GL finding a study, trans womens healthcare and transition related healthcare in general is really understudied. Its not got money in it, its disregarded as fundamentally wrong by a lot of people, and in general society tends not to care about us or wants to force us into our agab, leading to terribly harmful "studies" and reports. If you do find a study on this, please share it cause i would love to read it. I know anecdotally some people (without hormone fluctuations) experience this and some dont, but actually understanding the biological processes of this absent a hormonal fluctuation would be really cool
this post was submitted on 10 Nov 2025
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yes, i thought it would be a long shot and slogging thru all the shit out there is exhausting.
I know anecdotally some people (without hormone fluctuations)
like, they're actually measuring their own hormone levels throughout the month, it's staying consistent, but they're still experiencing a cycle of sorts? if it's happening without hormone fluctuations at all i wonder how you would even rule out this being some brain thing acting similar to placebo/nocebo subconsious type of thing (like, HRT helps a trans woman feel more comfortable in their self image as a woman -> most women in their lives have cycles -> brain causes body to experience cycle?). although if it were subconsious, you would expect some amount of trans women to experience this even not on HRT i assume? alternatively, could mean that what causes the symptoms of a cycle dont actually have to do with the fluctuating hormone levels in cis women, which wouldnt surprise me in the least that we've misunderstood yet another part of typical female anatomy lol
edit: thinking more, i guess the way to study this would be to have cis men go through the HRT program through a year (although how you would get a group of cis men to agree to do this and them actually be cis is a question for another time...) and see if they develop these symptoms at a similar rate to trans women on hrt?
So, when i say without hormonal fluctuation, i mean they have consistent levels accross measurements and take their meds at the same time. E.g. if on pills they take at the samw times every day, if on injections the same day every week/every injection period. And they differentiate between "i feel bad cause its the day before shot day" and "i feel bad and i just took my shot (cycle stuff)". Idk if placebo is whats happening and i hesitate to say its a solid guess, because trans people are told its all in our heads literally every day.
The causes of cycles are imo multifold and hormones comprise one aspect of it. I have no study to back it up. But we understand so little about the human body and how its various systems function together, that to me it would seem likely that theres multiple things at play.
Regarding your edit, that study would be useless. The participants would, assuming you could actually control for cis men and not closeted trans people, be terribly skewed by the resultant dysphoria imo.
Im also generally against studying trans people in general at this point. Study after study is, even when neutral or in favor of gender affirming care, used to deny us healthcare and deny us who we are. I dont trust the medical and research institutions. I care far more what my community experiences than whether or not its "real" or "valid" according to some study.
Idk if placebo is whats happening and i hesitate to say its a solid guess, because trans people are told its all in our heads literally every day.
not really a solid guess, i moreso was saying im not even sure how you would even design a study for this to rule it out if there's no obvious smoking gun like fluctuating hormone levels throughout the month
The causes of cycles are imo multifold and hormones comprise one aspect of it. I have no study to back it up. But we understand so little about the human body and how its various systems function together, that to me it would seem likely that theres multiple things at play.
this wouldnt surprise me either, especially since i think biology is far too dominated by "bourgeoisie" thinking (not to say im a lysenkoist, but like i definitely think there's been a huge overemphasis on stuff like genes because it allows the bourgeoisie to subtly push eugenics etc.). all this to say i think our understanding about complex systems like this will take a very long time to fully understand even in the case it is connected to fluctuating horomones
not intending to say it's "fake" or whatever sorry; i think if this were mental it would be more subtle than even a placebo, the treatment for this wouldnt be "get over it you faker" but just the same management of the symptoms as a "real" cycle even if this were the case.
Regarding your edit, that study would be useless. The participants would, assuming you could actually control for cis men and not closeted trans people, be terribly skewed by the resultant dysphoria imo.
it would make the study probably too unethical, but it seems to me if even these cis men who are experiencing dysphoria started experiencing these symptoms it would rule out the placebo like effect in this particular case, but even if they didnt doesnt necessarily mean it's placebo in the case of trans women.
Im also generally against studying trans people in general at this point. Study after study is, even when neutral or in favor of gender affirming care, used to deny us healthcare and deny us who we are. I dont trust the medical and research institutions. I care far more what my community experiences than whether or not its "real" or "valid" according to some study.
totally understandable! again, not saying it would be "faking" or that these trans women would be choosing to have these symptoms, if it's "just in their heads" the treatment isnt to shame or therapy or whatever, just treat the symptoms and give support just like for a "real" cycle.
i think a general distrust of these institutions is fine, safe and healthy even, but like for instance i think it's probably ok to trust research coming from somewhere like cuba, biggest issue is that they dont have the resources to fund large studies about this kind of thing.
i wasnt asking for a study like, to validate this video or whatever, i like this ytber and have 0 reason to believe she's making it up especially since ive heard about it before, i just like reading about wacky cool things about the human body like this
I found a YouTube link in your post. Here are links to the same video on alternative frontends that protect your privacy: