Cyproterone acetate with a kidney transplant
Posted: Tue Sep 21, 2004 12:13 am
After waiting 20 weeks for approval, making threats of physical self-castration, seeing a psychiatrist and an endocrinologist twice, and having a bone density scan, I finally was allowed to start treatment with cyproterone acetate (the generic form of Androcur) on 27 July. Unfortunately, because I'd already been on prednisone for nearly 14 years, the bone density scan showed I was already suffering from osteoporosis, so I also had to have treatment with calciferol (six tablets in one dose, then one tablet per month) and an annual IV infusion of zoledronic acid. The zoledronic acid knocked me around a bit for a couple of weeks, but I'm pleased to report that I've actually had none of the side effects that are common with Androcur. I believe this is because I combined it with a change to Dr Michael Lesser's Brain Chemistry Diet (see his book by that title, published by Putnam's, 2002), which helped me overcome the tiredness as well as actually coming out of a depression I'd been labouring under for over 15 years! So much for Androcur causing tiredness and depression; I've been more awake and felt more alive and positive about life than ever!
The treatment has also been extremely positive in its effects. Within 24 hours my body clock was re-normalized from owl to lark, so I can now wake up at 6 a.m. and stay awake all day. By 1 August (five days) my dick was as good as dead, so no problem there. Erections have become increasingly few and far between, though the testicles haven't completely shut down yet, and the sex centres in the brain are still working. By the second week of August the skin on my face was the best it had been since before puberty (20 years previously!), and it hasn't looked back.
There's no sign yet of any decrease in body hair, though the cyclosporine I take as an anti-rejection drug for my transplant also causes hirsutism, so I can't expect that to change in a hurry. However, everything seems to be on track, and as soon as I can change from cyclosporine to sirolimus (thus also allowing me to go off prednisone), I can expect even greater things. Even though the NZ government's drug-buying agency is currently refusing to fund sirolimus, both the endocrinologist and the dermatologist agree that going off prednisone would be a good idea, so I believe I have a pretty good case for that.
Psychologically, I've started identifying even more closely with my literary alter ego, Alyosha Fyodorovich Karamazov, which has given me a great role model for my new life and new identity. An interesting sidelight on Alyosha is that not only did he make himself a eunuch in later life; even as a young boy he was sometimes referred to by others in the school playground as "a regular girl" because of the way he refused to listen to sick male jokes. Sounds like he might have been a bit transgendered, perhaps??
Overall, I'd say that my experience with cyproterone acetate has been extremely positive. I wish I'd done all of this 20 years ago, even if I would have had to take pituitary hormone at the same time.
The treatment has also been extremely positive in its effects. Within 24 hours my body clock was re-normalized from owl to lark, so I can now wake up at 6 a.m. and stay awake all day. By 1 August (five days) my dick was as good as dead, so no problem there. Erections have become increasingly few and far between, though the testicles haven't completely shut down yet, and the sex centres in the brain are still working. By the second week of August the skin on my face was the best it had been since before puberty (20 years previously!), and it hasn't looked back.
There's no sign yet of any decrease in body hair, though the cyclosporine I take as an anti-rejection drug for my transplant also causes hirsutism, so I can't expect that to change in a hurry. However, everything seems to be on track, and as soon as I can change from cyclosporine to sirolimus (thus also allowing me to go off prednisone), I can expect even greater things. Even though the NZ government's drug-buying agency is currently refusing to fund sirolimus, both the endocrinologist and the dermatologist agree that going off prednisone would be a good idea, so I believe I have a pretty good case for that.
Psychologically, I've started identifying even more closely with my literary alter ego, Alyosha Fyodorovich Karamazov, which has given me a great role model for my new life and new identity. An interesting sidelight on Alyosha is that not only did he make himself a eunuch in later life; even as a young boy he was sometimes referred to by others in the school playground as "a regular girl" because of the way he refused to listen to sick male jokes. Sounds like he might have been a bit transgendered, perhaps??
Overall, I'd say that my experience with cyproterone acetate has been extremely positive. I wish I'd done all of this 20 years ago, even if I would have had to take pituitary hormone at the same time.