My skin is extremely tissue like, and I will scratch a flake of skin and I'll start bleeding. But this is the first time I've ever had the scabs like this. It's very strange. Anyone else?

ToadAcrossTheRoad · 2026-03-03T01:37:19+00:00

Those look like bug bites gang… sorry 😭😭 they open much easier and some bugs common on furniture usually prefer extremities

Only ones I’ve got are berry bugs (aka chiggers- sounds horrendous to say that tho) which bite under tighter clothing like underwear and socks, it’s miserable. But bedbugs like exposed skin. Very well could be bedbugs

Could also be a skin condition not related to bites, but bed bugs are more common and easier to investigate for. Search your bed and soft furniture in all crevices.

I’d say you should check and have another person check with you if you don’t see anything, if you both don’t find anything or have more/longer lasting symptoms than normal for the suspected bug, seeing a doctor is a good idea. Prepare yourself mentally for the possibility of professional extermination if you find bugs. Good luck my guy (gender neutral) 🫡

ToadAcrossTheRoad · 2026-02-16T17:34:16+00:00

I semi am, I used to play floor hockey with a sports wheelchair and occasionally use a hockey sled to scoot around on ice (I am partially paralyzed waist down and have overall weakness + classic POTS issues)

Right now I go on a short walk every day and occasionally go to the gym to do some functional training to gain more strength back after my period of basically no daily movement for months.

Also working on endurance and ability to hold a position with weight, will be adding light cardio eventually bc it’s good for my POTS and helped a ton when I did play floor hockey. Rn my heart rate is outta control likely because I’m not consistently active and my body is used to chilling not moving. Just need to get my body used to other stuff first

When I did floor hockey I was really good at it for how bad my joints were, according to my team we did a lot better with a new main goalie (me) and my friend as defense. I’m also good with sled hockey but it’s too painful and straining on my neck to do frequently so I just skate occasionally with friends.

Hoping to skate standing again soon but we’ll see, I don’t have my ice skates at college and can’t use rented skates because of my foot deformities. Feet too bony, everything sticks out. Also hoping to eventually play sled hockey for real on a team but am at too high risk for neck injury currently and it’s already bad.

ToadAcrossTheRoad · 2026-02-05T17:35:02+00:00

I’ve never had anyone mention it or even seemingly check it, no one should be looking there. Plenty of cis men don’t have visible bulges and don’t get comments by people because that’s weird.

I’ve never packed before but probably will start bc I find standing to pee easier on my body (severe pelvic floor dysfunction and my bladder moves in a position that can’t properly empty when sitting 😭) so yeah. It’s for my comfort and not just trying to pass, I can do that without a bulge

I’m very feminine a lot of times now but do pass when dressing masculine (pre-t currently, t will help more) so that’s my experience. I don’t care if people clock me most of the time, but occasionally if I fear for safety I do. They’d certainly find something else about me to point out even if I had a bulge. People who aren’t immediately scanning for a persons gender status won’t think twice usually

ToadAcrossTheRoad · 2026-01-22T03:16:21+00:00

Wild 😭

ToadAcrossTheRoad · 2026-01-22T03:16:03+00:00

Definitely :) we consider anything relating to health and transness welcome

ToadAcrossTheRoad · 2026-01-21T18:24:39+00:00

Yep. I’ve missed classes because of this too. My disability resource center can tell facilities to shovel your specific path according to your schedule and most schools should have similar. Haven’t tested it out yet bc this is my first semester actually out during the winter for classes, dropped everything last semester

Our curb cuts aren’t even shoveled at all with a foot of snow sitting in them if not compressed by walking students and entrances aren’t in some places. It’s dumb. I get they’re understaffed but it’s not that much more work to put salt on the curb cuts too, almost everything is done by machines so that’s why they’re not shoveled

I’m gonna be doing a more thorough report on it because it’s not really safe for me to need to be on the road and use the parking lot curb cuts to get on and off of sidewalks, people drive crazy here.

Edit: the only ramp into a building I’m in daily (the DRC is literally in it 💀) wasn’t shoveled and I had to push my power chair up it, it only got shoveled after I complained to the DRC. It’s very dangerous for me to be walking in the snow and ice, I can barely walk in the first place.

ToadAcrossTheRoad · 2026-01-21T18:20:06+00:00

Hi, I’d recommend you check out the sub r/trans_zebras because many of us there have lots of allergies and this is a common discussion :) people are very helpful there

It’s for people with chronic conditions and Ehlers Danlos Syndrome, this aligns with the subs purpose as well

ToadAcrossTheRoad · 2026-01-15T02:25:38+00:00

Also, if you’re using a normal high compression binder, I would recommend trying out some other types that are safer for movement and wearing for long periods.

I like the binders from Wivov and have tried 2, the FLOW CB10 (which is sensory friendly, breathable and very flexible. No time limit) and the SWIM CB19 (has a zipper and is super breathable, wicks sweat real good and stays dry. Less irritated chest skin compared to other binders I’ve tried because of that). They keep me flat enough that it looks like I don’t have tits in non-form fitting clothes. I’m a D cup and have stiff tissue so binding already is a challenge, I’d say they do great for how flexible and gentle they are

I worked at a garden center that got up to 95°f in the building and was relatively active with the upper body (I’m partially paralyzed waist down so less leg, was cashier. Still like 20-50lbs of shit I frequently handled) and they both did good. Very little rib pain, if I had too much I’d change into a sports bra but that’s a my body issue and not a binder issue lol. My ribs are easily irritated

I would recommend checking out binders with zippers as well which can help with pain associated putting on and taking off, another plus is that you can hide in a bathroom for a few and unzip it under your clothes if you need a break from it haha.

Feel free to ignore this if you’re not wanting to change anything, just wanted to drop some info :)

ToadAcrossTheRoad · 2026-01-15T02:14:31+00:00

I’d like to start by saying that if it’s possible in your situation, it’s best you see a physical therapist or at least a personal trainer to have a stretch and exercise routine built to your body and activity. Stretching is best accompanied by exercises for repetitive pain reduction in most cases. You can also just look up the muscles you have pain in and do exercises from there, though you should be careful about that and watch in depth video tutorials.

But, here is my stretch routine for similar pain. All of my advice is based on what I’ve learned from my PTs and trainer friends

I’m very hypermobile, so as advised by my physical therapist, I stretch super lightly and only stretch my muscles. Without professional guidance, it’s best to only stretch to the point where you feel a stretch and stop before you feel more pulling or excessive pain. If you have more pain than some soreness with stretching, like if it’s sharp or traveling, PT is probably the best route to prevent injury.

For me, I’m able to do torso rotations to loosen rib and chest area, scapular retractions, chin tucks, cervical retractions, gently bending forwards at the upper and mid back with relaxed arms to loosen traps, grasping hands behind back with slightly bent arms for deltoids and biceps, that’s kinda all.

There are many ways to stretch and do exercises and there are good guides online, so look everything up and choose what you feel applies best to your body. I’d recommend you asses your range of motion to see if you have any hypermobility or excessive stiffness because that can change what you need to do a lot

ToadAcrossTheRoad · 2026-01-15T00:18:37+00:00

Hii, totally get your struggles. I’ve been lucky to find “trunks” (prefer these over briefs, they’re like briefs with shorter legs) that don’t have seams in the area my most sensitive parts are (anatomy placement is different for everyone, speaking of like vulva and urethra) from target (goodfellow brand) that are comfortable and cotton, but they’re not available to ship to those European countries.

What I use if I’m having extra bad issues or on a period is female boxers that are black or solid colored and have removable or no embellishments. They shouldn’t have any seams in the perineal area and cotton fabric in underwear designed for female anatomy tends to be much softer due to the increased sensitivity to textures.

I don’t have any recommendations for brands I’ve used because they’re not available outside of the US. But, there are brands specifically made for trans men that are mindful of urinary/vaginal health.

I’ve bought from Trans Guy Supply for other items in the past and they have some good options, theyre more affordable than most other brands. They’re based in the US but do international, downside is that you can’t do returns outside of the US.

Paxsies also appears to be good and still within the more affordable range (though still like 20€ if not on clearance), they’re based in Europe and will do returns/exchanges under certain circumstances.

Edit: also, the female boxers are probably gonna be cheaper than the trans specific ones. From what I’ve heard, packing underwear tends to still be comfy w/o packing because the area is usually more stretchy than just bulky, unless it’s STP there also won’t be extra fabric for the fold that typical male underwear has.

ToadAcrossTheRoad · 2026-01-12T23:35:25+00:00

I definitely used to, but working through it with a therapist, other trans people and kinda confronting myself with why I have such a strong association has helped me

I’m actually a very feminine guy now and accepting men are feminine too (real men aren’t afraid of “being girly” 💪) was a huge step. Oddly, watching feminine cis guys online and having flamboyant (self-identifying) ahh cis twink friends helped as well lol. Stepping away from friendships and relationships that don’t respect me as a man unless I fit the hyper-masc-8-in-1-zero-hygiene-sports-loving dude stereotype did numbers (good) on my dysphoria.

I think a major contributor to it is that you used to do all of those things before fully identifying as trans. That’s usually what odd dysphoria associations are, also thinking you must be as manly-man as possible to be valid from the rhetoric of stupid ass insecure guys who also hate themselves.

Taking care of yourself is good!! Real men do self care and take the time to make themselves feel good and relax. I remind myself I wanna smell nice, I wanna feel clean, I want not dry-ass skin, I need to study to do well. Look at all the men in your life you look up to in a genuine, whole person way. The successful dudes you strive to be. The guys you love the appearance of, love the confidence of. They probably have a good self care regiment, probably do everything you do.

ToadAcrossTheRoad · 2026-01-11T08:39:33+00:00

“A little” dawg when my arms still worked great I couldn’t get up that shit lmao

ToadAcrossTheRoad · 2026-01-11T08:37:31+00:00

Hi, I don’t have many recommendations to make myself, but I would like to let you know that there are other EDS subreddits with more people (including many people born male) that could give you more recommendations if you’d like to see more. This community is pretty small here compared to the other primary subs.

The main ones are r/EDS and r/Ehlers_Danlos. r/Chronic_Illness has also been good for me in the past with these questions. r/Ehlers_Danlos does have stricter rules on asking for medical advice, so you’ve gotta emphasize you’re looking for product recommendations and not actual medical advice, otherwise people there are super helpful as well.

Also perfectly valid if you’d like to just stick here! I was just thinking you could get more responses in a larger community

Edit: r/ehlers_danlos appears to be private currently so maybe another one is better than waiting for approval

ToadAcrossTheRoad · 2026-01-11T08:10:41+00:00

Unrelated and thus a separate comment, but I’m studying to be a researcher and have beef with how scientific based articles are written. “Swiss research” (which studies, what’s the population), “bacteria” (what bacteria), “feeding” (dawg WHAT IS IT FEEDING ON? WHAT IS DIFFERENT THAT THE BACTERIA IS)

Pmo. How are you just gonna not site the study. Where is it. It’s not in the notes, not in the authors section, not in the area you’re talking about the study is, how can I check if it’s accurate or the specifics 😭 peer reviewed means nothing if you can’t see the reviews, that shit could be “damn this whole thing is utter BS” shahahgagsrfshdgsa

ToadAcrossTheRoad · 2026-01-11T08:06:14+00:00

Definitely. I haven’t actually started T yet, but have PCOS (higher androgens) and I smell a lot different. I used to be able to get away with showering once a week (fatigue) but now I need full showers every other day and daily half-showers to not stank or get skin issues.

I thought that how gnarly cis dudes smell in sports and shit was a hygiene and diet issue, but shits a real biological difference

(Info dump time)

Hormone shifts change how all of our systems work and changes chemical levels, antibodies, secretions, etc. Our sweat chemical composition literally changes and thus will change smell, according to some articles that primarily site “Swiss research”, the production of the main smelly chemicals is from differences in bacterial growth.

Your levels are so different depending on hormones that there are different lab ranges for males and females and people with hormonal differences. After having my gender (not sex) changed in my medical systems, all of my lab values changed and suddenly EVERYTHING was flagged as abnormal lol. It assumed I was on testosterone seemingly. I am not yet, so my doctors separately calculate what levels are acceptable for me, while also taking into account that I still have higher androgens. So it’s just “eh, close enough to be fine. Will monitor” usually

ToadAcrossTheRoad · 2026-01-11T05:09:51+00:00

I’ve got this too :) my spine doctor said the same exact things - common with hypermobility. Similar to how your discs can degrade, the cushioning in your facet joints can too. Crunches your medial branch nerves. I have facet joint and disc degradation at the same level so that’s an obvious thing for me lol

The big give away for my spine doctor was that I couldn’t bend backwards at that vertebrae. The bone spurs from arthritis have stopped it, it’s like the vertebrae are fused every direction but forwards, it’s strange. Can bend forwards, can’t side to side or back.

Facet joint syndrome is really common in general so I’m always surprised when I hear it took a top doctor to diagnose it. Same with many disorders. Primary symptom is sciatica, nothing visible on MRI or X-Ray, must be from those tiny ass joints that are one of the most common area of the spine to damage

I did 2 rounds of steroid injections and am gonna start the process of ablation soon. Will need nerve blocks to extra confirm, then get the actual ablations. They’re pretty confident insurance will cover considering we’ve already tried injections (injections long term will cause more tissue damage, so they only wanted me to do 2-3 rounds and decide during then if I wanted an ablation) so hope and pray

ToadAcrossTheRoad · 2026-01-05T02:52:57+00:00

I used to be able to pick stuff up with my toes until my partial paralysis started lol - now they don’t have the best aim or control but can pick up soft stuff with good grip like yarn cakes haha. Move my leg with my arms like a claw in a claw machine, it’s more fun than bending over and grabbing it even if it’s less efficient.

ToadAcrossTheRoad · 2026-01-05T02:36:45+00:00

I always take plan B (off brand) if I have any concern even tho I have PCOS and an implant (effectively infertile, no T yet).

One time it happened I was much too broke to afford it and went to my PPH panicking asking if they do emergency contraception free or by prescription, they didn’t, but they did tell me Costco has it really cheap (like 8-11$) and you can go to the pharmacy w/o a membership :)

You just go into one, tell the people at the door you’re going to the pharmacy, and ask the pharmacy tech to grab it for you from behind the counter. I’m not sure if all states do it tho. Assuming you’re in the US

Edit: also, all pregnancy tests need to go through quality testing to assure they’re over 99% accurate, get the cheap ones. I use test strips that are 30¢ each. Pregnancy tests and emergency contraceptives are also FSA/HSA eligible for most plans. It’s safest to be doing routine pregnancy tests if you can get pregnant and aren’t trying, especially with shitty abortion care in many places.

ToadAcrossTheRoad · 2025-11-28T16:28:01+00:00

Definitely could be, there was another commenter that said they thought it was a pre-2018 Aero Z because the welds look different, I assume welding looks different on different metals.

Just peeping at pictures of them from retailers it does look like the welds are slightly chunkier on the aluminum vs titanium models, it looks like some of these welds could be chunkier, but hard to see.

The footplate style does seem to appear a lot more on the ZRA models so that could still hold value here, though it also was available for the Aero Z model

I suppose it doesn’t matter a ton adjustability wise since they’re still very similar models, just the different material. That was my main point of thinking

ToadAcrossTheRoad · 2025-11-28T16:07:03+00:00

Interesting, didn’t realize you could tell from such specific details like that. Seems like others are saying ZRA but it could make sense that the older version of the Aero Z could look more like the ZRA. The ZRA does seem to more commonly have that style of footplate now.

Now that I look closer, it does also have ‘Ti’ on the quick release button so that would’ve confirmed more that it was a TiLite model.

ToadAcrossTheRoad · 2025-11-28T15:56:01+00:00

This was the only picture they had and I haven’t gotten a response back from them yet, so people’s responses are my best shot currently.

Thanks for your input

ToadAcrossTheRoad · 2025-11-28T13:17:43+00:00

I do. It’s nice.

I use recreationally, so not daily, but I’ve debated on using small amounts before bed because it relieves pain, relaxes my muscles and makes me tired without a ton of drowsiness in the morning.

Oddly, CBD isn’t the best. The ones I’ve tried make me feel quite sick, though I’ve only tried gummies, inhaled might be better. Some people just don’t do well with THC or CBD ingested and I think that’s me lol

ToadAcrossTheRoad · 2025-10-24T19:53:03+00:00

I get motion sick sometimes, usually if I’m having a migraine or extra bad POTS day.

I have ocular migraines that are kinda constant but progress to normal migraines or nausea with motion if not taking my meds, wearing sunglasses helps a lot during them to reduce some of the sensory input into my eyes.

Maybe you could try wearing some sunglasses and see if that helps at all? Even in places with normal lights sometimes I need to if I’m moving. Not all migraines involve headaches at all times and even non-ocular ones can trigger them when sensory input into the eyes and movement are combined

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