Susan's Place Transgender Resources

Hi everyone, I'm Janie and I'm 20.

I've been on hormones for a little over a month now. Everything was fine until a week ago when I suddenly started getting extremely depressed. I have never really had issues with depression in the past so this is very unlikely for me. So I was thinking it might be because of the hormone dosage? I take androcur (antiandrogen) and estradiol a day. Is the dosage too high? My doctor said that's what she prescribes all her patients when they start.

I also changed taking my pills from 4 pm to 11 am a week ago. Could it be because of this? I've switched back to 4 pm now because I thought switching times that was the problem but it hasn't gotten that much better tbh:/ Does anyone know what to do about it? My next doctor appointment is in 3 months.

edit of dosages.

Hi Jnie;

You are not allowed to discuss dosages on the site. That being said, I think for some starting out on HRT the dosage of oestradiol  is way to high to start out. That would be probably OK once your body has adjusted to having Oestrogen in your blood stream after 6 months. So this almost certainly what is causing your depression. My advice is speak to your doctor and get your medication reviewed.

It may well be the Androcur as depression is one of the listed side effects from it.

When I started HRT, it was just a low dose of E.  It pretty much cured my depression.  I haven't been depressed since.

Janie
Welcome to Susan's family 
As always check with your doctor on your medication dosages. We do not allow them to be posted on the site. Some will find HRT to calm there depression and anxiety but others it will not. Everyone is different and maybe you need to also move further in your path to make the depression lessen.
So work with your therapist and doctors. Maybe once the dose is raised to therapeutic levels it will help more.
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Izzy

The depression could be caused by Androcur or too little E. You should discuss these with your doctor.

I was depressed at two points:

-After the first progestin injection
-After the first estrogen increase

In my case the depression correlated to the hormone change. As a possibility, the hormone shift could be your culprit. It is definitely in question. Just make note of it so you can expect it at future dosage changes.

Some progestins, especially Provera and Androcur are notorious for causing depression in SOME.

I had a few points at which my E dose was reduced, and it definitely had massive impacts on my emotional health, leading to me becoming deeply depressed. It's certainly possible, but one needs to work with doctors about it (in my case, I ended-up on Lexapro, and changed doctors a few times to find one who did not insist that HRT changes could not possibly have any emotional effect like being part of depression.)

Studies have shown that estrogen can be beneficial for depression in post-menopausal women and in women who have post-partum depression. More so than anti-depressants and by a significant margin.

Not so much depression, but early morning sickness.

I just had a little health scare last month and had to cycle down on my HRT to satisfy my Doctor. Now the Health scare is over I have been given the OK to cycle back up to my normal dose (so far I have cycled back up two levels) but I have been hit the last few days with a bout of morning sickness (almost vomiting) about the time I normally take my HRT pills which is just after breakfast. Its almost immediately cured once I take my HRT pills. Funny enough when I last had to cycle down and back I had the same problem until I was up on my regular HRT dose. I have two steps to go. Combined with the Morning sickness I also get a tightening feeling in the testicles.
Strange
Judith

My estradiol levels are in the 1,000-5,000 pg/ml range and I never get morning sickness. I also take a high dose of progesterone. The only times I've experienced morning sickness is when my levels DECREASED although I do know that pregnant women sometimes experience this as well and it is a symptom of increasing levels of hormones. Everyone is different, I guess.