Can hormone therapy stop working

[Belladona]

Can hrt  working and what to do about it?
I know milage my vary but I got less than a year which I'm finding hard to deal with. I started taking estrogen and anti androgens on 20/1/2016 and after about 9 months effects started diminishing. I'm left with little feminization and very little breast growth, everything has been a stand still for a while now.
What bothers me the most is I don't feel as female as I did in the beginning, its like my body isn't responding to the hormones anymore. In the past I found from shifting my dose around I feel different on a low dose compared to on a higher dose, now I feel like I don't have enough. I used to feel my blood thickening now I can tolerate more estrogen than before and smoke tobacco all day and never get a blood clot. So hormones definitely aren't doing a lot otherwise my blood would clot, generally my blood is like when I was male.

I don't know what to do, I can't stay on my now comfortable dose cause I'll run out. I'm frustrated enough to stop everything except the blocker, then at least I'll have garented medication for later. Is it bad to just take ant androgens, will I revert back to male? I don't want to lose the little effects I gained but I don't want to ruin future growth either. Should I wait to change my dose or should I stop all together?? Please don't ask me to go talk to someone if I had someone to help me with this I wouldn't post here.

[mako9802]

Don't worry things are still happening.  It's is impossible for hormones to stop working.  But yes there will be lulls and apparent stalls in the treatment.  Sometimes this just aren't obvious to you but others see differences in you.

[Cindy]

Hi Belladona

HRT is a fine balance and do be aware that it is far better to do HRT under medical supervision. You may not feel the blood clot that kills you or gives you a stroke until it is too late.

HRT also takes a long time and YMMV, cis females start puberty around 9-10 years old and do not finish until 18-20 years old.

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[KayXo]

Smoking reduces the effectiveness of estrogen if the estrogen is taken orally.

[Jailyn]

Without having an endocrinologist to see and check your hormone levels. It is very hard to self regulate your hormones just by feeling. I should know, I am in your shoes. I have no insurance do things on my own. So, I know what you say that you can't get help. I am in tough situation as well. As stated above you shift between highs and lows just like cis-females. Yes, your breast pain goes and comes because they grow in spurts just like when you were going through your first puberty. So good luck and stick in there!!!!!!

[Belladona]

Thanks for the replies, I honestly thought I'd be told off for being reckless. I know self medicating is frowned upon, sometimes resources aren't available and you just got to do what you got to do. I have a doctor I can go through to get blood tests, I need to take like twice the dose I started on to get the same levels. Ideally it would nice to have an endocrinologist that can answer all my questions but one does not exist where I live.
I've been on hormones long enough and have had enough tests to know by feel where my levels are at, I'm definitely not getting as much out of it like I used to, my hormones are barely in the female range and quitting smoking doesn't seem to make any difference. I just wish I could get enough hormones to feel like every other girl but it doesn't seem possible. At this point I don't think its even possible for me to ever take too much.
I think what I should do is lower my dose right down and feel like rubbish until I regain some sensitivity, I can't afford to take tons of pills and have no garentee of further treatment. If hrt starts working again would I have higher estrogen levels with the same dose?? How does one even know if their dose if there is no knowledgeable doctors?

[Pisces228]

have you ever thought about injections if your levels aren't high enough?

[KayXo]

Without having an endocrinologist to see and check your hormone levels. It is very hard to self regulate your hormones just by feeling.

I actually think that just with how you feel and how you see your body responding, one can accurately assess whether the hormone regimen you're on is actually effective. This is, by far, IMHO, a more useful approach than relying on hormone levels that FLUCTUATE, where individual sensitivity to hormones cannot be assessed by blood tests and where only an incomplete picture is revealed.

The ideal range set for us is based on an average in premenopausal women when in reality, we are dealing with a different population (transwomen) at a different time of their lives whose needs are not homogeneous. The truth is DOCTORS DON'T KNOW and this practice may be harming some as they may need higher levels, still considered safe by several studies as long as the estrogen is bio-identical and preferably given non-orally (check with doctor), to have optimal results. Thankfully, some doctors realize this while others still continue following blindly guidelines which are poorly scientifically substantiated.

The female range as regards to estrogen levels is quite wide, overlaps that of men so that being in that range guarantees in no way that results will be gotten.

Taking pills that contain estrogen and smoking is counterproductive. I personally had to take a very high dose of oral estradiol (with doctor's consent) to finally get decent breast growth, with levels well above those "recommended". Food  for thought. Switching to injectons with significantly higher levels gave poorer results than oral...go figure!

[Dena]

The site policy is for the safety  of the member, we attempt to get them under the treatment of a doctor. We are aware of members who self medicate and they may remain on the site as long as the don't encourage others to self medicate or provide information for others to do so. For people under the care of a doctor but not an endo, we will provide the information the doctor needs to safely treat you. Last but not least, you may post test results which are far more informative than what you are taking.

This policy works relatively well because some of our members live in very isolated or poor parts of the world without proper medical care and barely with internet connections. They are welcome to all the help we can provide as long as the help provided isn't harmful.