Hello! So I already did an introduction thread for myself in another part of the forum, but since I'm new here I'll give a brief less detailed recap

Back in February (after a month of not drinking) I decided that I finally need to transition. I started coming out to some friends and in March I started seeing a therapist. I was very overweight when I started all this so my first focus was on weight loss. back in december I was over 286, now I'm down to 218! I saw a gender specialist back in May and we talked and I told him that I wanted to start HRT on my birthday (today!). Well I went and saw him on Friday and got my prescription!

I'm starting on a low dose of Spiro and a low dose of estradiol for 2 months and then I go back for a checkup. I actually started the Spiro on saturday because I wanted to get used to that before going to work on monday. I know there's probably a lot of these threads, but everyone's different and I'm hoping that maybe mine will help someone starting to transition, so I'll probably just use this thread to give updates every so often

So on saturday I took the Spiro around 10am. I thought I was going to be peeing a ton and feel drained but that didn't really happen. I know at one point in the day this feeling of joy came over me but I don't think the pill caused it, I think it was me building stuff up in my head lol. There was one point where I felt a little iffy but it passed quick.

Sunday I took the Spiro sometime in the early afternoon. I got up semi early and went out for breakfast, then I went to the store for a few things and then I went to the park and jogged for a half hour and then walked for almost 2 hours. after that I met a friend for ice cream and then I took the Spiro when I got home. it hit me a lot harder the 2nd day! I got really sleepy and took a nap, and then I just felt drowsy for the rest of the day.

This morning I took the spiro and then estradiol for the first time around 6am. I have a pretty active job where I'm constantly moving all day, so I figured I wouldn't really notice any changes on the first day. I didn't have any mental changes just yet, and that's fine, I'm sure they'll start soon enough, but the one thing that I felt today was a little tightness in my testicles, it started around 1030am. I haven't read about this happening to others but it makes sense to me that it would happen seeing as that's where the testosterone is coming from! so has anyone else experienced that?

Be sure to drink plenty of water, keep diuretics under control and eat as much salt as you crave if you want to minimize the drowsiness and tiredness.

Quote from: Maddie86 on July 17, 2017, 09:20:44 PM
I didn't have any mental changes just yet, and that's fine, I'm sure they'll start soon enough, but the one thing that I felt today was a little tightness in my testicles, it started around 1030am. I haven't read about this happening to others but it makes sense to me that it would happen seeing as that's where the testosterone is coming from! so has anyone else experienced that?

I've often thought that there is only one sensation that comes from the testicles, pain. The intensity of that sensation can vary wildly. An hour or so after taking my first dose of estradiol, I had some very mild testicular sensation. It only lasted for a few hours and I've never had that happen since. You're the only other person that I've seen to report that.

Quote from: KayXo on July 17, 2017, 11:49:14 PM
Be sure to drink plenty of water, keep diuretics under control and eat as much salt as you crave if you want to minimize the drowsiness and tiredness.

^^THIS! Kay offers sage advice and I wholeheartedly agree especially because you have a "pretty active job."

Hope this helps,
--AshleyP

Congrats!

I too felt that testicular pain and still do occasionally. Nothing really terrible. Just uncomfortable and unfamiliar.

thanks for the replies! and i'm definitely relieved that others have felt that hehe, I haven't read about anyone else feeling it so i was a little worried!

and don't worry, I stay plenty hydrated at work, there's water fountains all over the place and I'm pretty good about drinking. just took my 2nd dose of estradiol a few minutes ago

Hi Maddie

It won't be too long before you start to feel something once the AA and the Oestrogen have had a chance to start working maybe a few days,  I mistook my first breast growth for muscle pain, it may take a little while for enough of everything to get going in your system...but I am sure it won't be long 

I wonder if its the AA that may be causing that tightening? I take only oestrogen. I can't say I have experienced that. So maybe the AA is the reason...it sounds like a number of others have had the issue so I could well be the odd one out.

You are on your way congats....

Ok so I'm about to go to sleep soon and that will conclude my 7th day on HRT

so that tightness in my testicles that I reported in my first post hasn't come back yet. I still have yet to feel any mental changes either. I feel like my skin has gotten a little softer though, not by much, but enough for me to notice. I also occasionally feel a slight numbness around my lips, it's been happening all week, so I think it's def from the hrt. Friday after I shaved I did notice that my face looked a little different, but I've also been losing a lot of weight, so it's probably from that more than anything

speaking of weight loss, I weigh myself every friday and this week I was at 213lbs, which is 4 less than the week before! It felt like I lost more though, sometimes weight loss can work in mysterious ways. I was worried about my weight loss coming to a halt once I started hormones, but I think that since I'm at such a low dose I'll still be able to drop pounds for a while. I'd like to lose another 35 to 40 altogether and then maybe start to put some weight back on to develop some curves, but that's going to take time. my short term goal is to get down to 200 by Sept 1st, which I think I can do. an even more ambitious goal would be to get to 190 by my next doctor's visit on Sept 15th, that's when he will hopefully up my dosage! we'll see about that one lol.

One question I do have though is what have people noticed when they got their doses upped? did things start happening faster? I looked on youtube yesterday at people who were just starting and my spiro is the same dose as theirs, but their estrodiol is twice what I'm taking, so I'll ask my doctor about that at my next visit.

I think so far I'm feeling the affects of the spiro more than anything. at first I wasn't peeing too much, maybe once an hour while I was at work, but this weekend it seemed like it's been a lot more often, and I haven't been drinking as much as I should, a couple times I stood up and felt lightheaded, I definitely need to be more careful about that. I feel like I've lost strength already, but there's a lot of things that could be the cause of that. I have a job that's physically demanding, and it was especially demanding this week, I wore myself out a lot and it was also a little hotter out this week than usual. I guess it's not really my physical strength that I feel I lost, it's my energy, I feel I'm moving slower. I just feel drained and I think it might be more of a hydration issue. I have no problem jogging after work and going for walks or rucking, but I don't have the energy to play my guitar, which I really need to get back into.

For the most part I've been sleeping better. I have no issues falling asleep, but if I wake up I do tend to have a hard time getting back to sleep, one morning I woke up around 5 and couldn't get anymore sleep, but for the most part I'm better. I used to take zzzquil a few nights a week but I think last week I didn't use it at all. I feel like my appetite has been up too, ugh. I went out to dinner last night and ate a huge plate of food and I should have been stuffed but I felt like there was still room for more. I'm usually pretty good during the week but I do let loose on the weekends, and I'm really gunna have to watch that. I've been wanting to snack so much this last week but a lot of the times I caught myself, I'm surprised I was able to lose that 4lbs! I hope the scale is good to me this friday!

Thanks for reading! I'll report again in a week, unless something happens before then that I feel is noteworthy!

oh yeah, I can't believe I forgot this! The skin on my face definitely looks clearer now! It's usually a little blotchy and gets irritated easily but it looks a lot healthier now! I feel like I notice a new little glow when I look in the mirror now hehe 

so some updates from my last post

my skin is still definitely clearing up, I look much younger! I sent my friends a recent pic to compare to one from 2 weeks before I started and they were all impressed with how good I'm looking! My skin still seems like it's getting softer too

I noticed that my hair seems to be dryer now. I'm goin shampoo shopping with one of my girlfriends next week and hopefully we can find something to help, my ends are getting pretty bad, they get a lot more tangled than they used to

sex drive is way down

now here's the big one, this actually has me pretty upset. I've been losing weight since February and for the first time this week I actually GAINED some back. About 2lbs. WTF? my first week on HRT I actually lost 3 to 4! I pushed myself extra hard this past week because I really wanted to drop another 13lbs before September, but now idk if that can happen, ugh. I've lost 70lbs so far and I really wanna lose another 30

on a positive note, a friend of mine was in town from Philly this week and I came out to her! It went well, she was super happy for me and it looked like she was gunna cry lol. She told me to come down sometime and we could have a girls night, so I'll probably do that this fall, I'm soooo looking forward to it!

Quote from: Maddie86 on July 29, 2017, 05:19:17 AM


now here's the big one, this actually has me pretty upset. I've been losing weight since February and for the first time this week I actually GAINED some back. About 2lbs.

Me to my Dr "So what kind of side effects should I expect from HRT?"

Dr "About 10lbs"

Me "Thanks Doc..thanks a lot" 

Skin/hair getting drier is normal on low T, higher E. Two things that helped with that, progesterone and/or a dab of testosterone (I'm post-op).

As far as sex drive, I never noticed much of a difference post-HRT except that, once again, either progesterone or testosterone helped things become more exciting, especially T as regards to erogenous zones and sensitivity.

Now you know...

Oh yea, girls are supposed to be "thicker" so expect some of that too. Perfectly normal. 

ok so I'm feeling better. I was pretty bummed about the weight gain and then on saturday I went to the park and did my usual routine and it took me longer and I didn't even finish, which was really upsetting. I was just drained, I couldn't keep going. then sunday morning was big. I met one of my girlfriends at the park who works out a lot, and I told her I wanted to break my record. My typical lap around the park is 2.78 miles, and my record was 30 minutes and 45 seconds. we did the lap in 29 minutes and 15 seconds, I broke my record by a minute and a half!!! that really raised my spirits and got me in a better mood, to celebrate I went out and bought myself a badly needed new pair of running shoes. The rest of the day I had no problems with my energy, and my energy was fine today at work too and also after work when I went back to the park and came really close to the same time as yesterday!! So now I just have to work on controlling my appetite. I don't get as full as I used to and once I start eating it's hard to stop! I need to portion my meals and also start chewing gum before I eat too much as a way to get myself to stop lol

so today marks the start of my 3rd week on hormones. still no mental changes, and no breast development either. I'm ok for now though, I had great mental changes over the winter when I started coming out to my friends and then started exercising. and also, I'm a big girl, I've had boobs since 3rd grade hehe

Hi Maddie,

  It sounds like you are doing fine and have  a good Idea of what you want during this journey of yours. I'm doing good if I get 3 miles finished in an hour but then I walk now.  Age and smoking for too many years keeps me from running these days. Keep you goals in mind and keep working for them and you will accomplish them.

Hugs,
   Laurie

3 weeks in, starting my 4th today!

this was a pretty decent week, I got my energy back and I've had no problem jogging, and idk how, but my last weigh in was like 215 and now i'm down to 208!!

I might be starting to see some slight mental changes too, a couple days ago I got a little too excited when I saw a cute bunny and I also let out an "awww yay!" when I saw that the Halloween store was getting ready to open lol

another big thing is that yesterday I went out shopping in public for the 2nd time for women's clothes with some girlfriends of mine. Penneys is having a sale plus I had a coupon and a gift card, I saved over $200 and got some really cute stuff! I had a lot of fun, it was so exciting!

As I was leaving the mall my one friend came over to talk to me for a min though. She said that this one guy I'm friends with came up to her husband (who does know about me) and asked if he knew anything about me transitioning. he played dumb, which was nice of him, but she just wanted me to know that people are starting to notice

Quote from: Maddie86 on August 07, 2017, 05:30:47 AM
3 weeks in, starting my 4th today!

this was a pretty decent week, I got my energy back and I've had no problem jogging, and idk how, but my last weigh in was like 215 and now i'm down to 208!!

I might be starting to see some slight mental changes too, a couple days ago I got a little too excited when I saw a cute bunny and I also let out an "awww yay!" when I saw that the Halloween store was getting ready to open lol

another big thing is that yesterday I went out shopping in public for the 2nd time for women's clothes with some girlfriends of mine. Penneys is having a sale plus I had a coupon and a gift card, I saved over $200 and got some really cute stuff! I had a lot of fun, it was so exciting!

As I was leaving the mall my one friend came over to talk to me for a min though. She said that this one guy I'm friends with came up to her husband (who does know about me) and asked if he knew anything about me transitioning. he played dumb, which was nice of him, but she just wanted me to know that people are starting to notice

Hi Maddie

I am sure you will crying all over the place before you know it  A friend of mine suggested I should invest in  "Tissue's" (as in blow your nose) as I was going to be using a lot of them...and she wasn't wrong.

Quote from: ElizabethK on August 07, 2017, 05:41:51 AM
Hi Maddie

I am sure you will crying all over the place before you know it  A friend of mine suggested I should invest in  "Tissue's" (as in blow your nose) as I was going to be using a lot of them...and she wasn't wrong.

hehe I'm kinda looking forward to this, I'm a little bummed that it hasn't happened yet. I've always been a little emotional though, certain songs or movies usually make me tear up pretty easily!

also, I forgot to mention in my last post that yesterday when I was shopping I saw a cute top that I couldn't pull off but I showed it to  my friend and said she should get it and she actually bought it! that made me pretty happy

Quote from: Maddie86 on August 07, 2017, 04:39:04 PM
hehe I'm kinda looking forward to this, I'm a little bummed that it hasn't happened yet. I've always been a little emotional though, certain songs or movies usually make me tear up pretty easily!

I didn't notice a big change in my tendency to cry until my doc increased my E dosage by 25%.  I have always cried at movies, but all of a sudden any strong feeling, good or bad, will start the waterworks.  I love it!

time for my weekly update

tomorrow will be the start of my 5th week on HRT. this means I'm due for a refill! I called in my prescription yesterday and then I called today to check on it, and I'm sure glad I did because unfortunately I ran into an issue. My insurance isn't going to cover the refills. I'm not surprised, I was actually surprised that they covered the first batch, it says in my plan that they don't cover anything related to transitioning, yet they've covered my therapist, my bloodwork, and my first 2 doctor's visits. the pharmacist said on the phone that he can get me a discount card where I would be paying $9.99 each for the spiro and estradiol, which is great, but now I'm worried about them covering my next doctor's appointment, and especially my next blood test. sigh.

well onto more positive things... I'm finally starting to notice more mental changes! Fall is my absolute favorite season and it's starting to show signs that it's right around the corner and the hormones have me feeling more excited than ever! I drove by some trees where the leaves were starting to turn red and my jaw dropped and I smiled for a good 20 seconds and I was so excited that I couldn't even make a sound. I went to the grocery store friday night and the entrance smelled like fall spices and it hit me HARD, it made me so happy that I couldn't help but smile like a goon, I tried to hide it but it was no use! I've noticed that I'm smiling more in general too, I'm a lot happier now! and while I'm still mostly in male mode at work, I def act girlier around my girlfriends now, I love just hanging out and talking!

on the health front I've still been not good with my eating. It's especially hard since hoopla added some new fro-yo flavors, they have a salted caramel pretzel flavor that you can twist with peanut butter fro-yo and it's like my new favorite thing everrrr, ugh! I've been upping my game while jogging though, I broke my record the other day by 6 seconds, and then today I broke it by almost 2 minutes!! I did 2.9 miles in 27 minutes and 20 seconds! I was pretty proud of myself! Unfortunately, I didn't lose any weight when I weighed in on friday. I cheated a bit over the weekend but that's over, I'm gunna be more strict this week, I'm gunna leave my cash and credit cards at home so I'll be forced to eat what I already have on hand! wish me luck and thanks for reading 

Congrats on everything.

I'm not far behind you in terms of start dates of HRT.  I have noticed some mental changes.  It's hard to describe but things seem quieter in my head.  My skin does feel a little softer but I don't know how much of that is from the change in body wash and from the HRT.  I have noticed that the pores on my nose are smaller and look better.  I have had the testicular pain as well but it hasn't bothered me all that much.

Good luck.

maddie if you don't mind me asking how tall are you ? i'm 5 10 1/2 and my weight is about the same as yours. thank you