I just got started on spiro!  The pills honestly taste like candy canes

Now I have an open question to the floor...

My endo wanted to start me on a small dose of all three at once (spiro, E, and progesterone) but my therapists letter was only for the spiro so she said to see if my therapist would change his mind, anyone else get conflicting messages from endo/therapist?  Just seems odd that they would disagree on this.  Seeing my therapist on the 4th so I'll be asking him then.

*does happy dance again*

Yay, Jessie!!! Super big congrats!!

Sorry I can't help with the spiro/e question because I have the same one. My therapist recommends starting on sprio only for a while (~6 months). Perhaps someone else can shed light on this?

Congrats again!!

I dunno, it seems odd that a therapist could know what hormones are best for your body compared to the endo. Weird.

Spiro is minty isn't it! Awesome news Jessie!

I don't think the reason is health-related - probably more for the therapist than you.  No matter how certain you may be, the therapist might want to start you off with just spiro to see the reaction.  After they see the result (ie. you being happier) I would be surprised if estrogen is not added.

QuoteThe pills honestly taste like candy canes

I don't know what spiro you have, but my gag reflex kicks in if too much dissolves on my tongue   I make sure that doesn't happen whenever possible.

Heh thanks all, and Kieri I would agree with you on that, atleast I hope that is how it happens, we had a long list of goals (lose some weight, work on getting a job, start dressing at home more etc...) but that can all take so much time

What Spiro are you all taking that tastes minty?  The stuff I have is chalky and gross. :-/

Great news tho, Jessie.   Congrats.

For me it was the opposite. My therapist was fine with me starting everything, but my doctor wanted to build up slowly and monitor pretty closely as she ramped up the dosages and added things one at a time. So that's how I got my HRT, and honestly I don't mind it in retrospect. It just makes you impatient for a short while.

I'm going to have to guess here, but I suspect your therapist intends the spiro as a way to test whether this is right for you before you make any irreversible changes. On spiro your sex drive will lower pretty significantly. And you know what? It doesn't ever come back to as high as it was before. Some people have a problem with this, and those people are not likely to be happy with the long term effects of HRT. But a lot of us found that to be a relief.

I'd just talk to your therapist about it to find out what he's thinking.

Congrats Jessie!

My pills also have a candy cane taste/smell, but it tastes like an awful candy cane, super awful . I've never had an awful candy cane, but if I did they would be just like this pill .

Congrats on the spiro, bummer on the other stuff

Given my personality I may have asked the therapist if they wondered how I felt about that

Then I would have told them that I think the endo knows best and that I'm getting a new therapist

Oh yeah, my spiro has a minty taste also

@Natalie

Just based on what it says on the bottle, Novo-Spiroton is the brand I think, no idea if that's correct or not...

@ Diana

What sex drive?  I've never had one to lose so... erm, yeah...

@ Katelyn, it does have a bit of an aftertaste but seems fine to me, might just be the pure excitement over getting them that over-rides my taste buds right now tho

My doc started me on Spiro, E and Progesterone all at the same time.  So I don't see a medical reason for it.  (especially since the endo appears to disagree too   )
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Minty Spiro?  It depends on the brand.  The first 3 month scrip I got was from the clinic pharmacy.  Very minty going down and a definite aftertaste.  I've since switched to cheaper stuff from Walmart.  No minty taste at all.  I think I've kind of gotten used to the odd chalky taste that the mint is supposed to cover-up  though, as I don't even notice it anymore.
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Anyway...Congrats!  and enjoy the happy dance.. 

Sounds like your endo wants you to get on with your new life and your therapist wants to milk it, in the name of "caution" of course.

Hormones are by medical definition Endocrines, which is an endocrinologist does!

Therapists know about therapy, endocrinologists know about hormones.

If in doubt I personally would always let the endocrinologist do what he wants to do and stuff the therapist. Great thing is you have perfect plausible deniability too. I fthe therapist complains you just say, "well I was only doing what the endo advised me to - following medical advice..." Hehe!

Bah my therapist knows I'm too smart for the "just following orders" excuse, I would have liked to start on everything but whats done is done, I'm just happy to be starting anything at all

If I'm lucky maybe he'll change his mind and give the go ahead with all of them when I see him on the fourth.

Awesome, Jessie.  I always thought Spiro did have a minty taste to it.

Quote from: Virginia Marie on May 27, 2010, 09:08:31 PM
Given my personality I may have asked the therapist if they wondered how I felt about that

Yes!   

Sounds like your therapist has a gatekeeping side to them.  I have heard of women starting with spiro only at first.  But as the others said, this is really a physician's call, why would the therapist know what is best?  Did she give a time estimate of when she will decide whether you are ready for something else?  Grrr, I hate control freaks.

the spiro first theory is to try reduce the testo effects but over here in Uk its usual to get both estro and spiro at the start.
what really shoudl be first step is a blood test to see what a newbie's levels are as it may be that spiro only is best or estro or both and high or low doses of one or the other.
Then of course it is unnatural for a male body to ingest estrogen and spiro so theer can be complications that a low initial dose might show up.
medics have to protect themselves from malpractice so they will err on the cautious side and use typical doses so they don't get accused of overdosing problems.
No-one can know about underdosing as if underdosing doeswn't produce any results well it's just bacause every person is different.

Bah little bit late updating this

Anyways, my therapist feels that I need to have some RLE before he approves me for hormones, and thinks I need to have a job before hand as well because I lack the funds to proceed with things like facial hair removal

Now here I am thinking that I already stick out like a sore thumb being a bit overweight with terrible acne, now throw me in a dress... yeah   Honestly considering going to my endo and saying that I'm doing it black market and asking weather or not she would prefer monitor me

@lilacwoman, I had already had the blood tests done before that, no worries.