So, what's it like to take estrogen?

[-CRaSH-]

How does it effect your well-being, emotions, out-look on life?

How about you energy? Can you feel your muscles weaken?

What's it like? What'll happen if you overdose?
Just curious.

[pebbles]

cute.
I take injections of estrogen weekly.

Early when you start taking it triggers a whole raft of changes in your body and you do feel VERY strange as your body changes into it's female counterpart your male puberty reverting somewhat and abruptly experiencing a female one instead. I can describe those changes in a separate post if you so desire.

But these days my body is mostly done changing Estrogen just maintains those female attributes I've developed and I infact only feel different and strange if I DON'T take my estrogen injection. Those feelings from doing that manifest as a loss of self confidence, and depression. Women experience this phenomenon in PMT or menopause.

If I "overdose" estrogen I experience symptoms that women get during early pregnancy
ie nausea, dizziness, headaches, Breast tenderness,

More severely overdosing E I'd also have a high risk of developing a lethal blood clot in my leg that could kill me. If I took too much for a long time I'd also experience Hyperprolactemia which is where I'd begin lactating and experiencing crushing migraines running a high risk of developing a pituitary tumor.

[AmySmiles]

In terms of my personal well-being, it was a godsend.  As my dad tried to explain to me when attempting to talk me out of transition, a man (and the part he left out: with a male brain) who takes estrogen will feel more tired, depressed, and just not good.  He cited my grandfather, a very masculine individual, who had to take medicine that raised his E levels because of prostate cancer.

Well, compared to how I feel now, that's how my entire life felt before.  I've always been a very intelligent person.  Even though we didn't officially have one, I was salutatorian of my high school class.  I've been through college and have a good job.  But never in my life did I actually care about anything.  I had no will to live, no ambition, no hopes, and no dreams.  I just went along with what everyone else wanted for me.  Estrogen flipped a switch in my head and now I want to do so many things I will probably never finish them all.  I guess you could say it made my life worth living again at a time when I was seriously thinking about suicide.

Energy-wise, I don't feel any different.  I know that I'm weaker because my muscles are squishier if I try to squeeze them, but it's not something you notice until you can no longer lift something that you could before.  I don't mind though, there's plenty of nice guys willing to carry things for us skinny girls

Overdosing on any hormone is bad.  I'm sure you've probably read about what can happen to people on steroids - that's like overdosing on testosterone.  I don't know the specific effects for estrogen, but they're not good.  It probably raises the risk of breast cancer significantly (among other things).  That's why we have doctors monitoring our levels regularly until we get on a steady dosage.

[-CRaSH-]

cute.
I take injections of estrogen weekly.

Early when you start taking it triggers a whole raft of changes in your body and you do feel VERY strange as your body changes into it's female counterpart your male puberty reverting somewhat and abruptly experiencing a female one instead. I can describe those changes in a separate post if you so desire.

But these days my body is mostly done changing Estrogen just maintains those female attributes I've developed and I infact only feel different and strange if I DON'T take my estrogen injection. Those feelings from doing that manifest as a loss of self confidence, and depression. Women experience this phenomenon in PMT or menopause.

If I "overdose" estrogen I experience symptoms that women get during early pregnancy
ie nausea, dizziness, headaches, Breast tenderness,

More severely overdosing E I'd also have a high risk of developing a lethal blood clot in my leg that could kill me. If I took too much for a long time I'd also experience Hyperprolactemia which is where I'd begin lactating and experiencing crushing migraines running a high risk of developing a pituitary tumor.

Oh, so it is potentially deadly, interesting. I was told by the FtM's, that if they overdose on Testosterone, then their body produces massive amounts of estrogen to compensate. Thereby, reversing the effects of testosterone.
And, did you call me cute?

[Caith]

After 2.5 years of HRT, I haven't lost nearly as much muscle mass as I would have liked.  I can say that I've definitely lost much of the strength in my arms, though.  Where estrogen been greatest for me is my psychological well-being.  My mind is better and I don't have dysphoria any more.

[pebbles]

Oh, so it is potentially deadly, interesting. I was told by the FtM's, that if they overdose on Testosterone, then their body produces massive amounts of estrogen to compensate. Thereby, reversing the effects of testosterone.
And, did you call me cute?

I find your curiosity cute yes... the FTM isn't completely wrong a number of things would happen if he took a massive dose of Testosterone it would be like a body builder abusing steroids in a very bad way.
The excess would begin to be converted into estrogen causing undesirable feminisation you might have seen bodybuilders with boobs but the Testosterone would also cause extreme damage to the liver, heart, kidneys and would also most likely cause extreme acne.

[-CRaSH-]

In terms of my personal well-being, it was a godsend.  As my dad tried to explain to me when attempting to talk me out of transition, a man (and the part he left out: with a male brain) who takes estrogen will feel more tired, depressed, and just not good.  He cited my grandfather, a very masculine individual, who had to take medicine that raised his E levels because of prostate cancer.

Well, compared to how I feel now, that's how my entire life felt before.  I've always been a very intelligent person.  Even though we didn't officially have one, I was salutatorian of my high school class.  I've been through college and have a good job.  But never in my life did I actually care about anything.  I had no will to live, no ambition, no hopes, and no dreams.  I just went along with what everyone else wanted for me.  Estrogen flipped a switch in my head and now I want to do so many things I will probably never finish them all.  I guess you could say it made my life worth living again at a time when I was seriously thinking about suicide.

Energy-wise, I don't feel any different.  I know that I'm weaker because my muscles are squishier if I try to squeeze them, but it's not something you notice until you can no longer lift something that you could before.  I don't mind though, there's plenty of nice guys willing to carry things for us skinny girls

Overdosing on any hormone is bad.  I'm sure you've probably read about what can happen to people on steroids - that's like overdosing on testosterone.  I don't know the specific effects for estrogen, but they're not good.  It probably raises the risk of breast cancer significantly (among other things).  That's why we have doctors monitoring our levels regularly until we get on a steady dosage.

Seems like the main reason that you're happier is because you're finally transitioning. And yeah, it makes sense that you'd be at higher risk for Breast Cancer.

[-CRaSH-]

I find your curiosity cute yes... the FTM isn't completely wrong a number of things would happen if he took a massive dose of Testosterone it would be like a body builder abusing steroids in a very bad way.
The excess would begin to be converted into estrogen causing undesirable feminisation you might have seen bodybuilders with boobs but the Testosterone would also cause extreme damage to the liver, heart, kidneys and would also most likely cause extreme acne.

Oh, thanks.
I understand now.

[pebbles]

Umm I did become physically weaker as a result of removing my bodies testosterone... I didn't feel changing per say (unlike breasts who's growth made themselves known) but within 2 months I noticed that a steep hill I cycled up was becoming slightly harder to cycle up everyday rather than easier. Hauling my food shopping home became more taxing.

I also have a friend who is abit rough with people when he's drunk only in a overly boisterous playful way. I used to be 20% stronger than him now I'd guess that I'm 15% weaker than him.

He's a shrimp of a guy so it really highlighted to me just how frighteningly strong men can be.

[Karynm8621]

The best analogy i've heard was from a friend of mine and it is real fitting. It is like outing the wrng fuel in your car and it runs poorly. Put inthe right fuel and it purrs.

If you were to give estrogen to a regular guy it would make him feel crappy and depress him etc.vfor a transsexual it should feel more normal. It did for me.

[Susan Kay]

I can't say, specifically. That is, when I went on hormone therapy 13 months ago, I started estrogen, progesterone, and finesteride as T-blocker, supposedly because of it's hair growth potential - still waiting for that. Anyway, within an hour of taking my first dose of the three, I absolutely knew I was right. The emotional lift was incredible. I don't know if one or the other was responsible, or if 2 or all 3 working together did it, but I do think if it was the wrong decision to take them, I would not have felt that way. I have not looked back.

I don't think my arm strength was seriously affected; I pretty well had feminine appearing arms, so I didn't need to lose in that area. My shoulders were of course fairly broad, but I've lost 2 or 3 inches there, though that's not enough. My old T-shirts are really baggie across the shoulders, though not so much across the chest.    I don't feel like there has been much if any muscle weakening, my energy level is at least as high, and mbest of all, my temper has been ... well, tempered.

Susan Kay

[Elijah3291]

The best analogy i've heard was from a friend of mine and it is real fitting. It is like outing the wrng fuel in your car and it runs poorly. Put inthe right fuel and it purrs.

If you were to give estrogen to a regular guy it would make him feel crappy and depress him etc.vfor a transsexual it should feel more normal. It did for me.

ive been checking up on this thread because it was interesting, and I gotta say this is spoken perfectly, and I can say from experience that it works both ways (the T working for me, the 'right fuel')

[-CRaSH-]

Are you serious!!? Someone just gave me a thumbsdown because I made this thread asking what it's like to take estrogen.... Really..... C'mon. This is ridiculous.

[tekla]

If you're all that curious, take it and find out.

[-CRaSH-]

If you're all that curious, take it and find out.

Ummm... I have the information that I needed.

Why would I take it. I think you need to relax.

[EmilyElizabeth]

I don't really understand the response to crash in this thread.

He appears to be legitimately interested in understanding what we go through during transition and is not doing it in a particularly offensive manner.  That's more than I can say for a lot of cisguys!

[-CRaSH-]

I don't really understand the response to crash in this thread.

He appears to be legitimately interested in understanding what we go through during transition and is not doing it in a particularly offensive manner.  That's more than I can say for a lot of cisguys!

Yeah, but I'll continue to "take it". For now.

[Cirnobyl]

The best analogy i've heard was from a friend of mine and it is real fitting. It is like outing the wrng fuel in your car and it runs poorly. Put inthe right fuel and it purrs.

If you were to give estrogen to a regular guy it would make him feel crappy and depress him etc.vfor a transsexual it should feel more normal. It did for me.

So true and further evidence that we ARE different in our brain construction.

[Susan Kay]

To quote Cirnobyl: So true and further evidence that we ARE different in our brain construction.

I didn't used to think so. I mean, we're all people, right, and do think differently as different people, but I didn't think brain sex thought patterns were much if any different in female vs. male brains. The differences that were there were from gender behavior patterning from birth. So simple. And like most simple things, so wrong. I was totally excluding the massive effect of hormones on the brain, thinking they only effected the body. And no cracks about which hormones created that thought pattern in me please!

We're still all people, much more similar then different. But we are different, not only individually, but by gender. And Hooray for that!

And what's the issue with -CRaSH- asking this anyway? If you're offended, read a different post for goodness sake! Perhaps it should have been started elsewhere or moved from the M-2-F forum, but it certainly is pertinent to me. Thanks for raising it, -CRaSH-.

Susan Kay

[Heath]

I'm going to try my best to explain my perspective....

I'm not a cisguy like Crash, but as a transguy I have wondered how it would be for an MTF to experience the surge of estrogen that I was cursed with at birth. Because I spent 22 years of my life with naturally produced estrogen coursing through my body I never really "noticed" it, you know? I can feel the effects of testosterone and I love what it does for me, but I've always been curious about "the other side" so to speak.

I think this is a good thread and raises some legitimate questions about people's experiences. I find the responses here quite thought-provoking. People have a tendency to only talk about the physical side of transitioning and leave out the amazing psychological effects that having the right hormone in your body can bring.

Props to the engine and gas analogy!