A question regarding testosterone

[kiandriz]

Hello! I just joined the forum, I had beed reading through some post and find this is exactly the place I've been looking for. Maybe someone can help me.
I'll tell you guys about my s. I have boyfriend who identifies as non-binary (after much struggle) and is about to start the hormone replacement treatment. He says that he doesn't want to inject hormones forever and will probably do it just for a couple months ..3 tops, just enough for his voice to drop a bit and grow some hair. Now, i'm not a doctor so I have no idea if this is a good idea. He hasn't talked to his doctor about this, so is just doing it because those are the effects testoreone has the first few months (according to the internet). But I have never read about anyone just starting the treatment and then stopping..
Does anyone have a similar story ?

P.S. : I'm sorry if my english is not perfect , I actually speak spanish 

[veniamviam]

Hi! Your English is fine, so don't worry about that.

There are plenty of people who, for some reason or another, have started and stopped hormones. Things like voice changes and hair growth will be permanent--that is, stopping testosterone injections will not make the voice higher or remove the hair. Hair might become finer and grow slightly slower, but it will still be everywhere it has spread to. He should definitely talk to his doctor about his plans, but this does not strike me as unreasonable.

[RaptorChops]

Injections aren't fun but once you've done them for awhile you get used to it and it's very simple. There are also other ways that testosterone can be delivered if he doesn't want to do needles every week or every other week. There is transdemal testosterone with is applied to the skin in the form of a patch, gel, or cream. Oral testosterone is another form except it might not be as effective because your liver breaks it down. The other form is a subcutaneous pellet and that's where they put an implant under your skin and it slowly releases a certain amount of testosterone per day. The only down side to that is you have to go and get it placed back under your skin every few months.

I've heard people have success with the gel. So maybe he should look into that.

[FTMax]

The only advice I would give is not to stick to an arbitrary timeline. There's no telling what kind of changes he could get in three months. It could be a lot, it could be nothing. The best thing he can do for himself is to go into the process with a knowledgeable doctor who understands what he is looking to achieve. That is your best resource in this kind of situation.

[kiandriz]

Yeah the thing about talking to the doctor is , I THINK, that he might think my boyfriend is not really serious about the treatment ..so he might not give approval needed. Public health issues. Thats why he cant get the gel either.
Wont he be like a boy going threw puberty all the time, with acne and such ?
Is nice to hear that other people have done this.. whatever the reason might be. I just dont want him to get sick or I dont know.  And you are definitely right about the timeline !  Changes are different for everyone

[veniamviam]

It'll be exactly like any other boy going through puberty--acne if he's prone to it, some squeakiness/cracking as his voice changes, etc. If he stops testosterone, the acne should go away and (I think though I'm not certain) that the squeakiness/cracking should go away as his voice settles as well. If he doesn't stop testosterone, it'll still go away in time, just like in cis boys.

He should definitely talk to his doctor, in any case. I'm not sure what doctors in your area are like, but mine never mentioned a timeline--it was clear to him that I was knowledgeable about what treatment would be like, I understood what would and would not be reversible should I choose to stop treatment, and I was eager to get started. This was good enough for him, and it should be good enough for any doctor that does informed consent.

[Dena]

We have person who attempted this and as of the last post was unhappy as the voice was stuck in the broken voice stage. It appears the growth in the voice may be uneven so stoping part way through may result in a broken voice. T is not something to play around with unless you are willing to go all the way with it.

A personal story here. I received my T naturally and went for voice surgery to feminize my voice. When the doctor looked at my vocal cords, he found one was longer than the other. While he thinks this is something that happened later in life, I don't thinks so. In puberty my voice took a long time to stabilize and I think it was because I had to learn how to use a voice with unequal vocal cords. My voice can't be corrected surgically but somehow nobody noticed it until the good doctor stuck a camera down my nose.