Day 10 plus 8 hours. All effects I can attribute to my progress so far is marked as almost definite placebo effects. There's a couple minor bits, admittedly. I have slight instances of sores kind of randomly occurring in the body at random times for a moment of just-noticeable pain before going away, and then there's a slight improvement in visually paying attention to things I can't explain properly for the life of me, but I'm not sure it's possible to actually consider estrogen-related.
---This is for a process where people talk about immediate brain changes.
Ok, fine, mileage certainly varies and I'm certainly past the golden span for good transition times...but still. Nothing?
This put me....a little panicky. Bringing it up in the chatroom certainly...
...did not help ^^;
Ok, I have not been put on spiro, I don't have pills, don't have patches, etc. I come in, take a shot, and go on my way, on a weekly basis. ...er...problem therein...the procedure.
You see, so far I'm only taking depo-estrodial. Which, as I've been reading on, is pretty much an estrogen supplement...? That's nice, but, ---I do have this manly testosterone level.
So, unless if I'm missing something here, the idea is that apparently I've been only taking the estrogen and haven't really thought about the testosterone supplement. supposedly, the doctor has been paying attention to what other transgenders have gone with or something, I forgot what she said, but, I don't remember her talking about testosterone blocking when she went over the planning with me, and I completely overlooked it ;.;! I don't think I'm taking prostegen (or whatever it's called...) but from what I'm understanding it's not really certain amongst doctors whether I should be taking those kinds of supplements or not.
She did mention something about a trick, roughly that by putting a little extra testosterone or something at the beginning, to trick the body to converting testosterone into estrogen or something, that it can cut down at the necessary work, but is this a valid cause to that I'm apparently not taking testy blockers?
I'm just confused and really worried. Although my agreement to undergo hormone therapy was made at the beginning, my doctor wants me to be sure I have an idea of if I definitely want to do this before it becomes a stronger 'no turning back' kind of a situation...and that's supposed to be after about 6 weeks of the shots. I can't really make an evaluation on not experiencing anything! >.<;
You really need to get more educated about your own health care and take a crash course on HRT for M2F transsexuals. It is way too easy to find vast amounts of information about medical transition to be so clueless. I know everyone isn't like me but I know more than my own doctor who is prescribing my HRT but in his defense I am the first MTF patient that he has ever prescribed HRT to.
If your doctor is going over such important information, I would suggest paying attention and writing stuff down. I am curious why he would start you on depot estrodiol vs. starting you on pills. Sometimes docs will do depo if they dont trust you with pills but maybe she wants to be sure you are on it for the trial basis. Higher levels of E should bring your T levels down but you can have an initial spike of T as your body tries to compensate. If she is using all this as a diagnostic tool to see if you are really trans, I am not sure why she wouldn't want to knock your T levels in the dirt to see if you still feel like a girl after your libido is gone which requires T blockers.
I'd have to know a LOT more about you and your situation to try and guess what your doc is trying to do. I'd highly suggest putting your questions in writing and fax them or email them to your doctors nurse for written clarification from your doctor.
Sabriel, Please slow down & learn more about HRT & talk with your physician more so you know the nice changes to come or you may want to consider a better physician.
I'm right now in the middle of finding a new physician for HRT. I recently moved to a new area of the country & the new doctor I plan to use is a 3 hour one way drive away. However from several girl friends he is very experienced in MTF HRT so I well think it will be worth the drive.
JessicaH, You have such a nice face, you look nice. Good luck with your physician, surely with all the information posted he can prescribe the best HRT.
Francis
Susan's has an excellent reference library, with several articles about M2F hormones.
https://www.susans.org/reference/index.html#Estrogen (https://www.susans.org/reference/index.html#Estrogen)
Jessica: Three responses and all made me feel a embarressed about my behavior. =>.o; It really does go over my head, and really the way she talked about the steps she would take on this made me go "...Uhm... o_o; Ok...." I did try harder to write down things recently, which is how I know I'm taking depo-estrodial. It could be that she wants to trial me like you said. I wouldn't be surprised if I came off as having erratic behaviors from being nervous. ~.~; As for not bringing my T-levels into the dirt, in a raw conjecture into the dark, maybe she's trying to figure it out without screwing with my body too hard? I keep finding that supposedly T-blockers are something that doesn't get undone very easily.
Butyeah, I don't want to try to give you all the information. It's not that I directly don't want to give you the information, privacy aside, but the bigger fact is that I just screwed up trying to convey my situation earlier =>.o; and I...don't want to give you seemingly complete information only to miss over something critical that would shift your entire answer.
Francis: I'll reread over information i have on links and stuff...I'll figure out what my situation is exactly before I think about another physician, but thank you, though. Butwow, 3 hours? I hope it goes over great ^^ It feels like a trial for me to do a 1 hour distance drive! D: Then again, my schedule kind of makes things that take a long time a little awkward to deal with to an end ~.~
Beth: .......I was embarrassed. Now...I think I'm going to find a pillow to hide my face in. Yeah...that'll...be a good place to start >.<; D: Thanks.
I wanted to go ahead and tell some new information about what I found out. Besides looking at some sites, I just got a call back from my doctor today, and it turns out...!
She just has plans for giving me the injections for the next six months. o_o; No mention of blockers whatsoever. I seriously will have to talk to her on this... -.-;
They all seem to move so slow. I've worked with several that only help us move forward a little. It's really stupid of them to prescribe HRT only halfway, it only wastes our $, time & life. I just moved to a new therapist & new doc soon until I find one that really cares & really wants to correct my body.
Good luck, just fyi on most physicians.
It is imperative that we learn all we can about HRT and really take charge of this. If a doctor is not listening to you or taking this as serious as you do, fire them. They work for us and if they want our money and business they need to take our transition seriously. I don't know how old you are but I'm 41 and HRT is going to be less effective for me everyday so I'm not about to screw around with this. Even if you are 21, you will get better results now than you will next year because you have much higher levels of HGH (human growth hormone) in your system and without antiandrogens and DHT blockers, you will continue to masculinize.