Hey folks, this is really important! Please take a moment to read this.
- (TW genitals)
When an AFAB (assigned female at birth) person goes on testosterone as part of hormone replacement therapy, their clitoris grows larger. It often ends up being around 1.5 inches give or take. You can see pictures of what that looks like here.
However, clitoris growth does not affect how you use the bathroom. The clitoris grows larger, but you pee through your urethra- not your clitoris. Your urethra stays the same unless you get surgery to have a urethral lengthening as part of lower surgery.
A lot of trans guys and transmasculine people want to be able to pee standing up without having to use a stand to pee device to feel more comfortable in public bathrooms, for dysphoria reasons, and to ensure they’re able to pass in all situations. That means lower surgery that enables standing to urinate is essential for our mental health and safety.
One type of lower surgery for AFAB/transmasculine people is called a metoidioplasty. In a meta, the surgeons can release the ligament holding the clitoris down, wrap the labia around it, and reroute the urethra so the pee comes out through the new phallus. This is explained better in the links below, so take a look there for more info on the procedure!
Info on metas:
- Metoidioplasty
- Metoidioplasty Procedures
- How Metoidioplasty works
- Metoidioplasty Information
- Meta info
- Lower surgery terms
Metoidioplasty procedures relies on the amount of clitoral growth since they don’t increase the size of the phallus much like phalloplasty does since phalloplasty uses skin grafts. As a result, the new phallus might be too small to pee standing up with since there might not be enough length to clear the fly of the pants. Being unable to clear the fly of your pants might mean that pee dribbles on yourself, or you have to drop your pants awkwardly low in a public bathroom where you’re trying not to draw attention to yourself.
This is where DHT comes in. DHT is short for dihydrotestosterone, and basically it can cause growth in the clitoris after you’ve been on testosterone for 2 years and gotten all the growth you’ll get without intervention. While the clitoris does grow on testosterone, it doesn’t always reach the maximum size possible for it because the androgen receptors aren’t filled. DHT can sometimes add a few centimeters or even an inch of growth, which is really a significant difference with a surgery like meta where every centimeter matters.
People getting a meta are sometimes recommended to take DHT for 3 months before the operation to maximize lower growth, but there’s currently no legal way to access DHT. It used to be available online through the All Saint’s Clinic and other vendors, but now they all say they’re out of stock and are “are unable to supply Andractim for the forseeable future.” (Andractim is the brand name for DHT gel).
Two great resources on DHT that I really recommend you read:
For the blogs that don’t show the summary of a link post, it says to fill out this google form if you are interested in using DHT or being part of research about DHT:
As you may know, DHT has not been available for in the US for several years and it does not look like it will be coming back on the market any time soon. In order to spur the process of getting DHT back on the market in the US, Dr. Colt Keo-Meier (out trans man in Texas, USA) is working with several pharmacists.
In order for us to better advocate for this medication to get back on the market, we need to know about how many people would be interested in using DHT or participating in research on the effects of DHT in AFAB non-binary, genderqueer, transmasculine folks as well as trans men. We are interested in responses from folks around the globe, as this may also help the process in the US and also globally.
My personal thoughts on my transition goals are below the keep reading.
DHT Interest Form
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SlythKris (tumblr backup babey) 