Why Do People Change So Much On Hormones?

August 30, 2009

I keep hearing people say hormones changed their interests and hobbies to more stereotypical female roles...

Most often I hear people declaring they've lost all interest in video games. Yet, I always see girls playing video games, so it can't be a hormone thing can it?

To those who this has happened to, why? What happened? Was it a conscious decision?

I am me, yet I don't want to lose parts of me due to hormones. I'm a girl, but I don't want estrogen to make me into someone I'm not.

I just want to get hormones, SRS, and move on. I don't want me being a girl take control of my life or change me. I am who I am, how do hormones make me otherwise?

August 30, 2009

Hormones have some control over emotions which effects how you react to things. Which doesn't mean it'll all of a sudden change everything you do and like, but it might change how much "feelings" you get when you do them.

Basic answer: everyone reacts different to hormones. Maybe some of it is a placebo effect and then some trans feel it gives them a excuse to dump things they didn't really like doing but did to try to fit another personality of the wrong gender.

August 30, 2009

I know I'm a girl... it just terrifies me that I'll be a different person on the inside once I start hormones in a week.

August 30, 2009

While I understand a lot of people have their take. And I personally do admit to some changes in length of tolerance especially (who'm I kidding , it was never that long to begin with ) . My therapist asserts that in fact a lot of things people attribute to hormones have more to do with feeling "free" to like /dislike, dump/ take up different likes and dislikes. Things like sensory performance and mood adjustments, skin texture and body hair can tangibly be evidenced as changing. Likes and dislikes, people vary on how they view that as influenced. HOWEVER if its rational to assert that estrogen makes a person more attuned to the subtle enjoyments of emotions and color for instance then it might be reasonable to think such a person would find more appreciation in (example) gardening since gardening might include/ lend itself to those things.

Numbers of women on the site have testified to "seeing thing more vibrantly" or "nuances to stuff they never noted before" (both tangible and figurative). Even hearing things in a more detailed way. They also find they are affected by those things they experience (emotionally, visually, tactile) more deeply.

For me, with Testosterone, I couldn't tell you if I feel, think anything more or less (with the exceptiono of sex ) but then I could care less lol. And I think THAT is probably the biggest indicator of maybe a difference. I definately do not want to sit around and "consider" the differences and subtlties and all that stuff. I (to tell the truth) even have days where it is "work" to respond on board beyond grunts and one word answers lol but I twist it out of me cus I think its helpful to someone to hear the other side of the fence response. Theres' definately a lot more of just focusing on "the ultimate end" and can't we dispense with all the b.s. in between.

August 30, 2009

For me, with Testosterone, I couldn't tell you if I feel, think anything more or less (with the exceptiono of sex ) but then I could care less lol.

Evan's also been spotted leaving the notorious restaurant chain Hooters, waving to the all the pretty ladies and glancing through the calandar they gave him.

August 30, 2009

Saphira,

I wouldn't worry too much about those kind of changes - they seem to me to be people who never really enjoyed them that much anyway!

I haven't been on mine but a couple of weeks so I can't tell you for sure but I think that most of the changes for me came about when I admitted to myself who I really am and allowed myself to think that way without the guilt.

I still love football and basket ball but I have developed a little more patience for the slow pace of baseball.

I would think that if we truly gain a heghtend awareness f color and sound and all sorts of sensations then video games would be even more entertaining - sports, games and automobiles aren't the domain of men only and I have been a cook and baker my whole life so that doesn't change.

You are who you are and the hormones just help that real you out of the box - the things that you were doing to fit in will fade in your lists of interests pretty fast but the things that you love will stay with you.

We should get a show of hands from all of the MTSa who still ride their motorcycles and then the FTMs who will admit to still loving to knit - they are out there and a lot more than you would ever think.

Love ya,

Sally

"Evan's also been spotted leaving the notorious restaurant chain Hooters, waving to the all the pretty ladies and glancing through the calandar they gave him."

Evan, you always told mom that you went to Wing Stop!

August 30, 2009

To tell you the truth ...my entire personality changed as soon as I came out to my wife...long before starting hormones...I was finally able to cry....

And after hormones and crying? Super Soaker.....lol!

And What Evan said did happen to me after getting on HRT....

Numbers of women on the site have testified to "seeing thing more vibrantly" or "nuances to stuff they never noted before" (both tangible and figurative). Even hearing things in a more detailed way. They also find they are affected by those things they experience (emotionally, visually, tactile) more deeply.

But, I think that most of the mental changes come from accepting yourself and not really from hormones...

I had told my therapist about all of the things that happened to me after HRT and he said that most of that was in me all along and that I had just let it free....DANG!

I could of been happy years ago...I had the key and didn't even realize it.

But if you never liked cleaning the toilet before, well, hormones probably won't change that!.....LOL

HUGGS!

Donna Jean

August 30, 2009

Personally I think it has little to do with hormones. I think it is more of an awakening of the real self that opens doors to new opportunities and experiences you never thought possible before.

August 30, 2009

For me the biggest thing that I noticed was my loss of interest in computers, gaming, etc but I attribute this to getting a life and becoming more of an extrovert. No physical changes were numerous like my sense of smell increased dramatically. Im wouldn't worry about them changing the core you because most likely you will enjoy those changes. Now the major thing estrogen did for me was it stopped the depression and uncontrollable mood swings because it helped me find piece with myself.

August 30, 2009

Saphiria, no one is telling you you must start hormones, in a week or ever. It is YOUR decision. If your heart is telling you it has some concerns about what might happen, perhaps you might want to wait a bit longer before you start. I had the HRT discussion with my therapist at my last session and want to wait another few months until I feel it fits into my life better. She was open to whatever I decided but was happy I wanted to wait until it was right for me.

Blossom

August 30, 2009

Saphira, you will not lose part of yourself, the core person does not change, i have not, however i used to sit all evening watching my brand new 47" flat screen, in the last 9 months i have turned it on less than a dozen times, of course since i am a chat moderator now and spend allot of time here. However i am happier, friendlier, more outgoing and can cry a river of tears if the moment is right which for me is a big improvement.

I thought after being on hormones 15 months i would see huge changes, bells, whistles, fireworks and whatnot but the core person was always female and other than being free to express my inner self not much has changed.

Paula

August 30, 2009

I might have a slightly different perspective on this because of how I went about it.

The biggest change for me was getting rid of the boys. I did that more than a year before I discovered Premarin. Getting rid of the boys

1) reduced my aggression a lot - not that I ever fought physically but it made me much less 'testy' when challenged or things didn't go my way; and

2) stopped new beard growth. I had some, but it never grew to cover a larger area and getting rid of what I had with electrolysis was much easier according to my electroysis woman;

3) - this one is a guess - prevented me from putting on muscle mass because I never did get any; and

4) - another guess - kept me from having any male pattern baldness.

So starting from there, when I started Premarin ~ a year later I noticed a feeling of 'rightness' inside that I had never quite managed to feel before. Took about 2 months before I noticed it. Mood swings, but that went away as we adjusted the dosage. A very real softening of my image, my face, my skin. That took a couple of years before it was pointed out to me. And the eventual disappearance of body hair. Everywhere except my head. Even my eyelashes and eyebrows have thinned to almost non-existence. But that has taken ~35 years on Premarin.

I did not notice any personality changes. No changes in what I liked to do, or how I behaved that I would not readily attribute to growing maturity and wisdom; and increasing acceptance by the other women in my environment. But then, I am looking at this from the inside out and so perhaps there were some and I didn't know. And it was a very long time ago.

Recently I went to my very first MTF HRT aware endo and he doubled my doseage, told me I was on too little. It has been a little over a month and I cannot tell any difference except that I am much happier. I am currently on the same dose I was on in the 80s and 90s before I was convinced by my doctor at the time to cut it in half. It may be coincidence but looking back I can see that soon after I cut my dose in half I started what amounted to be a decade long mild depression. I am very definitely out of the depression now - but there are so many variables who can say precise cause and effect.

I have had to stop hormones twice, both times for about 6 months, both times for logistics, not medical reasons. Both times I went into a bad depression after about 3 months, and it took a couple of months being back on to come out of it. The first time I had been on Premarin injections for about 2 years. The second time I had been on Premarin pills for about 5 years. Still a poor experiment with too many variables, but I do have to wonder that perhaps there is a correlation in there somewhere....

Anyway, you asked about how HRT can change your personality (likes and dislikes) and since I have had a slightly different life than so many I thought I would contribute my experience. It is clear to me that the orchi was the most important thing and since I had a year without T before I started estrogens I think I can easily see that the T was the biggest change, not the estrogens. But none of that changed what I liked and didn't like to do.

Allison

August 30, 2009

I like videogames a lot still, just not as much as I did when I was male. I'm nowhere nearly as competitive with them as I used to be.

August 30, 2009

Evan's also been spotted leaving the notorious restaurant chain Hooters, waving to the all the pretty ladies and glancing through the calandar they gave him.

LOL Miss November works at that Hooters. If a calender girl signs it you have to look at it, its polite.

Evan, you always told mom that you went to Wing Stop!

...uh....Wing Stop burned down?

And sis, (watch there be some joker to prove me wrong .....) nobody knits. Male or female. lol Its 2009. Go with at least "watches love movies" or something at least possible. (Its my job to say these things, they require it or gotta give the brother clearance back)

August 30, 2009

Honey look at it this way, if MTF, you have always had a female mind and soul, and you are what you are, and hormones?

Well - you are a gasoline engine (made for E), but you have been running on kerosene (T). Gas that brain up and see where it takes you! It's your BIRTHRIGHT.

Lizzy

August 31, 2009

Honey look at it this way, if MTF, you have always had a female mind and soul, and you are what you are, and hormones?
Well - you are a gasoline engine (made for E), but you have been running on kerosene (T). Gas that brain up and see where it takes you! It's your BIRTHRIGHT.

Lizzy

for me the change is the other way, I liken it to switching from JP4 (jet fuel) to gasoline. My mind was always racing and it made it hard to concentrate. Since Ive started this my mind has slowed down and I can think better. However not all of the change is from the hormones, as others have said it started when i admitted to myself just what I was and found a clear path to fixing myself.

August 31, 2009

Honestly my interests and hobbies have remained unchanged. Being a geek most of my hobbies are pretty gender neutral to begin with anyway.

Someone mentioned motorcycling as a stereotypical male activity. I beg to differ. The group I ride with is about a 50-50 split. These are riders not passengers. Were the difference is the guys obsess over the mechanics and the girls just like the ride. Needless to say I don't know much about the mechanics. All I know is I start it up and it makes happy rumbling sounds. If it doesn't make happy rumbling sounds I would call one of the guys to fix it.

Janis

August 31, 2009

Personally I think it has little to do with hormones. I think it is more of an awakening of the real self that opens doors to new opportunities and experiences you never thought possible before.

Agreed.

(excuse the one word response...I'm being intrusive anyway, though.)

August 31, 2009

I like videogames a lot still, just not as much as I did when I was male. I'm nowhere nearly as competitive with them as I used to be.

Same here..though I am only on HRT for 3 months...but not much changes in my hobbies and interests.