When to stop 'the pill' before starting T?

[Mattfromengland]

The best time to stop IMO is ASAP. At the moment you're pumping up your female hormone levels. When you stop, yes your period will likely return but you'll have to stop on T anyway and T will work much better starting out without an over abundance of female hormones in one's system. Most T doses start low so if you have too much female hormones in your system you could experience far slower results, including cessation of menses! There's going to be so many changes in your future. Being on the pill and having this fear of periods could even be something that stops the doctor giving you T that day. With everything you'll be dealing with with regards to T and transition you need to be in a good place mentally because it's a trying time. If you can't handle periods before you start T, that's going to be a little concerning to a doc. If you can't handle them without other major changes happening in your life, they might wonder how on earth will you handle it combined with major changes. Might be better to get ahead of this potential situation and find a way to cope before you start T. That would put you in a far stronger position for getting the shot. And even if it doesn't make a difference to the doctor, it would do you good to find coping mechanisms for it before things get started because trust me, once you start, it's just a rollercoaster and everything seems to step into top gear and move so fast! Being in a good place before I started was something I found prudent to hanging on for the ride.

Hey thanks Jack, all good advice there

I made my decision last night that I will come off it. If the worse happens and for some reason I can't start T (still waiting on blood results - should be in by Friday) I can always go back on it, but I've also read that you can suffer side effects after coming off the pill when you've been on it a long time. If I get any I wouldn't know if was the pill or the T and I think that's pretty important

Like you say as well, the more I can clear my body of female hormones before starting T the more effective it will be.

My last pill of this months pack is tonight. So hopefully after 25 years, tonight could well the last one of those I ever take.   Yay!!!! Worth a celebration

[Mr.X]

Just a small (or actually rather large) thing to keep in mind is that if you are also taking the pill as birthcontrol, T will not replace this. It is true that eventually you should become infertile, or at least do not produce eggcells anymore, but this takes time. T is by far not as reliable as the pill or other birth control methods are.

I know you're taking the pill for other reasons, but just in case

Congrats on finally getting rid of that nuisance, though!

[Mattfromengland]

Just a small (or actually rather large) thing to keep in mind is that if you are also taking the pill as birthcontrol, T will not replace this. It is true that eventually you should become infertile, or at least do not produce eggcells anymore, but this takes time. T is by far not as reliable as the pill or other birth control methods are.

I know you're taking the pill for other reasons, but just in case

Congrats on finally getting rid of that nuisance, though!

Thanks for the reminder Mr X   It's all under control in that department

[Jack_M]

Hey thanks Jack, all good advice there

I made my decision last night that I will come off it. If the worse happens and for some reason I can't start T (still waiting on blood results - should be in by Friday) I can always go back on it, but I've also read that you can suffer side effects after coming off the pill when you've been on it a long time. If I get any I wouldn't know if was the pill or the T and I think that's pretty important

Like you say as well, the more I can clear my body of female hormones before starting T the more effective it will be.

My last pill of this months pack is tonight. So hopefully after 25 years, tonight could well the last one of those I ever take.   Yay!!!! Worth a celebration

Best of luck, buddy! Remember when it comes to side effects you have a multitude of folks here who can either confirm that it's a T side effect or some may be able to tell you that it's something they experienced from coming off the pill. Don't be afraid to throw up a post asking if anyone experienced specific side effects and people will be able to guide you in the right direction. Just as long as anything troubling you or major is something you take to your doctor ASAP. But little things along the way might crop up and you might want some advice or just clarification that you're not alone with that issue.

[spacerace]

Just a small (or actually rather large) thing to keep in mind is that if you are also taking the pill as birthcontrol, T will not replace this. It is true that eventually you should become infertile, or at least do not produce eggcells anymore, but this takes time. T is by far not as reliable as the pill or other birth control methods are.

With T, and a condom, are you as safe as birth control? And people really have condom sex with their long-term partners for this reason?  I would worry about the fact someone may not know about it right away without the monthly red flag, as it were, as indication you were good to go for that month. If you use that hole, what do you do? Pregnancy test every now and then?

Only curious - I am attracted to women so this is something I know nothing about at all.

[Mattfromengland]

Best of luck, buddy! Remember when it comes to side effects you have a multitude of folks here who can either confirm that it's a T side effect or some may be able to tell you that it's something they experienced from coming off the pill. Don't be afraid to throw up a post asking if anyone experienced specific side effects and people will be able to guide you in the right direction. Just as long as anything troubling you or major is something you take to your doctor ASAP. But little things along the way might crop up and you might want some advice or just clarification that you're not alone with that issue.

Hey thanks Jack. I'm dreading the thought that my next few periods will probably be heavier and that I'll have no idea when they'll spring up on me. I'm only used to knowing exactly when it's due. But you know what? I'm ready for it, it's a necessary step.

Yes you are right about getting advice. I have found this forum to be so, so supportive, it's great!!

[Jack_M]

Yeah, the reason I'm saying in here is because I've always been fairly lucky with periods.  I mean, I've ALWAYS hated them but I never got PMS, never had cramps and would bleed for 2 days max and it was 40+ days between them rather than 28, so I almost had half what normal females had the way it worked out.  Even at that, I obviously still hated them, but I at least was able to acknowledge that it could have been a heck of a lot worse.  However, since starting T, I've just gotten way more dysphoric about it.  Like everyone sees me as male and my voice has really masculinised already.  I expect more changes might happen but where it's at is more than passable right now.  But it's like a lot of people say, as soon as you masculinise one place, other areas can have a stronger dysphoria.  For me, I'm even more dysphoric about my chest now I pass based on face and voice, but with the weather getting colder and more rain, I can wear hoodies so that takes away a little (but not all) of the chest dysphoria, but now periods are just so much urgh!!!  It was 56 days before I got my last period and I didn't think it had gone but I think we all have that secret hope, especially since anything more than 43 days wasn't normal for me.  And then just yesterday I noticed a tiny bit of blood and I wanted to punch a wall.  Amounted to absolutely nothing so it went as soon as it arrived.  But that's why I think getting in check before you start T and before any potential dysphoria shifts is a good idea.  For me the lack of regularity scares me.  I go to Taekwon-do and on a day like today where there's 3 classes I hate having to wonder if I should wear a pad or something because if something starts it's going to VERY obvious with white pants.  But just knowing and feeling a pad as I'm kicking or punching away makes me dysphoric.  Some people in my Taekwon-do class don't know, especially the kids I teach and I just feel like they can all tell even though that idea is ridiculous.  It's something in my underwear, how could they possibly tell??  But that's how my silly little dysphoric brain thinks.  And I have a competition in a months time where I'll be in a dobok (white martial arts outfit) all day and just thinking of wearing a pad 'just in case' is so depressing!  Maybe it'll help me fuel that anger into sparring though!  Who knows?  Lol.  So while I never had your level of dysphoria with periods pre-T, I do know that it's something I'm struggling with now, so I wish you all the best and I just hope that T stops it ASAP for you (and me!!!!)

And yeah this forum is good for venting/support/advice, etc.  Just use it if you need to.

[Mattfromengland]

Yeah, the reason I'm saying in here is because I've always been fairly lucky with periods.  I mean, I've ALWAYS hated them but I never got PMS, never had cramps and would bleed for 2 days max and it was 40+ days between them rather than 28, so I almost had half what normal females had the way it worked out.  Even at that, I obviously still hated them, but I at least was able to acknowledge that it could have been a heck of a lot worse.  However, since starting T, I've just gotten way more dysphoric about it.  Like everyone sees me as male and my voice has really masculinised already.  I expect more changes might happen but where it's at is more than passable right now.  But it's like a lot of people say, as soon as you masculinise one place, other areas can have a stronger dysphoria.  For me, I'm even more dysphoric about my chest now I pass based on face and voice, but with the weather getting colder and more rain, I can wear hoodies so that takes away a little (but not all) of the chest dysphoria, but now periods are just so much urgh!!!  It was 56 days before I got my last period and I didn't think it had gone but I think we all have that secret hope, especially since anything more than 43 days wasn't normal for me.  And then just yesterday I noticed a tiny bit of blood and I wanted to punch a wall.  Amounted to absolutely nothing so it went as soon as it arrived.  But that's why I think getting in check before you start T and before any potential dysphoria shifts is a good idea.  For me the lack of regularity scares me.  I go to Taekwon-do and on a day like today where there's 3 classes I hate having to wonder if I should wear a pad or something because if something starts it's going to VERY obvious with white pants.  But just knowing and feeling a pad as I'm kicking or punching away makes me dysphoric.  Some people in my Taekwon-do class don't know, especially the kids I teach and I just feel like they can all tell even though that idea is ridiculous.  It's something in my underwear, how could they possibly tell??  But that's how my silly little dysphoric brain thinks.  And I have a competition in a months time where I'll be in a dobok (white martial arts outfit) all day and just thinking of wearing a pad 'just in case' is so depressing!  Maybe it'll help me fuel that anger into sparring though!  Who knows?  Lol.  So while I never had your level of dysphoria with periods pre-T, I do know that it's something I'm struggling with now, so I wish you all the best and I just hope that T stops it ASAP for you (and me!!!!)

And yeah this forum is good for venting/support/advice, etc.  Just use it if you need to.

Wow, yes that's pretty lucky with your periods. I was the opposite. I would bleed and bleed and it seemed like it never stopped. Big thick lumps of blood too, to the point where I never knew when to get off the toilet as it just kept coming (sorry - gross!!!!). I used to wear a tampon and a pad and yet would leak if I didn't go sort things out within an hour of the last time. I had several days off school as I simply wouldn't have made it through each class without needed to go to the bathroom. Anything I did made it worse too, so I wouldn't run, or tense my tummy up etc, etc. I would be on for often 10-14 days and at one point was only off for around a week. All I did was bleed!!!!!

Looking back, knowing that emotions can effect periods, I think the reason they were like that was because I was so distressed by having them. So anyway, they put me on the pill and here I am 24 years later still on it.

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Yes you are soooooo right about getting that stuff sorted first. It will make starting T easier with less to worry about at the same time.

I can imagine how starting to pass will make you more dysphoric in other areas. I just got my first binder (ordered ages ago but had problems with sizing, delivery or a re-order and now the UK seems to be out of stock of Underworks!!!) and I decided to wear it to work starting yesterday. When I walk down the road in front of strangers it's bliss. However, at work in front of people who know me and I am not out to I was so strongly aware of how they might notice my chest has disappeared. I teach, so we have 50 or more kids and adults who I see each week who all know me (so not just a few work colleagues). It was feeling just like when I was in my teens and early twenties where I used to hide my chest with all my might. Odd, as I've managed to push through it despite of course hating my chest. I wasn't expecting it to be like that.

Again though, I know this journey will throw a lot more and a lot worse at all of us, so although mildly uncomfortable, I can get home and actually laugh about it. I really do feel ready to take on all these new challenges it will throw at me and am even kind of looking forward to that side of things. They make us a stronger person having to deal with the things we have to deal with.  Then of course there's all the good stuff that come with it too

Wow well done with all the changes coming in so quickly for you, that's fab. I hope I am as lucky.....keeps fingers crossed.

[mm]

Jack_M, you said so many things I can relate too about this bleeding we get.  It can start and change and you have no control over it. My heavy flow usually doesn't last real long. I can used super tampons and do fine. I don't like pads you see and feel them all the time.  But it is the unknown all the time on what could happen.  No guy get unexpected bleeding that he can't control; he would be at the dr's office and want those parts out of him immediately.  I don't wear white anymore but could easily see your problem when you do, always wondering will I start.

[Mattfromengland]

Others have answered the question about the Pill, so I thought I'd bring up your expectations of how quickly you can start T. I'm not sure whether the policy is different at your GIC and I hope you're right that you can get your shot there & then, but this isn't my experience.

The standard procedure at most English NHS GICs and private gender clinics is for the clinic to write to your GP to ask them to prescribe & monitor your T. That letter took a month to get from my GIC to my GP, and the prescription was written up within a week. I then had to take that prescription to a pharmacy, but T isn't generally kept in stock (in Boots, at any rate) so they had to order it in for next-day delivery.

Then I had to book an appointment with a Senior Nurse at my GP's practice to have it injected, because under NHS rules it has to be administered by a nurse. I had to take my T along with me for the appointment.

The timeline was about a month and a half from the doctor agreeing to prescribe T, to me getting the actual shot. There's also usually a barrage of blood tests that need to be done before your first shot; the GIC will write to your doctor requesting these tests, but you can pre-empt this if you speak to both the GIC and your GP, to get them done before your next appointment. (Luckily my Therapist mentioned these tests to me so I could get my GP to run them before I saw the GIC doc. If she hadn't, the GIC doc wouldn't have agreed to prescribe T until they were done to his satisfaction).

Oh, and in case you're curious... my first GIC appointment was in April this year; I started T in August and am getting Top Surgery in October. So the timelines depend very much on your individual circumstances and the clinic's policy.

Ftm Diaries, I have good and bad news with reference to this post. I just saw the NHS local mental health team, and the good news is she was odoment that my GP should actually do the shared care and told me to leave it with her as she'll basically tell my GP that she should do it.

So that's great as it will save me a lot of money and trips to London just to get jabs done.

However with my start date I guess it means it will put that off as I'll have to deal with finding a chemist that'll order it in etc and then make an appointment locally to get the jab

I was also happier to be fair that the specialst was going to do the jab rather than a nurse who's never done it

Over all can not complain and now will have to wait and see if my GP's mind will be changed on the word of the mental health team. Fingers crossed!

[Mattfromengland]

UPDATE

I just started T - yay!!!!! So excited.

Good job I stopped the pill, so thanks everyone for your advice.

Looks like it had given me raised liver enzymes, so the fact I've been off it nearly 2 months was long enough to retest liver function, wait four hours for blood results, get the good news that they were on their way down and so be able to get my first shot of Nebido, and not be sent away to look into this further.