5 months for me, I was a lot more emotionally distraught before starting, simply because of the ramifications of it all, frustration with what I was trying to achieve, and so forth. I don't quite feel like hormones provided an instant cure all, I thought I was more patient but would later find myself bent out of shape hurrying around all over again so, maybe not.
I haven't tried to dial in my dosage to achieve maximums much like some do, however. Am going to have my levels checked in a few hours for the first time in a couple months, in fact; will have better insurance and want to work with an endo monkeying around with delivery methods/dosages more, though, so perhaps then I'll have to fend off these crying/laughing jags people talk about. For now though I have the usual battery of HRT symptoms, so can't complain.
One thing I think HRT did to me for a few months was make me just totally friggin' exhausted a lot, or seriously unmotivated; I'd find myself just going to bed a lot, thinking that was better than trying to work on things. Sounds like depression, really. I'm convinced my T is kaput since the beginning of the month though (no libidio, shrunken testes, AA boobs popping up), so maybe that was the problem there? I feel a ton more in control of what I do now, somehow.
