eyesight and temperature on T

[Nikolai_S]

First of all, I got my prescription for testosterone today, which made me run around like a madman singing and dancing. I'll be learning how to properly stab myself in the leg in 13 days. Which is actually kind of silly since my dad is a doctor and could give me the injection/have a nurse give me the injection within days if he was allowed, but my endo won't have it. Anyway. Still really exciting. And now for the weird questions.

I'm curious about changes in vision - specifically, colour perception. I've read that men are generally capable of perceiving fewer colours. As an artist, I find this kind of concerning, but I don't have any idea if colour differentiation is genetic or affected by testosterone levels. Has anyone here noticed a difference? Colour chips looking more similar or anything? Also, men are supposed to have more telescopic, less peripheral vision - any idea if that would be likely to change?

Then, temperature. People have reported a higher tolerance for cold on T, but I have the opposite problem. I have major issues with heat right now, and while I can easily tolerate down to 60 degrees F without long sleeves, 80F and higher leaves me pretty much nonfunctional. If my ideal temperature lowered anymore I'd be best off moving to the the Arctic. So, have people noticed less tolerance for heat as well as more tolerance for cold, or just more tolerance for cold? Slightly related - what about hydration? Since overheating leads to dehydration, I was wondering if being warmer overall led you to a higher water intake, or if the temperature at which you begin to dehydrate remains similar. If that makes sense.

[M.Grimm]

I haven't noticed any changes in my colour perception, other than being way more attracted to colour now in general (instead of migrating towards black). Anyway, there has never been a shortage of male artists so I wouldn't be too concerned on that aspect.

As for temperature tolerances, I seem to be doing just fine in the heat as well (80F-110F). I sweat a lot more, however, so I've had to learn to drink more water than I used to. It feels as if my body is just better able to regulate my internal temperature, now.

[kyril]

On colour and vision: No difference whatsoever, but then I'm not an artist (I'm like the furthest thing possible from an artist). I suspect that any difference would be comparatively slight and certainly not crippling to an artist; look at how many amazing male artists there have been in history, and look at how many of them are famous for stunning use of colour. Monet comes to mind. I haven't noticed any loss of peripheral vision, either.

On heat and cold: again, zero change for me. Other guys who've been on T for a couple months seem to be reporting increased cold tolerance already, but I haven't experienced any such thing. Sad, really, because I desperately need it. So basically...it seems to vary from person to person.

I won't comment on dehydration, mostly because I tend to think the modern obsession with dehydration of healthy sedentary adults in temperate climates in developed nations is largely a marketing campaign for bottled water. Yes, T will typically make you sweat more, and if you're doing heavy manual labour outside in the sun in July, you should probably drink more water...but your own body will tell you that, if you haven't killed or forgotten how to detect your thirst mechanism.

[Nikolai_S]

Hmm... good point about the artists, and I do know some men who are good at noticing subtleties between colours. Though there are also some otherwise good artists who were highly colour-inept - it's probably a lot to do with chance. And it probably would be a very subtle change, but it's still slightly unnerving to me. I don't like the idea of a terracotta tinted beige and salmon tinted beige suddenly looking identical, as my dad claims they are when looking at paint swatches. But that's just me being picky, not like it's a real concern.

Dehydration is only a concern for me because I've already had issues with it. It's possible I am bad at recognising thirst, having had far too many unpleasant summer run-ins with nearly blacking out and unexpectedly retching when I thought I was doing fine. I'll be sure to increase my water intake just in case. Hard to imagine sweating more than I already do... but interesting. Thanks for the replies.

[Arch]

I'm still trying to figure out how my body temp works. I got warmer on T and was dreading summer, but we had an unusually cool summer this year. So I didn't have a chance to find out how uncomfortable I really am in hot weather.

I have an increased tolerance for mid-range cool weather, but I'm not sure about actual cold weather. We just had a cold snap (or what passes for one in SoCal, for those of you who are snickering behind your hand), and I was very uncomfortable. I started using the heater earlier in the season than usual, and I thought I would be able to start using it even later.

My feet have always been a problem. An old boyfriend used to call me "Popsicle Toes." I was hoping that I would have less of a problem with cold feet--I can't sleep if my feet aren't warm--but my feet still seem to get cold. However, I think they usually take less time to warm up than they used to.

My visuals have changed a little, and it could be T-related, or it could just be that I have my own place now and want everything just so. I don't like clutter nowadays. I don't like the way it looks--you know, uh, cluttered. Visually displeasing. And I've been much more into decorating and experimenting with color, but (again) that could be because I have my own place and am coming out of my shell and want to make my home look nice.

I'm definitely more interested in porn than I used to be. I used to like pretty pictures--stills--but they didn't get me horny. Now they do. Even when I'm watching a movie that I have seen a dozen times before (I usually pop in a DVD when I'm paying bills or going through my mail), I suddenly notice something that I never connected with before, say, that Bigname Actor has his shirt off for five point two seconds and ohmygosh he looks GOOD, gimme gimme.

Oh, yeah. I'm middle-aged, on the dangerous side of stocky, and dickless to boot. As if Bigname Actor would even give me a second glance. But a boy can dream.

[JesseA]

I think the main differences in color perception lie with the chromosomes. And of those, the only difference between males and females that I've heard of from multiple sources has to do with color blindness. So taking T will not affect that.

[GnomeKid]

Colors are my FAVORITE things in this world.  I am also an artist of sorts [theatre tech.. jack of all arts =p] and T has in no way changed my perception of colors or anything of the sort.  I think that you train yourself to be more perceptive of variations in color as an artist, and thats something that sticks with you. 

I'm not sure about the temp thing.  I think I perhaps was a bit more annoyed this past summer than normal, but I've always loved heat.  Its getting cold now, and I can stay I still hate that its getting cold. 

[yaka]

Color perception is genetic - you can't change the rods and cones in your eyes once they've developed.

[E]

Look - I'm bio male, and still pre-HRT. My color vision was perfect the last 2 times I checked it. I wouldn't worry.

The stereotype is that men don't distinguish between as many colors because women are more neat and visually oriented. Witness the difference between how the stereotypical man's apartment looks, and the stereotypical woman's. That difference is not because men can't see clutter and filth.

[shortstackftm]

Colour wise I havent noticed any difference

but temp wise - I am def hotter on T (temp wise and looks  ) - guys sweat alot more too fyi

[pebbles]

Colour perception is XY linked not hormonally linked... There is only exceptionally rare case where an XX individual will be able to better perceive blue range of the spectrum And that's if they are XX possess a functional blue cone Polymorphism A^A A^B AND a different X is deactivated in different eyes.

It's an exceptionally rare genetic fluke where it would happen.

[LordKAT]

I always disliked color talk. To me what [people call dark red, navy blue, black and dark brown among others , are all the same color.  Good reason for buying all white sox.

[Nikolai_S]

Okay, that's reassuring. I'd read that colour blindness was linked to chromosomes, but I wasn't sure if the same was true about more subtle perceptions. But it does make sense that the rods and cones wouldn't change. I really need to read more about biology, the gaps in my knowledge are atrocious.

You know, it's interesting, I used to hate talk of colours too - it was impossible for me to differentiate between navy blue and black, and turquoise and teal were the same, and both green. But that changed when I hit puberty, suddenly the differences were obvious. It might be that I just trained my eyes, but that's part of why I thought hormones might contribute to it.

[E]

Okay, that's reassuring. I'd read that colour blindness was linked to chromosomes, but I wasn't sure if the same was true about more subtle perceptions. But it does make sense that the rods and cones wouldn't change. I really need to read more about biology, the gaps in my knowledge are atrocious.

You know, it's interesting, I used to hate talk of colours too - it was impossible for me to differentiate between navy blue and black, and turquoise and teal were the same, and both green. But that changed when I hit puberty, suddenly the differences were obvious. It might be that I just trained my eyes, but that's part of why I thought hormones might contribute to it.

In part, it's maturation - the eyes and the visual center in the brain aren't fully developed 'til you hit the end of puberty, and then starts going slowly downhill from there.

But in part, it's culture - in Japan, for instance, blue and green used to be considered the same color (and you can still find places named things like "blue forest" because of that), and that wasn't because they couldn't see the difference - just that they considered them shades of the same color.

On the other hand, Russian considers blue and light blue to be completely different and unrelated colors in the same way red and pink used to.

And even English, just last century, considered pink to be "light red" and orange to be "yellow-red" - you can find references to this in the media of the time, like here. Actually, if English is their first language and they're alive, ask your grandparents if they consider pink a separate color or just a shade of red ("pink" originally referred to a flower) - you might be surprised by their answer. Or you might not, depending on what you expect and exactly where they're from.

It's actually quite fascinating, since every single culture worldwide seems to recognize basic colors in a quite specific order.

[Nikolai_S]

The page you linked didn't load for me, but that's fascinating. Languages and cultures are both interesting to me. I did know about that with Russian, it makes colours an utter pain to learn in that language. I've been studying it quite a while and I still haven't bothered to attempt more than the basics as far as that's concerned. But I wouldn't have thought that the cultural perceptions were different too, I thought the language was just really specific.

[E]

The page you linked didn't load for me, but that's fascinating. Languages and cultures are both interesting to me. I did know about that with Russian, it makes colours an utter pain to learn in that language. I've been studying it quite a while and I still haven't bothered to attempt more than the basics as far as that's concerned. But I wouldn't have thought that the cultural perceptions were different too, I thought the language was just really specific.

I fixed the link.

If you read ancient Greek texts, you will find some weird descriptions ("copper sky", "wine-blue sea"). This comes from ancient Greek not having developed many of the color terms used in modern English.

In general, languages start out with only words for "light" and "dark". Then is added red, and then others in a rather specific order. It's all on Wikipedia - here.

It also appears that genetically female persons have a certain chance of having four different kinds of color differentiation instead of three, with numbers ranging from 2-3% of XX people only, to 50% of XX people and 8% of XY people. Really, there's a whole lot of different possibilities, and it doesn't really seem like anyone's done any serious research on it. Here's the Wikipedia link.

[pixiegirl]

But I wouldn't have thought that the cultural perceptions were different too, I thought the language was just really specific.

It's a bit of both... colour perception is one of the things that got looked into looking for linguistic determinism - turns out that it's not that people can't see the differences or physically percieve them differently, it's more that if there is no need to make a distinction a culture doesn't bother to in it's language.

[Radar]

I've never heard that about colour, eyesight and men before. I'm a graphic designer and have noticed no colour changes. In fact, since on T I think my designs have become stronger and better- but that could just be due to continued experience and normal artistic growth.

[Radar]

I don't like the idea of a terracotta tinted beige and salmon tinted beige suddenly looking identical, as my dad claims they are when looking at paint swatches.

You get this from anyone non-artistic or who doesn't work with colours much- male or female. I think the gender has very little to do with it. Some of the most colour inept people I've met have been women.