“Can a transgender woman have PMDD?
A trans woman is someone who was AMAB (assigned male at birth) but their gender identity is female. SOMEONE WHO WAS BORN WITHOUT OVARIES CANNOT HAVE PMDD [emphasis in original] as there is no menstrual cycle to trigger the cyclical symptoms. However, SOME TRANSGENDER WOMEN DO REPORT PMS LIKE SYMPTOMS [emphasis in original] when using hormone therapy,…” This is a direct quote from the IAMPD.org link you provided.
An earlier quote from the same link:
“Can cis men have PMDD?
A cis man is someone who was ASSIGNED AS MALE AT BIRTH* (AMAB) and their gender identity is ALSO MALE*. A cis man CANNOT HAVE PMDD* as they DO NOT HAVE FEMALE REPRODUCTIVE ORGANS*, and therefore DO NOT HAVE A MENSTRUAL CYCLE*. That is not to say that they cannot have a sensitivity to hormone fluctuations, but they would not have the regular and cyclical pattern of a menstrual cycle . (*emphasis in original)
In other places in the article, it talks about trans women sometimes having PMS like symptoms, which typically go away after a month of initiating hormone therapy or changing dosage. The key is that the symptoms are not part of a regular PMS cycle, as is clearly stated in the previous quote from the article. It is to be expected that trans women and natal women would react the same to changes in hormone levels. After all our physiology is very similar for the most part. But to describe side effects as being PMS in nature is not accurate. It is related to change in hormones which is not due to any kind of natural cycle because there is no ovulatory or menstrual cycle.
Therefore the fact that you experience something you call PMS on a regular basis at the same time every month is almost certainly psychosomatic. There is absolutely no biological or medical reason for this to occur. That was the point of what I was saying. I was not discounting the fact that trans women have reactions to changes in hormones. We all do. Redistribution of fat, thinning of face, breast growth, loss of muscle mass, change in emotions, and other things are all items we look forward to to make us feel more feminine. We wouldn’t be taking hormones if they did not create mental and physiological changes. But it is a stretch to suggest that PMS could be a side effect. There is nothing in the IAPMD article to the contrary. They talk about symptoms similar to those which occur in PMS being experienced by a number of trans women (without actually identifying percentages or any real numbers). They certainly make no suggestion that what trans women are experiencing is to be equated with PMS. Quite the contrary, they are clear that it is not PMS or PMDD.
As to your other comments regarding not experiencing such things as heart arrhythmia or dizziness, not every person experiences all the possible side effects. Some experience none. The fact that there is a menu of possibilities does not mean that everyone experiences all of them. Almost always people only experience some of them, if at all. You also misunderstand my comment about Spironolactone. I raised it to suggest a logical possible cause for my pickle fetish. I did not say that it was in fact true. It was a plausible explanation due to the fact that Spironolactone creates a larger than normal salt loss so my body may have been craving salt. I did not toss it out as a certainty, but it is far more logical than your claims about PMS. The whole premise of your article is that trans women can experience PMS. It is quite clear that this is not the case. Trans women can experience unpleasant side effects from changes in hormonal levels, but they are due to changes resulting from the intermittent nature of dosing and increases or decreases in the amount of hormones administered. They are completely unrelated to any kind of metabolic cycle which is the basis for PMS and PMDD. Claiming that they occur on a regular monthly basis does not reflect the reality of changing hormone levels due to HRT.
