Previously:
Disclaimer: I am not a medical professional and this is not medical advice.
Since 2018, I’ve been covering emerging findings on the relationship between the progestin cyproterone acetate (CPA), commonly used outside of the United States as a testosterone blocker for trans women, and the risk of developing a type of large benign brain tumor known as a meningioma. Meningiomas frequently have progesterone receptors, and many are small and stable or very slow-growing without causing any symptoms, but increased action at its progesterone receptors can stimulate it to grow and cause symptoms due to its volume. This stimulation can be the result of normal physical progesterone levels – cis women are much more likely than cis men to experience meningioma, and pregnancy can accelerate the growth of meningioma – or it can be due to prolonged use of strong synthetic progestins such as CPA and certain other progestins appearing in hormone replacement therapy or contraception for cis women. Continue reading