would T affect your temper?

[jordmungand]

i'm curious.
i'm not on T or anything, nor am i close. but i am interested and want to know

i am not a very patient person if i care little for it. i get irritated very easily. during puberty, i had trouble keeping my temper and flipped out all the time, even hitting someone. i've been trying to keep my cool and usually i am able to, but sometimes i get really angry for little things and slam/hit things, like tables or kick chairs. sometimes i even hug/lock someone in my arms and shake them a little bit until i am a little calm.

wow
listing all this out makes me feel like i'm a lunatic.

it's like a second puberty, right? since i got these problems during my first one, would being on T affect this at all? would it make me more aggressive and violent?
or is it just a myth and it doesn't affect your mood as much?

[Elis]

In my opinion and my gender therapist's opinion, it's a myth. Some trans guys say they become more aggressive, but that's most likely due to them being quick to anger even before taking T and is just a part of their personality. Another theory I've come up with is that going through male puberty is generally a stressful period; that coupled with having to be around unsupportive people if you're ftm is likely to make you angsty and affect your temper.
I'm almost 3 months on T and it hasn't affected my temper or increased my aggresion levels.

[FTMax]

I'm more impatient than I was before, but I'm not more aggressive or violent. I just find myself asking people to get to the point more often.

IMO, it is a myth and people use it to excuse poor behavior.

[Wolfy]

I don't think it's a myth and I don't think it's entirely true if that makes sense?

If you think about it like this, women get moody when they are on their period because of heightened t levels. So when your levels go up its going to cause an imbalance that you need to adjust to. Especially by the end of your t dose you might be a little more irritable.

I wouldn't say it false or true. It's mostly your personality and how you tend to handle things change. I certainly can't cry very easily anymore and I'm quick to get very annoyed now. Everyone's different.

My dr specifically looks for rage in his patients and I believe he's had 0% rage in all of them

[LordKAT]

My therapist brought up the issue, my endo said it isn't a concern. The reality of it, for me, was I actually felt calmer and more even.

[stephaniec]

from the other side of the tracks I'm a whole lot more mellow on estrogen. Before I got on HRT I had a very controlled temper , but a very explosive one. I controlled it and never acted on it accept uncontrolled yelling. I don't do that any more on E . I do have BPD so maybe that was more the cause.

[blink]

It is like a second puberty but different. It's the right puberty so it's not the miserable experience the first one is. Depending on how old one is when starting HRT, one is in a different place in life and has more life experience, and is better mentally equipped to cope with the hormonal adjustment period.

A medically appropriate dose is never going to cause "roid rage". If male-typical levels of T turned men into crazed destruction machines there'd be a lot more guys strangling each other in the street for no apparent reason.

I had a terrible temper pre-T too and hear similar from several trans men. Thing is, being miserable tends to make people cranky. If you look for studies on cis men who've had to be put on T-blockers for medical purposes, the effect is similar, depression and mood swings. After the initial adjustment period, I've been calmier and happier than ever. Brains are wired to run on a certain hormone balance, having the balance wrong causes problems.

Another thing to keep in mind. People perceive anger differently coming from men and women. Once you've been on T long enough to have a more typical male appearance and register on an instant, subconscious level as male in people's minds, you could do the exact same actions as pre-T and it may be perceived as more aggressive or threatening. I don't know how much of that is cultural and how much is inborn, but it's there. I think it's another piece of where this "T makes people angrier" myth comes from. Think how the "woman screaming and throwing stuff at her husband" thing is played for laughs in media. Swap that to a man screaming and throwing things at his wife and it's seen very differently, even though they're both dangerous and behaving in a way inappropriate for an adult.

[jordmungand]

so it's a myth but also a perception in mind so it seems true
okay, thanks for all your comments. i learned a lot.
thank you again for informing me =)

[Arik]

Hi everyone.
This is also a huge concern for me as I contemplate the possibility of transitioning.
I'm bipolar and have sudden, severe rages. Am trying to weigh the pros and cons of HRT.
I guess it's different for everyone. I'll keep an eye on this thread, thank you

[AnonyMs]

Going from m2f I've found it does affect my temper quite significantly. I can't get angry now the way I used to. I can get upset, but its not at all the same.

In the past when I've been on and off E I'd also notice anger coming and going. It's been quite noticeable when it comes back, so perhaps there's an adjust period at the start.  I've always had it under control so its never been a problem.

[FtMitch]

Though T *can* affect mood and temper, women and pre-T AFAB people are just as capable of having crazy tempers as males, so if you already have a bad temper before T then it's probably just a personality flaw/personal issue that won't get better on T but won't get worse, either.  At least that's how it's worked for me.  Just today I practically bit a store clerk's head off, stormed out the store, blared my horn angrily at a car in front of me for not turning out of the parking lot fast enough, then punched the seat beside me 'cause I just wanted to punch something.  Sadly, the T didn't make me do it.  I almost wish it did, because then I could have an excuse for being a 30 year old man acting like an 8 year old boy.  But it's all on me and my lousy ability to control myself.  I did the same kind of stuff before T.  Heck, I actually do it LESS now because I am not as unhappy as I was before T.  So I agree that while T may affect mood to some degree, the idea that it's highly likely to make you trip out and "rage" is probably a myth.  It might shorten your temper a bit, but will probably only effect you if your personality is the sort that would have temper issues to begin with.  Sort of like some guys having a genetic predisposition to hair loss, some people are more prone to be aggressive and have attacks of anger than others.  For some of us, we've always known it.  Other guys it might have been hiding down deeper and was helped to "awaken" by the T.  But if you're a chill person in general, I don't think T is likely to change your innate personality.