Is the feeling from HRT real or placebo?

[Just Mandy]

I have been on a high like no other for about 30 days now...been on HRT coming up
on three months soon. The amount of happiness and contentment that I feel
is amazing really. Ive always been a positive person except three or four times in my
life when GID really had me down.

I'm wondering if anyone else had this feeling after starting HRT and  is this the E
or is it placebo? Or am I happy that I'm finally becoming the real me and not
hiding anymore?

I suspect it may be a little of all three.

Amanda

[Rachael]

neither.

its for once you being happy in your body. feeling complete. Enjoy it.
R >

[lady amarant]

I've been on anti-androgens for about a year, and oestrogen for six weeks coming Saturday. The anti-androgens definitely mellowed me out alot, moreso than I had been. (which was mellow, very mellow) Since starting oestrogen though, I've been more or less euphoric since day one.

I do know that oestrogen does have intoxicant effects (Alice posted a story a few weeks ago about a new drug being developed that mimics the effects of ostrogen on the brain without effecting the body, supposedly for use in treating depression, aggression etc.)

However, I find it more than that: There's a definite euphoria due to moving in the right direction. I'm more relaxed within myself knowing the path I'm on, and I have real hope for the future, which is an amazing feeling in and of itself, one I never had up until about a year ago when I took the plunge.

So I'd go with combination effect.

[Beyond]

I had the same feelings when I started, but after more than 4 years I have to say it's real for me.

[Sandy]

I didn't get a euphoric high when I started HRT.

However, I was suffering from chronic almost constant depression.  What I did find is that the triggers that would start my fall down the rabbit hole had been turned off.

In order to survive the depressive cycles, I had to completely turn my feelings off.  Any emotion would trigger a depressive cycle.  Once I started HRT I found out I could have feelings again without going into depression.

This was the first time in my life that I could stop worrying about depression.  Despite years of antidepressants I could not keep from getting depressed.  So for me, when I started HRT, the elimination of depression was a true effect not a placebo.

I did have a feeling of well being as my body started to feminize but I cannot say if that was a placebo effect or not.

-Sandy

[Sheila]

It's a real high. It does go away, not the feeling of being who you were suppose to be, but the estrogen high. After a few hurdles you get use to it and another hurdle will be there until you end and I think that sometimes people have a problem in as they have no more hurdles to jump. Such as it is, life can be boring.
Sheila

[April221]

Oh, it's real, alright. I've noticed it myself when I was using the patches. It would be like, every week, the night before, and the night after, I changed the patches, Climara, (7 day patch), I'd have wonderful feelings of euphoria. I'd have other times during the week that I'd feel unusually good. Unfortunately, the doctor switched me to pills, which I don't especially like as much as the patches. I'll ask to change, either back to patches, or injections, when I see him again in a few weeks.

[Lisbeth]

I have never felt anything.