Susan's Place Transgender Resources

God idk how I'm going to get through this day. I feel like building a hammock in the library and try and take a nap.zzzzzzzzzz

Because your body is used to using testosterone as a source of fuel. You should get a lil more energy, but as long as your T levels are suppressed, you will likely battle fatigue much more than you did pre HRT.

Yea, I am still getting used to the entire energy issue...

My last checkup they found that my T levels were too low (even for female levels)... which probably was causing a lot of the more extreme tiredness problems.

It's one of the main reasons I want an orchie asap... so my hormone levels will get to a stable spot and I only need to supplement a small amount of estrogen (instead of the balancing act between estrogen and spiro I do now).

O.o yeah this energy issue is killing Me my doc is gonna have to answer for that one.   >:-) on a different note,  anyone notice your mood is tied to others? Especially other women you are close too? I notice this with me and my mom it's like our moods are linked...when she gets mad I get pissed off too but when she is calm and happy it's like I can almost tangibly feel it too.

I know all humans do this but pre hrt I used to be able to pull myself out of it. Now it's exemplified to the extreme. Also, in psych class today the teacher showed a video about Serbian mental institutions and I was tearing up so much I had to wipe my tears fast and get that back to business face...

I notice that testosterone used to be sort of an "adrenaline fuel". When I was very tired, I would get sleepy for a while, but if I had something to do, it would quickly go away, as though entering "emergency wake mode". Since HRT, though, that "mode" doesn't work very well. But that's probably good, since it helps me fight my tendency to have an unhealthy sleep schedule.

Now, if I'm extenuated, my body TELLS me. As a result, I actually have more energy the next day.

And it adds up to the overall energy boost that HRT provides.

Quote from: Alainaluvsu on May 22, 2012, 10:39:48 AM
Because your body is used to using testosterone as a source of fuel. You should get a lil more energy, but as long as your T levels are suppressed, you will likely battle fatigue much more than you did pre HRT.

Not so. Glucose is the major body fuel, and to minor extent glycerol, some amino acids, and ethanol. What low testosterone does to males is three fold (in a simplified way): 1) low testosterone reduce the response of cells to insulin, 2) reduces the level of circulating glucose by down regulating the thyroid function (lower the basal metabolism), and 3) reduces the basal level of adrenalin. Other physiological loops are also affected, such as increased protein catabolism, etc

I don't think she meant it in such a literal way. ^^'

Just trying to shade some light

It's all right~.

(But... Say what? We -use- ethanol?)

I have no ethanol..no! God I'm stuck in university until 7 tonite-_-

Quote from: peky on May 22, 2012, 12:00:04 PM
Not so. Glucose is the major body fuel, and to minor extent glycerol, some amino acids, and ethanol. What low testosterone does to males is three fold (in a simplified way): 1) low testosterone reduce the response of cells to insulin, 2) reduces the level of circulating glucose by down regulating the thyroid function (lower the basal metabolism), and 3) reduces the basal level of adrenalin. Other physiological loops are also affected, such as increased protein catabolism, etc

I knew that peky could explain the biochemistry!  :)

Thanks

Quote from: A on May 22, 2012, 12:06:07 PM
It's all right~.

(But... Say what? We -use- ethanol?)

Alcohol is basically converted to sugar, although the metabolism has its own caveats.

Quote from: Adrasteia on May 22, 2012, 01:22:22 PM
Alcohol is basically converted to sugar, although the metabolism has its own caveats.

Converting massive quantities of beer to urine, while seeming like a good idea at the time, has its own caveats the following morning  :P

Quote from: Adrasteia on May 22, 2012, 01:22:22 PM
Alcohol is basically converted to sugar, although the metabolism has its own caveats.

Close but no cigar, ethanol -aka as alcohol- enters the krebs cylce where it is burned to to generate CO2 and ATP

My test is where it should be, but my estrogen levels are just a bit low.  I was wondering if raising those would make any difference in my mood / energy.  I'm just kind of blah....... both physically and mentally.

Quote from: peky on May 22, 2012, 06:04:49 PM
Close but no cigar, ethanol -aka as alcohol- enters the krebs cylce where it is burned to to generate CO2 and ATP

Yeah, posting from my phone; I shouldn't have said convert.  :-X

I was mis-remembering some tidbits from this video ("Sugar: The bitter Truth"), which was pretty damn informative: Sugar: The Bitter Truth (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBnniua6-oM#)

Quote from: peky on May 22, 2012, 06:04:49 PM
Close but no cigar, ethanol -aka as alcohol- enters the krebs cylce where it is burned to to generate CO2 and ATP

Adenosine triphosphate - cell power!!

Quote from: GhostTown11 on May 22, 2012, 12:12:23 PM
I have no ethanol..no! God I'm stuck in university until 7 tonite-_-

oh youre just studying in the library ? damn i was going to ask you how you like being a librarian becuase im thinking about becoming one lol

Quote from: peky on May 22, 2012, 06:04:49 PM
Close but no cigar, ethanol -aka as alcohol- enters the krebs cylce where it is burned to to generate CO2 and ATP

peky, you scare me.  You're making me have really really bad flashbacks to my biochem days at uni.
I need a trigger warning for all of your posts! *lol*

Quote from: auburnaubrey on May 22, 2012, 07:37:41 PM
My test is where it should be, but my estrogen levels are just a bit low.  I was wondering if raising those would make any difference in my mood / energy.  I'm just kind of blah....... both physically and mentally.

Perhaps it would improve the mood. For the "ENERGY" issue I would think increasing the amount of daily exercise, and increase the amount of protein in your diet while lowering that of the simple carbohydrates.

Quote from: peky on May 23, 2012, 07:04:37 AM
Perhaps it would improve the mood. For the "ENERGY" issue I would think increasing the amount of daily exercise, and increase the amount of protein in your diet while lowering that of the simple carbohydrates.

I still work out about 1.5-2 hours a day.  Usually about 45 min to one hour of intense cardio (Max interval training), then weights and such.  And, being a health nut and vegetarian, my diet is really, really clean.  (and the rest of my bloodwork is fantastic.)  I'm just really not used to that mid afternoon slump.  I sleep great at night (And always get my 8 hours), but just get kind of blah during the day.  Of course, if my mood is blah, that could be bringing my body to blah as well.... Just not feeling like doing anything due to excessive blah-ness.

Spirol immediately dropped my energy levels.  For an entire 2 days I felt helpless and lethargic.  Soon after I felt normal again,  part of it is definitely mental.  A good nights rest is more useful now than it has ever been.

My diet is terrible, my excersize habits are terrible.  It could also be our bodies are affected differently.

OK here back to report and let me just say that I feel heavenly after 9 hours of sleep. Also, I have no classes so I can laze about today. Another thing is that although I am not as hungry if I fail to eat adequately a day  before my body basically forces me to take care of how Mic I eat from before.

I notice a difference already, having just started Cyproterone Acetate this morning.

About 1.5 hours after I took the pill, I walked down to the grocery store to get veggies.  Well, it felt like I was moving in slow motion and my legs were like jello.
I'm quite tired right now too.

Quote from: auburnaubrey on May 23, 2012, 07:53:05 AM
I still work out about 1.5-2 hours a day.  Usually about 45 min to one hour of intense cardio (Max interval training), then weights and such.  And, being a health nut and vegetarian, my diet is really, really clean.  (and the rest of my bloodwork is fantastic.)  I'm just really not used to that mid afternoon slump.  I sleep great at night (And always get my 8 hours), but just get kind of blah during the day.  Of course, if my mood is blah, that could be bringing my body to blah as well.... Just not feeling like doing anything due to excessive blah-ness.

Then, an expresso at starbucks ?

6 weeks on low E didn't change much for my energy levels.
Since then I've had 4 weeks on spiro, and I don't think my energy levels have changed much.  I have found though that I'm concentrating better at work and getting jobs done quicker for some strange reason (better overall mood perhaps?).

Quote from: peky on May 23, 2012, 06:46:13 PM
Then, an expresso at starbucks ?

Now you're talking!! :icon_woowoo:

When I first started on HRT many years ago now I used to get very sleepy early in the evening and not have much energy. But now after being on HRT for well over a decade I find the opposite and I now find it hard to sleep at night!

QuoteWhen I first started on HRT many years ago now I used to get very sleepy early in the evening and not have much energy.

That's exactly how I feel at the moment! Nice to know that it will come to an end some time.

I'm not sure if it's because the HRT but lately whenever I wake up I feel super tired. Way more than I recall. I'm otherwise pretty much okay during the day.

I see you guys recommending caffeine, even jokingly, and get kinda annoyed since no one pointed out that it's a myth.

From Dr. Steven Novella on the Skeptic's Guide to the Universe Podcast:

"What caffeine does is it binds to the receptor for a neurotransmitter called adenocine, and it is an antagonist, that means it binds and blocks a receptor that normally has a calming or inhibitory effect, so therefore it has a stimulatory effect. What happens though is that by blocking these receptors your body just makes more of them. That's called "upregulation." So your body will upregulate the adenocine receptors to compensate for the fact that caffeine is blocking some of them, and that then reestablishes the previous equilibrium. Then with the caffeine it just puts you into the normal range. If you upregulate those receptors and then you take away the caffeine, well then of course you're going to have too much inhibition, that's when you'll be sleepy and have trouble thinking, and you will "crash," and then you need to dose yourself with caffeine just to get yourself back up to normal. Even after a few weeks of using caffeine, all you're really accomplishing from that point forward is using it just to put yourself into a normal state, so you're not really getting much of a boost out of it, you're just crashing when you're not using it, so it's actually not that advantageous as a long term strategy."