Has anyone been off hormones for longer than a few months before surgery

[thegirlinblue]

Just wondering, if anyone else was not taking any t-blockers or estrogen for a reasonable period of time, say a few months or more, before they had bottom surgery.

I am curious if anyone has experienced this and what the sudden shock to your system of losing your testicals was?

[Serenation]

Is there any reason you need to be off them for a few months, I got really bad migraines and flushes and felt horrible in the 6 weeks I was off them, I know now I should have went on pellets and or something so I didn't have to deal with that. My T is higher now than it was pre-op

[thegirlinblue]

I am going off for fertility reasons, but still plan on having srs mid year, next year

[Laura_7]

I am going off for fertility reasons, but still plan on having srs mid year, next year

You might simply talk that through with your surgeon.

Since things tend to shrink on hrt this could even make for a better result.

[Obfuskatie]

It honestly depends on how long you've been on hormones to begin with. If you've been on blockers and hormones too long, going off of them will cause you to experience menopause. I had hot flashes, mood swings, the works in the two weeks prior to my FFS and only kept off them for a week and a half after because I was starting to have ideations again.


     Hugs,
- Katie
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[thegirlinblue]

Thanks everyone,

My intention is to be off hormones and blockers for around 6 months, I came off cyproterone about a month ago now and started taking gonadotropins on the tuesday just past. So far I have had very little terrible side effects, a little bit of hot and coldness while sleeping and some mood changes.

On the plus side I have feel a lot more energetic.

I think it will be really interesting to see if I have any regrowth of the areas that have atrophied over the past 5 years.

I'll keep you all posted on how things go.

[Laura_7]

Well this article might interest you, too:
http://www.milkjunkies.net/2013/05/trans-women-and-breastfeeding-personal.html

they also went off hormones for half a year...


hugs

[thegirlinblue]

Well this article might interest you, too:
http://www.milkjunkies.net/2013/05/trans-women-and-breastfeeding-personal.html

they also went off hormones for half a year...

hugs

Haha that's so funny, everytime I have mentioned this I seem to get pointed to that article, that website must get so many hits with that article.

But thanks, that is pretty much exactly what I am doing. I know of a few other trans* people that have been successful too, so keeping my fingers crossed.

[thegirlinblue]

It so weird waking up and not taking any pills. Kind of refreshing but disconcerting as well.

I am sure that as time goes on I will be less and less inclined to want to take them. I think it's like muscle memory at the moment or a long term routine that has been messed with.

[Blush]

Preop mtf stopping AAs & E: Things (hair, skin, fat, semen) will gradually gradually return to their male state, including mood. Breast tissue growth will remain but "deflate" and likely stunt.
Preop mtf stopping only E, or postop mtf stopping E: You'll basically experience menopause and prolonged absence could lead to osteoporosis.

Ftm things are a bit more complicated and I don't know enough about it to comment - only that things like a deepened voice, facial hair, will stay.

It's worth noting that hormonal changes are measured in months, not days or weeks. Stopping E for ~3 weeks around GRS wasn't long enough for me to notice anything dramatic.

[thegirlinblue]

Thanks Blush,

It will be interesting to see how everything goes, so far I haven't had any terrible mood swings or anything like that.

I am interested where you got this information from as I have found it hard to find any first hand experience or accounts.
I guess that's why I am starting these threads so I can let others know how it was for me.

So far I have noticed:

• The tiny amount of facial hair I had remaining after electrolysis and laser has become a little courser and darker, I am talking maybe 6 hairs on my face total though
• I have a surprising amount of energy
• I am already getting the morning erections and spontaneous one too
• My partner took off her top the other day which turned me on and was enough for me to get hard, that's something that hasn't happened in at least 3 years
• I have put on a bit of weight in the stomach area (maybe a lb or two at most)
• I have some milky ejaculate if I masturebate, so that's a good sign as it's been clear and almost non existent since about 6 months into HRT
• Oh and this is a little embarrassing but I have been getting incredible gas, and it's like chemical warfare. lol

Anyway, those are the obvious things after 12 days without hormones and no T-blockers for 5 weeks.

[Blush]

It's from personal experience. Started HRT in early teens (25 now). Stopped [cold turkey] after high school for ~9 months. Restarted up to GRS in 2014 - stopped E kept Spiro for 2 weeks before, 1 week after surgery. Postop stopped ~3 months due to spell of depression (non trans related), virtually cutting my dose in half. Restarted on pellets which I've been on since.

Noticed all the stuff (besides gas) you mentioned after I stopped cold turkey. All women in my family are D+ – I got to B+/C-. After stopping (first time) growth never continued. Never experienced breast tenderness again, and never had any breast discharge, even throughout my progesterone experimentations, breast growth likely stunted during that time. Fullness of my breasts left, but then returned to how they were before. Didn't notice anything stopping before surgery; wasn't long enough period. Missing doses for 3 months postop sent me into drastic mood changes and hot flashes (it was bad).

Think of HRT as a physical tug of war. If one side slacks, the other will drag you back – if there's no other side (no opposing hormones, e.g., T vs. E) it will come to a standstill.

Apologies for being brief at work as always!!

[thegirlinblue]

No problems at all thanks for replying, I will be fascinated to see if I see the same effects after 5 years straight on hormones.

[KateConnors]

I'm doing something very similar to have a second child.  While I froze sperm before starting HRT it turns out the sperm was all bad, so I had to stop taking HRT in an attempt to get fertile again.  That was 14 months ago, it took 11 months to get my fertility back, which was way longer than I bargained.  In the interim:

• I've almost totally lost my boobs (was B cup)
• Body and facial hair has returned
• Arm muscles much thicker / stronger
• Emotions flattened, hardly ever cry now
• One month in I got recurrent priapism, even ended up in the ER with it.  This happened every morning for about month, with the only way I found that worked to make it go away was to go for a 2+ mile run.  My endo put this down to my rocketing T count, and equated it going through puberty in a month.
  

Without a doubt, this has been the toughest time of my life, and I didn't know whether I'd get my fertility back.  But, in retrospect, it's been worth it since I did finally.  My wife's not pregnant yet though so I'm scheduling surgery quite yet.

[Qcammy]

I stopped a year before my SRS.


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[thegirlinblue]

Hi everyone,

I thought I might post another update 6 months on, my partner and I decided that it would be best to put the surgery off for another year so I am now booked in for May 2017. Although this was a very hard decision, I think that it is the best for both of us and will give us the best chance at conceiving a child together.

It's now been 7 months without T-Blockers and 6 months with no estrogen.
In the last two weeks after seeing a fertility specialist I have started taking Pregnyl (HCG), unfortunately this means injecting myself every 2 days.

I have noticed that I am having a lot of erections and that has been difficult to deal with. Probably the biggest thing is the size of my testicles and penis, they have been so small for so long that I pretty much forgot what they were like before all the hormones, but they are huge now. It is very uncomfortable and difficult to hide.

At least one good thing out of all of this is that it will give my surgeon a lot more to work with next year!

Thus far I haven't had any of the really worrying effects like breast mass loss or facial hair growth. Thank god!

I have also noticed just in the last few days that I have started to produce semen and in a test I had a few days ago I seem to be fertile enough to be able to freeze some sperm.

All is going well, but we are still hoping that we might be able to conceive naturally, without having to use IVF.

Just a little update, happy to discuss more with anyone that wants to know more.

[kimbee777]

You must REALLY want children, because before surgery the thought of testosterone running through my body... well I would of preferred ramming my head in a brick wall.

[thegirlinblue]

Kimbee777, we really do want children.

It's been a bit of an emotional roller coaster but for me the payoff is worth the short term pain. and I am comfortable enough with my body now that a bit of testosterone won't kill me.

But I totally understand this isn't for everyone!

It's more of a community awareness thing, I guess there is a lot of misinformation out there that hormone make everyone completely, irreversibly infertile. I just want to share my experience in case others are going through the same issues that I have faced.

[mm]

thegirlinblue, have you been having relations with your wife? Do you enjoy them?  Are you keeping track on her fertile time during the month?  I hope you two are successful naturally.

[melissagirl]

I started taking hormones over 10 years ago and there was a time I was off of them for a couple years due to financial reasons. Anyways, here's some things I personally experienced:

Boobs got smaller (Maybe from C/D cup to B/C cup - not sure because I usually just wear sports bras and it varies with my weight).
I got much more moody at first. It took some mental effort to remain calm when I wasn't feeling so.
I did start getting back "fertility".
My muscles never really changed when I started HRT, so they didn't get bigger either.
Facial hair may have gotten a little thicker, but I had laser a long time ago and it isn't really all that thick.
I don't recall experiencing any menopausal symptoms though.

Anyways, even so I didn't have any problems continuing to live my life as a woman. So take from that what you will.