Have you had any surprise side effects from HRT?

[mfox]

Have you experienced side effects from HRT that you weren't expecting?  That your doctor didn't mention?  Here's some of mine, from an MtF perspective:

Stretch marks.  Apparently if you have the gene for stretch marks, there's nothing proven that you can do to avoid them if you put on weight too quickly (and I tried many things).

Thigh rubbing ("chub rub") from fat re-distribution.  Before HRT, I took for granted that my upper thighs didn't touch when I walked, but after 3 months they started rubbing together like crazy.

Chest euphoria.  Once the initial breast bud pain wasn't so bad, massaging my chest created a new, really happy feeling (and not in a sexual way exactly, it just puts a big smile on my face and makes me jump).

Alcohol intolerance.  I lost any desire to drink, and when I do, I can only drink about 1/3 the amount I used to.  It never gives me a buzz anymore either, and instead, can make me depressed (it never-ever did that before HRT).

Cravings and taste changes.  I started tolerating/loving spicy food for the first time, and craved things like pickles, olives, apples and salty foods.

[Yenneffer]

Yes im having a static feeling on my buds

[Lady Smith]

Sorry if this is TMI, but for around three months after I started HRT the amount of ear wax my ears were producing went into overdrive and I had to go to the medical centre every three weeks or so to get big plugs of wax removed.  Fortunately once my metabolism settled down and got in sync with the HRT everything went back to normal.

[enigmaticrorschach]

things i use to like such as candy and slurpees are making me wanna hurl chunks

[Rachel]

I actually small pleasant and have no body odor except one place where I never had odor before.

[Jenna Marie]

I definitely got the stretch marks and thigh chafing, but I also ended up with freckles like my mother and sister. It's pretty cool, but I was not expecting that.

[iKate]

Physical:

I literally shrank. Like A LOT. All of my old guy clothes look ridiculous on me to the point where I simply cannot wear them without looking like a clown or a gangsta. Now I have an excuse to donate them. Not that I needed one anyway.

Bruising. Someone looks at me too hard I bruise. I have to be super careful now.

Blood pressure. It's the best it's been in a long while. I think spironolactone is the best med I've used. My other docs put me on others that simply did not work. Will be a shame when I drop it post GRS. 


Mental effects (real or placebo):

My wife accused me of not "thinking like a woman" to invalidate my femininity. Well HRT apparently fixed that to some degree. I look at a lot of things from a woman's perspective now, particularly discrimination and vulnerability.

Closeness to my kids. I have no idea why but I hug them and pay attention to them A LOT more now. I'm not sure how but the world seems really different now.

Voice inflection. These days I can't talk like a guy without consciously forcing it. People tell me I sound "flamboyant." One person flat out told me I talk like a girl (and he doesn't even know). I don't even try.

[martine]

It's only been 6 weeks here but my arm veins disappeared ! Vanished under the skin ! And my appetite has increased significantly especially for all things dairy. It mysteriously correlates with breasts budding at an amazing rate ...


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[Jasper93]

Have you experienced side effects from HRT that you weren't expecting?  That your doctor didn't mention?

I DID, and I still can't quite reconcile with how they happened. 

1) My voice got noticeably higher.  It still has male resonance to it, but phone calls get a little awkward because my gender can be rather ambiguous since I don't know how to alter my voice.  Oh, and my voice cracks a lot like whenever I was first starting puberty.
2) I can't figure out how to attach pictures from beforehand, but my Adam's apple doesn't protrude anymore; I can't see it unless I tilt my head all the way back.  But again, my voice cracks a lot now lol.
3) Facial hair growth HAS slowed down significantly.
4) My nose used to be on its way to turning as shiny and bulbous as my mother's, but it has shrank in size, and it's one of the first things people compliment about me.  It's odd since I used to get made fun of for having a big nose, but someone recently told me that I have a "little model's nose".  The skin on it is also uniform now (as opposed to red), so maybe this is acne-related?
5) The texture of my hands and feet became way more uniform and attractive.
6) Embarrassing: I've experienced more "wet dreams" since commencing my transition than during the 20 years beforehand.
7) My first day of spiro, I had like a mini-seizure or something.  I have them every once in a while -- even now.  Kind of freaky.
I'm also very young and small, so drugs affect me pretty significantly.  You oughtta see me after drinking caffeine.

[Kaylin Kumiho]

I had several things that happened that were kinda weird...
1) I have strabismus (more often known as lazy eye)... had it since I was a kid, most of the time it's not too noticeable, but it causes not aligned vision... when I went on HRT, I found that I could see properly more often.
2) Freckles. I got, so many freckles. Across my face, on my shoulders... they aren't dark, but dear god, so many freckles. They are kinda adorable though and I like them... I feel like it brings me a little closer to my Welsh/Irish heritage.
3) Tastes changed... not significantly, but I started liking some foods I hated before. Humus and guacamole strike me as the most memorable. Also I gain a heavy preference towards liking salty foods...
4) Drastic weight loss. I lost about 20 lbs within the first two weeks of HRT... I slowly gained it back since, but getting it back down to what it was at after those first two weeks has been pretty easy as well.
5) I got shorter. Lost maybe an inch or two, I first noticed it when I seemed closer to my gf's head... which is awesome cuz I am completely average now for a girl in terms of height.
6) Lost a shoe size.
7) My hair line started and still is, repairing.

[Rina]

Aside from the ones I expected (diuretic effect and lower blood pressure from Spiro, occasional weirdness like hot flashes and nausea, occasional moodiness, breast sensitivity, weight gain [may also be because I stopped using nicotine altogether just a week or two before starting estrogen] and so on), I've been surprised by a few things which I believe must be caused by HRT - though I guess some of them are effects rather than side effects:

• Clumsiness. For some reason, I drop things more often now. I have broken the glass on an iPad as well as an iPhone within a few months - I've had no similar accidents before HRT. Since I experience no other neurological symptoms, I suspect this to be caused by HRT, but I have no idea how HRT could affect something like that.
• Changes in social perception. I kind of hoped for some changes, but didn't expect them. I was really surprised when I heard myself say something along the lines of "I kind of drift between groups of people at uni, but I don't mind, since I get to know so many new people!" Thing is, I used to hate having to meet new people, due to social anxiety. While I'm still quite introvert, the fact that I said that, and meant it, is quite a big and surprising change.
• Not really a surprise medically, but I'm having a surprisingly hard time adjusting to reduced muscle strength. I too often find myself shopping too much and then struggling to carry things home, sometimes I even have to take a taxi! I have adjusted well to most of the other potentially-inconvenient changes, but this one keeps surprising me.
• I started noticing effects, physiological as well as psychological, surprisingly early, and with surprisingly low doses. That said, my hormone levels were weird before starting HRT, and my prescribing doctor believes I may have some kind of biological difference causing me to be more sensitive to estrogens than androgens.
• Coffee dependency. This may also be partly caused by quitting nicotine, but I've never depended on morning coffee in my life, however now my day doesn't start until I've had my cup(s) of coffee.

Lastly, I'm simply amazed at how much better my life is in general; it has improved far beyond expectations. Estrogen truly is the best drug.

[enigmaticrorschach]

oh I forgot to mention. I'm partially deaf in on ear, well my hearing came back

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[Lady Smith]

After I started HRT chocolate became an exquisite delicacy.  Basically chocolate is wasted on men because they lack the hormones to properly appreciate it.

[Ms Grace]

I apparently developed the ability to unconsciously attract various objects - most notably doorframes - to smack me in the chest. Ow.

[katrinaw]

After I started HRT chocolate became an exquisite delicacy.  Basically chocolate is wasted on men because they lack the hormones to properly appreciate it.

Yup me too, wasn't a big Chocolate fan before, but now..... Biggest

Got the shopping bug

Emotionally tear up at every movie that has a happy lovey stuff or sadness through it

Obsessively tidy

L Katy 

[Stochastic]

I expected heightened emotion based on what others have written. One emotion I did not expect is crabbiness. It is hard to get me out of a grumpy mood once it starts. Overall, I will take the good with the bad, and it is good to finally have feelings.

[Lady Smith]

Something strange that I experienced while going through transition and being on HRT was that I couldn't wear a digital watch because they would stop working inside of a day after strapping it onto my wrist.  For years I wore an old clockwork Swiss semi-auto wristwatch because it seemed to be immune to whatever it was that was going on with me.  I can now wear a battery operated wristwatch just fine, but it took about five years before I stopped being a watch killer.

[KayXo]

After I started HRT chocolate became an exquisite delicacy.  Basically chocolate is wasted on men because they lack the hormones to properly appreciate it.

Funny thing about chocolate, especially dark chocolate. Right at the moment progesterone hits me, I immediately have a strong craving for DARK chocolate.

Obsessively tidy

That too! 

[Abby Claire]

My sweet tooth has become insatiable. I used to eat sweets occasionally and now I eat pastries or ice cream almost daily.

I've also lost a LOT of weight. I weighed 129 this morning and I don't think I've weighed that little since before puberty. I knew I would lose muscle mass, but I never thought I would weigh less than 135 at the absolute most when I started.

Genuine love of things considered feminine. I find myself loving shoes, clothes, baking, art and design much more than I did before starting.

[jess_oz]

Most of the physical aspects I was expecting from the experience that I have read from others and those pointed out by medical professionals.

Two things that have taken me by surprise though;

1) the way my body now smells, more so how it doesn't smell now. This was very noticable.

and

2) the change in upper body strength due to upper body muscle loss. Things that were relatively easy to lift before are now noticably alot more difficult particularly at work, shopping etc.