About 6-9 months after starting HRT (spiro, estradiol & finasteride) I started noticing bumps or indentations on my thumbnails. Now after 20 months I have horizontal indentations on all but 2 nail beds with the worst/most noticible on both thumbs. They now flake and split easily.  Has anyone experienced similar problems?

Quote from: trish33455 on October 31, 2017, 07:44:41 AM
About 6-9 months after starting HRT (spiro, estradiol & finasteride) I started noticing bumps or indentations on my thumbnails. Now after 20 months I have horizontal indentations on all but 2 nail beds with the worst/most noticible on both thumbs. They now flake and split easily.  Has anyone experienced similar problems?

Yep the same, but they seem confined to my thumb and index mostly. The hand less used (left) fared much better.

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Hmmm.  My left thumb has had a ridge that often split at the end, but my hands and nails have been pretty beat up at times because of the work I did.  I haven't noticed too much of a change, but I'll have to keep watch and see.  I take very good care of my hands now and always wear hardening polish and they seem much better, but something to keep an eye on.  Toni

I had several of my nails get ridges in my twenties.  I was told it was because of diet.  I was surviving on pot stickers at the time, odd but they were very convenient in Japan and cheap.  Anyway, the ridges never went away on me.  I don't think they were hormone related on me, as I didn't start experimenting with hormones till I was 30 , but who knows I've always had issues.

Bari Jo

HRT has pretty much destroyed my nails. I can't grow them long as before and most of them are ridged. I constantly get splits/cracks at the ends. Always clipping them short to help keep the splits under control. Just hoping someday things will improve....

Hope you don't mind me posting. From the opposite side I've noticed recently my nails are a lot sharper/harder and grow more quickly. I get now why men don't bother filing their nails. It's a pain; wish I had the same nails I had pre T

I haven't noticed much difference except they are less brittle. Mine were always breaking. If I had been a person who wanted them long they wouldn't have survived for long I'm sure.

Any white dots or deformations I might have seen in them in the past were due either to a vitamin issue, or an injury, or a temporary sickness.

I do notice over 10 years or so they've got more vertical ridges on them in general. I don't think T has increased that, but it has slightly increased the thickness of the nails, I think. 

I hope mine stay close to the same. Eventually I'll be making changes. My libido is already low, function is minimal, so changes to make it go away won't change much there. It's all the other changes swimming in my head .... but, to topic.

this is what mine look like now, simple clean (cleaner than the picture looks). I like them as they are ....



psst .. ignore the hair stragglers. I guess I missed some, I didn't see them until the picture :/

Lack of testosterone caused my nails to break easer and become thiner however a major problem happened when I went through puberty for the first time. My nails started to grow out very rough looking somewhat like sandpaper. A doctor shot a substance at the root of the nail (ouch, ouch, ouch) that caused it to stop growing then restart. It kind of cleared up the treated nail but I didn't have any more injections for the remainder of the nails. After a few years my body chemistry must have changed again because the nails cleared up. They still grow out with ridges but the roughness is gone. You might have them checked out just incase it's a fungus but otherwise I suspect they will clear up as your body reaches a new balance.

Since starting spiro and estradiol a month ago, I did notice my nails grow slower. I used to HAVE to cut my nails weekly or they would get long and look weird. Now it's been 2 weeks and they're fine.  They feel softer to me too. Maybe it's too soon to tell though.

Boy I hope this isn't the case? I had SRS 40 years ago but have been off HRT for something like a dozen years and recently just started again. If it screws up my nails, I'm going to be pissed.    It's bad enough my stupid boobs and nipples hurt which can't go away soon enough, as far as I'm concerned. I don't need this crap at my age!



I'm on progesterone too though and heard that it helps with this? I hope so? I can't afford acrylics.

I had no such problems with my nails either before HRT, or after. My nails are very thick and strong. But I've heard about such a problem from other people.

Mine are wreked by HRT. I could undo screws with them before!I worked on cars & bikes without a problem, a few weeks after HRT they split like wood

Try Mane and Tail Hoofmaker hand cream:  http://manentail.com/products/hoofmaker/ Formulated for equines like the name suggests, but it turns out it's great for human nails too.

Thanks will check it out

Yup, count me in.  Wasn't sure before, but I just took all my polish off (time to re do) and all my nails have small grooves in them, though they don't seem to be weak or brittle.  Grow like crazy.  My guess is that the grooves are a girl thing designed by nature to hold polish better. :-)I