How do you live your life knowing you have to rely on HRT for the rest of your life?

It's like any other medication for a chronic condition. I'll likely be on blood pressure medication for a lifetime. I'll need glasses of some sort for a lifetime. This is no different. My first one was glasses, I got them when I was 18. I remember I felt like my body was betraying me. The truth is, it's progress. Our ancestors didn't have this kind  of help and lived shorter, less fulfilling lives. I'll take the trade-off of a couple of pills every day.

I have to live the rest of my life with daily:

Allergy pillls
Antacids
High blood pressure pills
Chronic back pains
Asthma pumps
Bad eyesight

Hrt seems dwarfed in comparison isn't it 

Quote from: Dandy Dunker on November 18, 2014, 05:26:24 AM
How do you live your life knowing you have to rely on HRT for the rest of your life?

I take blood pressure meds, Lipitor and allopurinol and I have to take them every day for the rest of my life. One more pill won't make a big difference. Every day after my morning shower I take my medicine and don't have to deal with it for the rest of the day. No big deal.

However if I didn't take them I would likely be dead in a few years. So there is incentive.

I take medication for diabetes, hyperthyroidism, I have chronic back pain and I have lost use of my left foot, so adding HRT to live a happier life is a very small trade-off for me.

I will likely be on anti-depressants for the rest of my life. Since the alternative is death, it's a good trade.

Same with HRT...for me, testosterone is poisonous...I had to get rid of as much as I could, via Spiro (which will stop once I get either an orchi or SRS), but one does need some form of hormone, and for me it's Estrogen...but since I don't have OEM ovaries, I have to do the pill thing.

Which is completely fine by me.

I just don't think about it and use it as if it was nothing. I have other things to worry about.

What I do worry about is dilation post SRS but I am not even on the road to that bridge yet. So I will cross when I am there.

Once a day for 15 minutes is not bad though.

Well as easy as HRT generally is (a pill once a day or an injection every two weeks), it's becoming even easier. Some of those women here are using the pellets embedded under the skin that work for several months at a time. Go in, get your pellet inserted, walk away until the next appointment.

It's the same as glasses or antacids, which I will likely be on one day if my stomach doesn't stop leading an internal revolution. There are plenty of bio men on testosterone therapy and plenty of bio women on estrogen therapy. I know someone my age who has a hormone issue and she takes pills every day. It's no different to me.

I take blood pressure medication and it is very likely I will have to be on them (and Vitamin D) for the rest of my life....  At least when I get on hormones, that is one medication I'm actually looking forward to.  However, it sucks that since I either want to use the gel or patch, that it is going to be more expensive for me. 

Another lifetime member of the "chronic condition" club checking in

I take handfuls of pills every day for other conditions so a few more pills for HRT doesn't really matter that much. All of those pills keep me alive in one way or another, and staying alive is a very good motivator to keep taking pills.

It's no trouble when you look at it through that lens.

When people ask me about my diabetes and how horrible it must be to have to inject insulin 5 times a day for the rest of my life I ask them how horrible it must be to have to go to the bathroom several times every day and shower, it's really no bother at all once it becomes a routine.

I do my HRT cream(s) once a day.  I shower once a day, eat 3 times a day, blah, blah, it's really no big deal. 

Given that I've been close to suicide, in large part due to gender dysphoria, giving myself a shot once a week for the rest of my life is a small price to pay for being alive and happy. I also take other meds that I'm unlikely ever to stop; in the overall scheme of things, this stuff is trivial.

Quote from: Dandy Dunker on November 18, 2014, 05:26:24 AM
How do you live your life knowing you have to rely on HRT for the rest of your life?

Real easy, I stockpile as much as possible and I have general faith in society. I am after all a government type.
As for actually taking the medicine? It's another chronic condition like any other, perhaps there will be surgery to transplant ovaries at some point for my own estrogen production, probably not. I'm just glad there are treatments available that work well.

I'm a total medication-phobe (not sure that is a word ). But if it's doing those shots or leaving this planet, I'm in for the shots. Once I get there anyway.

I agree with the rest, it is just one more thing. Pills every morning and a shot every 2 weeks. No big deal.

As others have said, it's not the only "chronic condition" I have. Maybe it helps that a close female friend had a hysterectomy right around the time I started HRT, so we're kind of menopause medication buddies.

(And I change my patch twice a week and dilate once weekly, so at this point neither is much of a burden.)

most people have some form of medication that they take every day.   i will be glad when i can start taking mine.  take a dosage for the rest of my life for the priveledge of being able to be happy with myself, and to be able to be myself around others?  a tradeoff i would gladly make.