Quote from: Aisla on February 12, 2014, 02:00:29 PM
The journey is perhaps more important than knowing the ultimate destination so I would say try low dose hrt and work with your endo and with yourself
Safe travels
Aisla
It is indeed all about the journey. Your destination hasn't been determined.
It's always about getting around the next curve on your path and finding out more about yourself.
There is the regular low dose and then there is the very low dose HRT. Transitional HRT is a lot more than low dose. There is a standard low dose of sorts, it's going to depend on you and your Dr. But it is enough that you might feel some changes, loss of libido, maybe loss of erection or some of it, some swelling and tenderness around your nipples. It usually takes at least a few months before that becomes apparent. Stop the HRT and it will in most cases reverse itself completely or close enough that it won't really matter that much. The important part is to start with a low dose, even transitional doses start out small. Pretty much the same, low dose maybe being a little less. Again it depends on you and your Dr. Once you try it out, and usually it will be some Spiro, you should feel less of the noise or rage as some people call it. For me it was a quiet rage inside. Within a couple weeks, it was all but gone. But being the kind of person who believes you should always take the least amount of any med and it still producing the results you want, I backed mine down. But not before experimenting and boosting the levels up to transitional doses. I found out that did nothing for what I wanted, which was to quiet the noise, the dysphoria. So I backed down, backed down farther until the noise came back just a little and have been there ever since. Works for me. I can deal with a little noise. I did start a low dose E patch quite awhile back, and at first it had caused a little soreness, but that went away. All this is going to vary from one person to the next, so there isn't any kind of gospel in any of this, you just have to try it and pay attention. The E patch I can only describe as smooth. I have no other way to describe how it affects me, which is going to be different, like I said, from person to person. I have much less facial hair growth rate, and lost about half my body hair over, what, the last year or two? I don't keep track of it. I played around with not using the patch as much as I was supposed to, and I could tell a slight difference for those few days, but it wasn't until I stopped it for a few weeks that it became noticeable.
Like I said, it really does vary from person to person and there are those exceptions, always, but low dose will eventually cause some body changes, the rate varies. For some, it takes longer than I have been taking them, for others a little sooner, from what I read from people (not what some article claims) (even though this is an article of sorts?, never-mind). I backed that initial low dose down a notch and have some loss in ability to get an erection, but that was always a problem anyways, and Viagra seems to work really well for me, anyways. But at this dose, I feel good, the dysphoria is acceptable (Can you ever really get rid of it?) and I haven't at least been thrown in jail for problems with anger, but I can still piss off a fair share of people.
For me, all of this experimenting and paying attention over the last year or so has left me where I want to be.
The biggest point is that it varies from person to person, and just what you take will as well.
There is a kinda standard, and it's becoming more common, but I think that has the drawback of people just taking what the Dr orders and leaving it at that.
You can fine tune it pretty much, but it will take time and you will have enough time.
You should know well within a week or two if it right for you, and can go from there. Actually, most people say they knew within a few days, but I'd give it at least a couple weeks.
If you find that your perspective about your gender is changing, it shouldn't come as a shock. There are more than a handful of people who started out here on the androgyn boards and moved on to full transition. I can tell you that they are very happy about how that all went down for them.
And there are some who have moved the other way. You just aren't going to know until you try it.
Step over that edge. There isn't a drop off, just another way to see yourself and how you see the world around you.
Ativan
