Susan's Place Transgender Resources

first time so what should i expect side effects and benefits

TROUBLE!  Do not double E or else your body will up the T and you will look like mountain man.  go slow and steady and get a lovely fem body.

Quote from: lilacwoman on October 25, 2011, 02:38:02 PM
TROUBLE!  Do not double E or else your body will up the T and you will look like mountain man.  go slow and steady and get a lovely fem body.

you know there are 4 levels and i am going from 1 to 2 and its 4 months so it shouldn't be to fast

hey :) let me ask what happens when you increase your E dose anything i should know ?

Quote from: lilacwoman on October 25, 2011, 02:38:02 PM
TROUBLE!  Do not double E or else your body will up the T and you will look like mountain man.  go slow and steady and get a lovely fem body.

Well, if one were were say going from the smallest dose unit to 2x the smallest dose unit, that count as doubling the dosage, but it's not like one can go up by any smaller step.

I've always wondered why I'm such a masculine looking natal male. I could be the actor's facial twin on the new Conan The Barbarian, even though I've never played sports, worked out, or taken steroids. My blood tests shows that my estradiol levels are pretty high, which it seems that it's said often that the body overproduces testosterone and androgens in response to any high estradiol levels. The real problem is wondering if I need anti-androgens and anti-testosterones, or if I actually need a estradiol blocker. Seems two very opposite paths, and it'd certainly be an interesting find to think that my body is overproducing estradiol hormones in response to how I think about wanting to be a girl almost every minute of every day, albeit harming me because it has the opposite physical effect in the end.

Estrogen can't convert into testosterone lol.

atleast that's what I heard.

No, estrogen doesn't "convert to testosterone", but the actual effect is the same - what happens is that your body reacts to a sudden increase in estrogen by creating more testosterone in order to try to re-establish a balance. Raising E levels slowly (or as slowly as you can) will lessen this effect, as the body will not "panic produce" T so much.

So if you're going to double your current dose, it would be sensible to ramp it up over a couple of weeks to a month - so, for example, from one dose per day to 3 per 2 days to start with, rather than straight to 2 per day.

DAAYUUM! Are you serious, Padma?
No wonder I was slightly more manly for few days after my estrogen increase.

Yup. Any change of state is worth changing gently. The body's got built-in defences against unbalancing, and the trick is to trick them into not going off. The first two weeks I was on HRT, I got unbelievably wired and horny, and a little of my head hair fell out. That was just from internal ramping-up of T. After a month, things are considerably calmer :).

Is this a self medicating thread?
Because i thought you should just take your medication the way your endo told you to.

I've never experienced the feeling of testosterone rising[we all know what it feels like] when i was given the okay to double my dosage.

ok so i will be manly from this ... that sucks .. i am gonna look manly because at 4 months i am uping my dose :-\

Word of warning.
I went through the phase of thinking I needed more E as I wasn't allowed by our NHS to go to a endo for tests so I bought some progesterone to add to the E... and guess what?  Three weeks later I looked like Sasquatch with big black hairy hands.  I stopped the P and redcued the E and after a coule of months th eblack hair went but so did my A+ boobs so I had ot go for implants.
Girls takes 2-3 years to feminise so we ned to try that timescale too.  but its hard.

Quote from: Padma on October 28, 2011, 02:41:27 AM
Yup. Any change of state is worth changing gently. The body's got built-in defences against unbalancing, and the trick is to trick them into not going off. The first two weeks I was on HRT, I got unbelievably wired and horny, and a little of my head hair fell out. That was just from internal ramping-up of T. After a month, things are considerably calmer :).

Padma, I am so pleased you posted this.  I have just passed my 4th week and things seemed to have calmed down a bit.  Week 3 I had headaches,, dizzy spells and hornyness!!  By the end of the week I felt like a mass of sexual urges.   I thought my T was rocketing.  I was thinking I needed to increase my E but decided against it to see how things went and now i feel more on an even keel.  I hope it lasts.

A more realistic answer is this:

You never know. It all depends on your amounts of E and T in the blood. None of us will be able to predict what will happen to you if you suddenly double your dosage because we do not know what your E levels currently are. You kinda do so at your own risk. Perhaps you aren't getting enough E in your system and you'll benefit, or there's a chance that you will have too much, and testosterone will be produced and try to counter it.

Quote from: Padma on October 28, 2011, 02:41:27 AM
Yup. Any change of state is worth changing gently. The body's got built-in defences against unbalancing, and the trick is to trick them into not going off. The first two weeks I was on HRT, I got unbelievably wired and horny, and a little of my head hair fell out. That was just from internal ramping-up of T. After a month, things are considerably calmer :).

This is also exactly what happened to me. When I first started my scalp hair loss increased noticably and I was getting turned on far more than usual, especially right after my dose. I kept on the same dose, and now my scalp hair has stopped falling out, in fact my temples are regrowing a lil hair. My body hair instead is falling out like crazy, and my sex drive is all but gone. In fact the only time I get turned on now is when I'm emotionally stimulated.

You girls are killing me. Where did you get all this info? Estrogen turning to T. Progesterone making you look like a monkey. Do any of you have any idea what a GG E level is going through puberty? You would be shocked at how high the E and P levels get. And that's for years and years. Its all about balance. Do you think young girls going through puberty are emotional wrecks because there E level is slowly climbing? When there breast start to bud there E level is off the chart. Its not uncommon for GG E level to be 3000 + pmol/L. And girls that is really high. I don't see them turning into hairy mammals. And also there P levels are high also. The biggest problem is the progesterone most doctors prescribe is male progesterone not female. There's a huge difference. Only now are GG going through menopause getting the correct E and P combination. Any of you girls out there still taking Medroxyprogesterone I would look for something else. Thats where the biggest side effect are coming from in the P department. I won't say what my doses are or what I take but I can tell you I have zero side effect. NONE. Other than I am more emotional and the other good parts but that's a given. I sleep well. I exercise. I don't smoke, drink or do any drugs. Any of you out there on HRT I suggest you do the same for your own well being. Give the drugs a chance. All this extra crap your putting into your system was not there the first time. Why make it any harder than it already is girls?

Isabella

we get it from experience and scientific research

I do believe that if you are healthy all-around, you shouldn't have many side effects or problems at all on HRT.

Quote from: lilacwoman on November 04, 2011, 03:04:10 PM
we get it from experience and scientific research

What kind of scientific research? Are you published? I would love to read your papers if there on the net.
Look were all striving for the same thing here whatever your name is. There is so much speculation and bad advice going around. I self medicate because I am the first veteran in my area who came forward and asked the VA for help. Even though there are directives in place, it has taken 6 months for them to get there act together. They were not set up for testing, GID diagnoses or even HRT. I had to wait for all these "medical professionals" to get up to speed and decide how they were going to treat me. Those of us who do self medicate do it because we have no choice. I am disabled and can't work. I get diddly squat from the VA for my disability and don't have enough to see an outside doctor like I would like. I finally have an appointment with the VA Endo on of all days my birthday. Its fitting because I will consider that day my rebirth as a woman. Its a day I will never forget to say the least. Are these drugs dangerous? Darn right. I know girls who are taking 12mg of E + some progesterone. They have no side effects and there feminization is coming right along. My point is that there are young girls walking past you everyday who's E level is twice any of ours. There not growing hair from places unknown or dropping dead from blood clots. There are safe ways to take high doses of E and P. I don't think there's anyone who thinks these girls are growing boobs on 4 to 6 mg of E a day. Next time you go to your doctor ask him or her what a GG going through puberty E level is? Its a very quick way of finding out if your doctor knows what the hell he or she is talking about. And then ask him why your being given post menopause levels of E and no P and your expected to be fully feminized in two years? If those levels are such a danger why are not little girls dropping like flys?

Isabella

I agree with Isabella. The highest my estradiol level has been in the last four months was 106pg/ml on the day before a woman ovulates her level could be 375pg/ml and still be considered normal 12 days after or before her Estradiol level could be 10-15 pg/ml and stil be normal. Have you ever wondered why We don't get nipple growth like a GG does? I do. Why can't those of us who are doing this at an even young age less than 25 not get breast development past tanner stage 4? Is it because they put us on asteady does that never rises and falls like a normal GG? Is it because we never get progesterone like a normal GG? These are questions I have and with all the studies that I have read I still don't have answers. Am I alone with these questions?

Huggs

Emily

Quote from: Emily Ray on November 04, 2011, 10:35:06 PM
I agree with Isabella. The highest my estradiol level has been in the last four months was 106pg/ml on the day before a woman ovulates her level could be 375pg/ml and still be considered normal 12 days after or before her Estradiol level could be 10-15 pg/ml and stil be normal. Have you ever wondered why We don't get nipple growth like a GG does? I do. Why can't those of us who are doing this at an even young age less than 25 not get breast development past tanner stage 4? Is it because they put us on asteady does that never rises and falls like a normal GG? Is it because we never get progesterone like a normal GG? These are questions I have and with all the studies that I have read I still don't have answers. Am I alone with these questions?

Huggs

Emily

I'm going to ask my endo this when I go in next. But my next appointment is Valentines Day so it's gonna be a while. She's said she would be eager to research anything I suggest and see if it's the best thing to do. I think she is extremely interested in the subject, so I believe her actually. Never know, she may end up prescribing me some unheard of doses and have me regulate them in a specific way during a 28 day cycle. Maybe that WILL help achieve Tanner stage 5.

But then again, a spike in E levels can lead to dramatic risks in clots. Also, GGs may have specific endocrine systems in place to regulate those spikes that we do not have. These procedures may work better with a MtF who has undergone an orchi... who knows?

Isabella, its your body to do with as you please so do so .
And my name is Lilacwoman here on Susans.

I go with Isabella when she says "it's all about the balance"

There are plenty fat girls too, and THAT is ALSO about the balance, if you asked me.
You'll want to eat all the time if your E is not balanced.

Now, I also had high-ish E BUT then I was also E dominant ~ 760 pmol/l was feeling not too good, 'cause my T 0.7 pmol/l was very low plus I also had low P.

Again it's ALL about the balance.
One point though, if you run on lower E you may have fewer or less severe out-of-balance situations...

Then it's also quite costly to keep running on very high E, plus P.

Lastly, talking of young females – please do NOT forget... they also have much higher growth hormone levels which supports the total development for both female and male during this phase of life.

My 2 cents,
Axelle