Estrogen did not make me think like a girl.

Living as a female made me think like a girl. I started liking shopping, for example, when I started presenting as a female and saw how much fun it could be to put together a look.

Quote from: Ms Grace on January 07, 2015, 11:39:26 PM
permission to be yourself

For me it was this - I didn't even know I needed permission, but once HRT released the GD I had been suffering from for all of my life and after I began transitioning I was free to be the authentic me, and I discovered that I had been suppressing an extremely feminine personality for all of those years. As an example - it is now perfectly acceptable to hug people, or cry, or express empathy - whereas before... well...... boys don't cry, right? I had to keep any expression that wasn't 100% male under rigid control, and I did. Society did not give me permission to express the real me.

And as others have mentioned there are some activities I used to enjoy that I don't really enjoy anymore, and in the meantime I have started doing new activities that I never thought i'd like but I do. I was expected as a man to enjoy those old "guy" activities and I forced myself to into them and I got a measure of satisfaction from doing them, but looking back now I can't say that I really enjoyed them that much. Society's expectations of me kept me locked into doing traditional male activities.

So, my girl thinking and my girl behavior was there all along, it was just suppressed by society expecting me to act like a guy.

Being on E changes a lot of things for your body, which in turn changes how you 'think' about things. For example, when your breasts start to develop and are hyper sensitive, you don't want to be as rough with your body as you did before.  You hold yourself a bit away from things, you don't rough house, you move more carefully, you hold the steering wheel at 4 and 8 instead of 10 and 2.  Little things like finding an outfit you look good in making you want to avoid doing things that might ruin your clothes. 

Another change E brings is emotional.  You may tend to be more teary, quicker to feel emotionally connected to something/one, or to react with some emotion rather than anger.  Imagine that puberty made the boy reactions come out.  More likely to get angry, lash out, be aggressive, now puberty with estrogen makes those same events cause the girl reactions to come forth instead.

In short, being on E causes you to react like a girl.  Those reactions start a domino effect that transforms you a little at a time.  You won't 'get bad at math' change your politics, want a pony, or do anything radical  like that just from E, it may happen, but it will be from the effects of how you react to every day life giving you a new perspective, rather than re-wiring your brain. 

There is some re-wiring going on though, so don't discount that you may change your likes to spicy food or stop liking the smell of certain things, etc.

No hormones yet for me (but soon I hope!!), but since "coming out" to myself, I have found myself thinking about things differently. Like others have mentioned, I'm recognizing a lot of behaviors and interests that I've been suppressing without even being aware of it. I find it pretty amazing what a simple change in attitude can do, so I can easily believe that HRT will ave an impact.

However, I don't like to think of it as "thinking like a girl," more like "thinking honestly like myself." Girls, boys, and everyone thinks a little differently, and the sooner society can accept that, the better!

I am not sure exactly what has changed but there have been changes for sure.

However, I've had a womanly way of thinking for a long time and I could never really truly relate to a lot of guys. The only guys I really relate to are because of shared interests and hobbies. But I could never discuss sports or women, especially women.

I have been taking hormones for about 15 years now and all I can say is that estrogen makes me feel like a normal person, if there is such a thing. I don't feel weird, just normal and chemically balanced. If that makes any sense.

I started changing the moment I accepted my status as a transgender girl. I started wanting certain things which led to others. For example painting my toe nails opened the door to my interest in shoes.

I've only been on HRT for a little over a month and nothing seems different mentally. I was under the impression I would notice a change in the first week. That hasn't happened. I know it still could, but I'm a little disappointed. I was told that I could end up with more patience and less internal conflict. I was really hoping for those changes to happen. I'm still hoping my HRT is low dose and that upping the dose will change that or it will change anyway in the near future.

I think HRT does change your thinking, but maybe only a little.  It is really hard to say because being on HRT and starting to be yourself happens close to each other.  At least for me.  Was any change due to being on HRT or was it just being myself?  I really think it was a combination.  It did not change my major interests.  The things I liked to do before I still like, but I did pick up new interests.  I did find that being on HRT changed how people interacted with me, and that in turn did change how I act, and that is a definite influence on how I think know.

Quote from: Zumbagirl on January 08, 2015, 12:51:53 PM
I have been taking hormones for about 15 years now and all I can say is that estrogen makes me feel like a normal person, if there is such a thing. I don't feel weird, just normal and chemically balanced. If that makes any sense.

This is similar to how I feel.  Like before, I was the person I was I think because I was out of balance, being pulled by society in directions that made me uncomfortable, and my mind at odds with itself from trying to work with the wrong chemicals, so i whirled and thrashed and just generally did a bad job of living a life.  Now it feels balanced everything goes smooth.  Things seem right.  That has made me different.  It has made the whole world seem different.

The sturm und drang in my mind has calmed but hasn't gone away. HRT has helped there though I was kind of hoping for more.

I think for me it was combination of the hormones and me being confident to be myself.


as a guy.. i was shy and withdrawn... and hated making an effort to look good..


I accepted who i was...a girl.... and things changed... now i am outgoing.. life of the party.. confident... I love making myself pretty.. especially for my boyfriend.... i love shopping especially for shoes.. i am a typical girly girl... when i started hormones i became more emotional and i do cry more easy.. so yes... i think my personality has done a 180.

I think the hormones gave me even more confidence

Quote from: Maribeth12 on January 07, 2015, 09:39:00 PM
Hello, I have a few questions about the inner machinations of the minds of transsexual women.

Will estrogen ever make me think like a girl?

It's a question that I want to know before I start taking estrogen.  Here are some more questions... Will it change my personality, for the better?  Will I develop female interests like shopping etc?

All these things would be perfect.

I really want to be a girl inside and out and hopefully estrogen will help me achieve what I want to achieve.

Thanks!

"The inner machinations of my mind are an enigma" Patrick Star

From what I understand about the medical basis for transexuality, whether or not you 'think like a girl', whatever that means, would depend on the degree of sexual dimorphism in a given subject's brain; that is to say, the human brain exhibits a small but ultimately significant degree of sexual dimorphism (or rather, there are indeed 'male' and 'female' brain structure types). The prevailing explanation as to why some people's brains would exhibit cross-sex brain differentiation being hormonal imbalances in utero, where brain differentiation is determined by chemical rather than genetic factors.

Thus, as a transsexual woman, you by default necessarily "think like a woman" regardless if your interests/hobbies.

I say this as an androphilic, sappy-movie-loving "primary" that listens to metal/industrial and hates shopping.

Everyone is all over the place, male (cis or trans) and female (ditto). Just be YOU my friend! You're as much a woman as any other 

I wonder if there is a trend between younger and older transitioners? I transitioned in my teens and therefore never really attempted to be a man, and so didn't experience such a profound "switchover". Many older transitioners often report how they became much more what they perceived as feminine, emotional etc, and often assigning behaviours as "male" or "female" behaviours. For me, I assign fewer behaviours as gender-based, and while I was more able to express my complete self, it wasn't the clothes, makeup, shopping or other so called "female" behaviours that were the reason for my transition.

For a while, I embraced being a male who had these so called "female" behaviours, as I was deemed too young to make such a life changing decision, and at that time, I thought that maybe they were right, and that I might not be trans, but just "think" I am. However, I realised that I should have trusted my instinct all along, and it was simply something inside of me, telling me that I was female, that was the reason for transition. Nothing about not being "one of the lads" or anything like this - there are many men (and women) who exhibit behaviours and personalities atypical of their gender. They may even "think like the opposite gender" due to how societal norms impose a limited perspective on gendered behaviour. However, this does not make them trans. It may differ for others, but for me, the one thing that makes me trans is my mind telling me I'm female, nothing else. I actually fit in quite well into the heteronormative world as a feminine female, but this is merely incidental to me, I do not consciously feel like I'm "thinking like a girl".

Quote from: Zumbagirl on January 08, 2015, 12:51:53 PM
I have been taking hormones for about 15 years now and all I can say is that estrogen makes me feel like a normal person, if there is such a thing. I don't feel weird, just normal and chemically balanced. If that makes any sense.

With you there Zumbagirl... I have been in excess of 10.. lost count.... normality being your "real self"

L Katy

Hello Maribeth

A substantial part of the  "HRT effect" will purely be due to you knowing that you are on it.  It kind of gives you "permission" to move forward and to begin acting and thinking more like a girl.   For some people HRT is a miracle, but for many of us it's more of a helping hand. 

In my case it subtly changed the way I think, my emotions, and the way I perceive the world.  More empathetic, a little more emotional.

When people ask me, I say that the girl exists mostly between your ears, but that you may need to work hard to discover her and let her free.  So please don't think that HRT will be like taking a magic pill - it's frequently not like that.   Unless you've spent your whole life being told that you're a girly boy, you'll probably need to do some work to expose the woman in you.  This is both exposing the woman to yourself, and exposing her to the outside world.   It's an interesting process.

Hope this helps!
Julia

Quote from: Julia-Madrid on January 09, 2015, 07:33:49 AM
Hello Maribeth

A substantial part of the  "HRT effect" will purely be due to you knowing that you are on it.  It kind of gives you "permission" to move forward and to begin acting and thinking more like a girl.   For some people HRT is a miracle, but for many of us it's more of a helping hand. 

In my case it subtly changed the way I think, my emotions, and the way I perceive the world.  More empathetic, a little more emotional.

When people ask me, I say that the girl exists mostly between your ears, but that you may need to work hard to discover her and let her free.  So please don't think that HRT will be like taking a magic pill - it's frequently not like that.  Unless you've spent your whole life being told that you're a girly boy, you'll probably need to do some work to expose the woman in you.  This is both exposing the woman to yourself, and exposing her to the outside world.   It's an interesting process.

Hope this helps!
Julia

That was pretty much me pre-transition, which was why I didn't really have to invest much time in setting myself free in the sense of 'acting more like a girl'. The only sorts of things I had to think about were more physical, that I hadn't experienced - make up/fashion/hair etc.

However, there was a sense of 'unlocking' and 'transition' within my psyche to finally understand and perceive myself completely as female - I knew it before, but it had been distorted and blocked by being told I was male. It took a while for me to make that psychological transition whereby my female essence flourished within myself. But what is not always clear is that I differentiated this from how I "acted". The way I "acted" hardly changed at all, it was a largely internal process, and the only difference in relation to other people was that I gained more confidence and hence improved my interactions with people in that way.

I think it really depends on the person but most people start showing signs of acting more feminine or female after starting hormones but I do wonder how much of that is just the idea that you've taken a step towards fully transitioning that sort of frees otherwise blocked mentalities. I don't think hrt made me enjoy painting my nails but it was something I never thought about until afterwards =P its an interesting ride all the same. I hope you enjoy it.

There have been a lot of comments that really hit me hard in here.

I feel the same way. I just don't act very femininely, I don't feel like a woman, and I have very little understanding of what girls like to do. I try to look to my sister for inspiration, but all she does is shop for bras and watches a lot of that reality TV about girls getting pregnant and stuff. I know I'm still very early on my life and haven't done much yet for the transition, but It makes me think more about this. Right now I act very manly. I burp out loud, release gas, watch sports, fish, and go to theme parks a lot. I really do want to feel more womanly by shopping but even that scares me. A lot of you basically said that taking hrt gives you confidence and makes you feel comfortable with you. I certainly hope so.

I wanna find ways to start acting more feminine now so I can some practice for the future. Maybe i'll make my own thread on that.

I hope you can ways to help better yourself just like the rest of us have. Good luck with becoming more female.

lol Sammi

I was hanging out with my sister and her best friend the other day. They told me some of the least ladylike stories you can imagine.

Well, since it's rather impossible to compare your own thinking with that of a cis female's I'd imagine it would be difficult to tell if your mind is "switching over". My opinion is that there's really not that big of an intangible difference between male and female brains except how they are influenced by hormones, upbringing and environment.

Let's say a man and a woman are sitting together watching The Fountain. The man's emotional reciprocity might be more limited than the woman's due to far less influence by oestrogen, therefore less likely to well up over a sad scene; but would each one's ability to appreciate a fine art film have the same degree of difference? I don't believe so.

We can base statistics on stereotypes and say that men and women think very differently, but I think we would all be very surprised at how these differences have very little to do with brain functionality.

From childhood to adulthood I've never once identified with typical male interests, nor did I ever have much of a libido; but I never really identified with typical female interests, either. I was simply seen as effeminate, sweet, sensitive, and even prudish. Of course, I later realise the truth of myself, so based on that you could say I was "thinking like a female". Since that is essentially true, HRT wouldn't really do anything to me mentally except loosen things up more and allow me to explore my identity with more confidence.

I've been taking it since 11-21-14 and I have to say that the only thing that has really been noticeable, mentally, is my emotional reciprocity. I feel more compelled to nurture, protect and give affection to my closest friends; even my guy friends. Nothing has really snapped and yelled FEMALE BRAIN ACTIVATED! I've had that brain the whole time, and it's just finally getting the right chemicals.