I am at a stands still. All I've really had for the past 12 months is HRT with no real blocker or like now no blocker at all.

If you knew me and saw me now, you'd say I still look like a man, and I do. Nothing, what so ever has changed in my looks or as a person.

I thought that now I am under my GP, I'd be getting somewhere, but I am not!!

Five weeks ago I started on JUST HRT and that is all I am still on. I have another 31 days before I will know if they will put me on some sort of T-blocker.

I know that I SHOULD be on a T-blocker.

Should I go to my GP and say, no matter what my hormone levels are in a months time, I need a T-blocker or I won't change that much?

I know things take time, but when I've been f***ed about for 12 months with no changes, why can't people - doctors, family and friends not see that, saying "you'll get there in the end, you look fine to us" is no good to me.

At the end of the day I am a man in female clothes!!

All I am asking after 12 months of HRT is to have a blocker so I can start to see/feel changes. Is that really to much to ask after all this time?

Could just cry.

I might be wrong but what i think i got from your post is you did the DIY thing? Reason i ask is i was there and found it was a total waste of time and money. So any one out there thinking they can handle it on there own, save you money and get help.

With that said, under the care of my GP i stopped everything for 3 months. Then we took blood work to try to get a base. We started to work from there and made adjustments every 3 monts after new blood work. Things started to slowly work around the 6-9 month mark.

One thing to remember, not everyone responds to HRT the same. But if you get your t as low as you can and get the E in the normal female range things should start to work. Things happend in spurts so get used to that fact.

I think for me the 3 months off everything helped reset all i screw up trying to do this on my own. One thing everyone need is some type of T blocker is you want the E to work

Wish you luck.
Izzy

The blocker will do a lot.  I was on estrogen alone for a little over a month without an anti-androgen and it really didn't change anything.  However, so much has been happening since I started using spiro.  It took a little time for the spiro to kick in, but it's done wonders in the one month I've been on it.   I would talk to your doctor and explain why you feel the need to be on something. 

Hi Bethany!

Seems there are countless opinions on different options HRT... but it really is a case of horses for courses. .  The fact of the matter is, not everyone requires T blockers. Some don't, some do. Some require an orchie for suppression of T.

Sounds like your doctor is doing the right thing by your health, in terms of seeing how you react to E without anything else. And you should discuss this approach with your doctor. Everyone has a different approach and different preferences with the same goal in mind.

As frustrating as the waiting is, you will get there.

Hugs

I have never done the DIY thing. When i started i was at a clinic for 8 month with no changes. All they did was give me HRT. Cost me £2000. Now im under my GP. Still only on HRT. I know i need a blocker. You don't go for 12 month with no changes if you don't need a blocker.

It was 8 months at the clinic (started there last August), so it's now been 12 months altogether. If I wait till my blood tests and check up, it will be going onto 14 months.

So do i go to my GP and tell her i need a blocker as 12 months with no changes is not right?

Quote from: bethanyjadefowell on August 25, 2013, 06:01:50 PM
All together its been 12 months (first 8 with clinic)

Do you know your blood work numbers? That is the only way to know if your HRT is working.
Sorry about thinking the DIY but the way you put things made me think that.

Izzy

It's fine babe. And no I don't. The HRT can't be working. Surely if it was, I'd be feeling or seeing changes.

And with my clinic and GP, I've only had 3 blood tests in 12 months.

Quote from: bethanyjadefowell on August 25, 2013, 06:22:50 PM
It's fine babe. And no I don't. The HRT can't be working. Surely if it was, I'd be feeling or seeing changes.

I would then get with your GP and see about making a change to something? If you still have trouble i would maybe look for a Endocrinologist. Hrt is more there thing.

Lots of luck, keep us updated

Izzy

Forgot to add. So two NHS doctors in London because my clinic would not give me the right doses or treatment. I saw these NHS doctors at there private clinic. They told me that what I was on at my clinic was HRT but that would not do anything for the reasons I have said. Going to London cost me £1000 (£400 was to see the two doctors).

Now I understand if it was day one (and never had HRT) and they wanted to see how HRT alone would work. but like I said its 12 months.

The letter I got from them did say, I might need a blocker after three months if my hormone levels are not in female range, but after 12 months, surely my hormone levels should be in female range by now, and as my GP said last month, that they are NOT, is that not saying that I need a blocker?

And it's not just the no changes, I am having to go out with people looking and saying things about me. Like today, the bus driver thought I was a man and its not nice when he has a bus full of people. If you read my other posts, you will see how I can't work at our British Red Cross shop because our new manager wants me to dress as a man. I can not cope any longer.

Didn't you say recently that you thought you'd been on HRT with your original clinic that cost you a fortune, but your new clinic (with the NHS docs) said you'd been given the wrong stuff? And didn't you post last month that your GP had finally put you on the right stuff?

If this is the case, it seems like you've only been on proper HRT for a month, not 12 months as you hoped - because unfortunately your original clinic wasted your time with the wrong meds. Pardon my ignorance (being on the other side of the fence & all) but if all this is true, surely it takes at least a couple of months of the right stuff before you can expect changes?

I understand your frustration. And I've seen first-hand with several ladies how much courage it takes to step out your front door in the morning when you haven't yet had an opportunity to feminise. People can be so ridiculously cruel. And it is inhuman of the NHS to expect us to live our lives in our correct gender before we're able to look and sound passable. It almost feels like they want to make it as difficult as possible so that most patients will just give up.

But the medical notes that come with your HRT do state that it overrides testosterone, so your GP may well be correct in giving it a couple of months before seeing whether it is indeed overriding your T levels as expected.

Wow.

Best:  Estrogen coupled with a blocker and possibly progesterone.  Blood checked every two weeks then every month.  Dosages adjusted according to test results

Works good for most:  Estrogen with a blocker, blood checked every one to three months.  Periodic adjustment when the doctor feels like it.

Can work:  Estrogen alone at a fairly "high" dose with blood monitoring and adjustments.  This is a slow process.

Doesn't work for many:  Low dose E alone or low dose blocker alone.  Or levels never checked.

You are on a really slow path here...... 

What was said - i was on HRT but blocker was good for nothing. So Ive had HRT with the clinic, and now having the same with GP. Yes I did say i was now on right treatment, but now I've thought about it, im just on HRT (like I've been on with clinic, if blocker was no good)

So i need the right blocker not the right HRT.

Quote from: bethanyjadefowell on August 25, 2013, 09:24:20 PM
What was said - i was on HRT but blocker was good for nothing. So Ive had HRT with the clinic, and now having the same with GP. Yes I did say i was now on right treatment, but now I've thought about it, im just on HRT (like I've been on with clinic, if blocker was no good)

So i need the right blocker not the right HRT.

Seems to me these doctors don't understand mtf HRT at all!  Estrogen and blockers together=HRT for 98% of us. The old school way was a huge amount of E with no blockers...that method was proven wrong, hazardous and dangerous. 

I'm on high E, low AA, but I'm intersexed.  Still though, HRT almost always, even for those of us with low T or AIS, or whatever, require a T blocker, at some level.

Good news!!!!! I start on Decapeptyl on Wednesday. My new GP said "we need to get things moving now. Been too long. You need to start seeing changes"

I am happy now, even though it has took a year to get this a point where I am on the right treatment.   

YEA!!!!!!

I admire your strength through this struggle.

Thank you.

And to anyone who is not having it easy or being f***ed about, NEVER give up the fight, becouse you WILL get there in the end.