I am starting to look ahead to when would be a good time to start HRT relative to the academic year.  (Of coures, under a physician's care and legal perscription.)

So, how long did it take before estrogen started to have a significant impact on your emotions?

How long did it take before you were able to regain control?  (By control, I mean NOT going from happy to tears to happy again in under 3 seconds!)

Any other words of advice you would offer?

I know that everyone's reaction is different.  However, I expect that there will some similarities.

Chaunte

For me, it took about 2 months to start noticing a real difference.  Regain control??    I've always been able to control them most of the time, it's just harder during those emotional times.  I think it will always be that way for me, but what do I know.  I've only been on hormones for 6 months.

Melissa

Quote from: Chaunte on August 04, 2006, 11:36:05 PM...
So, how long did it take before estrogen started to have a significant impact on your emotions?
...

I will be generous and say a month, I am inclined to think it was less however.

Quote from: Chaunte on August 04, 2006, 11:36:05 PM...
How long did it take before you were able to regain control?  (By control, I mean NOT going from happy to tears to happy again in under 3 seconds!)
...

I do not seem to bounce around like that, thankfully. However I do not think my emotions are any harder to mange than the hell before. However, to me, it is much more difficult to feel the shift than before. This may however be as much a result of no longer watchdogging them.

Quote from: Chaunte on August 04, 2006, 11:36:05 PM
I am starting to look ahead to when would be a good time to start HRT relative to the academic year.  (Of coures, under a physician's care and legal perscription.)

So, how long did it take before estrogen started to have a significant impact on your emotions?

How long did it take before you were able to regain control?  (By control, I mean NOT going from happy to tears to happy again in under 3 seconds!)

Any other words of advice you would offer?

I know that everyone's reaction is different.  However, I expect that there will some similarities.

Chaunte

My own personal experience was that I started to detect changes in about a month after I started.  However having said that, I have not had any emotional ups and downs where there was a need to "regain control".  I seem to be in a steady state, with the occasional teary eye episode but not nearly as much as some.

Everyone is different, but I would think that a target date for starting HRT would make sense for you at the end of the school year, that way you have the summer months to deal with any issues that arise without the fear that they would impact the academic year.  I started on March 13th, that way (with 3 months being the average time to "see" the effects of HRT) 3 months would bring me to the end of the academic year, and left me the summer to come to terms with it.

Just my thoughts.

Steph

If anything, I became more emotional.  It took a few weeks to notice changes.  The sense of smell changed for me... I really can't describe it but things just smelled different.  Although I was not attracted to men, they smelled better.

The emotional aspects were difficult for me to deal with due to the immense pressure applied to my by my employer, family, and church.  Emotionally, I could not handle it all and I collapsed. So, I can see now why therapists want to make sure that candidates are ready.  Back when I did this, standards of care were fairly loose.  In some ways things were easier, but in others, we were hung out to dry.

Cindi

I started on depo shots.... it took maby a week or two before the emotions started.... got really bad after like 1 1/2 months and I was able to gain some semblance of controll after 3 or 4 months (all from the time I started)  I say semblance of controll because I was never able to be that same rock wall I was before  *shrugs*  but then again I see that as a good thing.

Good luck and my best wishes *hugs*  and becarefull     (breaking down on the freeway isnt fun LoL)

Quote from: Steph on August 05, 2006, 01:46:55 AM

Quote from: Chaunte on August 04, 2006, 11:36:05 PM
I am starting to look ahead to when would be a good time to start HRT relative to the academic year.  (Of coures, under a physician's care and legal perscription.)

So, how long did it take before estrogen started to have a significant impact on your emotions?

How long did it take before you were able to regain control?  (By control, I mean NOT going from happy to tears to happy again in under 3 seconds!)

Any other words of advice you would offer?

I know that everyone's reaction is different.  However, I expect that there will some similarities.

Chaunte

My own personal experience was that I started to detect changes in about a month after I started.  However having said that, I have not had any emotional ups and downs where there was a need to "regain control".  I seem to be in a steady state, with the occasional teary eye episode but not nearly as much as some.

Everyone is different, but I would think that a target date for starting HRT would make sense for you at the end of the school year, that way you have the summer months to deal with any issues that arise without the fear that they would impact the academic year.  I started on March 13th, that way (with 3 months being the average time to "see" the effects of HRT) 3 months would bring me to the end of the academic year, and left me the summer to come to terms with it.

Just my thoughts.

Steph

I was thinking mid-June once classes were over and exams were about to start.  That would give me about 2 1/2 months before classes resumed.  Somehow starting HRT during the most stressful part of the year, the last 2 weeks before finals, does not sound like a good idea.  But exam weeks is a different matter - I hope!

I don't know if I am ready for my sense of smell to return, Tink.  It's been - what - almost 30 years since cinnamaldehyde (essence of cinnamon) destroyed it.  If the senses are hightened, that alone will be a massive shock.  (On a good day, I might be able to smell the flowers in church on Easter Sunday (bizzions of flowers everywhere!) for maybe 30 seconds before the aroma is lost.)

Emotional puberty all in a span of 3 to 6 months.  Dear Lord, protect any student or administrator who crosses me!  (Probably not a good time to learn how to use a bat'leth!  )

Chaunte

In any case, you ladies are all lucky. Imagine being a man and having to go through female puberty (and this for years, not just months!). The higher my testosterone has risen (through natural means only), the less emotional I have become, and I assume it would be the opposite effect with you girls. Control over emotions, however, is something anyone has to deal with, regardless of estrogen levels.

Rafe

Let me throw in my two cents.  I'm 5 months into HRT now.

Definitely, my sense of smell has changed.  It's as if both the volume has been turned up and the tone control has been cranked.  I never noticed before that men's odors and women's odors were so distinct from each other.  My own body odor changed, too, and I LIKE it!

Emotionally, that volume knob has also been cranked.  I haven't spilled over into tears yet, but I've felt somethin akin to raw emotion welling up within me with much more frequency and intensity and I like that, too.  The emotion feels like joy and sadness mixed together and undifferentiated.  I'm anticipating that if I become REALLY happy, I might end up crying.

Those who I'm out to have commented on my happiness, those who don't know yet are wondering what's up with me -- why is it that lately I seem happy all of the time?  (They've also been noticing and talking about a few other things, too  > )

I'm a little more subject to the occasional mild depression, though, so it's not all sweetness and light.  But I'll gladly take a little bad with all the good.

Karen

Yes one months started noticing differences. Between 1 month and now (2 months) have had several big emotional events. I had not cried in years, but listening to an old breakup song brought tears: Heaven Knows . Crying was really different. And feeling hurt over seemingly small things.  I felt really alone also , and still do sometimes.

I dont know anything past this though since I havent experienced it.