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Has anyone experienced personality changes on HRT? My wife is becoming more concerned about the possibility of a major shift in my personality if I start hormones. Enough that she gets uncomfortable if we talk about it at all. She wants to make sure I don't do anything right now and questions why I need them. Her thoughts are if I feel like a woman why do I need to change things to be me. I haven't even seen a doctor about yet and only yesterday saw a counselor for the first time.

What were your experience starting HRT? I've had really low T for years especially after having a vesectomy. While I understand where she is the thought of not getting started is just plain painful for me!   :(

I started taking hormones in April/May. The doctor prescribed me microgynon Ed30. They also prescribed me Androcur though I haven't started taking that yet. My T levels are around 6 or 7 I think which is in the low male range I think from around 15. Saying that I haven't had a blood test from 3 months or so.

Personality wise I feel identical to before I started taking them. I mean I haven't had any significant shift in my likes dislikes etc.  I do feel a lot happier about myself. Whenever my partner went away for work for instance I would have incredible urges to cross dress and express myself. I don't get that ane  just feel a lot calmer.

Is weird. I think it is having a positive effect on me and I think before the t levels were causing me so much stress and anxiety.
I have no idea if I look more feminine now after the pills is hard to judge. But there are subtle physical changes. Boobs I have definitely grown 2 lumps on my chest lol and my body is subtly getting to be a bit more girly looking I feel.

Personality wise I don't think ur wife has anything to worry about.  I mean I love my wife just the same if not more now.  I'm holding off on the androcur because we might have a second baby.

Good luck

I think your wife may be worried for nothing. Hormones might make you calmer, more emotional at times, but will not change your personality. I've been on hormones since 2004 and I'm practically the same, a little less libido, a little more emotional perhaps, not quite as strong, but physically, there have been significant changes, my body is softer looking, face more feminine, small boobs, hips and butt, less body hair...follow your heart and reassure your wife. ;)

Quote from: Joanne Feliz on November 10, 2016, 07:47:12 AM
I started taking hormones in April/May. The doctor prescribed me microgynon Ed30. They also prescribed me Androcur though I haven't started taking that yet.

Microgynon contains ethinyl estradiol, known to increase thromboembolism risks and have adverse effects on blood pressure and the heart. It also contains an ANDROGENIC progestin, levonorgestrel, that triggers androgen receptors. Why a birth control pill with such risks when there are safer, equally effective alternatives, for instance, bio-identical estrogen (17-beta estradiol or estradiol valerate) and bio-identical progesterone which is NOT androgenic?

Androcur (cyproterone acetate) with ethinyl estradiol has also been associated with an increase in thromboembolism risks, prolactinomas (or hyperprolactinemia) and altered liver enzymes in transsexual and ciswomen. For this reason, ethinyl estradiol is no longer prescribed to any transsexual woman. Is your doctor aware of all this? I hope so, for your sake. I would urge you to discuss about this matter with them, ASAP. Thromboembolism can be FATAL and occur quite quite quickly, sometimes without symptoms. I'm not a doctor myself but recommend you go over this with someone who is.

I've changed a lot as my lifelong friend so eloquently put it when I dropped the T bomb "I see you finally got that emotion chip we talked about!". We laughed, well he laughed I giggled, as I told him I got that and so much more.

Even once I found my way back into my brain and body it was all trashed to bits so I had basically lost the ability to feel anything. My thoughts were still a struggle and everything was pretty mechanical. In the simplest terms my hormones fixed me it healed all the damage and let me become normal.

Persona was definitely affected. Although I was already a lot more fun and lively than "him" I was still very reserved and even awkward at times as everything got better so did my personality. I'm now a confident, chatty, outgoing, up for anything kinda gal and a total hugger to boot. My former raison d'etre of video games has been ignored for way over a year now the last half dozen times I used it was just to play dress up with my avatar on the xbox.

Rather than change my personality I would be inclined to say it made me much more me. As the hatter would put it I regained my muchness.

As with everything else ofc YMMV but for me yeah mega mega changes but all good.

Mine's actually "changed" a lot. It's not really that it's different so much as the curtain isn't there anymore. The more my core personality comes out, the more it threatens my marriage. We really are two very different people. The only reason we weren't in the beginning is because I was masking everything. But I don't think any of that happened because of the hormones. I think it's all from the transition.

I did get a bit emotional at times and super irritable
Emsometimes if someone said something I didn't like lol. Seemed to have calmed down a lot now though.

In regards to the health risks millions of woman use microgynon daily and it seems in australianat least that is what they seem to prescribe. But I'll talk to my ends about it, I should be seeing a new endrinologist shortly anyhow. Thanks for your concern.

I should add I do get whiney when upset which pisses off my SO. She keeps trying to tell me I'm 38. Yeah chronologically but emotionally I'm lucky if I'm approaching mid-teens. I admit it is fun and even a bit selfindulgent at times but I am still growing up and will be a mature responsible adult someday. For now though I'm a teenager with grown up finances and a credit card. So much fun :)

Quote from: Joanne Feliz on November 10, 2016, 02:59:56 PMIn regards to the health risks millions of woman use microgynon daily and it seems in australianat least that is what they seem to prescribe. But I'll talk to my ends about it, I should be seeing a new endrinologist shortly anyhow. Thanks for your concern.

I just don't see the rationale behind using ethinyl estradiol over bio-identical estradiol when the latter has an even lesser risk of thromboembolism and is EQUALLY EFFECTIVE for feminization purposes.

J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 2003 Dec;88(12):5723-9.
Venous thrombosis and changes of hemostatic variables during cross-sex hormone treatment in transsexual people.

"The large differential effect of oral EE and oral E(2) indicates that the prothrombotic effect of EE is due to its molecular structure rather than to a first-pass liver effect (which they share). Moreover, these differences may explain why M-->F transsexuals treated with oral EE are exposed to a higher thrombotic risk than transsexuals treated with td E(2)."

"In conclusion, we have shown that treatment of MtF transsexuals with sex steroid hormones (CPA combined with E2 or EE) affects the hemostatic balance with a very pronounced difference in the effects of oral EE compared with the effects of both td E2 or oral E2. Oral EE induces a clinically relevant prothrombotic state."

EE =  ethinyl estradiol
td = transdermal
E2 = bio-identical estradiol

J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 2012 Dec;97(12):4422-8.

"Historically, high-dose estrogen in the form of ethinyloestradiol or conjugated equine estrogen (CEE) was used to suppress testicular function and induce feminization. In view of the procoagulant nature of these older estrogens and the inability to use plasma estradiol levels to guide treatment, this protocol was changed in 2004 to oral estradiol valerate"

Minerva Med. 2013 Apr;104(2):161-7.

"New kinds of COC without EE but with Estradiolvalerat or Estradiol showed a much lower degree of coagulation activation than "classical" COC containing EE."

"Estradiol itself has a lower impact on estrogen-hepatic proteins, and is more readily metabolized by the liver than ethinyl estradiol, the ethinyl group on which slows down that process. The structure increases the bioavailability of ethinyl estradiol compared with E2, but may also contribute to an increased likelihood of estrogen-related adverse events.40 »

"Gaussem et al41 studied markers of coagulation and fibrinolysis in women randomized to take three cycles of either levonorgestrel–ethinyl estradiol (...) or NOMAC-E2. The authors reported a procoagulatory shift in levels of these markers in women taking levonorgestrel–ethinyl estradiol. In contrast, they reported significantly smaller changes from baseline in these markers among women taking NOMAC-E2. One outcome was a change in activated protein C resistance. This marker, which has been proposed as an independent risk factor for venous thromboembolism, increased to a greater degree in levonorgestrel–ethinyl estradiol users than in NOMAC-E2 users (0.46 versus 0.20, P < 0.01). »

"Agren et al evaluated multiple coagulatory and thrombolytic indices over six cycles of oral contraceptive use in a randomized study comparing NOMAC-E2 with levonorgestrel–ethinyl estradiol (...). They reported that NOMAC-E2 had minimal influence on markers of hemostasis, and caused less change in these parameters than the pill containing ethinyl estradiol»

Minerva Ginecol. 2014 Feb;66(1):91-102.

"Micronized estradiol (E2) and its estere valerate (EV), is more easily metabolized by the liver than ethynylestradiol (EE). This causes minimal metabolic impact »

"In comparison to EE/levonorgestrel (LNG), EV/DNG is more neutral on metabolism and coagulation"

"E2/NOMAc is more neutral than EE/LNG on metabolism and more neutral than EE/DRSP on coagulation"

Andrologia. 2014 Sep;46(7):791-5.

"Ethinyl oestradiol, due to its chemical structure, was in 2003 identified as a major factor in the occurrence of VTE. Most clinics do not prescribe ethinyl oestradiol any longer"

"Cessation of use of ethinyl oestradiol and peri-operative thrombosis prophylaxis for surgery have reduced prevalence rate of VTE."

Journal of Clinical & Translational Endocrinology 2 (2015) 55-60

"Other compelling data suggest that the incidence of venous thromboembolism (VTE) among transgender women appears associated with the presence of a hypercoaguable risk factor, including the use of an especially thrombogenic estrogen (ethinyl estradiol) which is no longer used [3]. Gooren et al. (2008), reported no increase in VTE among 2236 male-to-female (MTF) transgender individuals on HT from 1975 to 2006 compared with controls, with the exception of those who used ethinyl estradiol, for which there was a 6-8% incidence [4]."

Gynecol Obstet Invest. 1986;22(4):198-205.

"the marked influence of ethinyl estradiol on liver protein synthesis should make estradiol valerate the first choice in clinical replacement therapy."

The progestin, levonorgestrel, is also ANDROGENIC and thus can prove to be counterproductive. It reduces SHBG which binds androgens strongly.

Maturitas 46S1 (2003) S7–S16

"Levonorgestrel causes a decrease of SHBG of 50% [8,9,16]."

"some of the older-generation progestins such as MPA, norethindrone acetate, norethindrone, and levonorgestrel, which bind with relatively high affinity to the AR, have been reported to act as agonists or partial agonists in some contexts, unlike progesterone (Table 4) (77–86)"

"MPA, norethindrone, levonorgestrel, and gestodene, but not dienogest, exhibit strong to weak partial agonist activity for AR-mediated transactivation via androgen response elements (77, 105, 178–180), whereas dienogest, trimegestone, drospirenone, and progesterone, but not MPA or norethindrone, can antagonize DHT-mediated
transactivation via the AR (97, 178, 179)."

"The findings that some progestins like MPA, norethindrone, levonorgestrel, and gestodene bind to the AR with
relatively high affinity and exhibit partial agonist activity via the AR in cell lines, and androgenic effects in rats, suggest that these progestins may result in AR-mediated androgenic genomic effects in women on HT. In particular, AR-mediated genomic effects by MPA or other AR partial agonists have been suggested to play a role in increasing the risk of breast cancer by disrupting some androgen signaling in the breast that may be protective for breast cancer (182)."

Also,

"unlike progesterone and dienogest, it was found that MPA, norethindrone acetate, and levonorgestrel increase expression of two markers of vascular inflammation, intracellular adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM-1) and vascular cell
adhesion molecule-1 (VCAM-1)"

You can discuss these with your doctor. This is why it's important, if possible, to be proactive in one's health management and do a little a bit of research. ;)

Emileee your situation sounds like me now. Psychologically I opened the curtains already. She says its like I'm another person. I was very reserved before, always holding back, always performing the "man" role as I learned it. I have been so much more willing to do things I wouldn't have before. Just open and happy. Maybe that is what freaks her out. It's the me she almost never got a glimpse of.

And that sounds like me too. I went from laid back, which was really the result of feeling like I can't do the transition, so why bother worrying about anything to much more outgoing and vocal. I'm no longer satisfied with being a homebody. I basically shifted from an introvert to an extrovert and she's still an introvert.

Great thread Josie,

I have been on hrt for four months now and see several significant changes to my personality, all for the better and they may or may not be a product of the hormones. A partial list in no particular order would be: definitely happier; really appreciate the whimsy of life; not as analytical (still can bring the game but I don't live there); my granddaughter likes to sit in my lap and cuddle where before, she wanted to be chased and tickled by the old me; my mother in law, while always a big fan, likes me better this way; compassion and empathy are off the charts; and maybe a few emotions surface from time to time along with a much lower threshold to cry. My wife loves both the old and new me but she admits, that while she occasionally tires of the high emotional flow, she likes the new me better plus I am a lot more fun to shop with. While my old man personality traits can be brought to play when they are needed, they do not express in my awareness. I also have noticed, similar to Emileeeee, that my dyed in the wool introvert nature has faded and I rather enjoy engaging in more social interactions (still small group settings but these are baby steps).

I hope that this helps,
Anne

I'd add a couple things, a side effect of some of these meds is depression, I got a little of it, but kinda liked it because it made me physically lazy enough to rest, which I apparently have never known how to do.

2nd point, is that a few of our emotions are gated by Testosterone in the brain, it may become much harder for her to make you angry for instance, so if that is a sport she enjoyed, it could be a problem.   You might also become somewhat less aggressive or assertive.    Sex drive will be very low, at least until your E2 comes up into female ranges and can activate that side.   At fem normal, I experience drive, but it is also kinda different, but that may just be me and my previously poor relationship with Testosterone as a comparative.