Hormones and well, old age.

[KayXo]

If it is deemed safe, why not?

[Devlyn]

It may be safe to stay in puberty until your deathbed, but it's not anything I'm interested in. 

Hugs, Devlyn

[KayXo]

Why not if it improves your quality of life? I'm just curious. Let me know if I'm being annoying 

[SaintAlia]

It may be safe to stay in puberty until your deathbed, but it's not anything I'm interested in. 

Hugs, Devlyn

I'm a bit confused. You say "stay in puberty until your deathbed." Since most of the changes we are looking for happen in a few years (certainly less than a decade), do we stay on the same, high doses straight through, or wouldn't we go on a lower maintenance level since there's no further changes being worked for? Kind of like regular puberty for cis folks?

[Devlyn]

Why not if it improves your quality of life? I'm just curious. Let me know if I'm being annoying 

I see, you want me to be the one that starts a flame war in my own thread.    I'm up for the challenge. 

I feel the teenage girl effects. I understand they're a natural thing, and part of developing into a woman, or in my case a genderfluid person with a female presentation. Once the  hormones have done their job and pushed me to Tanner 4 or 5, I have no further need for teenage hormone levels, and I would prefer an age appropriate dose. Again, after the magic has happened.

Hugs, Devlyn

[Devlyn]

It may be safe to stay in puberty until your deathbed, but it's not anything I'm interested in. 

Hugs, Devlyn

I'm a bit confused. You say "stay in puberty until your deathbed." Since most of the changes we are looking for happen in a few years (certainly less than a decade), do we stay on the same, high doses straight through, or wouldn't we go on a lower maintenance level since there's no further changes being worked for? Kind of like regular puberty for cis folks?

That's my point right there. You hit it right on the head.

Hugs, Devlyn

[jentay1367]

Yes....I was always concerned of the "downsides" to HRT and particularly Estogen in particular. But with the advent of 17B Bio-Identical Estrogen's and with their profile in respect to parenteral, patch, sublingual or even gel deliveries, I'm beginning to see the upside to sticking with this protocol and mainting these numbers till the end. We don't have ovaries or uterus's so we're much less inclined to deal with the cancers Cis Women seem to have to concern themselves with. When you consider that Blood clotting is a non-issue with these kinds of application, why would I ever give up on the stuff? I feel better, look younger, think more clearly, have more energy, am more mentally focused and balanced than I have ever been. For us as TS Women, it may just be the Holy Grail and the Fountain of Youth. At this point in my life, it's difficult for me to imagine stopping...ever. I don't know a post menopausal woman that doesn't lament the loses she experienced after her body quit making copious amounts of E. I'm not talking about headaches, cramps or menstruation...I mean the other stuff. And again, since I experience none of that hellish trifecta I just mentioned, what's in it for me to set myself up for Menopause? I'm not a cis-woman and I don't have her co-morbid issues from HRT. Someone share the downside with me.

We just Lost Aleshia Brevard. (RIP) One of our earliest pioneers. She lived a healthy fascinating life and lived to be 79 years of age. A loss, for sure,  but a successful life to be celebrate!. And she looked fantastic to the end. .........
            sign me up!!

[Jenna Marie]

Personally, I hope to gradually reduce my estrogen until I'm "menopausal," eventually, because of precisely the "grannies in perpetual puberty" thing. If I have ill effects from it, I will of course reconsider, but I already feel weird being so out of step with my age peers. Once feminizing is fully finished - which I think is probably already the case - I'm on E just for the mental effects and to stave off menopause, and that means I have the same choices a cis woman does about where to go from there.

(I'm also on menopausal doses already, because I was very responsive to a low dose, so it's equally possible for me to claim to be on routine HRT the way some cis women do. There's no particular urgency to this experiment.)

[jentay1367]

  There's no particular urgency to this experiment.)

I can appreciate YOU feel that way....but that idea is completely antithetical to my tact on this journey. We all have different agenda's plans and hopes.

Oh..... and as to being a granny on E, if I can look 40 at 70 and maintain friendships with people of that age and mindset because I appear as their peers??? Absolutely, all the better. I don't want to be sitting around with older people discussing my bowels, bladder, knees, prescriptions, doctors ...yadda, yadda, yadda, ..........ever!

[Jenna Marie]

Jentay, sure, we're all different. Though the "experiment" I was referring to was tapering off of HRT, to be clear. I remember feeling tremendous urgency when I first started! (But I'm coming up on 8 years on HRT and 7 years post-transition, so to be honest, I rarely even think about trans issues anymore, at least when I'm not on trans sites. I also learned to be careful what I wished for when I was a C cup by 3 months on HRT... urgency or not, that actually messed up my planned time to come out!)

[jentay1367]

  I was a C cup by 3 months on HRT... urgency or not, that actually messed up my planned time to come out!)

L.O.L.  I should have such issues, Jenna! The titty fairy has decided against visiting me. I will have to make a trip to the titty store.

[Deborah]

If there was an actual fountain of youth, I wouldn't drink from it. It looks like I'm in the minority with that opinion, though.

Hugs, Devlyn

There is such a fountain.  It is diet and exercise.  The hormones don't hurt either.


Conform and be dull. —James Frank Dobie, The Voice of the Coyote

[Deborah]

I can appreciate YOU feel that way....but that idea is completely antithetical to my tact on this journey. We all have different agenda's plans and hopes.

Oh..... and as to being a granny on E, if I can look 40 at 70 and maintain friendships with people of that age and mindset because I appear as their peers??? Absolutely, all the better. I don't want to be sitting around with older people discussing my bowels, bladder, knees, prescriptions, doctors ...yadda, yadda, yadda, ..........ever!

For most people I know that doesn't start in their 70's but rather in their mid 50's.


Conform and be dull. —James Frank Dobie, The Voice of the Coyote

[jentay1367]

For most people I know that doesn't start in their 70's but rather in their mid 50's.


Conform and be dull. —James Frank Dobie, The Voice of the Coyote

Yeah...they usually discuss these things over a meal of KFC or McDonalds and muse with one another as to why their health is so crappy.... 

[Anne Blake]

This thread seems to be wandering a bit but I could use some help understanding either longer term effects or dosage effects of estradiol.

I have found delightful changes to my body, adding some curves, softening features and I love the growth of my girls. But the biggest benefit to me has been the head stuff. The emotional feelings, the ability to feel and to cry, the feelings of empathy.....all these things that were so foreign to me in my old self. I have been on hrt for just over a year and I am continuing to see the physical changes but those should level off at some point in the future and lowering dosages should not have a major change or reduction on my old body. But what about the head stuff, the extreme joy and appreciation of whimsy and the ability to FEEL and to cry. I see older cis women losing the appreciation of the magic of life. I went through 67 years of getting by, coping and NOT feeling. Will the magic go away if I went to menopausal dosages? This is something so important to me that I am really afraid of losing it.

Anne

[Devlyn]

Thanks for joining in, Anne.

This thread seems to be wandering a bit but I could use some help understanding either longer term effects or dosage effects of estradiol.

I have found delightful changes to my body, adding some curves, softening features and I love the growth of my girls. But the biggest benefit to me has been the head stuff. The emotional feelings, the ability to feel and to cry, the feelings of empathy.....all these things that were so foreign to me in my old self. I have been on hrt for just over a year and I am continuing to see the physical changes but those should level off at some point in the future and lowering dosages should not have a major change or reduction on my old body. But what about the head stuff, the extreme joy and appreciation of whimsy and the ability to FEEL and to cry. I see older cis women losing the appreciation of the magic of life. I went through 67 years of getting by, coping and NOT feeling. Will the magic go away if I went to menopausal dosages? This is something so important to me that I am really afraid of losing it.

Anne

Yeah, I'm sure Godwin's Law will come into play sooner (probably) than later. 

Hugs, Devlyn

[jentay1367]

This thread seems to be wandering a bit but I could use some help understanding either longer term effects or dosage effects of estradiol.

I have found delightful changes to my body, adding some curves, softening features and I love the growth of my girls. But the biggest benefit to me has been the head stuff. The emotional feelings, the ability to feel and to cry, the feelings of empathy.....all these things that were so foreign to me in my old self. I have been on hrt for just over a year and I am continuing to see the physical changes but those should level off at some point in the future and lowering dosages should not have a major change or reduction on my old body. But what about the head stuff, the extreme joy and appreciation of whimsy and the ability to FEEL and to cry. I see older cis women losing the appreciation of the magic of life. I went through 67 years of getting by, coping and NOT feeling. Will the magic go away if I went to menopausal dosages? This is something so important to me that I am really afraid of losing it.

Anne

Curious question, huh? I mean, I look at the avg. 70 year old woman that never engaged in HRT regimen and a good deal of them are broken. Certainly not all...but a good many. Overweight, cellulite, lose skin, brittle nails, dry hair, Joint problems, heart problems, brittle bones .....and it goes on and on. Why would it be any different for us if we chose to maintain the post menopausal levels of estrogen? I'd be interested to hear some other opinions as well. Men of a certain age take Testosterone and HGH. Often this causes damage to their kidneys and heart. But that is testosterone and when it doesn't do those things, these men often look and feel years younger than their chronological age. Th new 17b estrogen's have a profile that make it look as though you'd be crazy as a TS woman not to continue taking them. Natal women have to concern themselves with various cancers, but this doesn't appear to be the case for TS Women. 

[laurenb]

I so agree with Anne. It's sort of like the Merlin effect - we start aging backwards now. Not quite but almost. The mental and emotional enhancements are worth any long term side effects.

And FWIW I feel like even though I'm not socially transitioned (yet?), there's at least some reward at the end of my rainbow for having spent 50 years doing time as a man. I would, however, like to dump the Spiro at some point and maybe get an Orchidectomy.

Now as far as the inciter-in-chief (Devlyn) I was going to quote the bar scene from The Big Lebowski where Walter is spouting about a certain party at least having an ethos...not a good idea.