I've had a similar experience to you. Hopefully my story can be of some benefit for you.
From SRS until about 6 months ago I'd been on Marvelon 28 (Ethinyloestradiol and Desogestrel). Then about 6/7 months ago I was switched to Zumenon (Estradiol), and things really started to pick up. It took about 4 months for the effects to kick in, but since then I've never looked back.
I didn't really even know about brain fog and what it was until recently, but having come out of the fog now and looking back I can see that's what I've been living with for at least the last 10 years, maybe more. Now I can see that over those years I slowly developed quite a few of the symptoms associated with perimenopause. I have been stealth for years and never thought about TS issues and had gone for years without any other Transgirl contacts.
Probably from about 2 years PO I lost all my libibo, never gave sex a second thought. Also I would always be hungry. I could never get enough food. No doubt this was linked to my weight gain.
Weight started to slowly increase until mid 2012 I was 35+ kgs (80lbs) over my SRS weight. I had made a few attempts over the years to get it down, but I could never really get serious about this, no doubt to brain fogginess/apathy.
At 4 - 5 years PO I started to come down with regular 3 - 4 monthly sick periods - virus like symptoms that would last up to a week, then come back a week or two later. Thinking back on it there were no real medical symptoms. Just severe grogginess, nausea and intense apathy. These gradually got more frequent until a few months ago after changing onto Zumenon when I started to feel normal.
From 2005 - 8 years PO - I developed severe panic attacks, which kept me off work for weeks at first until I adapted and learnt to deal with it. I still have these, but am in control now and they are occurring less.
Around the same time I started to get Migraines. Pre op I never had migraines. At least I only got them in clusters, that is they would come on a few times a year, all within a week or two, then go away for another year or more. I haven't had one since being on Zumenon.
Other symptoms that I learnt to live with:
- Anxiety, feelings of doom.
- Regular breast tenderness.
- Itchy, crawly skin, so bad sometimes I had to get up out of bed. It quite often stopped sleep. But at least it wasn't frequent and normally only happened when I had run out of HRT and didn't take it for a while.
- Trouble sleeping. This was exacerbated by my 24/7 shift work.
- Fatigue
- Intense apathy
- Mood swings. I could get quite nasty at times, but learnt to control this (especially at work). Never really went to tears or anything, but that's just the way I am.
- Acid/reflux - never had this pre op. Now I have a hiatus hernia and have to take prescription antacid tablets every day.
- I'd quite often feel like I was coming down with the flu, having aches and pains in the joints. Luckily they went away as fast as they came.
Many of the above symptoms have been reported by women taking Marvelon 28 and other contraceptive pills.
http://www.power-surge.com/educate/34symptoms.htmAnything would trigger my grogginess/brain fog - back pains, bad nights sleep, looking the wrong way, sometimes no reason at all. I'd feel like this so often it became normal to feel that way. This became worse during 2012, and I was seriously considering going to the doctor about it and should have. Anyway, switching to Zumenon has fixed most of my woes above. I had just got used to them and never really put it down to my previous HRT. But really, looking back it was like a continual perimenopause.
During that time I never really cared much about my appearance either. Never wore makeup or anything. Not that I'd been into makeup that much, only wearing it when I had to. I suppose this is in line with all the weight I put on, and general apathy.
It's took about 4 - 5 months since I've been on Zumenon for most of those feelings to clear. The brain fog has lifted. I rarely have sick days now where I previously I always seemed to have a 'virus' coming on. I've got so much more energy. I can think clearly. I started losing weight. Where previously I'd avoid the gym now I can't wait to get there. I'm doing strength training and using MyFitnessPal to lose weight and tone up. And it's working well. I've never felt better. Have even started to get my libido back
Oh yeah, I never had a blood workup for E levels until last October. I can't even remember the last time I had a test for it. Probably not since 1 year post op. Big mistake I'd say. Anyway, the result showed that I was low - about 200, so the Dr told me to double my Zumenon intake.
I'm lucky not to have had some of the symptoms you mentioned - hair thinning and facial hair, defeminization etc. But they are mentioned as some of the symptoms of perimenopause. Our bodies all respond to these things differently. So, I'd say you can definitely overcome these problems. Cindy has pointed you in the right direction and if you can get on the right type of E for you then you can start feeling normal and love life again.
Anyway, I hope this makes sense and is of some value.
