Hi everybody, I have been taking estradiol pills and finasteride( the dose that comes for hbp). I can not tolerate spironolactone, so I am not a fan of antiandrogens, but I am afraid that with only estradiol pills , my testo will not drop to female levels. I have felt good emotionally taking the drug but I have noticed some weight loss, any of you that has used finasteride has had this symptom? My endo tried to put me on Cyproterone, which I used for about some six months, but I do not like the idea of using a progestogen that can interfere with estradiol levels, Cyproterone lowered my testo a lot but it downregulates estrogens. And besides that my endo does not like the idea of adding micronized progesterone, he thinks it has no sense!!! I am very thin, and it is very difficult for me to gain weight, so now I am taking one more estradiol pill to see if I can gain same fat redistribution. Any experience? I am open ears!!!

I'm only on low dose Finasteride to supplement my hrt regimen and keep my dht levels down. Finasteride won't do much if anything for testosterone. It isn't very common now days, but some of the ladies who transitioned years ago will be able to give you some input on HRT prior to anti-androgens being widely used. Estrogen can be effective on its own, but it might require larger doses to negatively effect testosterone and would probably take longer to show results. Finasteride will only help your cause and will prevent your DHT from fluctuating and might help with things like reducing muscle mass.

As far as weight goes, in the 4 months since I started Finasteride, my weight has stayed about the same. I don't know how it might interact with estrogen on that front.