Ok, here is my situation. I am 47 and transgender male to female, I transitioned 30 years ago and have been on hormones for 30 years along with several surgeries. There for I produce no testosterone and it’s been replaced with estrogen. There seems to be mixed information on a spirometry test based on age weight and gender.
My introduction to pulmonary and having a pulmonologist was when my CT Scan showed a slight mild amount of emphysema, my pulmonologist called it stage 0 as it’s seen on CT but does not show on my breathing test as any loss of lung function or volume and having a fine dloc. Beyond the lung function he said there was no obstruction or hyperinflation on my pft spirometry tests.. He’d been running my pft tests as a female and with my age and weight although I made him aware of my gender past he still ran these tests as a female and all my numbers were 100 percent stellar!
I quit smoking 10 months ago when I got the CT scan, I’ll never smoke again I can attest to that! I can jog and walk and live fine. i have no debilitating issues. I get shortness of breath, but it seems to happen mostly after I eat. I wasn’t on any medication or inhalers. I do get phlegm and mucus that I’ve questioned attributed to my gerd and I am in the process of doing testing and possibly looking into a surgery for gerd, I have zero cough and only seem to get mucus and shortness of breath after I eat or drink, honestly my diet is very poor.
So my question is should my pft be run as male or female for predictable outcome?
Although I look very much female, no cosmetic surgery can change the size of my lungs? So this time when doing my breathing test and after doing some research online it says transgender individuals should have their spirometry tests run with age/weight and BIRTH GENDER. I adamantly demanded that my test be run with my birth gender that is male as I’m rather hyper-vigilant
My pulmonologist did this and now it shows a slight obstruction and he said its mild. He gave me the lowest dose of Spiriva and I’ve been on it a few days.
He said as long as I continue not to smoke I should have no issues for the rest of my life. He still attests that the small amount of emphysema is stage 0 and only seen on CT.
My pulmonologist is one of the best in my area in NYC suburbs, his next available apt is the end of September, so he’s not a quack.
Here are my spirometry results run as male, the female ones for my age and weight were perfect he said, I’d like feedback on how these numbers look and also if my tests should be run as male or female, I am rather confused?
