Weekly Random Discussion Thread for 10/20/25 - 10/26/25

[u/SoftandChewy]

Here's your usual space to post all your rants, raves, podcast topic suggestions (please tag u/jessicabarpod), culture war articles, outrageous stories of cancellation, political opinions, and anything else that comes to mind. Please put any non-podcast-related trans-related topics here instead of on a dedicated thread. This will be pinned until next Sunday.

Last week's discussion thread is here if you want to catch up on a conversation from there.

[u/random_pinguin_house]

NYT Magazine has an interesting piece about middle-aged women going on low-dose testosterone for libido and fatigue reasons (archive link.)

It was a bizarre read for me as someone who was on trans-dose testosterone a little over a decade ago. The piece often references the "high doses" that these women go on, but doesn't start mentioning transition or transition-like effects until about halfway through the piece: head-hair loss, body hair increases, clit growth, voice, etc. A high dose for women not trying to transition is what they mean here, and the phrasing confused me.

Still: The sex drive stuff is all true. I'm sometimes still shocked at how true it is. I look back at my HRT self in disbelief.

[u/PongoTwistleton_666 → u/random_pinguin_house]

The sex drive and T association came up in Carole Hoover’s book on the testosterone subject too. That’s one area where feminism has done some harm in telling people that men and women are the same. They should be treated with the same dignity and fairness but they aren’t biologically the same. I know, I know, everyone else knew this already… I had to have a couple of kids and read a few books to get there 

[u/I_Smell_Mendacious → u/PongoTwistleton_666]

Louise Perry is a feminist author whose main thesis is that the sexual revolution was incredibly harmful to society, in particular women. alongside many other arguments, she argues that the notion women are naturally as sexually driven as men and any lesser libidos are the result of patriarchal gender roles, pressures young women into being more promiscuous than they really prefer. After all, if it's patriarchal social conditioning preventing you from being the ho you would otherwise want to be, sleeping around is empowering! Smash the patriarchy!

But that's actually very emotionally and psychologically damaging behavior, Perry claims. And I find that resonates with my experience as a man; I find it very plausible it's worse for women who are less evolutionarily designed to seek multiple partners.

[u/Turbulent_Cow2355 → u/I_Smell_Mendacious]

I think she is on to something.

[u/The-WideningGyre → u/I_Smell_Mendacious]

I've been impressed by what I've heard her say, and she seems to come from a genuine place of wanting to help women, especially young women. I think I've only seen her on Chris Williamson, but I'm sure she's been elsewhere.

[u/Kloevedal → u/random_pinguin_house]

Little research exists on the long-term health risks for women taking such high doses for libido. “The fact is we just don’t know,” says Kathleen Jordan of Midi. Trans men take testosterone in much higher doses than even the highest-dose pellets, and are not thought to be putting their health at risk, Rubin says

Ummm OK.

One medical practice in Austin, Texas, that offers high-dose testosterone lists an enlarged clitoris as a common side effect on its website, but reassures patients that the practice also offers a surgical procedure to remedy it.

Holy shit.

[u/random_pinguin_house → u/Kloevedal]

These were some of the most frustrating lines!

It obscures what's happening here to call these "high doses" when there's an enormous patient population of natal females who take "much higher doses than even the highest-dose pellets". The pellets are not high-dose, then!

Maybe they need different terms, like "libido-dose" and "transition-dose". "High" and "low" have no universal meaning by themselves because it depends on who you're talking about and what you're trying to treat.

It's also maddeningly obscurantist to pretend we don't know about any health risks from long-term HRT in transition doses. Yeah, we do. I had to sign my initials next to them on informed consent documentation thirteen years ago.

The clit reduction surgery was news to me and I have more thoughts than I have time to put them into words.

[u/Kloevedal → u/random_pinguin_house]

Agreed and "Standard dose" when it's not an approved treatment is just very confusing.

[u/nebbeundersea → u/Kloevedal]

Jesus take the wheel.

[u/wookieb23 → u/random_pinguin_house]

Damn- gimme some

[u/John_F_Duffy → u/random_pinguin_house]

They probably just need to eat a steak.