Does your personality change on HRT?

[zeekoe]

I wonder something about Hormone Replacement Therapy.
How far does your personality change on HRT? ( Oestrogenes or Testosterone?)

It's okay to add your own experiences. : )

[suzifrommd]

It made a big difference for me. With T in my system, I wanted to Make Something Happen, was not satisfied with myself, with my life, always afraid that I would fall short in some way. With E in my system, I find I'm a lot more content. I accept myself and the people around me more readily. I find tender feelings easier to access. I notice cute things and am less likely to want to control things.

YMMV, of course, but that's what happened to me.

[Laura_7]

Of course its a stereotype and people react individually.

But imo its well possible:
people on t get more active and rational/logical thinking... not talking so much and prefering action...

on e its possible people get more emotional/intuitive, maybe also caring...
talking more, wanting to care for and nurture others... meaning maybe cooking, or taking gardening up as hobby...
which both can imo be ways to get into contact with the own female side... before hrt...

imo also being less competitive and more looking for ways to do things together... in a pleasurable way for all...   

[Ms Grace]

I don't think my personality changed, but it did allow me to unlock certain potentials and limit others. There are behaviours I no longer indulge in and others that I feel much more comfortable expressing.

[Deborah]

I don't think mine has changed yet in any profound way.  But I am seeing myself express it differently in some circumstances.  The way I carry on conversations of a controversial nature have changed a lot.  I used to not be able to bear being wrong and would use a lot of confrontational tactics including a very frequent use of extreme hyperbole.  Now I don't much care whether I convince the other person or not but rather enjoy the conversation in a calm and non-confrontational manner. 

Is that a change in personality?


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[judithlynn]

An interesting question.
Well I have been on Oestrogen only HRT for nearly 3 years and I believe that  personality has definitely changed. As a man I was super competitive, huge outgoing personality in a "In your face sales type role". Always felt that I have to be  a big achiever. Too often I wanted to interject/interrupt in conversation, dominate discussions etc.

Now I don't talk as much, am more attentive and "submissive" especially around men, I am finding that I can multi task (not one of my strengths before). I am defiantly more emotional and can sense emotional changes in other women. I am also more caring and find that I really like caring and nurturing others. I am also  also much less competitive and more looking for ways to do things together., but that has meant that I have lost some of my business edge!

I have taken up Mah Jong playing with a woman's group, I really love make-up and have taken a real interest in fashion. My house now has all the latest magazines from Cosmo, Cleo, Vogue etc. I can sit and browse Vogue for a good hour looking at ideas for fashion and make-up. I love clothes shopping. I am finding housework quite rewarding and I like looking after the house for girlfriends and I have really started enjoying cooking.

I have also started to look with envy with women with young children.

So yes my personality has changed quite dramatically.

Judith

[Stevie]

  I never was competitive before and still not, I was very empathetic before I still am. My Endo asked during my last appointment if I felt more emotional since starting and said some of patients said they were, I told him I have all was been emotional his response "that's because you all was have  been a woman".  I agree with that statement. What has changed is I no longer am crippled by social anxiety and self loathing. A couple of the women were I work have told me that they have worked with me for years but never really knew me and now that they do they really like me. Almost everyone who had known me in the past says that I am much more open and at ease and I look so much happier now. These changes were not due to being on hormones as I was  socially transitioned almost a year before starting hormones when people started noticing them. I attribute it to self acceptance.

[Valwen]

I have only been on HRT for what like 7 months, but my personality has changed very little, at least from the hormones, I cry more easily, I may be more emotional, but I have undergone more changes due to actually transisioning, being more willing to talk about gender issues, and interested in fassion, but i haven't really changed much, I still enjoy video games and action/adventure/fantasy books and movies, I still enjoy my alone time with erotic materials, really if there has been a changed on the sexuality department, its that I am far more opened about it.

so ya if anything it was coming out that changed things more than the hormones, and together they have mostly just made me a more open and interested person.

Serena

[warlockmaker]

For me the greatest wonder of this journey is the change in perspective and empathy. I thought that my personality would change but I now accept that my gregarious nature and my flambouyance is part of who I am. It will show itself differently but my personality has not changed. I will be an A type female, I will speak out for what is right and wrong. The way I show these traits are different. It's no longer a battle within myself my spirit, mind and body now are in sync.

[Obfuskatie]

I'd say I'm much more emotionally stable on hormone replacement, although my personality is the same. It's biggest effect was the contentment aspect, evening out my prior mood imbalances.


     Hugs,
- Katie
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[Eva Marie]

I don't believe that your personality changes on HRT. When I began taking HRT the dysphoria that prevented me from expressing my true personality went away and then I was able to be the person I should have been all along.

Others around you may perceive a personality change when in reality your true personality was just masked prior to HRT.

[RobynD]

I'd also call it more of a change in expression of my personality. There have been many changes in that, although i believe my personality is fundamentally what it always is. If personality is all about patterns of thinking, feeling and behaviors, maybe the latter has changed so 1/3 a personality change.

I'm less competitive, a lot more patient, happier, calmer, take offense much slower and slower to anger. Without my once massive libido, i feel like I have a lot more time on my hands to think, organize and feel.

[emma-f]

My wife tells me that my personality has changed loads. I think people close to you will probably notice more than you will as it will all occur slowly and feel natural. From a personality perspective the drop of testosterone traits (aggression, risk taking, etc) were maybe more pronounced than the introduction of estrogen traits.

[Qrachel]

I think one could and should expect some change, but the changes will be highly individualized with a few occasional common themes whether it's T or E driving the dynamics.

As a male I was highly competitive, outspoken as called for but generally reserved and distant to an extent in my male persona.  As I transitioned and HRT kicked in the edges became softer personally and I became more out going.  My anger, which as a male I managed well (it was fearsome), abated significantly and today it's extremely difficult to get me to rise in anger, mostly because I find it so uncomfortable and unsatisfying.  I am still driven but it's more about community excellence and achievement now as opposed pure competitiveness.  Perhaps driven is too strong a word, and committed is a better one if you sense  the subtleties there.  I also find much more enjoyment in personal growth and fulfillment individually in others and myself . . . it's almost like second nature now to encourage that.  I can also enjoy 'nothing' where as before I was always looking for something if I wasn't otherwise occupied.

In summary, I don't think one can undergo all the physical changes brought on by HRT without a fair amount psychological shifting as well.  In fact, I'd be worried if that didn't occur.

Take care,

Rachel

[Kylo]

I'm not on HRT yet but when I quit estrogen pills... boy did my system go absolutely nuts. I had to quit it to show my doctors I was serious in preparation for becoming male and seeing a GIC therapist. Took me a year to get off the estrogen my body was addicted to, and when I finally did I became a nervous wreck. I think due to the sudden removal of the "calming" estrogen and my body having to take up the slack over 3 months.

I had to (and still do) avoid even glancing in the direction of tabloid newspapers with scare tactic headlines, totally avoid TV and radio and otherwise filter everything through a lens what I feel I can handle viewing and what I can't. I have to stay away from stressors for now, whether it's news, annoying people, arguments or confrontations. If not I'm likely to get anxious, angry and aggressive. I refuse to stuff myself with ADs or other drugs to control my temperament, as I personally believe the way forward lies in learning greater self-control and not pill popping. Honestly I'm extremely self-controlled, but the effects of a sudden cut to the supply of estrogen surprised even me.

I'm looking forward to the potential positives on T, but wary of how it might exacerbate these existing issues. I'm gonna have to do some serious meditation or physical exercise to cope with how stressful my daily life can be if I'm also on a hormone that may or may not amplify my already assertive tendencies. Coming out has put a huge strain on my living arrangements, not to mention our place is the size of a goddamn shoebox. Eggshells? more like walking on glass.

Still, I'm looking forward. I want to feel more like myself, and not a writhing bag of nerves. 

[JoanneB]

I don't think my personality changed, but it did allow me to unlock certain potentials and limit others. There are behaviours I no longer indulge in and others that I feel much more comfortable expressing.

This^

Trying to live up to the expectations of your birth gender. The pressure is there from birth onward. Boys are this way and girls are that way. You know the drill. In order to keep one very large looming aspect of yourself locked away, you also have to showcase others. You suppress feelings that are not not deemed "appropriate" while perhaps disproportionately glorifying the ones that are. At least that's I'd sum it up for me. 

The personality changes I underwent, I believe, are primarily due to me coming to accept myself for who I am and especially Allowing myself to simply be more like me. HRT was catalyst, as was a lot of the working on myself via self-help books, my TG support group, a few angels and some credit to therapy.

Both of my therapist at one time asked me during talks about me going full-time and reasons for and against; "What would be different if Joanne showed up to work tomorrow?".

My first from the gut answer; "Nothing". I'd still mostly feel the same, be the same around others. I'd still be this far better person I am today. Pretty much just the clothes, not the person would be different. Aside from that feeling of being more authentic.

[Dee Marshall]

For myself, and for many of us, even if we realized we are trans late, our pre-HRT personally was a stereotype of the gender we were assigned. I recall doing stereotyped things without understanding why, certainly without enjoying them or feeling any rightness to them. I mentioned in a thread I created yesterday that I can recall watching myself act without feeling really involved. Now the person I show others is the real me, assuming allowances for male socialization. I like her much better. Now I'm engaged.