke up the following morning and all was not okay. I leaned over and my chest hurt. I was very confused, until I touched my chest and realized my nipple was hard as a rock and insanely painful. Realizing I probably screwed up by using a full gram, I ran to the bathroom to look at the bottle and pretty much gasped in horror. I had not only used 5x the normal amount, I used 100x the normal dose effectively. Twice.
In two days I had given myself more estrogen than I would normally give myself in like 6 months
I normally use 1/5 of a 10mg dose once or twice a week. so 4mg a week at most or less than 1mg a day. I gave myself 200mg in two days.
Dysphoria crashed over me like a literal wave as I was scrambling to think how I could undo my screw up. I imagined the horror scenario like I had started some unstoppable progress and this would just continue unabated even if I stopped the estrogen. I rapidly dreamed up whatever pharmacology I could think of to reverse the process as quickly as possible and used it.
Thankfully, two days later, all went back to normal. However, during those two days when my estrogen was like stupidly high, I could not stop thinking about how awful it was and how much I didn't want those changes to happen to my body. It was really honestly pretty terrible, and I have a newfound empathy for gender dysphoria as a problem. I had sympathy before, but now I have empathy as I think I got a small taste of what that must be like to deal with. It literally dominated my thoughts for 2 days and I had nightmares about it.
Embarrassing as this story is to tell, I think it important to share.
- Dr Powers

It was received incredibly well, with most commenters completely buying his line about how he now has empathy for those with gender dysphoria.
But here's one exception.


He made this post in response to some of the crticism, in which he refers to himself as a "Chad" three times.

Spoiler: Copy Paste

I'm going viral again because of a tweet of a reddit post, and I want to clarify a few things.
So before the media hops on this one and we have another round of articles with partial misinformation, I want to make stuff clear.
I compound for myself a cream that is 10mg esTRIol or E3 and 10mg EstraDIol or E2, in 1000mg of "versabase" an inert carrier. I use this on my face twice a week to increase the collagen in my facial skin and for general health benefits of having it in my system. It has made me look vastly younger than 35 with zero ill effects. My systemic estradiol ranges around 40-50pg/ml (it always has) and my T around 700-1000ng/dl while on the topical. My systemic estriol is basically undetectable on it or barely detectable.
The grandfather of transgender medicine was a guy known as Dr. Harry Benjamin. Like me, he was a married cishet bro. He was fascinated by transgender people, and theorized that their brains were structurally different long before we had MRI studies to prove it. Dr. Benjamin microdosed estrogens on himself with the intent of extending his lifespan and improving his overall health. He lived to be 101. N=1, but I'd say he accomplished his goal (estrogen or not).
The mistake I made was clicking the box for refilling my own facial cream with the one I write for patients transitioning. This one is 10% pure estradiol. A much more potent estrogen. The cream arrives as a "clicker" which is a little dispenser that dispenses 1/5 gram per click. Normally I use 1/5 gram twice a week, but it was a super dry week in Michigan and my facial skin was peeling. I couldn't find my usual cetaphil, and so I just used a gram of the new stuff two days in a row thinking, meh, NBD.
Two days later, I had chest tenderness and realized my screwup. I also experienced panic and fear at having changes to my body that I didn't want, which is about as close to "gender dysphoria" that I'll ever experience. It wore off pretty quick and all was fine.
I published the story (though embarrassing) because I think its important for a "Chad" like me to talk about this experience as its something that may allow Cis people to understand trans people a little better and provide a new perspective. It certainly changed how I look at my most dysphoric patients and I feel more empathy for their suffering.
I am not embarrassed about the world finding out I make myself a facial moisturizer with a pregnancy estrogen to make myself look young and healthy forever. I find it really interesting that people comment on how "a chad" would be using estrogen and how funny that is or crack jokes about me being secretly trans.
In case you didn't know, all humans have both testosterone and estrogen in their systems. Only the ratio is different. I view these hormones as drugs, and just like the metformin I take to potentially extend my lifespan, the estrogen is just another drug. A tool, a means to an end.
The fact that there is such a powerful "gendering" of this concept and how it was anti-masculine for me to do this I find hilarious, as I'm literally a big bro-like chad. I wear pink shirts all the time (I wear them deliberately when lecturing on trans medicine as its a teaching point in the lecture), and couldn't care at all what anyone thinks about it. My masculinity is not fragile, and it is unfazed by me wearing pink or using an estrogen for a drug benefit. I think that the trans community as a whole has gotten a bit crazy about gender at times, and ironically, can be the most hardcore police of "gender norms". This partially explains the exclusion of non-binary people from the trans umbrella.
Regardless, I am putting this out there to clarify that I have zero embarrassment about this going viral. If anything, I'm glad for it, because maybe it will help some cis people get some empathy for transgender people's dysphoria. However, for those transgender people reading it and putting their own spin on it or being so rigid about gender roles, I find it as ironic as the trans people who (literally post criticism on this subreddit) and tell me I should change how I speak/dress/behave to be more "doctor-like". You of all people should be the most empathetic to those who don't conform to the stereotypes of society.

There's even a PinkNews Article [Archive] about this. It mostly just regurgitates his Reddit post, but it also mentions some details about his past.

And speaking of cats...

Spoiler: World Record breaking cats dying in a housefire, a lawsuit, and psychosis

The doctor raised two Guinness World Record-breaking cats, but lost everything in a house fire started by a massage chair, including his pets.

Incidentally, he has quite a history of attention-whoring via his cats.
Here he is dressed as Cloud from Final Fantasy next to his cat.

A gentle giant in Farmington Hills, Michigan, has set a Guinness World Record as the world's tallest living domestic cat. Fenrir Powers measured an impressive 18.83 inches on January 29, 2021. The two-year-old Savannah cat's achievement was revealed in the Guinness World Records 2023 edition, released on September 13, 2022.
[...]
Fenrir is not the only celebrity in the Powers household. The physician's other famous cats include Altair Powers and Cygnus Powers — the current and previous Guinness World Record holders for the longest tail on a living domestic cat. Fenrir's late brother Arcturus Powers, who holds the Guinness World Record for the tallest domestic cat ever, was also a family pet. Unfortunately, Cygnus and Arcturus died in a house fire in 2017.

So he's had three Guinness World Record cats in total. A pretty weird fixation overall, but whatever.

The thing about the housefire led me to discover this article where he's apparently suing the massage chair's manufacturer over the damage. [Archive]

William and Lauren Powers are seeking more than $1 million in damages, according to a lawsuit filed Tuesday in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan.

The Powerses were given the chair by someone who had purchased it in 2009, according to the complaint. The previous owner of the chair had used it without incident for eight years before giving it to William Powers.
The couple said in the lawsuit that the fire erupted in the massage chair, consumed their home and everything in it, including about $300,000 in cryptocurrency, which cannot be recovered.
Their three cats, including two that held Guinness World Records in 2018 — Arcturus Aldebaran and Cygnus Regulus — died in the fire.

It also said William Powers, who was at home when the fire gutted the house, suffered a facial injury in the fire and experienced symptoms of psychosis after it.

Alright, well, this guy is confirmed crazy.
(He also claims he experienced psychosis both times he smoked weed, which also indicates some predisposition to insanity.)


I tried looking into the lawsuit [Archive] some, and it seems like the original was transferred to California. [Dockett Archive]. The most recent update that I can find is from March 2020, and I don't speak legalese, so I'm not really sure what the status of the case is.

Spoiler: Falling out with the mtf community and a very funny email

Getting back to more interesting drama, five months ago, he really pissed off the MtF subreddit when he demanded that an article posted by "transfemscience.org" be taken down. [Archive]


The article that he demanded be taken down seems pretty reasonable, but I'm no scientist, so I can't speak to whether or not every criticism is on-target. That being said, most of them fall into the category of "Dr. Powers has no evidence to support his claims, most of which are counter to established science," which sounds fair to me.

Conclusion:

Spoiler: Copy-Paste

Discussion and Conclusions​

As I touched on in the introduction, I think that Powers’s efforts to help improve care in transgender hormone therapy are commendable. As mentioned before, certain approaches he employs—like high-dose parenteral estradiol, rectal progesterone, and bicalutamide—have significant value. I’ll readily give credit where I think it’s due. Accordingly, I’ve posted in the past on Powers’s clinical experience with rectal progesterone in transfeminine people (Aly W., 2018). This was based on his clinical blood work results, which I think are adequately objective measures (though of course unpublished).
In many regards however, Powers’s approach shows a significant deficiency of scientific rigor. He is not careful enough with factual claims, often making statements that are inaccurate or poorly supported. He engages in highly speculative theorizing that is poorly formulated and frequently contradicted by the published literature. He distributes his ideas widely online and elsewhere directly to transgender people, regardless of how inadequately supported many of said ideas may be. And due to his position of prestige and authority as a popular transgender health clinician, an alarming number of transgender people uncritically accept and believe such ideas, often with little or nothing in the way of questioning. I think that Powers needs to think a lot more about the influence he has among impressionable laypeople in our community and needs to be more careful about the things he says in his position.
Aside from blood work, Powers appears to rarely if ever use objective measurements of therapeutic changes in his clinical practice, largely relying instead on unreliable and unsubstantiated anecdotal observations. This is an approach that is riddled with pitfalls. He hasn’t had any of his findings or ideas published or peer-reviewed. Hence, none of his claims are currently subject to any sort of verification. He could easily be making cognitive and perceptual mistakes in his judgements and seeing apparent associations that would disappear upon objective quantification and statistical analysis. It is my opinion that that is in fact the case when it comes to many of his anecdotal observations. There are very good reasons for why things like formal research methods, statistics, evidence standards, peer review, and publication exist. For these reasons, great caution is warranted with Powers’s clinical anecdotes.
Powers’s current approach isn’t how research is normally done nor how it should be done. It should be conducted first, then peer-reviewed and published, and only then should people learn about it—once there is objective data to support it, it’s certain to be accurate, and it’s been appropriately vetted.
I hope that Powers adopts a more scientifically rigorous and responsible approach in the future. I would be pleased to see him employ objective measures of physical changes to substantiate his clinical observations and ideas. If he used standardized objective measures, his findings, whatever they may be, could prove to be quite valuable. His findings should also be peer-reviewed and published. Until such changes however, I think that we should be very skeptical regarding his anecdotal claims.

It definitely gets petty at points, though.

Powers pronounces “bicalutamide” as “bih-kah-loo-tah-myde”. This is incorrect. It’s actually pronounced “bye-kah-loo-tah-myde”. The first two syllables of “bicalutamide” are derived from the term “bicyclic” which relates to the fact that bicalutamide is a bicyclic compound (Wiki).

Any pharmacist will tell you that most doctors can't pronounce medication names for shit. He's not dropping or scrambling any letters, so he gets at least an A-. (Though, standards are probably different for doctors claiming to do research.)

Transfemscience also released a screencap of their email correspondence with Dr. Powers. And he comes off as very, very unhinged.

In it, he refuses to tell Transfemscience what they said that would qualify as libel, repeats himself endlessly like a raving lunatic, tries to play several different sympathy cards, self-aggrandizes, claims he doesn't want conflict, implies that the cost of lawsuit is the true threat, and says he would be willing to take down the domain himself via a cease and desist, even though he thinks it would harm the trans community.

Spoiler: Misc Reddit cringe and oversharing

He posted on /r/detrans a while back [Archive] and was met with similarly mixed attitudes.

Playing both sides of the field. Maybe you should sell me cigarettes too.

He made a post on /r/glitchinthematrix, which is a subreddit where you post pics where it seems like reality is glitching. It's mostly good fun, but far too many posts are from people who actually believe that they've captured some kind of glitch in reality. This is one of them.


He has taken Adderall for 21 years.

His proposal here is simply to take Magnesium. I've heard this from many, many sources, yet he's acting like it's a new and fresh innovation.

Has an annual tradition of hiding up to $20,000 worth of bitcoin in the forest. Seems to be more-or-less legit, as there's randos commenting about participating in the hunts.


In this comment, he talks about running into his house to try to save his cats over and over. This is at odds with what's written in the Detroit News article.

The three cats were missing after the fire. William Powers said the couple opened some windows and doors as they fled their burning house, hoping the three cats would escape.

He later offered a $25,000 bitcoin reward for each cat who was safely returned. Live traps were also set up in the area.


More than a month after the blaze, the Powerses said they found both Arcturus and Cygnus dead in a room in the home's basement. They said the cats succumbed to smoke inhalation. Sirius was still missing.

Claims he took progesterone for 7 days to see how it would affect his libido. Says that he had no negative side effects and that it was nothing but good.


Posted one of his lectures to /r/TransDIY

I don't think this guy is literally evil or anything (unlike some of our surgeons), but I do think he's a self-obsessed egomaniac who has absolutely no business promoting his experimental HRT regimens to people (trans or detrans) on fucking Reddit. I do appreciate the opportunity to get a closer look into the minds of the doctors involved in trans healthcare. It's rare that you find a doctor stupid enough to overshare their thoughts to this degree.

 

[Stupid Sexy Flanders]

What do antipsychotics do to the sex drive? Do they treat "dysphoria" by killing the autogynephilia?

Danielle Bunten Berry (creator of M. U. L. E.) spoke about how when he started HRT he felt relief because his sex drive became lower; same thing we see with many AGPs that brag about HRT making their sex drives more like "a woman" aka lower. It's worth remembering that one of the co-morbidities that "gender dysphoria" has is OCD; add in a strong sexual component and you likely have something like AGP.

So yeah, antipsychotics might actually help, but I'm willing to bet they help mostly because it takes away their sex drive, hence urge to crossdress.

 

[Positron]

Dr. Powers reminds me of those incels of yore -- all of them severely autistic of course -- who put condoms in their nasal passages to inflate their maxilla or some shit.

With a smattering of Zach Antolek's "biohacking" with "nootropes"

 

[Larry David's Opera Cape]

I had no idea, but it makes perfect sense. Thank you.

I think it was posted on this thread that antipychotics can eliminate feelings of gender dysphoria, I wonder if therapeutic ketamine would have a similar effect?

A common experience during ketamine infusion is a feeling of belonging in a sense of connectedness that comes from within. Many troon's feel a disconnect from society, from their family, and from their own bodies, though it often self inflicted as a result of their poor choices.

Maybe ketamine could bridge that gap and help them get more normal again.

Okay, give me ya rainbows.

I don't think so. As far as I know, Ketamine is a dissasociative, that's why if you give it to someone who had their leg taken off by an IED they suddenly stop freaking out, it seperates your consciousness from your body, so that missing limb doesn't seem important anymore, but it doesn't stop psychotic symptoms, which is kinda what "dysphoria" and other forms of dysmorphia are, thats why antipsychotics work, they stop delusions, which is exactly what a dysphoric troon experiences.

Well here's the problem: transgenderism is delusional only in the colloquial sense, 99% of the time. Clinically, it's a lot more like a neurosis- a lot of ruminating, obsessing, preoccupation with self and image, anxiety, patterns of compulsive behavior intended to soothe anxiety.

If and when one of these patients may accidentally respond to an antipsychotic the odds are good they are only really responding to the fact that it's a powerful sedative that makes you too stupid, slow, and clumsy to obsess over how you look. Thorazine would do the trick, and if not, just up the dose.

But if transgenderism were a true psychosis, it could not "trend." It is a mass hysteria and mass neurosis. Many such cases.

It's pretty interesting that the study authors chose pimozide over any of the newer atypicals. I haven't read the study but I'm curious if they had a reason.

It's a case study and sounds like an accidental success/possible placebo effect to me:

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/8839957/

Sci Hub free unlock of paper

Notably the guy in the case study was also retarded. The obstetric history and seizure history taken together hints rather strongly at some degree of hypoxic brain injury:

Mr A is a 23-year-old man with a borderline learning disability, who was referred to a gender identity clinic preoccupied with thoughts of changing sex and wishing to become ‘a beautiful and desirable woman with 38D breasts’.
There is no known family psychiatric history.
Mr A had a normal vaginal delivery at term after his mother had been in labour for 5 days. At around the age of 18 months he suffered from three febrile convulsions. His developmental milestones up to the age of 5 years were recorded as being within the normal range. However. from the age of 5 years he was noted to be slow at school, hyperactive, and unable to sit still. He attended a normal primary school and then a school for the educationally subnormal,

He was gay, flaming, and acted out like a spaz resulting in his moving back in with the parents and fixating on becoming Madonna. The tone of the paper leans towards "we don't know what to do with this freak, who is not only a pervert but markedly dumb, so we started trying drugs." One of them happened to "work"- though it temporally coincided with intensive talk therapy, and there's also a tendency for people with this kind of fixation to move on to another fixation given enough time. I wonder how and where he is today. (Likely shitting on the streets of San Fran.)

 

[monstrous bubo]

Well here's the problem: transgenderism is delusional only in the colloquial sense, 99% of the time. Clinically, it's a lot more like a neurosis- a lot of ruminating, obsessing, preoccupation with self and image, anxiety, patterns of compulsive behavior intended to soothe anxiety.

So CBT and/or OCD meds would be more sensible, i suppose. Medfags, care to weigh in?

 

[Larry David's Opera Cape]

So CBT and/or OCD meds would be more sensible, i suppose. Medfags, care to weigh in?

I mean CBT is basic forebrain dogtraining, you could do it to yourself if you had the will and the smarts. But it would involve an awful lot of wrongthink. For instance you'd start with reframing, say like this:

"I am trans because I like it when skirt go spinny."
"No. I like when skirt go spinny because spinny is fun. Wearing a spinny skirt does not make a person a girl."

A lot of these people take SSRIs already (that's the main line for OCD). I am not convinced it's a chemical problem. Again- it's a social trend. That's not chemical. That is 100% behavioral. (Other than maybe the things turning the freakin frogs gay).

 

[Stupid Sexy Flanders]

So CBT and/or OCD meds would be more sensible, i suppose. Medfags, care to weigh in?

The issue is that there's likely no direct root cause of gender identity disorder, but more a combination of various comorbidities (like OCD, autism, cluster b personality disorder); what these might have in common is probably more interesting. Namely, obsessive thought patterns (see OCD, autistic "special interests"), but also a poor sense of self (see autism, cluster b personality disorders). It wouldn't surprise me at all if these people just eventually move on to something else because society won't treat the root causes.

In the early 2000s, the females that today are larping as males would usually be uwu mentally ill dark-sided goths with cut marks on their arms proclaiming that everyone was raping them and had totally suffered the most trauma of all their mentally ill friends.