Taking hromones for a short period of time

[Alena43]

Hello Everyone,

I have a question It has been reccommended by a couple of different sources that I have read and researched that I should try taking hormones for a short period of time to see if they felt right. I have been considering this and will be talking to my therapist about it. I was just wondering what you ladies thought of this idea and could it really help me in my gender confused state? At this point any thought, experiences, advice would be greatly appreciated. I feel like if this would help me then I am all for it.
Alena

[Kate]

I have a question It has been reccommended by a couple of different sources that I have read and researched that I should try taking hormones for a short period of time to see if they felt right. I have been considering this and will be talking to my therapist about it. I was just wondering what you ladies thought of this idea and could it really help me in my gender confused state? At this point any thought, experiences, advice would be greatly appreciated. I feel like if this would help me then I am all for it.

One downside to the idea is that estrogen and anti-androgens can kill you, permanently damage your liver, etc. There are serious risks you'll have to consider. Be sure to go over *everything* with your therapist and doctor first.

~Kate~

[Steph]

Hello Everyone,

I have a question It has been reccommended by a couple of different sources that I have read and researched that I should try taking hormones for a short period of time to see if they felt right. I have been considering this and will be talking to my therapist about it. I was just wondering what you ladies thought of this idea and could it really help me in my gender confused state? At this point any thought, experiences, advice would be greatly appreciated. I feel like if this would help me then I am all for it.
Alena

Taking hormones will not make you a man or a woman, and they will not make you feel like a man or woman, that is not their purpose. Hormones are taken to assist in transition to help change the physical body to match the mental being of the person involved.  Your research should have revealed that, depending on the individual, the results of taking hormones become irreversible after a certain period of time.  There is much anecdotal evidence that those who are diagnosed with GID experience great relief and euphoria once HRT is started but again the HRT didn't make them the way they are, they were who they are before HRT.  Personally I would advise against it just as I would advise against trying cocain to see if it felt right and if I could handle it.

This woman's thoughts... No, no, no.

Steph

[Alena43]

Maybe I din't word this the right way. I took the cogaiti test on the transsexual.org website and the results were classic transsexual. The author of the test made the suggestion to try hormones for a short period of time. I had read that hormones don't change who you are male or female. I  believe that I was born the wrong sex and that I should have born female. I am just not sure what to do at this point and I thought that maybe taking hormones could help.  I would just like to have some peace in my head and heart. I guess that sometimes I just want the quick fix, but I know there isn't one. Thank you for your thoughts.
Alena

[karmatic1110]

Maybe I din't word this the right way. I took the cogaiti test on the transsexual.org website and the results were classic transsexual. The author of the test made the suggestion to try hormones for a short period of time. I had read that hormones don't change who you are male or female. I  believe that I was born the wrong sex and that I should have born female. I am just not sure what to do at this point and I thought that maybe taking hormones could help.  I would just like to have some peace in my head and heart. I guess that sometimes I just want the quick fix, but I know there isn't one. Thank you for your thoughts.
Alena

That test is not reliable and is based on stereotype behaviors.  If you feel like you were born the wrong sex, then find a therapist that has experience with gender issues.  Its really the first step.  I assumed therapy wouldn't help but I was so wrong!

Charlotte

[Kate]

Maybe I din't word this the right way. I took the cogaiti test on the transsexual.org website and the results were classic transsexual.

IMHO, you can't rely on any "test" to tell you who you are, or what you need to do. Only you can answer that question for yourself.

To be fair, I asked these same questions a year ago in the Trial period for HRT? thread.

Looking back on it all now, I was just being irresponsible and cruel to my wife at the time. I KNEW I had to transition, and that I'd never stop estrogen... but my therapist wanted a commitment to transition before allowing HRT, and I just wasn't ready to risk losing everything yet. I was totally immature and stupid and tried to "get away with it" by saying it was a "trial," temporarily avoiding the consequences of telling my wife I was going to transition.

Not a period of my life I'm particularly proud of

If nothing else, ask yourself if you're prepared for the *possibility* that you may never stop HRT once you start? Are you ready to transition - if it comes to that?

~Kate~

[Alena43]

I was wondering about that test and the result. Like I said I think I was just looking for a qiuck fix, which I know from past experience that when I have taken a quick fix the results usually didn't turn out very good. I will continue working with my therapist.  No quick fixes for me...lol
Alena
kate,
That is the the question of the day for me and right now I can't say one way or the other if I am ready to transition. I have many questions that need to be answered before I can make that decision. I also have to weigh out what this would due to my son. I know that I amjust going to have to be patient and take this one step at a time until I am absoulutely sure whAt I want to do.


I just want it now..lol

Alena

[karmatic1110]

I just want it now..lol

Alena

I think everyone has that sort of feelings multiple times during transition.  I would love to just wake up and have the body I have always wanted, but the physical is only a small aspect of transition. 

Charlotte

[Keira]

My own feeling is that if your thinking of starting estrogen and KNOW what they do and that doesn't phase you at all, YOU WILL NOT WANT TO STOP...

On the DIY groups I've seen dozens of those so called trials, and none of them stop.

Not many normal men want to take hormones knowing what they do.

I'd go see a therapist and after a short period of internal exploration, you'll be able to answer your questions and get on HRT if you decide then that this is right for you.

[LostInTime]

I echo that you should go to a therapist, be honest, get the letter for hormones and an endoc referral, and go from there.

A TS friend of mine told me that I would react one of two ways after starting HRT and noticing the changes:

OMG! WTH am I doing?!!?!

As Keira said up above, most men do not want to take hormones if they understand what the impact will be.

OR I would react:

Yay! Want more!

Ummm, my reaction was the second one. Beginning HRT did not dictate to me who or what I was but seeing the changes and wanting more confirmed it.

YMMV

[Kate]

OMG! WTH am I doing?!!?!
Yay! Want more!

BOTH of those together pretty much sum up my reaction when I stumbled upon those first breast buddings

It was quite a moment: realizing suddenly that this was REAL, finally truly accepting the implications of that... and that I'd never, ever stop.

~Kate~

[seldom]

The very fact you are thinking about it is really a step to walking into therapy.

Some do take hormones and immediately stop.  Drag Queens for example have been known to do that, as well as borderline CD, but both usually DIY it.

By the time you  go through therapy and head to the endo, there is little doubt who you know this is right for you.

Honestly some of the immediate changes have been a great relief.  My skin is softer all of my acne is disappearing.  HRT just confirmed everything I KNEW to be true, in a very short amount of time.  All I wanted within a week...was more hormones. 

It is because the changes HRT offers, both subtle and huge.  I am only seeing subtle changes because I just started, but I wish for the larger ones so much more now. 

[Laura Eva B]

My own feeling is that if your thinking of starting estrogen and KNOW what they do and that doesn't phase you at all, YOU WILL NOT WANT TO STOP...

On the DIY groups I've seen dozens of those so called trials, and none of them stop.

Not many normal men want to take hormones knowing what they do.

I started my "DIY trial" 2 years 9 months ago .... look at where I am now !

Went "legal" with the medication within 4 months, started RLE within 6 months, and I'm nearly 11 months post-op now (surgery after 17 months RLE) ....

Laura x 

[mavieenrose]

IMHO, you can't rely on any "test" to tell you who you are, or what you need to do. Only you can answer that question for yourself.

I totally agree, tests provide interesting pointers, but really only you know if inside you have a female identity.  That said, I think it's important to avoid DIY hormone treatment, and to have proper medical supervision.

MVER XXX

[seldom]

Mavieen,
As I come to realize because the UK and Australia and Provinces in Canada require Blanchard's Crackpot 1 Year RLT for HRT, DIY really is the only option for them.

In this respect the US is FAR ahead of the UK and other places, with the realization of gender specialists that doing the RLT is unrealistic and potentially extremely damaging to delay hrt for that long and especially to throw the person into a RLT for HRT.  Especially when the case for many transgender people may never want to go full time but HRT is beneficial (which is in the SoC).

So for the people in these countries DIY is a better option than waiting around or turning their life upside down with a RLT just for hormones.

As much as I hate to say this, with more insurance companies covering HRT for trans people in the US, or at least looking the other way, DIY is not necessary here.  We have fewer hoops to jump through.  Three months of therapy is very reasonable, and I know many people in the US do not even have to go through that to get their letter.  The reality is for HRT, the US is SIGNIFICANTLY more trans-friendly. 

In the UK and other places...the reality is DIY is really the only realistic option because the barriers they put up for HRT are absurd, and outdated.  That is why I am not surprised with the amount of people here from the UK, Canada, and Australia who ultimately went the DIY track. 

There needs to be significant changes to their system, any ideas of Blanchard need to be thrown out in these countries.  US medical system despite all its flaws, has at least caught on to how to administer HRT to trans people right and when to do it.

With that being said, if you are in the US.  Just wait for your letter.  You will get it when the time is right for you to start, if YOU feel the time is right to start. 

[Laura Eva B]

As I come to realize because the UK and Australia and Provinces in Canada require Blanchard's Crackpot 1 Year RLT for HRT, DIY really is the only option for them.

In this respect the US is FAR ahead of the UK and other places, with the realization of gender specialists that doing the RLT is unrealistic and potentially extremely damaging to delay hrt for that long and especially to throw the person into a RLT for HRT. 

Not strictly correct Amy, the situation in the UK is rather more relaxed and even the leading NHS gender clinic has been known to prescribe on 2nd or 3rd appointment (except you would already have had some therapy as they only accept referals from a qualified psychiatrist, never directly from a GP).

Richard Curtis, the only private gender psych in London, will prescribe after evidence of three months counselling / psychotherapy, usually on second appointment. 

His predecessor Russell Reid would also prescribe if you had live in role for three months, or were self medicating on the grounds that supervised hrt was the the "lesser of two evils".  I was prescribe hrt on these latter grounds, but honestly Russell gave the meds out like candy as he was a firm believer in hrt as a "diagnostic tool".  Certainly many of his patients never returned for that second script.

Of course Russell Reid was very recently censured by the General Medical Council for malpractice in prescribing hrt and referring for surgeries without due care and dilligence, and though not struck off, had he not retired restrictions put on him would have made it very difficult for him to continue his practice.  Because of this getting hrt in the UK will inevitably become more difficult.

Laura x

[mavieenrose]

In the UK and other places...the reality is DIY is really the only realistic option because the barriers they put up for HRT are absurd, and outdated.  That is why I am not surprised with the amount of people here from the UK, Canada, and Australia who ultimately went the DIY track.

Hello Amy,
Yes I am from the UK originally, but actually I can't relate to your description of the situation there.  I transitioned in 1992 and after just a couple of consultations with a psychiatrist was given HRT by my NHS doctor before then starting my real-life test a few months later.  And that was 15 years ago...

I can only speak from my own experience (not least because back in the early 90s networks like this didn't really exist and I just don't know any other trans people in the UK), but I didn't personally find the health system's approach out-dated.  Maybe I was just lucky.

MVER XXX

[seldom]

I think it is highly dependent on the location in the UK then.  I hear people on these boards complain about the NHS and some of the out there requirements.  I guess it depends on location more than anything.  I do know there are places in the UK, Australia and Canada though that use Blanchard's backwards methods.  There is only one place in the US (its in Florida).

[Keira]

Its only Ontario that is that retrograde.
In the province of Quebec, if you really want them, in 3 months, you'll get them.
If you DIY for awhile, obviously look female, and then go see them, they'll give them quicker than 3 months (what would be the point of making you wait then).