Testosterone and Mental Illness

[Kanzaki]

Someone recently mentioned to me that a friend of his, also FtM, became mentally ill after starting on testosterone. That it triggered something that was dormant in him. He didn't specify what exactly it was, but I thought it would be pretty odd for testosterone to trigger stuff like that. After a quick google search, I found some articles about a link between testosterone and schizophrenia. I didn't really look into it too deeply, but I've been wondering, has anyone got first hand experience with this (or heard of something similar happening to anyone)?

[Elis]

No experience of this and never heard of this link before. Sounds like a myth perpetuated by trans guys who are unsure about the cons of taking T. Mental health may get worse when taking T simply because it doesn't live up to your expectations (which likely happened to your friend) or because you're actually cis but have schizophrenia or BPD which caused you to be misinformed anout your gender identity. These are rare instances tjough; most of the time HRT improves mental health. It's a good idea to see a therapist before and more importantly after HRT just to make sure you're coping with everything slright. It's a huge adjustment mentally snd physically.

[Kanzaki]

Where I live, you have to be diagnosed by your therapist and are sent to a psychologist who also has to diagnose you and you undergo testing for any mental illnesses with them. You have to wait at least 3 months after your first visit to your therapist to start hormones and the waiting time for some of the tests before you get hormones can be months long. Furthermore, you have to visit your therapist every month, even after starting T. It's a pretty thorough system so I'm not sure it's too likely that someone with schizophrenia or BPD who is just misinformed would pass through all that. Plus, he's continuing his transition as far as I'm aware. I underwent that testing with the psychologist just recently so it's still fresh in my mind and I remember being absolutely exhausted when I came back home. The questions I had to answer seemed endless (they were on paper and were numbered, if I remember correctly the number was around 150) and some showed up multiple times or in different forms (most likely to catch any inconsistencies). The tests covered a wide spectrum of questions, even asking about physical stuff such as insomnia or stomach problems.

Edit: The tests I was subjected to were obviously not just limited to mental illnesses. I was asked a variety of questions about myself and did several other tests to confirm I really am trans. I think they were pretty lax with that though because I mentioned some odd things. Some of those tests are a bit like trick questions, in a way. There was one where I had to draw a person on one side of a piece of paper. After I finished, I was told to draw a person of the opposite sex on the other side of the paper. The gender you identify with is apparently very likely to be the first person you draw. Other than that they also gave me an IQ test to determine that I was intelligent enough to make decisions of my own.

[FTMax]

I agree with everything Elis said. I've personally never heard of this and it doesn't jive with my personal experience either. I had pretty big issues with anxiety, depression, and BPD prior to transitioning, and T helped quite a bit. Anxiety is gone. Depression is gone. BPD is well managed with DBT. And I've had no new issues since starting T almost 2 years ago.

Not trying to discount your friend's friend's experience, but it seems very unlikely to me that testosterone would trigger something unless, like Elis said, the person is not actually transgender and is only now learning what dysphoria feels like as they've begun to physically transition.

I also don't put much stock in paper psych tests. I had to take a handful of them to become a police officer, as did all of my coworkers. A good handful of them were not at all mentally stable and should never have been employed, yet they were because they "passed" the test. The tests are beatable if you read about them and know what to expect. A better judge of everything these paper tests look for is a seasoned psychiatrist or psychologist who knows what questions to ask and also knows what deceptive behavior looks like.

[Kanzaki]

I have to agree with you on the fact that paper tests can be lied on but as I said, they have conversations with you too and since a lot of the questions are similar, they'd be able to track inconsistencies. Apparently a lot of people with schizophrenia don't think there's anything wrong with them so it's entirely possible they'd fill it out truthfully. That being said, I lied about multiple things on the test myself, so I suppose I have nothing to say about that sort of stuff. It's pretty cool you're a police officer, I've always wanted to do something like that. Unfortunately I probably never will.

[AnxietyDisord3r]

Schizophrenia is a degenerative brain disease which occurs in males and females and emerges in early adulthood. (early to mid 20s). What  you are talking about is the "post hoc propter hoc" fallacy. It means "after this, therefore because of this". Many, many FTMs transition in early adulthood. It stands to reason that some would have schizophrenia emerge at the same period.

Think of the spurious link between vaccines and autism. Autism often becomes apparent at the age when vaccines are given so some parents assumed there was a link. This is likely the same phenomenon. The mental illness emerged while the transition occurred so a link was assumed.

CORRELATION IS NOT CAUSATION.

In other words, it's a coincidence.

[AnxietyDisord3r]

Don't assume just because someone has mental illness they are not also trans. Psychs do know of some conditions that will falsely present as transgender but AFAIK schizophrenia is not one of them. I am friends with a trans man in my area who has schizo-affective disorder. We are talking about some serious departures from reality here. But his gender identity is quite down to earth and rooted in reality. I think sometimes we fall into a trap thinking that mentally ill people can't be trusted to know anything about themselves.

[DarkWolf_7]

I don't know about testosterone and schizophrenia but I know there had been studies on regards to if estrogen seems to have a positive impact with those who have schizophrenia. I do not know about any connections regarding any other mental illness. However things like genetics have more impact in regards whether someone will have schizophrenia and there are a lot of other factors out there. I would not worry about it.

[Peacebone]

I have a bipolar 2 diagnosis and seen a couple of people talk about needing to increase mood stabilisers on T as it affected them. I've been really fine on it so far... It made my depression harder to handle at first because it changed how I processed feelings, but I now feel more stable than I have in years. I think with some mental illnesses, anything can be a trigger to a cycle, such as seasons, caffeine, stress, alcohol, head injury, menstruation ect.

I sometimes think people put things down to testosterone when they could have other reasons. For example, I had an argument with somebody because she was going on at me a lot and being dismissive of my feelings and really competitive and I told her to stop and tadaaaa it's the T talking, not me being allowed to have feelings!

[Kylo]

As much as there are some people in the world out there who'd love to find a direct correlation between T and severe/mental illness, I've never heard of such a thing. And there are people out there studying T and its effects right now.