Thanks very much for writing this — I think these kind of experience reports are very valuable.
Different people report different responses to taking estrogen…
A) often, decreased sexual desire but sometimes increased desire
B) sometimes, feeling terrible, other times beneficial effect
C) sometimes, change in sexual orientation
D) sometimes, an effect that sounds like it’s making them less autistic
Russell Reid (retired now, used to treat trans people in the UK) was, in effect, using the patient’s response to hormones as a diagnostic symptom (like, if it makes you feel better keep on doing that, and if you don’t, stop)
We might hypothesise that some trans people have a very atypical response to hormones; that’s interesting, if it turns out to be true
I don’t know of any good studies on this, but from reading lots of anecdotes on reddit, yeah, some trans people do have quite atypical reactions to starting HRT. Unfortunately these can sometimes be negative changes to energy and mood, though ‘no change’ or ‘positive change’ is more common. Among those who have negative changes, some stay on HRT anyway because the psychological benefits from the physical changes (less dysphoria) are more significant than the negative energy/mood impacts.
Thanks very much for writing this — I think these kind of experience reports are very valuable.
Different people report different responses to taking estrogen…
A) often, decreased sexual desire but sometimes increased desire
B) sometimes, feeling terrible, other times beneficial effect
C) sometimes, change in sexual orientation
D) sometimes, an effect that sounds like it’s making them less autistic
Russell Reid (retired now, used to treat trans people in the UK) was, in effect, using the patient’s response to hormones as a diagnostic symptom (like, if it makes you feel better keep on doing that, and if you don’t, stop)
We might hypothesise that some trans people have a very atypical response to hormones; that’s interesting, if it turns out to be true
I don’t know of any good studies on this, but from reading lots of anecdotes on reddit, yeah, some trans people do have quite atypical reactions to starting HRT. Unfortunately these can sometimes be negative changes to energy and mood, though ‘no change’ or ‘positive change’ is more common. Among those who have negative changes, some stay on HRT anyway because the psychological benefits from the physical changes (less dysphoria) are more significant than the negative energy/mood impacts.