Is it safe to take Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT)?
Switching your hormone profile from one to the other is surprisingly safe. If you're switching to an estrogen profile, you'll have the same chance of developing illnesses that someone who was assigned female at birth will have. If you're switching to a testosterone profile, you'll have the same risks as someone who has testicles.
The hormones are what we call bioidentical. This means they're identical to the ones your body would have produced if you'd been born with testicles or ovaries.
If you've been told that you should switch off your hormone production because you've had breast or prostate cancer, you need to think very carefully about the risks of taking hormones before you do. Similarly, people who have a history of or risk factors for blood clots or heart disease will incur the same risk that occurs with their new hormone profile.
So switching to testosterone will increase your risk of heart attack and stroke because men have a higher risk of this because of their hormone profile.
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