Cis- and Trans-Drug Wrecks

After a Montelukast Withdrawal Syndrome post two weeks back, we had more comments than after any previous post – so much so that this seemed worth noting in a Post in its own right.

After last weeks Transgender Meds, we have had fewer comments than after any previous post.  This also seems worth noting in the form of a post.

This is not so much a post as a series of notes on the paradoxes Transgender concerns pose in terms of the issues that get debated on RxISK – specifically focusing on Drug Wrecks.  There seem to be differences between Cis- and Trans-Drug Wrecks but putting a finger on what drives the difference – seems like it should be possible – but is not easy.

These notes need input from others –  at least some of which should come from people who have some links to Transgender issues, whether transitioners, de-transitioners or those close to them.

The Internet

For many people who are Cis-Drug Wrecked, the internet can be a godsend.  After you struggle past the pharma sites claiming their drug can only produce benefits and the Professional Associations (Mini-Me’s) like the American Medical Association or Royal College of Psychiatrists who echo Pharma faithfully – how high do you want us to jump – you arrive at compelling personal testimonies from others about injuries on treatment and its then you know you’re not going mad.

Your doctor may gaslight you if you mention PSSD or other problems – saying if you continue to consult Google you will be ill for the rest of your life but there on Google is something to hold on to – people being treated the same way as you.

For many transgender folk, especially younger people, something close to the opposite happens.  (This is clearly not the case for older men who have been transitioning for decades before the internet appeared).

If I am having difficulties, the idea I might be transgender is increasingly likely to pop up as the source of my difficulties and once I begin to ask about this many Mini-Me’s – not pharma – actively promote this as the likely answer to whatever problems I may have.

The same happens for erectile dysfunction in younger men – where dysfunction means my erection is only 99% and doesn’t last for ever. This points to our role in Pharma marketing.  Like the pornography industry, Pharma plays on desires or needs we already have rather than creates something entirely new.  Transgender issues bring these desires, often hidden beneath pharma marketing, out in the open – we want to be better than well, have clear skin, be smart, and the rhetoric tells us we can be whoever we want to be.

The difference comes with the Drug Wrecks.  Finasteride, triptorelin, leuprolide and other drugs used widely for transitioning are wrecking balls.  Its one thing to take them for cancer, quite another for anything less.

In this case though, as reports coming in to RxISK suggest, young women or men can end up crippled with chronic pain but they don’t make the link to treatment.  Instead, among the transition community on the web they find difficulties like this put down to Ehlers Danlos syndrome – a rare disorder that can give rise to chronic pain now exploding in frequency with no-one apparently asking why.

There may be some similarities here between Cis- and Trans-Drug Wrecks.  In Cis- cases people becoming suicidal on antidepressants are told by their doctors that their suicidality shows they are really bipolar, when in fact healthy volunteers can become suicidal.

Its seems the temptation to read drug wrecks as evidence of another illness is pretty strong. But in this case its the affected community, those getting wrecked who promote this line, suggesting perhaps its the trans activists effectively doing the prescribing with the doctors as a conduit – the common factor then being those doing the prescribing whether doctors or others develop a blindness to the harms that result from their good intentions – see the Montelukast Withdrawal Syndrome post for an example of this.

With Cis-Drug Wrecks, family and friends often deny a problem exists leaving the person even more isolated.  With Trans-Drug Wrecks, the affected person denies the link to the drug leaving family and friends isolated.

Research needed

We need reports of people taking drugs from finasteride to triptorelin or Cross Sex Hormones, singly or in combination, who have run into difficulties.  Its reports like these that have put Ehlers Danlos syndrome on the map for us – its featured in several cases this week.

We welcome reports from family members or friends and not just those affected – whoever is in the best position to report.

It would be helpful to have a repository of information on the effects of sex on drug actions.  It has long been known that hormones in general, and sexual hormones in particular, can have effects on the actions of other drugs.  But there are sexual differences in liver and kidney function and the impact these can have on drugs.

If you are starting to transition, especially female to male, these are things you need to know about.  If something else happens you, totally unlinked to transitioning, any other treatments you get put on will follow your sex not your gender.

Anyone who has any contacts with pharmacologists or pharmacists can help out here by locating information which we will compile at this end.

In terms of informed consent, we need to establish what people should be told about the effects of drugs.  When given to Cis populations, drugs like finasteride and triptorelin come with some pretty major effects.  Drug companies still deny a lot of very obvious effects.  What should informed consent forms for anyone thinking about transitioning saw about these effects.  Do drug companies looking after their Cis-markets, with little interest in Trans-takers get to dictate this?

At the moment, teenagers in many countries cannot get their ears pierced under the age of 16 without parental consent but they can consent to vaccinations, to Cross Sex Hormones and to mastectomies if done as part of transitioning.  Is it possible to make sense of this?  Nice to know that teenage girls can snarl a bureaucracy up.

White Man Speak with Forked Tongue

Senior figures in bodies like the Royal College of Psychiatrists in Britain regard anyone complaining about dependence on or withdrawal from antidepressants as part of an antipsychiatric lunatic fringe or cult.  They think the same way about anyone who makes a case they are a victim of a Cis-Drug or Vaccine Wreck – people who clearly had the one true faith and were pro-drugs and vaccines to begin with or they would never have ended up in the position of trying to find out what had gone wrong.

Some of the leading officers in these bodies claim its impossible to deal with people making complaints about treatment – they (the wrecked) issue death threats.  We should clamp down on the Hate Speech of these complainers.  We should ban anything about the adverse effects of meds or vaccines from social media.  These officers – a small number of people – no-platform anyone who attempts to suggest that drugs or vaccines might be wonderful but are not sacraments – capable of only doing good.

Essentially this is a religious position.  Not religious in the sense of giving anyone a vision of how to confront evil but the religion of the herd.  A lot of religion is inherently conservative – it tries to keep the herd together.  If you have been injured, you are left to the jackals circling the herd which moves on.  This is not the same as political conservatism – the left-wing in politics is even more likely to put vaccine and drug mandates in place and ditch the individual.

But here’s a conundrum.  We now have leaders of the Mini-Me’s saying that the very worst thing you can do for a person with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome or a Cis-Drug Wreck is Affirm them.  This is what creates a Cult.  At the same time, what we have with Transgender issues is an increasingly aggressive Affirmation campaign.  In children, pre-teens and teenage years, Gender Dysphoria or Fluidity is common, comes and goes, and mostly * (* resolves might be the wrong word for what can be seen as absorption into the patriarchy).

Why affirmation here and not affirmation of Cis- or Trans-Drug Wrecks?  It feels like there should be some way to tie some of these strands together.  In the meantime, the message for Trans-folk might be that your Affirmers are only prepared to go so far.

Drug Wrecks come from our Biology.  To recognise them you have to embrace biology.  The idea that drugs might be sacraments rather than poisons, something that can only do good rather than inherently risky as is the legal view, comes from our interactions with each other.  Its social.

Perhaps we need an In our Genes not in our Memes movement.  A tricky call particularly in the area of gender where our memes are so fucked up.