Endometriosis, Prism Blog, Surgical Recovery & Scars

10 Essentials for Surviving Endometriosis

From natural pain relievers to digestive aids to pelvic pain cushions, find everything you need to manage endometriosis and endo belly and live pain-free!

How LGBT Inclusion Can Grow Your Acupuncture Practice
LGBT Inclusion For Providers, Prism Blog, Self Care for Trans Health

Free Webinar for Practitioners!

Did you miss last weekend's free Gender 101 webinar for practitioners? You can still catch the replay! I am so honored to have participated in Lhasa OMS, CSOMA, and Smarty Practice's 'Love Your Practice' digital summit last weekend, where I led a 1-hour training on 'How LGBT-Inclusion Can Grow Your Patient Base.' We reached 900 … Continue reading

Four queer patients of color, including masculine of center nonbinary transgender patients and trans men
Prism Blog, Self Care for Trans Health, Surgical Recovery & Scars

Six Steps to More Comfortable Binding: Part One of Six

Guest blog from Sandy Baird DC of Riverstone Chiropractic According to a Health Impact Study published in the Culture, Health, and Sexuality Journal, 97% of people who wear a binder experience uncomfortable side effects such as neck pain, shoulder pain, back pain, and trouble breathing. Other than limiting the time you spend in a binder, … Continue reading

Sandy Baird DC of Riverstone Chiropractic
Prism Blog

Featured on RiverstoneChiropractic.com: Acupuncture and Post-Surgical Care

Hi everyone! I’m so excited to share my newest article, which was featured on riverstonechiropractic.com (my favorite—and LGBTQ-focused!—chiropractor). Click to read more. “In Chinese medicine, surgery is considered to block the flow of the meridians (similar to nerve and blood vessel damage in Western medicine). Improperly healed scars and old scar tissue can have the … Continue reading

a rainbow, symbolizing Prism Integrative Acupuncture's commitment to LGBT health
Prism Blog, Self Care for Trans Health

Chinese Medicine, Natural Transition, and the Gender Binary

Chinese Medicine, Natural Transition, and the Gender Binary. A guest post on Tynan Rhea’s website (founder of postpartumsex.com). A few excerpts: Yin and yang are often associated with female and male energy respectively, which leads to the misconception that Chinese Medicine is inherently binary and therefore inappropriate for trans medicine. It is true that most … Continue reading

Supplements to support trans men while taking testosterone, including liver and cardiovascular heart health
Endometriosis, LGBT Inclusion For Providers, Prism Blog, Self Care for Trans Health, Surgical Recovery & Scars

Supplements for Surgery

Supplements and Surgery: You most likely know already that there are certain supplements and medications that you should avoid before surgery. Mostly these are supplements and medications that can cause excess bleeding, as well as those that can interfere with the anesthesia. Surgeons’ opinions vary on which medications and supplements are okay and when to … Continue reading

video screenshot of Katrina Hanson LAc talking about how acupuncture can help the LGBTQ community
LGBT Inclusion For Providers, Prism Blog, Prism in the Press, Self Care for Trans Health

Acupuncture and Trans Medicine

Just a little throwback to this video about my gender-inclusivity activism at my alma mater, the Acupuncture and Integrative Medicine College (AIMC) Berkeley. It's so wonderful to reflect on how much my practice and my knowledge has evolved; all with the support of my wonderful patients. This has been a long process and I'm looking … Continue reading

Katrina Hanson LAc of Prism Integrative Acupuncture, a lesbian queer acupuncturist in Oakland, Bay Area, California
Prism Blog

The Story Behind Prism

The story behind the name: I created Prism Integrative Acupuncture to fulfill a community need for transgender-inclusive, integrative hormone care. I focus in transgender wellness, but also in fertility, menopause, and other hormone-related issues. So, in thinking of a name, I wanted something that was at once clearly LGBTQ inclusive, but not exclusive to everyone … Continue reading

a trans knowledgeable doctor talks to a trans patient
Prism Blog, Self Care for Trans Health

Transgender HRT: What are my options?

We ALL have the same hormones, just in different amounts and we USE different amounts of them too. Furthermore, we can change how our bodies use the hormones we already have. Every body makes progesterone from cholesterol, and that progesterone can turn into estrogen OR testosterone. The estrogen and testosterone in our bodies can also … Continue reading

A transgender woman wearing a leopard print femme top
Prism Blog, Self Care for Trans Health

The Three-Part Recipe for Natural Transitioning

What does natural transition mean? In contrast to using prescription hormones and/or surgeries, natural transition usually involves some combination of social transition, presentation transition, herbs, acupuncture, and/or nutrition. Herbs: Herbs are a desired alternative to HRT for many people who wish to experience only mild changes, rather than the more drastic effects of prescription hormones. Herbs … Continue reading

a trans man and a trans woman cuddling
Prism Blog, Self Care for Trans Health

20+ Ways Acupuncture Supports Transgender Wellness

Chinese herbal medicine and acupuncture have thousands of years of experience in dealing with hot flashes, low libido, erectile dysfunction, vaginal dryness, menstrual spotting, and hair loss, among other symptoms. Many of these treatments can be applied to transgender care, to complement hormone therapy during transition. Additionally, acupuncture has been shown to greatly reduce recovery time … Continue reading

A transgender woman picking out a bra
Prism Blog, Self Care for Trans Health

Herbal Trio for Breast Development

Trans women can use herbal estrogens and progesterones with a medical provider to: if you don't want to use hormones or undergo surgery, but still want to create physical changes in your body. after being on synthetic hormones for many years to maintain the changes that you have made without the side effects of continued … Continue reading