Hi I'm new here, my name is Jalene and I have been living full time for more than two years. I have been on hormones for a bit longer than a year. For the last five months I have been having regular monthly cycles. Cramps, moodieness, sore swollan breast and at times major pms. I talked to both my docs about this and they are unaware of any transexual woman having monthly cycles. I talked to my electroligist who has been severing the transexual community for almost thirty years and she did no one other girl that had monthly cycles.

My question is; How many transexual woman have monthly cycles? I can't be the only one who suffers this monthly curse and would really like to know if this is common, uncommon or very rare.

Thanks Jalene

I'm assuming you're doctor is having you do blood tests on a regular basis? Has anything been out of whack hormonally?

While I haven't experienced a cycle like your describing, I have had similar symptoms when there was a mix up with a batch of estradiol. Did anything change 5 months ago? Did you start taking something different? Did your diet change? Did you move in with a new roommate? Anything?

I hope everythings okay, keep us posted!

I do cycle but it is by my choice.  But I have heard of others who cycle naturally.

I do and have done just about the whole time i have been on E!!!

yeah you might want to be careful with that :/ Have you gotten yourself Tested for intersex disorders I say this because somone else once reported that and a CT scan showed they had a uterus and a single ovary retained internally although they had no vagina.

I've got a natural cycle with an intersex condition, but mine predated HRT.

At a bare minimum get your hormone levels checked regularly.  If you do have an intersex condition, HRT doses which are typical for a transwoman might not be right for you.

I have predictable monthly mood cycles and I am pre-HRT. Sometimes I am even in sync with my female partner.

I am surprised the docs hadn't come across this before. There are rare cases of cis-men have been presented as having cycles. Furthermore, men are not unlikely to experience sympathetic-pregnancy when their partner is pregnant. So if cis-men experience some of these things and you are a trans woman who is undergoing HRT, well it's very possible.

***raises hand
It started for me about 6 months (?) into HRT.
Cramps, bitchyness, bloating. Everything but the bleeding.
I was told that it is a result of our endocrine system feminizing and starting to react like a female is supossed to, each month has a sucky part to it.

joy of joys eh?

Hi girls, thanks for all the responses. I am doing great and I do have my hormone levels checked every three months and they are good.
My therapist said she did a search to see why I'm getting cramps and found that all males and females have the same stomach muscles that are affected by female hormones that contract and cause pain. From what she told me not many mtf have this same reaction as a gg.

So I guess I'm one of the lucky ones that cramp. My last cycle it actaully hurt so bad it made me cry. But then I'm a big cry baby any way. During my cycle I'm way worse. A few months ago I dropped my pen and it fell down the vent, I stood there crying. My room mate came into the room and asked why I was crying. Itold her my pen fell down the vent and she started laughing like I never seen her laugh ever. So I can be a complete reck sometimes.

I definitely get that. From very few months of experience and marking the days I felt like crap on a calendar, I can now predict when the moodiness, emotional hypersensitivity and cramps will probably begin. This joyous time is about 3-5 days away for me. It was funny because over the summer, I was on HRT, but still presenting as male (I did a pretty weak job of that), and working with 8 women and one guy. Things got petty funny when it got to 'that time of the month' for me. My co-workers definitely noticed . I don't mind it, because it just feels good to know your artificial endocrine system mimics that of a cis-woman.