Susan's Place Transgender Resources

Just curious on it all since, I feel this has happen to me. I've been on it for a while, but a few months ago everything that has happen since, I been on hrt has faded away, I can't seem to explain it, but to come this far only to not come far at all is devastating to me. Has this happen to anyone else

Well I wouldn't say hrt reversed for me but there were times when I felt hrt stopped working.  However changes under hrt happen very gradually and a few months is too short a time frame to accurately judge whether hrt is working. I guess being patient is probably the only thing to do.

It's been 10 months almost a year. This is why so much concern is on my part, I don't want to give up hope, but it's to me so much is going on, I have in a sense.

I experienced this too, not a reversal but a slowing down at one point.

What is it that you are noticing?

Well, I never really got to the mood changes and all that. My skin was always clear. Oily, but clear... To get to the point, I had breast growth buds, Little humps and they were leaking only if, I was to squeeze them, and also my body hair slowed down a great deal. Now 2 months ago my breast are no longer there at all and my body hair has went back to the rate it was growing before, I was on hrt. It pissed me off, I just really couldn't explain it, I see my doctor next week and I hope he has the answer, but from me being reading all of these different topics, I don't want to loose hope, but I don't know. To come this far and see changes in my body only to wake up one morning and be striped of them

My results seem to come & go. I've been on HRT 3 months and just started on Fin. a week ago. My breasts seemed dead last week, nothing then today my nipples have been burning & itching most to the day. The breasts actually  hurt when I squeeze them.

It's all new to me also, just trying to relax since I know it takes time.

I have heard of the body becoming somewhat estrogen resistant... Almost like an internal protection loop that tries to keep your body baseline.

When I brought up of feeling like things had slowed down, my endo gave me a booster injection of estradiol on top of my normal pellet HRT regimen. That did seem to help. My mood elevated and my body hair growth slowed down once again.

If you are able to, I would highly recommend switching up your method of HRT. If you are on pills, get off of them immediately and go for patches or injections.. or even better, pellets.

What are pellets, i heard you all mention them a few times within this site and, I was thinking about injections, but just wasn't sure I've have been taking pills Estro and Spiro but I got off the spiro about a month ago because it was messing with my legs, I then found out from research that everybody just can't take it, but was also under the impression that this was a testosterone blocker which is why, I suffer threw it for 10 months. Now I'm doing more research and some never even took spiro and have gotten amazing results from taking other forms of hrt. Jenny anymore suggestions you can give or question, I should ask my doctor?

Yes definitely do ask your doctor! If you can afford them, pellets are the best way to feminize with the least amount of load on your body & brain. The problem is finding a doctor that will administer them.. Many endocrinologists stick to the old ways of E + spiro pills or E injections + spiro. More and more doctors are offering pellets now, though, so it's definitely worth asking. There are a handful of us here that use them and want to spread the goodness.

I have been on HRT for roughly 20 months, and for sure I have felt this way a few times... Sometimes out of nowhere my sex drive will skyrocket or breasts will hurt or I tire easily or I'll get random headaches or I'll get weird food cravings... Each time I tell my Endo and each time he says he will not switch me from the shot, even though he does offer the other methods including the pellets. Just like he started me on Avodart and won't switch me to Spiro. What my Endo has explained, is that when the estrogen is too high you get the reverse desired effect. So when I complain, he lowers the estrogen for 90 days, then we go back to high levels again.

I think allot of what we transwomen experience is the initial excitement of being on HRT and the quick minor changes (i.e breast tenderness, softer skin, yada-yada) but then it seems nothing happens once we get into the normality of taking the hormones. I was always told that hormones are not magic. Well, actually they are, just very slow acting magic. Seriously though, have your E levels checked periodically. Maybe your Endo will switch your method / dose...

Good luck girly :-)

Thanks this made a lot of sense and, I won't lie I did get caught up in the hype of the hrt changing me, I set myself up to be hurt in the end because they stop working and haven't as of yet kicked back in. I'm currently just on e now for the last past month prior to the 10 months before on e and spiro. My body just had a horrible reaction to spiro. Then, I went threw a state of mind where, I was wondering do we as trans women even need a pill to transition, I don't know this is my first year with all of this

In regards to needing a pill a to transition...

Transition is mostly a psychological process, a.k.a. self-realization, where we though a series of life tests and bodily changes begin to accept and/or realize that it is possible to live and pass as ourselves. Typically we need the medical help, (drugs / hormones) to stop the naturally occurring hormonal changes going in our bodies (whether your male/female) i.e masculinization or femininization, in order to begin to break the gender dysphoria in the first place.

As transwomen, the initial psycho-chemical reaction in or brains from the estrogen will make us feel better, it will typically lower our sex-drive, and we will begin to feel our breasts grow. All of this helps with the self-realization process.

A lot of these things are complex. Seems to me like, I have more homework to do. All the times people ask me what do hormones do... Thank U for all the insight. It's clear you know your English, I need to also educate myself more to help me further a long this journey of mines, I know I'm a girl with or without the hormones but I don't want to give up on them because like you said. It just might be that, I need to be on something all together different than what I'm on now. I'm on e and, I heard for some that is even high, but this is what my doctor prescribed





Edited for dosage

I had breast growth and some facial reshaping when I started hormones.  Perhaps for the first year - not sure.  When the hospital started prescribing they changed the Spironolactone to Decapeptyl and reduced the E and I haven't had any more development during the last year and a quarter.  My breasts are at Tanner stage 2 so I feel I ought to have more scope for growth.

Libido went from very weak to non existent, possibly because my Testosterone level is about at the lower end of the female range.

Do you get your hormone levels checked often?  At the 14 month mark my E level dropped by a little over half (from 186 pg/ml to 88 pg/ml) so my doctor increased my dose twice over the course of two months and now my E level is higher than ever (at 279 pg/ml on the last test) and things are changing more rapidly again.  Typically I get tested very 4 months but do it more often if needed.

I've noticed things happen in little spurts.  Your body does adjust itself to find a new equilibrium, then when something shocks the system again, faster results happen.

I just started progesterone cream recently and OMG.  I'm doing a 13 day cycle, currently on day 11 and I'll say the girls have really perked up.

I had my E reduced by a mg last month to bring the blood levels closer to the average.  I'm still trying to make the point that the blood levels may be average but the treatment doesn't work.  I'm trying adding progesterone for ten days a month under the counter.  They come in cards of ten so that seemed easy.  I've had tenderness but no measurable growth so far.

Quote from: MaryXYX on December 06, 2013, 06:00:07 PM
I had my E reduced by a mg last month to bring the blood levels closer to the average.  I'm still trying to make the point that the blood levels may be average but the treatment doesn't work.  I'm trying adding progesterone for ten days a month under the counter.  They come in cards of ten so that seemed easy.  I've had tenderness but no measurable growth so far.

This is basically what my endo told me when I asked to have my blood levels tested... He said that measuring free estradiol really does nothing to tell you how much your body is actually using... i.e. free estradiol is no indication of how much a person is feminizing. The uptake into estradiol receptors is what regulates the amount that is actually affecting you, and there is no way to measure that. Everyone's receptors are going to act slightly differently, so the only indication of progress is really what is visible to the naked eye as well as how you feel. Free estradiol doesn't tell you much of anything.

Most (if not all) other endocrinologists would likely call heresy on that, but then again (and no offense) personally I wouldn't trust any endo if they prescribe orals at all- and that seems to be most.

Jennygirl : That's exactly what my endo says, too! (Along with the fact that free estrogen levels vary widely depending on last dose, etc. so it's not very reliable even as a determinant of *free* E.) She says she doesn't believe in "chasing lab values at the expense of the patient"; every time I go in, she asks if I'm happy with my results, and if so and the T levels came back normal [pre-op], she wouldn't change anything.

Oh, and I'm on patches; she also thinks orals are too dangerous for most people. If your endo weren't a man, I'd wonder if we had the same one!

To go a little more extreme, my T-makers wouldn't stop and then some metabolic thing crashed my estrogen.  Now, they are going to either chemically or physically remove the T-makers to get me back on track.

Don't like the things anyway.....

Hugs,

Jen

Back in late August/early September my estrogen levels crashed.  I became extremely fatigued and had terrible hot flashes and broke a sweat just walking across the room.  Basically full menopause symptoms.
I hd been on oral estrogen and after I went to see my doctor she switched me to injectables.  Now, three months later I'm feeling normal again, but for a couple of months I was super depressed and felt lousy all the time.  So yeah, sometimes the body gets all wacky.

I've only been on HRT for 4 months however it does not seem like much is changing. Perhaps my levels are too low? I'm going to revisit with my physician soon, have current blood tests & try to substantially increase the estrogen levels I hope. I using E patches & taking spiro & Fin. pills. It does not feel like my T levels are low enough however I'm nervous to increase the spiro without my physicians approval.

Quote from: Jenna Marie on December 13, 2013, 10:25:56 PM
Jennygirl : That's exactly what my endo says, too! (Along with the fact that free estrogen levels vary widely depending on last dose, etc. so it's not very reliable even as a determinant of *free* E.) She says she doesn't believe in "chasing lab values at the expense of the patient"; every time I go in, she asks if I'm happy with my results, and if so and the T levels came back normal [pre-op], she wouldn't change anything.

Oh, and I'm on patches; she also thinks orals are too dangerous for most people. If your endo weren't a man, I'd wonder if we had the same one!

Such a relief to hear! Yes, sounds like you've got an endo of the fantastic kind. What is her name? PM me if you don't feel like posting it here

Jennygirl : Her name is Browne-Martin and she works out of Baystate in Springfield (I don't mind at all recommending her publicly, particularly as I don't actually live nearby to her). She apparently has more trans men as patients than women, but I've gotten fantastic care from her. And I was also pleased to seen there's at least one other endo who thinks the way she does. :)

Quote from: Jenna Marie on December 16, 2013, 04:51:14 PM
Jennygirl : Her name is Browne-Martin and she works out of Baystate in Springfield (I don't mind at all recommending her publicly, particularly as I don't actually live nearby to her). She apparently has more trans men as patients than women, but I've gotten fantastic care from her. And I was also pleased to seen there's at least one other endo who thinks the way she does. :)

Yess!! Awesome! :D

It would be amazing if we had a list of strictly non-oral administering endocrinologists that specialize with trans patients. I'm sure there are more out there! Thanks for chiming in!!