I just took my first Spiro about an hour ago. I’ll be doing my first E injection tonight (after my little one is asleep for the night) and I can not express all of the emotions I have been having over the past few days.
My wife surprised me with an amazing care package which included:
- New pink reusable water bottle to keep me hydrated
-Obligatory cat ears (wearing right now)
-Trans flag socks :D
-Jar of pickles
-Custom trans colored m&Ms with sayings like “you are loved Olivia” “I want to see you be brave” “take your e today!”
-“The Blessed Unrest” vinyl by Sara Bareilles which has been very affirming for me as of late
-A beautiful finger painting my 19mo son made me of a butterfly and the words “and she became a beautiful butterfly”
-Pepper spray to keep me safe
-Super cute girly bandaids to use after my shots.
I balled like a baby. I cried more than I think I ever have before. I am so full of love and gratitude for this woman and her support. For my family. And for myself - for the first time in my life.
Just wanted to share with someone ❤️
That’s so lovely! I’m happy for you. Your wife seems awesome, too!
As an ally that isn’t aware of every bit of symbolism, the jar of pickles stood out to me. Does that, like, signify something, or do you just like pickles ? (totally valid if so, I fricken love pickles)
Lol, I can definitely see how that could catch someone off guard. Yes I love pickles but it’s more of a “remedy” for some of the side effects I may experience at first.
Specifically, the medication Spironolactone is used as a testosterone blocker. It’s a medication that is prescribed for a bunch of different things (cystic acne, high blood pressure, hormonal imbalances in woman) but it’s a class of drug called a potassium sparing diuretic. So it flushes the body of fluid but unlike other diuretics, it doesn’t flush out potassium in the process. So this makes electrolytes go out of whack and your body’s response is to crave salt in order to balance out the potassium and electrolytes (at least that is how I understand it?)
So the pickles are for my salt cravings basically. ❤️
Guess that was a bit of a long response, but hopefully you found it interesting. Thanks for the question and your support!
That makes a lot of sense! Thanks for that
Short answer: The drugs involved in HRT (as well as hormone level changes themselves) can cause sodium cravings, and pickles are salty. Somewhere along the line it became a meme.
Long answer: Pickles and Transfems: Hormonal and Cultural Food Craving in Gender Transition
(Thanks for asking the question, otherwise I never would have found this amazing article. I love it when people dive deep into silly things such as “trans girl pickle meme”.)
Thank you! That makes much more sense now. I’ll check out the article