Susan's Place Transgender Resources

I just re-started HRT (I stopped for a little over six months for personal reasons) and had the same experience that I did when I was on HRT before. I notice that colors seem more vibrant and things like textures seem richer. Has anyone else experienced anything like this?

Absolutely.  When I was trying to ignore my internalised transphobia and both stopped and reduced hrt many times (with medical approval) I was always drawn back.  Yes the colors became more vibrant; objects, emotion and relationships became richer and more nuanced; and I felt more alive, aware, present and empathetic.  These effects initially convinced my therapist that her diagnosis that I was trans was correct and finally helped me to understand, accept and to celebrate my identity.

Quote from: Aisla on December 17, 2018, 04:21:01 PM
Absolutely.  When I was trying to ignore my internalised transphobia and both stopped and reduced hrt many times (with medical approval) I was always drawn back.  Yes the colors became more vibrant; objects, emotion and relationships became richer and more nuanced; and I felt more alive, aware, present and empathetic.  These effects initially convinced my therapist that her diagnosis that I was trans was correct and finally helped me to understand, accept and to celebrate my identity.

It's nice to hear that I am not alone. Do you know why these things occur?

Yes.  Definitely when I started estradiol, and noticeable when I had to temporarily stop for 2 of 4 surgeries. 

I described initial impressions on page 2 of My turn. Started MTF HRT today (https://www.susans.org/forums/index.php/topic,226341.20.html)

18 months later I have become very used to this.  If your brain is wired one particular way, and your body starts flooding your brain with increased dosages of the wrong hormone when you started puberty, a minor disconnect becomes a complete fog.  In my case, almost like being colorblind from age 13 - 53.  A few months after starting HRT, I realized some of the joy I was experiencing is exactly the way I saw the world when I was ten years old.  The simple things like walking among pine trees in the evening, or noticing the way sunlight hits certain things, I found wonderful until I became a miserable teenager.  For years I had blamed that on just being a teenager although it lasted for decades.  Every week now I inject the correct hormones and I'm fine.

I have found all of my senses have changed.  Even the way I hear conversations and music.  The only way I can explain this is my brain wasn't correctly processing what was there, and now it is. 

I have not experienced any changes in my vision, until I look down at my chest.  :laugh:

Seriously, my vision has not changed much at all. Sorry for the unenthusiastic report.  :'(

Quote from: BlueJaye on December 17, 2018, 04:36:16 PM
It's nice to hear that I am not alone. Do you know why these things occur?

I don't know. My therapist suggested that my brain and my body needed E but from birth had received too much T.  The result was that receptors were denied the chemicals that allowed them to transmit.  I guess it is something like trying to run a high performance petrol engine with diesel fuel.  If it runs at all it runs rough but change the fuel and the engine performs as it should.
Folk say that they respond differently to hrt but for me the emotional improvement was the primary benefit.  For the first time I felt ok, no dysphoria or  discomfort.  I was able to just 'be' and over time this helped me become the person who I have always felt that I was and yearned to be.
Good luck and safe travels
Aisla

Quote from: BlueJaye on December 17, 2018, 04:36:16 PM
It's nice to hear that I am not alone. Do you know why these things occur?

I don't know why this happens either but have experienced something similar each time I've started on hormones. For me I notice that light and colours are somehow richer, and the taste of fruits and veges more complex and enjoyable.

Just a personal theory but I wonder if my brain somehow starts to free up and things flow so much better that the wonderful experience of life becomes even richer. 

Good luck on your journey :)

I had a new sense of smell for the first 4 months after I started HRT. However now I guess I am used to that smell so every thing doesn't have a new smell anymore.

Yes, my experience is similar to what @kendra mentioned.  I had a sensation of calm, like an alarm I was barely aware of had been constantly sounding, and became silent once I started HRT.  My senses became more acute, colors seemed brighter, smell and taste more acute. 

One interesting item is that during the first several months of HRT, while still passing as male, the responses of other males around me changed.  They tended to move in closer to me, for example, and seemed to be offering to help me more often.  At one point several of us were gathered around a table working on something, and the men around me, all in their 60s and 70s, were all leaning in uncomfortably close.  I suspect that there was a subtle scent cue, perhaps phemones, that had changed about me.

About 4 months into HRT I was out enjoying a very nice steak dinner with someone, and between the superbly prepared steak and sides, I experienced a very, very strong response to the taste and odor sensations.  VERY strong. I felt like I should roll over and have a smoke afterwards...

For some of us, getting the right hormones corrects a long term problem with our neurochemistry from getting the wrong hormonal signals. That's where my sense of relief and improved senses came from.

Quote from: Dani on December 18, 2018, 05:34:36 AM
I have not experienced any changes in my vision, until I look down at my chest.  :laugh:

Seriously, my vision has not changed much at all. Sorry for the unenthusiastic report.  :'(

I had no vision change either, but I was mostly girl all my life, I might have had that super technicolor vision all the time?