Photo by Andreas Filla, taken at the Berlin Pride Parade 1994. CC-BY-SA
Hi my trans siblings!
I'm late writing this mega this week, I had hoped to do more research but maybe I can add stuff and re-write this as the week goes on.
This time I'd like to share some information I stumbled across about 20th century trans icon Charlotte von Mahlsdorf. She was born in the Weimar Republic in 1928 and survived Nazi Germany to make it as the most prominent trans woman that I'm aware of in the DDR (GDR or East Germany). There she ran the Gründerzeit museum, dedicated to the founding period of the German Empire and the period of its industrialization. The museum ended up becoming a popular hotspot for the gay and I presume trans and queer scene in the DDR.
She was politically active, having been an unofficial informant of the Stasi which ideally I'd love more information on. Was she helping them identify Nazis? Surely being a trans woman would've lured a lot of reactionaries out from behind their masks in her presence. In fact, after the DDR was taken over by the BRD (West Germany) in 1990, it only took about one year before one of the parties she threw at the museum was the target of a neo-Nazi attack, at which point she announced she was considering leaving Germany. She eventually moved to Sweden in 1997, where I believe she lived the rest of her life.
She died of natural causes at the age of 74 during a visit to Berlin in 2002.
This has been more or less a summary of the Wikipedia article on her where I did check some sources, but I really want to learn more about her. I only learned of her in the past couple days, and there is a film about her from 1992 called I Am My Own Woman, by Rosa von Praunheim.
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Is there a recommended time to start progesterone?
relative to starting HRT? The popular advise used to be after a couple years or once hitting a certain tanner stage in breast development. However as far as I can tell both are unsubstantiated and were propagated by tales from a few people being unhappy with their breast shape after taking it, with no good evidence that this was caused by prog. It could be that their breast shape was just always what they were going to get due to their genetics and physiology, and progesterone just helped them finish developing the way they were always gonna develop, or maybe it didn't even have any impact. Scientific medicine is unfortunately very primitive when it comes to trans people and transition.
I know people who are very happy with their results who started taking prog right away with E and blockers, and others who started later or never at all. Basically if you feel like you wanna try it, go ahead.
That's how cis women's puberty works, prog levels are pretty low the first years/tanner stages...
"menarche" is first period, prog levels are basically nothing at that point. And buds form before that. Then its like 2 years before they get some prog and 2 more before they're at full levels. Not saying you have to go that slow but there absolutely is a reason people say not to take prog at the very beginning.
edit: actually a better source https://transfemscience.org/articles/hormone-levels-female-puberty/#wu-2006 look at the prog levels by tanner stage. The suggestion didn't come out of nowhere
Thanks, I'm about 6 months on now and just wanted to make sure it wouldn't be too early or something. Gonna ask my doc about it at the next visit.
Tanner stage 3 or 4. Personally I'll probably wait until 4. I have seen trans doctors saying it switches breast growth from out to filling them out, so waiting and letting them grow out seems like it might be ideal. But 6 months you're probably tanner 3 so 🤷 not like terrible, maybe a bit early imo
In the evening; it makes some people drowsy.
Good to know, I hear it also improves some people's sleep. That'd be nice lol