Hepatic Adenomas in a 16 year old after HRT

WCGW though? Totally harmless!

Michael Shellenberger, a researcher and author who presented at Genspect Denver (which is how I became aware of his work) is releasing a set of documents known as the WPATH files this week. In the sound and fury surrounding the Blue Dress Man, his contribution to the discourse received little attention, despite its importance. Here is one excerpt he has already released.

This appears to be an email discussing a patient who received a hormone used for gender-affirming menstrual suppression, as well as testosterone. After being on both for one year, the patient was discovered to have developed two benign tumors of the liver known as hepatic adenoma. An adenoma is a benign, mushroom-like growth (when cancerous, they are referred to as adenocarcinomas) that originates in the glandular cells of epithelial tissue lining an organ. I have discussed adenomas before on this substack in the context of pituitary adenomas, which are adenomas which occur in a region of the brain known as the pituitary gland.

The reason they come up in this discussion is that one shot of lupron can cause a pituitary gland with an adenoma to spontaneously die (pituitary apoplexy), resulting in lifelong disability due to the resulting stroke-induced brain damage. The pituitary gland produces various substances including antidiuretic hormone (aka vasopressin), and so a bricked pituitary results in diabetes insipidus and pathologically excessive thirst.

The oncologists suspected in this case that the cosmetic hormone experiments were the cause of the tumors and recommended ceasing the hormones. I imagine that cases like this are why masculinizing hormone treatment will sometimes acknowledge the risk of liver tumors, as though liver cells are the only kind of tissue that is vulnerable to testosterone’s carcinogenicity. Progesterone and estrogen are also both known to promote the development of adenomas, which means all the single ladies on hormonal birth control should be aware of this as well. The liver is one giant gland so it is a bit prone to glandular tumors, much like the pituitary gland.