This may have been discussed before, but I would like to share my experience of the past few months with respect to the difference between oral and transdermal estrogen.
Needs a rather long introduction.
Before I started HRT back in October 1992 (on self reflection) I was so conflicted that I could best describe myself as a-sexual.
Then in October 1992 when I started HRT, I was put on Androcur (anti androgen) and estradiol (brand name Linoral). I don't really remember the dose of Androcur I was taking, but it pretty much did the trick in the anti-androgen department. That was a great relief, but it included no interest in sex, etc. A year and a half later (March '94) I had my SRS and was taken off the Androcur and the dose of estradiol was halved. However, libido remained pretty much next to nothing. By that time this had become the "new normal" for me and since I had been pretty much asexual before anyway, thought nothing of it.
During 2000/2001 I developed what I can best describe as a metabolic disorder which may or may not be related to HRT and SRS. Long story short, all the doctors I saw couldn't find a thing until I found this alternative medicine doctor. Whether you believe in alternative medicine or not is for a different topic, but I believe he (literally) saved my life. Anyway, in the early 2000's I was trying to stay alive and so the exact effects of the estrogen were irrelevant. In 2002 Linoral was taken off the market and I was put on Progynova (oral), which is estradiolvalerate (spelling?)
As my health (metabolism) gradually improved over the years, the "normal" for me was no sex drive, no real interest in doing anything to look nice. I have a feeling, now in retrospect, that the sex drive lowering effect of Progynova was stronger than Linoral, but I have no hard evidence of that. I had entirely stopped wearing makeup around 2001 because much of it somehow interacted badly with my metabolism (and it just wasn't high on my list of priorities). A real "Plain Jane". Then in October last year (2010) my doctor switched me from Progynova to transdermal patches. Reason being that as you grow older transdermal patches apparently carry fewer risks, since the dose can be much lower for the same amount of estrogen in your bloodstream.
Wow! What a difference! My libido is back, and I have come to the conclusion I am interested in men. That's some eye opening experience at 43, SRS+17 years. I am again much more interested in things like wearing makeup and generally looking and dressing more feminine than the more or less androgynous look I had slowly come to wear (without giving it much thought, mind you). (Aside: finding makeup that doesn't interfere with my metabolism is a slow road, but I am making progress).
I have since read that the best way to make a woman androgen deficient is to put her on oral HRT for a while. Which leads me to the conclusion that the switch from oral to transdermal estrogen has caused my testosterone levels to come back up closer to what they would normally be in a woman.
The transdermal patches have the disadvantage that you are pulling remnants of the glue off your skin after removing the patch, but the advantages I have seen far outweigh that.
So anyone else have a similar experience in switching from oral to transdermal?
