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Specialists in the Medical & Psychological Aspects of Transgender Health Care |
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Alleviating After-effects
After-effects -- that is the body's reaction to treatment. Or more precisely, it is the body's reaction to trauma or injury. What we think of as successful electrolysis treatment is really the selective, precise and irreversible damage of the hair-producing cells located in the follicle. In the best case, this damage is contained to a degree whereby the skin and surrounding tissue heals and continues to withstand the repeated process of electrolysis. And through successive electrolysis treatments one ultimately becomes hair-free. Given the right circumstances, the successfully treated skin area looks very much like any other's skin that has always been hair-free - the skin is soft to the touch, the texture is smooth, and no changes in the skin's natural color have occurred. If you have not experienced electrolysis before, you will no doubt be unprepared for how timely and intrusive a process is ahead. But both of these factors can be greatly diminished. It this section, we will examine the variety of ways to minimize the physical trauma. Carrying out many of the methods found in this section will require a bit of perseverance on your part. Not because you are unwilling or lacking in discipline, but because the professional electrology community is not a medical community. It does not have direct access to a few medications that would greatly enhance treatment. And some practitioners may not have been sufficiently trained in the prevention and minimization of treatment-based trauma. But if you are a TGIP patient or you are working through your own personal physician, you can bridge that gap with the necessary medical guidance and proper drug regimen. There are also a variety of over-the-counter (OTC) remedies. First, let's take a look at the damaging effects of treatment. For beard removal to be successful, intensive electrolysis is a necessity. In the beard area, one has tens of thousands of hair follicles that need to be destroyed. If you are contemplating full beard removal in two years time, intensive electrology sessions are mandatory. And despite claims of 80 to 100 hours, a very successful program would likely require 200 to 300 hours of treatment. And for the sake of efficiency, four to six hours per week would be needed. Based on this treatment plan, hundreds of follicles would need be treated during the course of a single session. And there will be quite a lot of inflammation as a result, that is, if preventative measures are not taken. Given the best of any technique, trauma is still inflicted to the hair follicle and some of the surrounding area. And multiplied by several hundred fold during the session, the area would be extremely inflamed following electrolysis. If not, the treatment was palliative, that is, not using enough treatment energy to destroy the follicles. But while a large, treated area may be traumatized when left unchecked, it can be greatly reduced and virtually prevented with the proper procedures. What after-effects might you expect without a concerted effort towards trauma prevention/reduction? With long treatment encounters over one, two or three days as some clinics offer, you may suffer from inflammation that will require weeks of recovery. The treated area will be severely reddened, swollen and inflamed. Within hours after treatment, a small degree of weeping from some of the follicles may occur. This will eventually lead to crusting or scabbing, followed by one, two or several weeks of deep tissue damage. Considering the amount of treatment, you may consider this is normal and unpreventable. While these symptoms, or after-effects, are the result of treatment, they are largely preventable. After-effects are usually the result of a chain of related factors. The first is bacteria. It is in the air, it is on that clean towel used to dry your face, it is on your hands. The presence of bacteria degrades the healing process. So, a good deal of inflammation simply results by not caring for the treated area with an antibacterial medication. At TGIP, we typically use a prescription antibiotic medication, called erythromycin, which is applied to the skin after treatment. And when applied for several days afterwards to the treated area, there is a tremendous benefit. Unfortunately, OTC antibacterials typically do not produce acceptable relief. So if you are undergoing significant treatment, you should consider discussing your situation with a physician for possible assistance. For details concerning our use of the medication, see Erythromycin. The second factor is the pathway to the injury. Each treated follicle and the area immediately surrounding it have been injured. The skin's protective barrier has been breached. While the electrolysis needle most likely did not puncture through the follicle, the emitted treatment energy damaged the surrounding tissue. As a result, there is a small amount of weeping of serum from the tissue. And as mentioned earlier, some of this weeping may be present to the extent of resulting is a small scab. This minute exposure to the follicle, multiplied by several hundred similar injuries, is the pathway to infection. This moist pathway for bacteria must be removed, and be removed immediately following treatment. The use of a drying agent that is applied to the skin following treatment will block this pathway to infection. A good choice is a weak solution of phenol. This medication may be found over-the-counter in a phenolated (1%) calamine lotion. Calamine lotion is an effective topical treatment for poison ivy, insect bites, and the like. But here the key ingredient is phenol. It is a very effective drying agent. In this dilute one-percent solution, it is slightly acidic and will additionally counteract the mildly base (alkaline) after-effect of blend or galvanic treatment. It is as well effective in drying the skin following thermolysis treatment. For a more in-depth look at this treatment, see Phenolated Calamine. The use of erythromycin and phenolated calamine used in concert will likely reduce weeks of healing time down to one, two or a few days instead. Naturally, this is a tremendous reduction. Also, one's likelihood of other adverse factors, such as scarring, are greatly reduced. Scarring is exacerbated by infection. The third factor is the body's heightened reaction to extended periods of trauma. While decreasing pain and even emotional stress are beneficial in reducing the effects of trauma, here we are looking at the body's production of histamines. Histamines are a normally present chemical in the body that exerts its effect in response to trauma. As example, the reddening in the skin that normally follows a burn is the result of histamines on the injured tissue. The planned use of an antihistamine can counteract the excessive and damaging effects of inflammation that result from extended electrolysis sessions. For details concerning our use of the medication, see Antihistamines.
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