Re: Re-wiring of our brains to female

[SandraJane]

Hopefully I'm not the last one posting here...

I'm about to start HRT in about 2 weeks after being on AA's for 7 months, and I too am wondering what to expect as my brain is "re-wired" or "re-directed". Thanks for the link to the study Padma, its also one of those journal articles that the full article is...FREE!

Wow... some good posts in here. Regarding 'mental changes', you're probably talking about perception or emotional change. I'll simply give my run down of what's happened to me so far (2.6 years in).

- Perception is constantly macro instead of micro (wide field vs narrow field)... this caused a couple of accidents.
- Boys smell yummy... really... really... yummy.
- Girls now no longer have an automatic 'sweet' smell.
- Not immediately able to determine if I like the way a girl looks. I *can* be attracted but I have to give a crap.
- I'm more emotionally sensitive to many things but in a different way. Not an anger response but instead a sadness response.
- I do *not* get angry as easily and when I do, I feel like I'm having a conniption fit instead of wanting to rip someone in half.
- Visual lock for boobs and butts is gone. Don't have to worry about eyes snapping to inappropriate places.
- Porn is useless. Text is awesome.
- Physical sensation of sexual arousal is different.
- CHOCOLATE!!! OMG!
- Tactile sensation is more important. I feel more needs to touch things to connect with them.
- Certain flavors are much more appealing now (didn't like onions, now love them)

I'm sure there's more. That's just the stuff that I can remember from the top of my head. This will definitely be a YMMV kind of issue though. As mentioned, placebo effect is a factor as well as sensitivity to estrogens as opposed to androgens.

If you've got your letter, and you've got a real doc (DO NOT DO IT THE OTHER WAY!), enjoy the ride. It's crazy!

Like the way you itemized the changes Victoria.

The change in the sense of smell is one constant I keep reading about, especially the ability to smell Males. The Female brain contains more White matter than the Male brain, so it thinks faster! Anyone notice that kind of change?

[MariaMx]

I'm about to start HRT in about 2 weeks after being on AA's for 7 months, and I too am wondering what to expect as my brain is "re-wired" or "re-directed".

Well, one thing I noticed not too long after starting hrt was that colors seemed more intense. Especially traffic lights in the dark. I can no longer tell if this is still the case or not.

The Female brain contains more White matter than the Male brain, so it thinks faster! Anyone notice that kind of change?

I've never heard of such a thing.

[peky]

Well, one thing I noticed not too long after starting hrt was that colors seemed more intense. Especially traffic lights in the dark. I can no longer tell if this is still the case or not.
I've never heard of such a thing.

The distribution of some gray matter is gender specific (see Padma Posting). Gray matter is where the bodies of neurons reside, white matter is the axonal bundles (cables connecting neurons and neuronal centers)

[Julie Wilson]

Thanks for posting, that was a good read ^_^ and struck me as very honest and matter of fact.

If I were to ask them what makes them women without  arguing from biology, how would they answer? I don't know, but there is little doubt they are  both women, and both equally so.

People who were born the right sex don't really have any other experience to compare to.  They tend to assume that being born male makes you male, etc.  They tend to project their experience on others, assuming that others have had the same experience of being born into the right skin.  That is why some have come up with conspiracy theories to explain M2Fs as predators who want to invade women's spaces, etc.

[Padma]

All I can say is that on raising my E (and especially lowering my T), I felt as though I got to finally sit down in a seat I'd been holding myself up from all my life. It's like the difference between being a fountain, and being a lake. I just got taken off anti-androgens for 2 months, and I had to go back on them, I was getting pushed out of that seat, and there's nothing worse.

It's impossible for me to tell for sure what changes that have happened in my personality and habits and state of mind are 'caused' by the HRT. I've spent the last few months trying to learn to handle acute PTSD, which has somehow been brought to the surface by transitioning - but I have no idea whether my lizard brain is being kicked off by hormonal effects, or simply by me being myself for the first time since I got abused way back. I'm now strong enough to be vulnerable, safe enough to be unsafe. I'm taking risks I couldn't ever take when all my energy was tied up in "passing" as a man.

So much has changed since I began this change, and I don't care what's causing what. I'm just trying to ride the white water. My body knows it's a woman's body, I'm helping it to catch up with itself. My mind/self is female, but has never needed to be masculine or feminine. It's simple. Since I began transitioning, and especially since HRT, my sexual orientation has flickered about like a mad dragonfly, and worrying about that gets in the way of it being the mad fun it is just to watch. Trying to be anyone else's idea of what a trans woman "should" want/do/wear/be - that's just silly.

(...can you tell I'm wired as hell and it's one in the morning...?)