I've always thought a visit from Auntie Fanny was reserved only for those born female. Turns out people outside of that range can experience PMS-like symptoms on a monthly cycle, and one of those people may be me. (Do I celebrate? It may be more appropriate to cry under a pile of blankets and eat cake.)

I've been on HRT for over 10 months, and I've notice that at about the end of each month, I get episodes lasting about a week of waking up with terrible cramps, nausea, soreness, and mood swings strong enough to send you to the moon. What fresh hell have I stumbled upon?

Googling my suspicions, I found many other transwomen with similar experiences. Monthly cycles are not uncommon for us. Even cis-men can experience symptoms due the body's natural regulation of hormones. It seems that what our bodies do with the hormones we introduce can produce similar level changes and symptoms to cis-females.

Is there anyone else here that experiences these monthly cycles? I find it a mixture of fascinating, exciting, and down-right god awful because nausea is the worst.

- Sunny

Idk if I get them myself as I don't track my moodiness, but I'd assume it's just placebo.

It happens. It took me forever to realize that's what was going on and why I'd suddenly get so moody out of nowhere.

I'm still trying to map out exactly what the cycle is and how long it lasts. I get periods of being really moody in a negative way, and a time of emotional vulnerability where I feel quite small in a really big world or like the world is scary and dangerous or something, and about a week of feeling really feminine (and getting turned on really easily/a lot)...and like a week or 2 of being just average across everything. Not necessarily in that order, they're just the various states I've noticed myself maintaining for a few days or week+.

Each of these modes seems to have a pretty big impact on how I subconsciously act and how I see myself in the mirror, I'm not sure if other people can see it or not.

I've tried keeping track of my overall moods a few times, but give up pretty quickly each time.

Im on weekly injections so thats the cause for my ups and downs. I do occasionally experience cramping or pain in the area where my ovaries would be, which leads me to suspect I might have some undeveloped tissue or something. Cysts are a part of my genes unfortunately, so I wouldn't be too surprised if that was it. As far as monthly cycles go, I used to experience that constantly when I was on pills. I think that had to do with the short half life of the pills. PMS in itself is just basically drops in E and P throughout the menstrual cycle, well thats a very simplified explanation. There's way more to it than that obviously