Do you count your first day of HRT, the day that you take your first pill or the first day you take a full dosage of HRT including Estradiol and Spiro for MTF's?

Example:  I started my very first pill of estradiol in a "low Dosage" mode back in April of 2015, after a while I decided to increase to transitional dosage which I did about 4 months ago and at the same time starting a low dosage of Spiro, finally after adjusting my diet to lower my potassium level, switched to full transitioning Estradiol and Spiro 2 months ago.

In your opinion:

A- Have been on Hormones for 16 months?   
B- 4 Months?
C- Or 2 months?

Reason I am asking is to trying to ascertain if my minor physical changes are in tune with the long term partial dosage or the short term of the full dosage.

BTW, I am 62 Y.O. MTF

The first pill of Spiro or estrogen. I started both at the same time but it need not be that way.

I personally consider the start of hrt , the day I took my first pills.

The effect was immediate,  I felt like I was walking on clouds. After a year of being full time with no hrt, I finally felt I was really taking a major positive step forward.

Low dose to start with is common , to check for side effects and bad reactions. The older a person is the more caution the doctor has normally. Had my dose increase twice over 5 months and bioindentical progesterone added.

So my transtition begin about a year and a half ago (going fulltime for real life experience), 5 months on hrt

Quote from: Rachel Lynn on August 23, 2016, 06:15:18 PM
The first pill of Spiro or estrogen. I started both at the same time but it need not be that way.

I agree with Rachel Lynn on this. It is how I set up my ticker too.

Warmly,

Joanna

The first pill I would say. I started with estradiol and added Spiro 10 days later


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The first pull and I originally started with a small dose of Estrofem. Hugs Shannon

Mod Edit:Dosage

Same with me - the first day i took spiro

I will also vote for the first pill date. For me it has been all about the emotional and psych side of things and I am almost tempted to count from my first day of therapy because that is when it began to feel real to me, really taking positive steps to achieve a place for the real me in my life.

And I must state the obvious caution; YMMV. You are 62, I am 68. Any expectations of experiencing "Normal" development cycles may not be appropriate to us. A random gathering of development time lines suggest some folks have waited many years for any signs physical changes and the other end of the spectrum suggests that some few have developed a DD cup, almost the day before their first pill. That said, at two months into hrt I have noticed very, very little physical changes (though I constantly check) and the changes to my emotions and feelings of well being, I would not give up for anything! - Anne

I have been taking medical doses for heart disease of Spiro for 25 years and while it did devastate my sex drive and give a decent B cup. I consider the beginning to be about 10 days ago when I started estradiol. The effects have been more than I could ever imagined.

I'd have to agree with everyone else. Even low dose HRT can have profound effects. Personally my E & T levels switched places in 7 weeks of low dose Estradiol & Spiro. YMMV

Thank you for all of your opinions, I guess that after taking estrogen and Spiro in slowly increasing dosages for 16 months under endo supervision, I don't have much to show! the combination of age and that my starting level of testosterone was almost 800 had delayed much of the desired changed. As of the last blood test two months ago, my Testosterone was still 369 and Estradiol was 41, but some of it may have been caused by a setback, which surprised my endo as a result of talking OTC melatonin to sleep which although is not reported as having any contraindications with Estradiol does have some flag as causing birth control pill to be ineffective.

My body changes have been almost no hair growth, some reduction of sexual organs size, enough breast growth to prevent me from walking without at least a T-shirt and more self acceptance. 

Will let you know in about 2 weeks when I have some more blood work and a visit to my endo.

Thank you all for the information!

Hugz,

Emily