Did My Gender Transition Cause ME/CFS and Chronic Illness? 

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As a trans man, you just can't win. If you're perceived as a woman, then you're exaggerating and it's all in your head. Perceived as trans, then it's your transition. Overweight? That must be the problem. Imagine a world where medical people listened to their patients.

Hi Finn with u. I'm a trans female and although not YET directly come in contact with haters I'm sadly realistic that I'm sure I will. Full respect to you and we peacefully stand strong together as a community. No one is alone cos we unite X

It's interesting, because I'm a trans man with similar chronic illness to Finn's. However, I've never medically transitioned to any degree. No surgeries, no hormone therapy, nothing. (So yeah, Finn, going off T won't make a difference -- I've never been on it, and I'm still dealing with the fatigue.) Now, there is evidence that exposure to long term high anxiety conditions, like an abusive childhood, etc, can cause permanent alterations to people's endocrine systems and other whole-body systems, potentially causing physical, biological (not emotional) chronic fatigue. (Not saying this is a condition that can be cured psychologically, because it can't - it's physical, even if prolonged psychological trauma may have contributed to the cause. That would be like saying that psychiatric therapy can cure lung cancer because someone's smoking habit was depression-linked. That said, treating depression might help someone quit smoking, and treating CPTSD might similarly help someone keep from developing worse symptoms in future.) Taking this emotional causality possibility into account, it makes more sense that (IF there is a link between being trans and chronic fatigue, which I would need a lot more data to know whether there even is) the causality would be more like how the anxiety and depression of being trans in an anti-trans world cause the sort of long-term heightened whole-body tension that permanently imbalances the system in a way that can cause chronic fatigue. This is pretty much the same idea as what Finn said. I just wanted to point out my perspective as a fellow trans man with chronic fatigue. Lack of surgery doesn't help. Lack of testosterone doesn't help. That's not the connection. Jaskasses telling us to just magically stop being trans are a far more likely contributor.

Just leaving a comment to say hi. After Beverly tagged us in one of your instead I of course had to come be nosey 😂 Loving going back through some of your old videos and getting to know you ❤

When I start Testosterone it will actually help my hEDs, because it reduces the production of progesterone which causes the joint pain and subluxations. Not to mention that it also helps to build muscle, which again benefits joint pain. People are always so surprised to hear this, because like you say, 'taking hormomes' is regarded as harming your body because of transphobia in society.

MECFS has so many unknowns. I crashed, out of the blue. No viral event. No trauma. Maybe hashimotos or adrenals are a contributor, but really no tests or scans or anything else could explain the crash and post exertional malaise. I am straight, married to my spouse, with kids, with MECFS and I have found many of the things that Finn feels and describes about his journey with MECFS to be valid no matter his medical past. Finn, you often elequently describe aspects of mecfs, you have a wonderful way of putting feelings and thoughts into words that make sense. The rambling works! I find myself rambling sometimes too, until I figure out the words to signify what I want to convey. Keep it up! And I appreciate your gender/transition aspects of your messages and channel. My daughter is very casually exploring all the pronouns (they have adhd and it seems to change day by day) and I keep your story and accomplishments in mind as we keep space for them. Thank you FInn!

My beautiful Finn!!! This was so well said. It did make me think, have I put myself at risk? These surgeries are extremely hard on our bodies. The trauma I went thru, the infections, nothing like I ever experienced before. I am so low energy too. Now that I got CV last month, I feel it's taking a bit to un-hinge its claws from me. I don't have to sleep like you do but boy I would like too. Those are two different things. I love how honest and raw you are. It's what drew me to you from the jump. Thank you for that. It's so fun watching you be a dad and having a fur baby on screen with you. Congrats on the trailer tent and that decision! Not that you need my validation, at all, but I think that was such a wise decision. It keeps you accessing nature and "get always" with much less work. That is good for you both! I can't wait to hear how baby boy does on camping! I hope he loves it! I love you so much!

Love the puppy chaos! I’m enjoying his healing energy. And an excellent video, couldn’t agree more.

Sending you all my love as always, dear brother. Yep, synthetic hormones are an incredibly effective treatment. As a cis woman on HRT they've made my life so much better and I know that T has helped you many magnitudes more. Our bodies are complicated and our health issues can be triggered by all sorts of random things and we often never know what a fraction of those triggers are. Live and love your life - you are an incredible man and thank you as always for explaining your experiences to us with humour, vulnerability and so much compassion xx

l thank the heavens and earth for Finn and the impact he has had on my life as a trans gay man. From my panic over not being able to find a doctor to get testosterone... to my distress over not being able to get top surgery atm, the Finn Fam community is my life-line. l'm one of those.. "get on with it" people cos the world dont stop for us... we just got to do what we have to do, like work and pay bills. Thanks Finn and the Finn Fam gang :)

I hope your health will improve and I am glad you are happy with your transition. God Bless.

I’m so glad you addressed this. I’ve had people ask me if some of my health issues are caused by testosterone. No people. It has nothing to do with testosterone. It’s the persons body that has everything to do with it and it isn’t because we are transgender.

I'm proud of you on your sober journey

so glad to hear the brain zaps are gone! honestly I think a lot more people deal with chronic stress-induced conditions than we're aware of. the more marginalized identities you have and the longer you've had them, the more chronic stress you're under. (by "the longer you've had them," I mean both 1) that someone can be more genderfluid and be comfortably cisgender for many years until they realize along the way that they now ID as trans, vs your situation where you would have IDed as trans in your youth, and 2) that sometimes the marginalized identity is something like disability, where you don't have it until you have it, as opposed to one like race where you have that identity your whole life.) it does also look like Pip has helped quite a bit! my last kitty passed away in December and the new kitty has helped tremendously with keeping me on anything resembling a schedule. I had the last one for a decade and my life literally took the course it did because of her, so that's a loss I'm still grappling with and I suspect I'll always have to in some way. but new kitty at least gives me a reason to get up in the morning and laugh at him being a dodo bird.

Hi lovely! As an EMT we're taught to assess the whole situation, not just the "distracting injury"... I'm totally gonna whisper "trans broken arm" on my next call 😂 Great video, as always x

Transition saves lives for so many. I’m so sad that people would still see it as a negative thing. Thank you for continuing to share your story and help people understand. Sending love 💜xxx

Omg yes, about a year after I started T I was exhausted all the time. My family was not super supportive and my aunt who's a doctor was like, "it must be the T maybe you should stop." Turns out my iron was just low and I felt better after a few months of supplements. It's so annoying to have people assume that your transition is the problem!!

Such a good video Finn, thank you for sharing and explaining. I found you through your ME/CFS content as I have that too. I agree that noone is invulnerable to this illness- you could get covid or the flu or need surgery for a gall bladder or have an accident and it could trigger it after a perfect storm of other factors. We just don’t know!

You do a really great job in managing the mindsets of people who need an education, who think they know what they are talking about but they don't really know what they are talking about. I've been following your amazing channel since the beginning and seen all of your vlogs, and had close contact while you were writing your published book. You are very thoughtful, thorough in your research and self reflection, and you make decisions once you know you have gone through all the research. You have definitely been through so much in your life where it's way more than what a person should have to tolerate, and you have come through it with so much character, substance and wisdom. Thank you for this video and for taking the time to, yet again, inform people of how it really is. Pip is so cute! I love following him on your social media too. I hope you have a great time camping xx

I love the 'It is pointless.. arguing with idiots' That is so true 'chuckles' And you are right. You don't need their crap in the comments. That pup I would luv boroing that fluffy cutie. When hearing all this I'm thinking that Anyone going through any kind of operation and having immunsystem low can get this. So no it's not you being Trans at all. You just happened to get it with a operation you needed as a Trans guy. But could have been any other operation as well. I'm happy to hear you doing so much better after Transitioning and I am sure once I am on Testo I will not go off it in the first place either. Why go off it when you finally doing better mentally cos you can be yourself. No need going there. I'm waiting for my own first meeting. I got another almost 2 years left til I get my first appointment. Thank you for teaching me a bit that I didn't know before.

Very kind of you to discuss such a vulnerable topic so vulnerably and kindly. Its obviously a sensitive topic about which people have been unkind to you, and yet, you have chosen to be the bigger person.

Hey Finn! Thank you for your videos. I've watched your videos since you started posting on RU-vid! "The trans broken arm".... So true!!! As a trans man, I've hard great difficulty finding a GP (or any other doctor) who will look at the whole picture of all my symptoms. I've been searching for some kind of diagnosis for years and have yet to find a doctor who will take the time to look at everything. They either focus on my sleep (due to being so exhausted) or brush me off all together. So frustrating.

THANK YOU for talking about this. When I told my mom I had ME/CFS, her very first question was, "Is it because of the testosterone?!" [Really? 8 years after starting T?] It was the first of many comments that I would hear as a trans man with ME/CFS. So nice to hear someone else talk about it.

Hey Finn! New to your channel. I’m sorry you’ve had to face questioning such as this and the backlash. I’m not trans, but I have wasted lots of time wondering if I didn’t anything to cause my chronic illnesses/pain. It’s not helpful and I’ll never know, so I can empathise with this burden. I’ve just started a channel to hopefully help others in situations such as these :).

Even with me/cfs you're in a better place Finn that's the most important thing! I have a lot of thyroid issues even thyroid cancer when I was younger so maybe trigger my me/cfs? idk. In my day they called me/cfs the yuppie flu, now long covid... hang in there kiddo ❤ Pip ❤

I love you Finn. Healing vibes your way. And don’t worry about the haters and the bigots! They have nothing better to do with their lives. ❤️

I am amazed by this individual.

I was wondering where I could get the raising awareness not seeking attention shirt? Love your content 🎉 am also trying to spread info about ME/CFS

Count Pupula is very cute 🐾🐾😍 I also have M.E. I think having our nervous systems stuck in the sympathetic branch for years, especially when we're young and growing, is really bad for our health in later years. Something will eventually become the trigger that shuts down our bodies , puts our brains on minimum, where we can barely function, and we don't know how long it will be for. Being told we're just lazy or making it up, and being told the NHS has 'Nothing To Offer' , doesn't help anyone living with M.E to feel hopeful of recovery and support. We have to advocate for ourselves, and that's really difficult to do, especially for people who are on their own 🤗🤗

very good video!

Finn I enjoy your videos so much , I have learned so much thank you Finn, and as always your in my prayers 🙏🏼

Hugs x

Honestly, as a 19 year old trans man stuck in an extremely transphobic household, I’m glad I came upon your videos. I’m genuinely afraid of transitioning (once I am financially stable and out of this house). I have a family history of blood clots, and I’m afraid that going on testosterone might make that happen. Perhaps I can ask my doctor about blood thinners if I decide to get on t in the future.

...also, you may well feel better after a while. I have friends with CFS who have had extremely debilitating periods in their life, and then long periods of remission.

Enjoy the staycation. Thx for the updates. ❤

Autoimmune diseases are from the body attacking itself. Many times it’s from infection, but not from a hormone. I was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis many years before I even considered saying anything about being transgender. I had all my health issues before transitioning or even talking about it. I was born with one of my autoimmune disorders and once you have one you are more susceptible to having more the older you get. I’m glad you never thought about coming off testosterone. All that would do is cause you more harm that doing any good. 💕. Much love.

I was on testosterone for almost 2 years and my iron and redblood cells became too high. I want to restart my testosterone but I am also afraid for illnesses because of the synthetic testosterone. Some older transmen develop polycethemia vera on T. At the moment I am in doubt wether or not to start again with my testerone because of this.

Well said finn . Hope you're okay .

Hi finn I am trans men myself. I would like to know what exact from topsurgyer?I have just been put on the waiting list.

I’ve had covid 3x and got long covid and after this it gave me CFS. I haven’t transitioned and can’t but still have the stress with the dysphoria as I have transitioned socially. I can’t go back to where I was but can’t have the ops neither.

Excellent topic. I'm in the same boat. I've had doctors tell me that my T is responsible for my heart problems, even though I've had heart problems way before I started T. Same with my skin and asthma, the one doctor, no matter how many times I told her it was pre-transition, she insists that using "the wrong hormones for me" are why my skin started to peel. I actually had an allergic reaction to a medication! This whole blaming HRT is getting way out of hand. Cis males take HRT when their T gets low too, why aren't they having all these "T related issues" then? 🤨Or how about all the mental health issues that come up? Thankfully I have an understanding program, but I've heard of doctors saying we're mad for messing with our hormones and we shouldn't transition if we have mental health issues! Um... wow. I have to stop or I'll fill up the comment section... I'm sorry you have to deal with this too Finn. 🙏 Venlafaxine would slowly leave your system, and if it was that, hopefully you'll start feeling better. I hope this reverses itself no matter what caused it so you can start feeling better 🤞 SO happy to hear the brain zaps quit, those are awful, there's no word to describe how bad those are! Now that you mention this, it seems like most neurological or hormone related diseases go through the "it's all in your head" phase, then the "it's a mental illness" phase, then the "we don't know but something is wrong" phase, then finally research happens before recognition that it wasn't all the other crap they said it was all those years. 🤣"Shark Mode" I love it! (as he's gnawing on your hand like a piece of rawhide) when you say "Count Pupula" the closed caption reads "Count Popular" hehe... My friend is deaf and I check the way they closed caption the videos so he's not confused about what you're saying (that part was just a chuckle of a mistake) Such a cute bunch of guys all around! I send you subscriber support hugs and subscriber puppy pettings as well!

I cant even count how many people asked if **the testosterone** could be the cause of my chronic illness

people who specialize in psychoneuroimmunology would tell us The limbic system (which regulates emotions and memory) upregulates and downregulates autonomic and endocrine function in response to emotional stimuli this has a strong effect on the immune system. A lot of disorders are caused by gene expression also. These things are affected by stress and PTSD...trauma which may be an effect of being trans in society such as it presently is. ...as well as other life experiences (sure, surgery can cause trauma ...and, people get surgery for lots of different reasons). Sure, you have altered your hormones. ..but one thing testosterone does is give us energy better cognitive function and muscle mass. So....even though every thing is part of the picture we try to figure out not sure why we would jump to suspect testosterone above all the other more likely contributors. A much higher percentage of women are diagnosed with chronic fatigue than men, and while its not entirely clear if this is partially because women report more than men, if women experience it more, then we could just as likely contribute it to being born in a female body and say thank goodness you adapted the body or it might be much worse! The truth is, we just dont always know the factors that create our life situations. Once we are there we just have to explore the best ways to move forward. I am sure you do this with research online and discussion among groups of people who share the diagnosis. I wish you all the best in your journey whatever it is meant to be. (Also, if you can find a somatic experiencing practitioner or similar who specialties include chronic fatigue they may be able to help with treatment toward remission of lessening of expression)

I'm so sorry anti trans people are coming at you. And glad that you are choosing to not invest your energy into those people ❤ sending you lots of love

I find your videos interesting. I have md and to know if can still get topsurgyer?

god, it's like I'm your enbrother from another mother... ❤

hey finn hope you are well not watched any videos of yours for a while been in a dark place with my addiction. but just wanted to say hi

oh and also under no circumstances do ever stop testosterone! even if you had oestrogen in your system. if it works do not touch it. it can only make things worse.

Bravo! Hugs xxx

i am really sorry you have me/cfs. I hope you find a way to have a decent quality of life. i wish you all the best

I love you ❤❤

Out of curiosity did you listen to the witch trials of Jk Rowling? I’d love to hear your take on it. (My blood boiled at the last episode)

❤

,,,and of course hypothyroid makes you hella fatigued. I hope you get the proper dose of thyroid meds and feel better there.

Can I respectfully ask did you have psycho therapy for the gender dysphoria before you took testosterone? I am puzzled by why body modifications are used for mental distress in a patient with reduced resilience at the outset due to co-morbidities? Do you regret the surgery as it sounds like you had serious complications? Does it functionally work for you now?You have put yourself through so much physiological trauma to reach your male goal so it will have an impact on your immune system. Please don't cancel me as I have this happening in my family and I cannot understand it , nor can I understand the rationale for the clinical pathway transgender people are very rapidly set on. Every time I ask in a desperate attempt to get some clarity I'm cancelled for daring to literally ask.

Some of this sounds like cope tbh but at the end of the day it's no one's business and people are allowed to live their lives however they want without breaking the law. Individuals have liberty in a free society and that's one of the factors has made the Western world so wonderful. So the haters have no place trying to police other people's bodily autonomy, and that's all there is to it. Head up soldier 💯♥

When people (who you know aren't well-meaning, thinking of anti-trans people specifically) say things like 'transitioning caused this bad thing' without taking in to account all the various other factors, it reminds me of fundamentalist religious people who say that a bad thing happened to a person because they don't believe in /insert relevant religion or god here/ (luckily not all religious people are like that! I think it's a small percentage, and you get bad eggs in every group). Like you said, you can't really reason with it because it's so beyond that. If someone wants to hate a group of people and believe that being part of that group or even associating with that group in a positive way is bad, they will attribute anything negative towards that and ignore all the positives. Which isn't logical, so you can't reason with it

No! Because gender is in the brain so your gender wasn’t changed. Your multiple surgeries to align your body with your gender *may* have contributed to your illness. Love you!