Hi there,
I also take Effexor (or venlafaxine - I take the generic). Unfortunately, for the sake of your question, I am on the lowest possible dose and I have only been taking the medication for two weeks. I can report significant differences in my mood, however, and feel absolutely no change in what HRT has done for me; i.e. I'm still extremely emotional, albeit with a very heavy influence on positive emotions. I realize that this is too short an amount of time to be of any significant help to you, so I will try to remember to come back here after my tests and share a general idea of my hormonal levels with you.
To attempt to answer some of your questions:
I have read that some people have the misfortune of adapting to their hormone regiment, and that orchiectomy or some other, similar treatment is necessary to combat this. You may also be going through a resistance phase where your body is fighting the hormones, but will eventually give in and normalize. This happened to me several months after I had gone on HRT, but it passed and hormones hit me harder than ever when my body decided to roll over and play nice. I think it is worth noting that, in my personal experience, the resistance phase happened shortly after my medications (both estradiol and spironolactone) were increased to much more effective levels for me - I was not on a steady regiment when this happened.
I have done some research on Effexor and I find no mention of it interfering with hormones, aside from a typical decrease in libido which is not abnormal with anti-depressants.
I hope this was somehow helpful to you, and I really will try to remember to report back with my more elaborate experiences. Best of luck!
