What Herbs and Supplements Help with Gender Affirming Surgery Preparation and Healing? When preparing for your gender-affirming surgery, there are many natural remedies and supplements to speed healing and make your recovery more comfortable. Knowing what to take, and when to take it is important. Always check with your doctor and/or surgeon before taking any … Continue reading
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
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
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
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 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
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
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
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
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
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
photo credit: Practical Cures on flickr CC Constipation is extremely common post-surgery, especially in combination with constipating pain killers, less physical activity, and irregular fluid and food intake. Often a bowel movement is required before a hospital will let a patient go home, so encouraging this process is especially beneficial to get you home sooner. … Continue reading
Why Should We Treat Scars? Scars may not only be cosmetically undesirable, but may also have an impact on the health of the individual. This is especially true for very large scars; scars with abnormal coloration, lumpiness, numbness, tingling, itchiness, heat or cold sensations, achiness or pain, tenderness to touch, and muscle restriction. Such scars and associated adhesions … Continue reading
Prism Integrative Wellness 