We have a monthly cycle?

[Princess_Jasmine]

Ok so my therapist was informing me more about HRT and when I asked her why I randomly started balling and crying at a certain time of the month, she told me its because I'm cycling. Apparently we have cycles just like genetic females do? But I thought this was not the case since we are consistently putting a dose of hormones into the body daily, whereas I thought genetic females produce alot of estrogen soon after their period to last them for the month until the cycle starts again.

She also told me the times I smell pheremones strongly from down there is when my body is on its period I think, or maybe its when I am most fertile because my body is acting as though it has a uterus? I am so confused! Can someone please explain to me what my doctor was trying to explain about cycling and how it pertains to us transwomen? Thanks a bunch!

[sarals]

I have them, and I know many other trans women who have them.  They started for me at about the one year on HRT mark.  The first one was a doozy, I felt like crap and people within ten miles of me were in peril!  Now, they're manageable, but I get very horny just prior to them starting.  Which is when I would be the most fertile!  Stands to reason, and it coincides with what a cisgendered woman would experience.  Mind you, I'm not young, and to start cycles was a surprise and then a puzzle.

I do NOT vary my dosage, my endocrinologist said to absolutely not do that.  My cycles started on their own, and it was a sign, according to my doctor, that my adrenals and other glands had "feminized" and were starting to tell my body to do things to prepare for pregnancy and then un-prepare after the fertility time frame lapsed.  It's utterly normal, and shows that the hormones are doing their job!

If you're cycling, congrats!  I won't say enjoy it (oh, would that be crass), but it does show you are feminizing nicely.

This does bring up another question/thought.  Do we, as trans women, experience menopause at some point down the path as we age?

[Dana_W]

Jasmine,

Your post has excellent timing. I was just wondering the same thing.

A couple of weeks ago I started feeling very ... ahem... amorous. That lasted a couple of days. And then a couple of days later my breasts started feeling very sore, I became more short tempered, and I started retaining weight even though I'm dieting.

My spouse (the female variety) laughed when I mentioned this to her. She said it meant our cycles had synchronized, as this perfectly matched her ovulation/PMS time that month. I didn't even know we M2F's had cycles for the same reason stated above... my hormones are gradually released by a patch at a constant rate. But after experiencing it this month, I'm a believer.

[FairyGirl]

geez I know I do. I get so emotional I start crying my eyes out at the least little thing. I get the water weight gain too, sore breasts, everything just seems wrong. It's PM-Everything. As I live in a house with several genetic women our cycles become synchronized, which is how I know where the symptoms are coming from- it's the same thing they're going through. I'd never heard a doctor confirm it, but it's nice to know at least it isn't completely in my head! lol

[Northern Jane]

Being of a scientific bent and being on daily E pills, I figured I did not have "periods" or PMS, something I mentioned in front of my husband one day (a long time ago). He was rather shocked at my statement and pointed out the tiny X's on the kitchen calendar, marks he had made. Apparently I thought I didn't have periods but they were so obvious to him that he kept track.  I had no rebuttal to that 

[ifonlyican14]

i have experienced this, it repeats on monthly bases, depression and very bad mood, after about three days, i am normal again, it is some thing like the period, but i didnot notice breast soreness and these changes .

[Janet_Girl]

Oh I know I do.  I figured out when it was.  Moodiness, water gain, breast tenderness.  And then I added things to my HRT, all natural.

I go for about a week.  And even my neighbor has mentioned that I get bitchy just about the time it starts.

And even if we don't. it makes me happy to think so.


Janet

[Shenarah]

This is an interesting topic and one that I am studying at the moment as I am getting to know the nature of menstruation from the physiological, mental, emotional and spiritual perspectives. The really interesting thing is trying to understand why we would have cycles when our hormone levels are maintained by the same dosages each day. Of course this does not preclude the changes in our own naturally produced level. Maybe these are amplified by the suppression of 'T'. I have another theory that the typical menstrual side effects are a result of more spiritual effects.

A good book on this subject is 'The Wise Wound' by Penelope Shuttle and Peter Redgrove, if this interests you.

BB

Shenarah

[rejennyrated]

Crumbs - forgive the intrusion from someone decades postop, but I honestly thought I was almost alone in this. In my case it has a definite reason because very early on my doctor decided to do an experiment and I've been on a cyclic progesterone estrogen combined therapy (now using true bio identicals) since day 1.

There were a group of us who were trialled on it in the late 1970's and early 80's, but as far as I know I'm the only one in the UK who has stuck with it permanently

The effect on my bust development was dramatic - F/G cup - with no augmentation! But I do obviously get montly PMT like symptoms, which I sometimes find difficult, paradoxically because it is a reminder of what isn't going to happen - ie no monthly bleed and therefore no fertility... ah well nothing in life is ever perfect.

So it is rather refreshing to hear that I am not the only one! Thanks people

[cynthialee]

I should mark my calendar and see if it is a trend. The last few days before today was a cryfest and bitchfest and today I have been horney as a teenager. The wife just comented the other day I was acting like a pmsing GG.
and I just started HRT 3 months ago. I was really happy to avoid that part of being a lady but what I am reading here is that it ain't so.... 

[sylvie]

add me to the list as well.  I've been overly emotional and cranky the last few days, with the increased libido today as well.  It's kind of funny how this topic came up right about the same time that I started feeling this way.  Before now, I hadn't really noticed, but now I will definitely keep track of things better.

[maidenprincess]

I don't think I've ever had a period on hormones.

[FairyGirl]

The worst symptom I get is that I become a complete, as my SO puts it, "cry baby", and as my best friend puts it more bluntly, "whiny bitch". I get other symptoms too, but geez anything and everything has me in tears. It seems to be more intense pre-menstrual however- I always know when the other women in our household are about to start because it affects me the same way.

[maidenprincess]

One of the girls at my support group meetings says she has bleeding. She is pre-op. Is this possible? I'm afraid to ask her for details.

WHERE is she bleeding?!  Lol.

[rejennyrated]

that aint right no matter *where* she is bleeding.....

Well a few of us, when opened up, turn out to be undiagnosed grade one or grade two PAIS intersex or some other form of intersex. Particularly with people born in the 50's and 60's it wasn't always formally diagnosed at birth.

Some even have tiny remenants of undeveloped internal female bits. I was one such, although in my case for some strange reason back in the early 80's when I had my SRS they neither told me nor attempted to remove the attophied parts so I didn't discover this until years later when the remains became infected and ruptured internally causing all sorts of serious complictions.

But a very few do have parts that are sufficiently developed that under the influence of hormones they start to semi function and these lucky people do indeed get a bleed - because they are technically intersexed.

Then again - it could be just wishful thinking on her part!

[Hannah]

"cry baby", and as my best friend puts it more bluntly, "whiny bitch".

That's interesting, I'd like to keep track of mood swings and their relative severity compared to the time of month, but when you start observing something like that you immediately contaminate the results. This whole concept is compelling chemistry. It's amazing what magical, fascinating, half divine/half animal beings we are 

[rejennyrated]

but wouldnt she need both ovaries and uterus for this to happen?  seems to me that those parts, if internal, would not be functional enough to cause something like that.  i'm a DES baby myself, i dont expect to have extra internal bits but then nobody has ever looked lol

i have an extra rib ... or i'm missing one...if that counts for anything

sorry to hear you had such problems

Tee hee - SNAP! I'm a DES too. 

I think that's why my medical notes were censored - the first few pages are missing to this day - and indeed my IS condition was never properly explained to my family - I was also hypospadias. But they were just told it was something which needed a minor correction.

But sadly I can still PROVE that I was exposed to DES because it was on my mothers file which I saw when she was dying of cancer!

Truth is I don't know the details but I think if you have a uterus however malformed and take a combi HRT dose you can sometime get bleeding. All I know is that it's VERY rare - but it does happen. (and as it happens I now know one person to whom it did - not me by the way.)

[Princess_Jasmine]

To Rejennyrated

So you cycle your hormones and that gives you better results? As in you do three weeks of estrogen and then go one week without? Is that what you mean with the whole cyclic therapy? Could you please explain in detail what that means and what your doctors made you girls do exactly as far as how to take the hormones during that experiment.

Thanks!

[rejennyrated]

Ok - without going into any dosage specifics.

For all 28 days I take a constant maintaining dose of estrogen. However for 14 days of the 28 I also take a dose of progesterone, and for 4 days in the middle of the cycle I take an extra (double) dose of estrogen.

The theory was that mimicing as closely as possible the exact regimen experienced by a natal female might produce greater feminisation effects because it is partly the constantly changing levels which promotes development - kind of like a hysteresis loop.

In my case the effect would seem to bear out the theory - but I don't know if that was just luck It may well have been. 

I do know that a lot of the people who were put on the experiment eventually dropped out because of the inevitable mood swings. I didn't, partly because for me they generally weren't that bad, and partly because I liked the idea of getting as close to nature as possible.

The experiment was terminated sometime in the late 80's and I don't know if the results were ever formally published. As far as I know I am the only remenant - and then only because I have always argued with my GP against changing something which I have got used to and which seems to work for me. But it would be intriguing to know if I was just lucky.

[Zelane]

So you dont have a cycle, but you are cycling your hormones artificially. Quite a difference.