Some trans friends of mine tried to clear things up for me:
* one class of medication increases estrogen production. When taken by itself without anything else, this can INCREASE the available testosterone in the body, as the body converts back and forth between free estrogen and free testosterone. Estrogen by itself typically does not decrease testosterone much, and might not change semen production
* one class of medication reduces direct testosterone production. Bur remember that the body can convert estrogen, so to reduce overall testosterone effects on the body, more is needed than you might expect. In sufficient doses, semen production can be affected.
* one class of medication interferes with testosterone being used by the body. Semen production is usually affected. Some of the medications in this class are used for "chemical castration"
* Especially in the early stages, the stress of transition can reduce semen production (stress produces steroids)
* Because the mind / body connection can be very powerful, the dedication to transition can end up triggering hormone changes that reduce semen production, even without taking any medication
* MTF that transition later in life especially, who are likely to retain distinct male features, especially those interested in women, can end up strongly expecting that they might never have a continued sexual relationship again, feeling as if no woman will ever be interested in them. Deep belief that one will never have sex can result in decrease in semen production (the same way that semen production increases if a male anticipates having sex.)
"Shemale" is a term used mostly in porn, and often designates MTF who retain the ability to carry strong erections. A portion of MTF on hormones do retain that, but for the majority, hormones actively interfere with penis use, and so hormones are considered to be a substantial risk to a "shemale" porn career. Because of this, "shemales" (again, people likely to be in the porn industry) often tend to prefer to proceed through surgical work instead of through hormones.
MTF transgender/transsexuals who are not associated with porn would not be likely to call themselves "shemale", and would be more likely to proceed with hormones, and as described above, medications used for feminizing the body do end up reducing semen production in a lot of MTF.
|