Susan's Place Transgender Resources

Ok I have learned soooo much and am still learning, but in doing so I am seeing there are some who are still not ready for HRT or even know if that is the right course or next step for them. So...I am curious if there is anyone here or do you know of anyone who began HRT and changed their mind (not an on again off again thing, but an outright hrt is not for me thing)?
Additionally, what will going on HRT and then stopping do to a person emotionally and physically?

Some therapists use the start of HRT as a final diagnostic.

Basically within the first two or three months someone who is not truly TG/TS or is not yet ready to transition will have second thoughts and will back out of the HRT.

Of course, do not attempt this by yourself, unsupervised by medical professionals and mental health professionals with experience in TG/TS issues.

Karen

Quote from: togetherwecan on February 12, 2007, 12:01:41 AMwhat will going on HRT and then stopping do to a person emotionally and physically?

For me, absolute hell, I had to go off for three weeks and it totally wrecked my life, now i'm back on things have got back to where they were pretty quickly but it was an extremely unpleasent experience one that I'll probably never have to have every again (not even for surgery, these days you can use zoladex as an anti androgen which is safe to use prior to surgery and some surgeons let you stay on 'mones like marci bowers).

Going off is basically like hitting menopause doubly so as androgens come back too, I had hot flushes I couldn't work my hair started to fall out at a fair rate and i became uncontrollably suicidally depressed on a few occasions, I was also very irritable.

The whole situation is not fun.

Thank you both, I would like to hear from more that are willing to share as well...











*tippie toes off to bed finally*

Before one should even consider HRT that person should be in therapy.  The function of HRT is to feminize or mascilinize (is that a word) the body as part of RLT or a precursor to RLT, and there is no official medical study that supports any notion that HRT causes any emotional/psychological changes.  However many, many TS folks report how great the emotional feeling were once HRT was started, but many medical professionals attribute this to euphoria.

HRT should not be undertaken by anyone until that person has been in therapy and has been diagnosed with GID.  Where many suffer from HRT is when an unskilled therapist has been convinced by the patient that HRT is the right course of action and the patient later realizes that a mistake has been made and that is when emotional problems occur.

Therapy is a must before HRT should be considered.

Steph

Quote from: Steph on February 12, 2007, 04:48:11 AM
Before one should even consider HRT that person should be in therapy.  The function of HRT is to feminize or mascilinize (is that a word) the body as part of RLT or a precursor to RLT, and there is no official medical study that supports any notion that HRT causes any emotional/psychological changes.  However many, many TS folks report how great the emotional feeling were once HRT was started, but many medical professionals attribute this to euphoria.

HRT should not be undertaken by anyone until that person has been in therapy and has been diagnosed with GID.  Where many suffer from HRT is when an unskilled therapist has been convinced by the patient that HRT is the right course of action and the patient later realizes that a mistake has been made and that is when emotional problems occur.

Therapy is a must before HRT should be considered.

Steph

Well it's just not like that for me and many others, no one ever said "you are transexual" it's something that I came to terms with during therapy and my therapist didn't really dissagree with me, when I first started comming out I told people that i'd been diagnosed with GID but that wasn't really the case. The whole medical profession has been very co operative with treatment and havn't really challenged me at all, not do I think they should, I transitioned for my own reasons not as a requisite for HRT or surgery. It helps that I have such an extencive history, I've been in therapy for the last 8 years so my current doc flicked through my files told me I had quite a clear transexual history and then talked about what she could do for me hormonally It's just I and many others just havn't had to battle the medical profession and I wonder whether it's because they are incompetent or I'm just seen as them as a pretty solid patient who doesn't need much gender related therapy, that or they got all they needed to know from me through four very long letters I wrote outlining my life story, I was asked a few questions but there wasn't really much to talk about we just moved on with a breif chat about my life and HRT talk.

Also there's a distinct difference between my overall current mood and the inital euphoria of starting HRT, testosterone just rubbed me up the wrong way and being on HRT was a relief from that coupled with some estrogen funnyness.

Quote from: Mawd on February 12, 2007, 05:40:27 AM

Quote from: Steph on February 12, 2007, 04:48:11 AM
Before one should even consider HRT that person should be in therapy.  The function of HRT is to feminize or mascilinize (is that a word) the body as part of RLT or a precursor to RLT, and there is no official medical study that supports any notion that HRT causes any emotional/psychological changes.  However many, many TS folks report how great the emotional feeling were once HRT was started, but many medical professionals attribute this to euphoria.

HRT should not be undertaken by anyone until that person has been in therapy and has been diagnosed with GID.  Where many suffer from HRT is when an unskilled therapist has been convinced by the patient that HRT is the right course of action and the patient later realizes that a mistake has been made and that is when emotional problems occur.

Therapy is a must before HRT should be considered.

Steph

Well it's just not like that for me and many others, no one ever said "you are transexual" it's something that I came to terms with during therapy and my therapist didn't really dissagree with me, when I first started comming out I told people that i'd been diagnosed with GID but that wasn't really the case. The whole medical profession has been very co operative with treatment and havn't really challenged me at all, not do I think they should, I transitioned for my own reasons not as a requisite for HRT or surgery. It helps that I have such an extencive history, I've been in therapy for the last 8 years so my current doc flicked through my files told me I had quite a clear transexual history and then talked about what she could do for me hormonally It's just I and many others just havn't had to battle the medical profession and I wonder whether it's because they are incompetent or I'm just seen as them as a pretty solid patient who doesn't need much gender related therapy, that or they got all they needed to know from me through four very long letters I wrote outlining my life story, I was asked a few questions but there wasn't really much to talk about we just moved on with a breif chat about my life and HRT talk.

Also there's a distinct difference between my overall current mood and the inital euphoria of starting HRT, testosterone just rubbed me up the wrong way and being on HRT was a relief from that coupled with some estrogen funnyness.

And I agree Mawd, generally speaking most patients know that they are TS and therapists just confirm this, opening the road to HRT and such, I was one such patient.  Where therapists (qualified ones) are important is when they see those who are not sure about who or what they are, and in doing so will hopefully avoid tragedies that we sometimes hear about.

One of the mysteries of HRT is how it effects each of us differently and that is probably why there are no conclusive studies on this, and of course there is really no compelling reason why scientists would want to study us in the first place :)  I know for myself HRT has not had any significant impact on my emotional being even when I had to stop taking it prior to SRS, as my biggest concern was loosing breast development LOL I'm vain that way.

So yes therapy is generally a formality for those "Solid patients" but essential for the others :)

Steph

Due to circumstances that I will never fully expand on, I had to un-transition.  I have also met a couple of people who had gone on HRT and then decided they were not TS.

My own experience.  I had been on HRT for a little over a year.  After dropping the hormones I went through a menopause like state for a couple of months.  After that things were pretty much back to normal.  I have had breasts pretty much for my whole life, HRT just made them a little bigger.  I would just bind or wear baggy clothes.  If I worked out more they probably would have gone back close to what they were before I started HRT.

The others that I met.  You cannot tell they once tried the path of m2f at all.  If they had not said anything, I never would have guessed.  Neither had a lot of electro done so they were pretty hairy.  I saw the chest of one of the guys and it did not look to be anything other than a guy's chest.

YMMV of course, depending on the length and intensity of the hormone treatment.  As one of my doctor's put it, "Your body really likes this stuff" so I may be atypical when it comes to these things, I have no idea.