I'm a 55 year old mtf, 6 mos HRT in a fabulous relationship with a bisexual CIS female who is very supportive. I cannot imagine anyone other than her for me, we are that connected. And, sexually she is just everything I could ever want. She is my ideal woman and a complete turn on. Everyone is envious of me :)
Our sex life has always include PIV sex, and she achieves by far her best orgasms from that. I have no real issues with those particular male parts, I like presenting as a woman and find things like body hair and facial hair far more troublesome. I also must admit I enjoy sex just fine using my current equipment. Since beginning HRT earlier this year, we have had zero issues in maintaining our sex life. In fact, the only changes have been the change to my ejaculate (the volume seems the same if not more with higher velocity but clear and thin) and my orgasms are clearly better and more "whole "body".
The problem is that after a family emergency separated us for several weeks without sex, the HRT seems to be causing me to lose erections even though I am very turned on. I immediately get errect, but lose almost all of it it very quickly before we can proceed. My ability to ogasm and ejaculare remains unchanged. I'd hate to go off the HRT and lose the other feminizing benefits I'm enjoying. Before the few week layoff everything was fine even though my blood tests showed the testosterone in the low end of the target range. I was even hoping to eventually get an orchi having read many in my situation can still perform when they desire to.
Would greatly appreciate any experiences, insight or advice....Many thanks!
What you wish to accomplish is all about levels. You may need some testosterone in your system to remain functional but the levels could be low enough to avoid the dysphoria associated with it. You Endo will be the key here in finding the right balance for you. I suspect what happened is your levels have been dropping for a while and in the time away you crossed over the point were you were able to function.
It's possible to transition using only estrogen and no blocker as that was how it used to be done. In your case, it will be some blocker depending on how much blocking you get from the estrogen. If the estrogen is an effective blocker, you may have to reduce the estrogen dosage.
As for an orchi, I suspect if you have one you will need to supplement your testosterone levels. A patch might be the best way to do this but again it will be up to your Endo. Time for a serious discussion with your doctor about your goals with HRT.
Thank you for your reply. I'm not quite understanding your reply. I'm currently on a regimen of Spriro, Estrodiol, and Progesterone. The Estrodiol dose is on the low side. Should I talk to them about lowering the Spiro?
The Spiro is the primary drug that lowers your testosterone however estrogen in some people and at some dosages can do it as well. As you are interested in feminization. The first drug to adjust would be the Spiro.
An example of this is me. When I transitions a long long time ago and far well not so far, anyway blockers weren't a part of the standard treatment. We use a Premarin a form of estrogen and Provera a form of progesterone. The drugs used today are better than these but the important thing was there was no blocker. As the result, I had the despised erections like I did before. Some of the girls in my therapy group were affected by this mix and had a reduced ability to function.
I know a current site member who is on Spiro but because of the way her body functions, she has a greatly reduced Spiro dosage and it still effectively blocks testosterone. Others on the site (remember, I edit dosages) are using a very stiff dosage to do the job. Blood test will tell you where you are and you will have to adjust your dosage, observe results and note the blood level you desire. Your Endo is going to earn his keep on this one.
Thanks again...
I know the rules about dosages on this site which is why I didn't share mine :) I will say I am on what I believe to be the typically average dose is Spiro, and even though I had a very high testosterone level (especially for my age) prior to HRT, me levels at my last blood test were remarkably low. I was ecstatic at the time because the level was at its target, I was seeing a lot of feminization, and I was still functioning fine.
I think libido is a combination of mind and chemicals. My interest and desire is certainly there, almost unchanged especially when it comes to my partner. I'm guessing as your surmised that I'm just lacking enough testosterone to get the chemical part done. I've heard post orchi once off Spiro, many can perform because there is just enough testosterone made in other parts of the body to get that job done.
Your history is interesting. The way my enodo explained it, is that as far as she was concerned the blockers have enabled her to give much safer doesages of estrogen with the same feminizing effects.
The truth is the dosages given today are as high or higher than the maximum dosage I received during transition. After surgery my dosage was quartered and I saw some development but not much. The really big difference is that without Spiro the reduction of dysphoria didn't happen until surgery. Unfortunately my first couple of months after surgery were hell so I could enjoy or even notice the change. Long after I came to believe it was my body being complete that caused it when the truth was the elimination of testosterone caused it. All of you are lucky to experience this feeling early in your transition instead of waiting till surgery.
Naturally the amount of testosterone produced by the body will vary. I am at 36 ng/dl and I don't know if that would be enough. I do know that the glans was preserved in my surgery and placed where the clitoris should be. In sexual excitement I can still feel the swelling so it must be somewhat functional at those levels.
I'm still able to maintain erections however they're likely not to last as long. We had started using Viagra for sex a couple of years ago and it's still helpful (I take 1/3 the suggested dose but do so sublingually which gives a better and faster onset of effects.
I'm 7 months into IM injected estradiol valerate and from the start it's fully suppressed T, even though we've now cut the dose to ΒΌ where we started - just got numbers from last week at 225/17 E/T.
My ejaculate volume has long since been reduced to nearly nil and like you describe the first change I saw was to 100% clear ejaculate.
My libido has been cut significantly and this week I'm trying my first cycling - off of E to see if I can regain some sexuality as well as gauge whether dysphoria worsens.