How long were you in therapy before you started taking hormones?

[Lisabeth]

Hi Michelle,

Just curious, How long were you in therapy before you started taking hormones?  Is there a standard waiting period?   Do you have to know that this is what you want for the rest of your life before trying it?  I think I already know the answer to this.  I know it's probably not something you can dabble with to see if you like it, but could one maintain small doses so that the changes are felt but still could be hidden from the outside world if you weren't ready to totally come out to the world?  Is there any turning back if you don't like it?  Are there serious side effects?  I know I can learn a lot from the Wiki, but I was just wondering what it is like from your perspective.  I've always wondered what it would feel like to have female hormones traveling around my body.  I get excited just thinking about it.  I look forward to hearing from you.

Lisabeth

[michelleats]

Therapy is a relative thing i guess, I think I went 3-4 times before getting the greenlight for hormones. I had already been doing them blackmarket (not advised) but think that played in somewhat in the decision to get an MD. I also joined a support group awhile  Once you start the mones you can expect changes to become permanent at 6-8 months, in the meantime stay in tune to your inner self  Read the literature, be an informed consumer. For myself I feel  so much more creative on the pills. calmer, more in control and just felt right....Thing with mones and SO issues, is that she may not want you having breasts, best to be honest and talk it over ahead of her finding your stash of pills..Once you start the mones, you can quit at any time, if you are truly male, the loss of function of reproduction capacity will return after a bit,  I never noticed a loss of erections some do, but the orgasms change in focus and intensity and ejaculate becomes clear fluid after awhile...they usually give you spironolactone ofr other antiandrogen along with the estrogens... your therapist (they aren't cheap) should explain all the options for you

[Lisabeth]

Thanks Michelle,

I am sure my wife would have a problem with it at this point, but I was just curious.  You're right though, best to be honest and up front.  Let's see if she accepts the crossdressing for now.  That would be a milestone, and I know this is the kind of thing you really have to take slow and as you said, really be in tune with your inner self.
Talk to  you soon!

Lisabeth

[JenniferElizabeth]

Well, I think I did it backwards. I actually found my endo and I was on hormones before I found my therapist. About 3 years before.  He I guess took me at my words and started me on premrin and spiro.

[Cassandra]

There is a point were changes become permanent. If you don't want to end up with breasts you don't want don't do it. There are also a lot of medical risks which need to be taken into consideration as well.

Cassie

[Northern Jane]

Therapy?

Oops!

[DawnL]

I was in therapy for six months and my progression to hormones was pretty standard: at first I didn't think I would, but in my quick slide down the slippery slope, after I'd shaved off all my body hair, I knew I would have to at least try them.  Shaving had already ended the intimate relationship with my spouse--many women find a hairless body creepy--so there was little left to lose.  Within a month, I knew they were right for me.  An incredible sense of peace and calm settled over me and I quickly decided male function be damned, I wasn't stopping.

My therapist told me small doses were advisable for people who were worried about breasts and loss of male function to evaluate the mental effects.  That might be a place to start.  At higher doses, the loss of function varies widely.  Some people report the ability for erection dissappears quickly, others have no loss of function.  This is not a step to be undertaken lightly.  Any feminization, be it shaving or hormones will likely affect your relationship with your wife.  I wouldn't rush it.

Dawn

[LostInTime]

I went to therapy I think 5 times before she wrote the letter the first time around.  Second time around my new therapist wrote the letter after the second visit.

A friend of mine gave me the advice of:
After you notice the changes, one of two things will go through your head:  1)  ooh, changes, want more! or 2) WTH am I doing?!?!?

After three weeks I had additional breast development and said "oooh, want more!" and that settled that question.

YMMV.

[Terri-Gene]

Even Doctors who abide by HBSOC use thier judgement.  There are those who will advise hormones in a couple or 3 visits and those who will want to have many more sessions.  It depends on the subject and the doctors and the confort of the Dr with the patient.  Depending on the skill of the Dr. and ability to determine the truth and honesty of the patient.  HRT could be recommended in a single visit, but realistically that is not enough time to evaluate the honesty of the responses of many patients, especially most will learn the DMS standards by heart by the time they get to therapy and will have talked to many in forums like this one, to prepare them to always give the "correct" answers to questions, becoming steriotypes of Transsexualism.  The better specialists though have seen enough of those to weed most of them out however.

Terri

[Terri-Gene]

 

1)  ooh, changes, want more! or 2) WTH am I doing?!?!?

Actually that is the point of HRT, it is used as a diagnostic tool to obtain just those reactions.  HRT is NOT an indicator that the therapyst actually believes the patient really does have GID, it is just a means of making a patient test the waters before going further.

Another issue, with the newer guidelines, with the recognition of giving hormones to people who have no plans at all for surgery and may not even want to live as women, They will give HRT to just about anyone who is comfortable taking them, making being on HRT no indicator at all of having true GID, it only means that the individual is willing to deal with having breasts and thats about it.

When you obtain your letters for surgery, THEN you have some vindication of true belief in Transsexualism, or at least confidence that you can handle the consiquences.  This is the basis of most "failures", those that see the therapyst long enough to aquire HRT and do not really seriously get involved with therapy to sort it out.  They just wanted to be a girl, till they learn what it is really all about ......

Terri

[Wendy]

Lisabeth,

If you can talk to your wife that is absolutely great!

Many husbands are not willing to share the secret of wanting to be a woman with their wife!  Some wives accept it and occasionally they stay partners.

25% of MTF sexually prefer only woman.  It is very plausable to want to become a woman and want to stay married to a woman.  Would a wife want to stay with a man that became a woman?  Life is not easy.

One nice thing about about doing MTF earlier in life is that it is easier to feminize the younger you are.  If you want to transition half way through your life the testosterone has really taken a toll on your body.  Many genetic females would be happy to look similar to your picture.

I love Terri's comments that, "They just wanted to be a girl, till they learn what it is really all about ......"

However if you take hormones you can tell if you like what you see.  The breasts tend to shink if you stop taking hormones after a short time.  However if you grow your breasts to a "C" cup and stop taking hormones then you may shrink back to a "B" cup but you will be a man with "B" cup breasts. (By the way the the average size of genetic female breasts is a "B" cup.)

If you are young and want children, feminizing hormones will make you sterile after years of use.  Again there is a period in which you could use hormones and then stop and regain your fertility.  That time period varies.

Talking to doctors and other people that share your concerns is very beneficial and a better start than many of us. (Northern Jane's posting is hilarious.  "Oops.")

[stephanie]

I've been seeing my therapist for five months, and just today, in fact at this very moment, I am holding a prescription for spiro in my hands.  But that's fodder for another post.  Just wanted to say yay!

[Northern Jane]

Let's see, I started taking (black market) estrogen about age 14 (1963), long before I ever heard of TSism.

The first prescription I had was from Dr. Benjamin in about 1966 or 67, when I went to New York to see him - not that it did me any good because I lived in Canada. At least I finally had a doctor advise me on dosage (about 1/5 of what I had been taking).

In about 1971, I found a Canadian doctor (gyno) who knew something about hormones and got me on a legal prescription for the first time.

I had a psych evaluation at my doctor's hospital in about 1972, so I guess I'd been popping pills for 9 years (off and on).

It wasn't until late in 1973 that I found out about an open SRS program in North America (Colorado). By spring of 1974 I had the money and was on my way to Colorado to become a Biber Girl!

I never did have "theraphy" as such - but I helped the hospital write their GID guidelines 

[msjudy]

I was born Female intersexed so I really never  started therapy I just  went thru the  whole schmorgasborg in life  lol   

My final start after all the years    was  in 96 when my dr put me on prempro
he said i was goin thru the changes   

       only therapy i have had is  just  A dr office physical or   psychychiatry visit at times to  ease my mind  but I am  upbeat fun and goofy girl most of the time and my life has been fabulous
Warmest regards
Judy

[Sara]

Therapy is good if you are confused, depressed or have some other reason for becoming a girl like a fetish. They will try to find out if you are really transgendered or have some other dissorder. I saw a psychologist who wrote a letter to an Endocrinologist who I have been seeing for five years but things can get out of hand and those emotional things can screw you up that's why you should see someone. I probably should have seen a shrink first but was scared.Now I am scared and alone and have found that I really need to sort out my issues. Do the right thing and vsit a psychiatrist and if it take two or three visits then good but if it takes two or three years then so be it, at least you will know within yourself that you have done the right thing.

Sara.

[HelenW]

Do the right thing and vsit a psychiatrist and if it take two or three visits then good but if it takes two or three years then so be it, at least you will know within yourself that you have done the right thing.

Thank you, Sara, just that one sentence has helped.

helen

[Sara]

Helen, I am so glad I have actually helped someone like yourself.

The biggest issue sometimes can be getting past our own insecurities. I kept saying I'm a just a male stop being rediculous and all along knowing that not to be true and I would fight against my urges to be female cause everyone else wanted to see me as male. Not me! and it can truly screw you up and I have finally taken the bull by the horns and realized that It is not going to change unless I make the change. If I find out that I do not want to be female and it is because some other reason I feel this way (which it is not) then I would still continue as I have been on hormones for so long now that I am committed.

Sara.