When I first started HRT, I took depo testosterone, one injection every other week. It was very effective for years.
About ten years ago, I started noticing that I would get a tickle in my throat and cough immediately after an injection. It never went further, but i was concerned that a reaction was occurring and told my Dr. He switched me to androderm patches. That seems to be when the  blood levels began having a problem. The patches have to be changed daily, which I have been really good about, but wonder now if I should change back to injectable. The carrier for my original injections was seasame oil and my Dr. suspected it was the source of the reaction.

Does anyone know if depo testosterone comes in a different carrier or there is a shorter acting form?
Also, (I don't know if this is a dose question, so if it is, obviously don't answer it), does anyone know if a F to M requires higher blood levels of T to maintain his masculine body than a cis male?

Thanks,
sam1234

My injections have been cotton seed oil based. My doctor originally was going to give me a different one but she didn't feel comfortable since since she had had patients react to the sesame oil based injections.

I was told by my doctor that, given the strength of testosterone as a hormone that as long as our t levels are in the normal male we should get the desired results. I don't need to tell you that it depends on the person, but I don't think we need more T than bio males per se, just whatever it takes to put us in the male range.

Sounds like it would be worth trying the cottonseed oil formulation, Sam.

As far as levels, go, it's true that cis males' T levels drop as they age, but they don't start looking less masculine until they're quite elderly, if ever. They do lose muscle mass (although that's partly related to lack of exercise), though, and I intend to keep my levels on the high-ish end of "normal male," rather than whatever would be normal for a man my age -- we work too hard for this to let ourselves go!

Quote from: Tysilio on March 25, 2015, 08:10:18 AM
Sounds like it would be worth trying the cottonseed oil formulation, Sam.

As far as levels, go, it's true that cis males' T levels drop as they age, but they don't start looking less masculine until they're quite elderly, if ever. They do lose muscle mass (although that's partly related to lack of exercise), though, and I intend to keep my levels on the high-ish end of "normal male," rather than whatever would be normal for a man my age -- we work too hard for this to let ourselves go!

Thanks,
I wondered about how our aging would compare to a cis males. Partly because the ones of us who started T later in life are actually behind in our masculine development as far as time of onset. I'll see my new Dr. next week, one that was recommended by a local trans group in town, and he has a reputation of working well with transgenders and hormone levels.

The old office called and left a message that my blood results are in, but I'm just having them sent to my new Dr. I've been on the lower dose now since August, and its like my body has gone back in time. It takes two weeks to get the equivelant of two days of beard growth on my old dose. The doc I'm giving up wanted my T as low as it could get and still be in the normal range.

sam1234

QuoteThe doc I'm giving up wanted my T as low as it could get and still be in the normal range.

%#&$*ing bozo.

Hopefully it won't take too long to get back what you've lost. I think I'm a bit older than you, and even at my age, T changes are progressing pretty well -- not as fast as I'd like, but I'm getting there. My beard seems to come in a bit more each week, although it's still nowhere near the point where, as a geezer, I'd look good with facial hair...   

But I'm pretty sure I'll get there.

I run a FB for guys over 40. Some guys in the group feel we look older after T, I don't feel this is the case, but I don't have any amount of baldness, so thinking the baldness may make people feel this way. As far as actual aging with more aging conditions, not at all. I think that heart conditions are not improved on T but muscle strength is. So you win some and lose some. I've read that T can actual decrease memory loss so...

--Jay

Quote from: sam1234 on March 26, 2015, 11:14:45 AM
Thanks,
I wondered about how our aging would compare to a cis males. Partly because the ones of us who started T later in life are actually behind in our masculine development as far as time of onset. I'll see my new Dr. next week, one that was recommended by a local trans group in town, and he has a reputation of working well with transgenders and hormone levels.

The old office called and left a message that my blood results are in, but I'm just having them sent to my new Dr. I've been on the lower dose now since August, and its like my body has gone back in time. It takes two weeks to get the equivelant of two days of beard growth on my old dose. The doc I'm giving up wanted my T as low as it could get and still be in the normal range.

sam1234

My hair is starting to thin after just over a year. I don't think it makes me look older, given how early many cis men's hair starts to go, but it does seem to help with being read as male, for some reason...

I was worried about it before I started T, but now I find I really don't care. Being happier, and comfortable with how I function in the world (for the first time in my life), makes hair pretty much irrelevant. And I'm definitely getting stronger: I lift weights, and strength gains that used to to take months now happen in weeks.

I think I gave the wrong impression as far as transgenders aging differently. When a cis guy starts T, it starts in puberty. For arguement's sake, lets say 12.  If a trans guy starts it at twenty, thirty or forty, they are just starting to react to the physical changes whereas the cis guy has been through puberty and has been experiencing its effects for many years. Therefore, does it not make sense that some latitude should be given to the trans guy as far as allowing higher levels at an older chronological age so that they have time to "go through puberty" and finish the appropriate changes before knocking it way back to the level a cis guy at the same chronological age? i'm not sure if our bodies follow that line of reasoning, though I've read that trans guys have a tendency to look younger than their cis couterparts.

sam1234

QuoteTherefore, does it not make sense that some latitude should be given to the trans guy as far as allowing higher levels at an older chronological age so that they have time to "go through puberty" and finish the appropriate changes before knocking it way back to the level a cis guy at the same chronological age?

It makes all the sense in the world to me. As long as one's levels aren't so high that too much T is being converted to estrogen, I don't see any problem with that.

You might think about pellet implants...