Personality Changes?

[Guest *Brooke*]

Hi everyone, I just had a conversation with my older brother, on his thoughts on me transitioning, which first of all, he said he can't support my decision to do so, but that's not the point of this topic. He brought up something, that has made me curious. Is there any large changes in personality, after being on hormones? He's concerned that I won't be the same person after I do this. I didn't think personality changed, but I could be wrong. So I'm just wondering if personality changes alongside HRT.

[Guest]

Hi Alexandra,

Alot of yes and no will follow to be sure!

I would say that my personality did change. A few days ago, our neighbor gave birth and we went to visit. A few years ago I wouldn't have bothered to go, let alone coo over the joy of a newborn child. I used to watch football and action movies, and now the violence is too much for me. The list goes on. These were not conscious decisions to change my personality, they just happened, probably from increased sensitivity that came with HRT.

I could also say that my personality didn't change all that much. My sister spent a few days with us, and commented that she was afraid that I'd lose my laugh. I still enjoy humor, and I'm still that geeky one who loves tweaking and/or breaking computer programs. I still enjoy camping and living in grubby mode too. These were things that are at the core of my personality and they're still there, alive and well.

Some will say that HRT changes your personality, and others will say that it just brings out your latent side that was supressed. Something happens, whatever causes it...

I didn't really expect any changes, nor did I resist them either. It's been a joyous experience, setting myself free and just seeing what occurs. I hope you're able to do the same too!

Love, Megan

[Guest angels wings]

Thxfor sharing Meagan

Angel:)

[Drea]

Personality changes from hormones, maybe.

Personality changes as a result of transioning which may be hormones or not, almost certainly in some ways. It is pretty hard to go thru this process and not have some changes in outlook. Between therapy, social role changes, first hand experiences there is lots going on.

On the other hand basic values and character probably won't change too much tho different emphasis in of different life aspects likely.

[Guest Edu]

Disclaimer: I'm not on HRT yet, and everything I'm saying here is based on some logical analysis. Hence this is purely theoretical, take it with a grain of salt.

After over three years seeing a therapist, despite not being on HRT, I have already undergone some personality changes (mostly at a "surface" or "external" level). This has been a side effect of progressively hiding less and showing more about who I truly am. Although I don't like to generalize, I see a very clear cause - consequence relationship between social transition (even at an early stage) and surface personality changes.

On most cases, HRT overlaps significantly with social transition (that is, there is a significant time lapse on which the person is undergoing both). Personality changes appearing during that overlap would be hard to associate with either aspect of transitioning as their cause.

This means that even if we tried to make a rigorous scientific study, no clear results could be obtained due to a high noise:data ration (ie: each change empirically detected during HRT would have a chance to actually be caused by the social transition, so it'd be "noise" instead of "valid data").

So, in summary: transition will change, to some degree, your personality. How much of this is specifically due to HRT can't easily be known.

This is rather similar to what Drea already said, but from a logical / analytical perspective.

HTH,

Ethain

[Guest Leah1026]

IMO it doesn't change your personality; it allows you to be more of your true self. Before HRT I was rarely happy and the only emotions I felt most of the time were anger and frustration. Everything else seemed beyond my reach and/or I couldn't express. For example I almost never cried before, now I can mist up pretty quickly and crying actually feels good and cleansing. And of course there are happy tears as well! It's as though HRT unlocked the door that separated me from my ability to emote. But there is so much more to HRT. It subtly affects ALL your senses. After you've been on HRT for a while you're going to wonder how you ever managed to live without it before. I was merely existing before HRT, now I feel so alive.

[Guest kelise]

In my experience I wouldn't say hormones have much influence on "who" you are beyond their altering your ability to experience emotion. What changes "you" more than anything is the freedom that transition gives you to finally let your guard down and let people see the real you. I did go through a period where the my body tried to fight off the estrogen by producing more testosterone, and you did not want to be around me at that time So I guess what I'm saying is, as far as I've seen, the knee-jerk claim so many of us make that "we'll still be the same person inside" is really rather bogus. We do become totally different people to everyone else. We are still us, but no one has ever known who we really are.

[Carolyn Marie]

IMO it doesn't change your personality; it allows you to be more of your true self. Before HRT

I agree. and think this is really the key point. There is much about me that others see that is the same. I still crack wise, still enjoy making people laugh, I'm still the office nerd, and I treat people the same. But...I also express my emotions far more freely, I touch far more than i used to, I give hugs, I cry, and I show joy where I used to be fairly stoic. So yes, my personality is different. How much can be attributed to hormones? I have no clue. Does it really matter? I don't think so.

HUGS

Carolyn Marie

[Guest *Brooke*]

Thank you everyone! Well, this all has made it bit more clean on what happens, whether it be the hormones, the process, or both, there is at least some change. Been thinking about it, and this is still something I need to do, even if it changes things between me and my brother. I can't continue living my life, unhappy, and uncomfortable with being in my own body. In time, I'm hoping he comes around a bit. (He said he will always care for me with whichever direction I take, so that is something)

[Sakura]

I was on HRT for 6 years before social transition. starting that at 20. i did not feel any personality changes in the 6 years prior to that other than the average changes that come with growing up. it wasn't until i began living the role. that i felt i began changing. my mother said somthing to me a few days ago. " i still can't believe how much you have changed, you are almost not even the same person any more....." mind you this comment comes 7 years of transition.

I sometimes wonder what these changes are really attributed to. with me any way. hrt ? transition ? is it just growing up ? last time my mom knew the old me i was a 20 year old kid practically a child still .then my young adult life spent socializing my self as a young woman . stopping the process of learning to navigate life as a man and begin navigating it as a woman , when i was still trying to get into the boat to navigate my life in general. now looking back on it , so manything have changed about me. that even to my self i don't even feel like the same person i was, personally i feel i just grew up . emotionally and mentally....... though i did it living the right gender, so i could see why people that knew me before all of this. could be blown away , by the changes in me , the hardly see me any more. with lapses in time being 2 years on average last time they knew the old me i was a child , a boy . now i am a woman.

Though i am most certainly sure it was not caused by HRT in my case. but my experiences. are a tiny bit more unique, so it could be any number of facotrs really.

Sakura

[Guest Eh-lyssa]

I agree with Kelise completely. Although I have only been on HRT for 7 months I have found that I have opened up more emotionally but may or may not be the drugs. It may also be due to a lack of depression that has plagued me for the longest time.

In my experience I wouldn't say hormones have much influence on "who" you are beyond their altering your ability to experience emotion. What changes "you" more than anything is the freedom that transition gives you to finally let your guard down and let people see the real you. I did go through a period where the my body tried to fight off the estrogen by producing more testosterone, and you did not want to be around me at that time So I guess what I'm saying is, as far as I've seen, the knee-jerk claim so many of us make that "we'll still be the same person inside" is really rather bogus. We do become totally different people to everyone else. We are still us, but no one has ever known who we really are.

[Guest Paradox]

What I am going to give you is my opinion since, like most on the forum, I am not a doctor. I am however a person with a rather different perspective since I have a rare condition whose progress has for years bounced me acrosss the blood chemistry gender line twice a year. This year my body has not moved back across the boundary to the male side so I am 5 months further than I have ever been. Like it or not, this is who I am and what my condition is, so I am having to learn new things about living. I am an older person for whatever value that quality imparts.

I think it is only logical that the blood chemistry which alters the physical body also alters the brain and in so doing, changes the way you think, your likes, opinions, recognition and reaction to senses, and therefor anything that might be influenced by the changing of these processes within the brain. Sight, taste, touch smell, even hearing can change.

The shape of the eye itself will change with estrogen in the bloodstream. Everyon reads so much about bosum growth, smooth skin, muscle mass depletion, that they usually do not think about researching other changes. Since I arrived at this place from a different direction, I researched differently than people whose condition is gender dysphoria. It is important, I think, to not readily discount something which is an inconvienient truth (sorry Al). I don't have that luxury since my body will take me for this trip ready or not.

I think the reason varied opinions surface on this matter is due to people having differnet doses of hormones. Some doctors seem to administer small maintenance doses while some hormone regimens provide amazing doses which I think would feminize an elephant.

Short summary is that while your core personality MAY stay somewhat similar to what you start with, it is perhaps best to not count on it. If you truely want something, you sometimes must be brave. As for me, I'm just along for the ride my bod is giving me, so I am trying to learn what that means for me and how to better adjust. Keep your eyes open and be true to yourself.

[Guest Leah1026]

I was on HRT for 6 years before social transition. starting that at 20. i did not feel any personality changes in the 6 years prior to that other than the average changes that come with growing up. it wasn't until i began living the role. that i felt i began changing. my mother said somthing to me a few days ago. " i still can't believe how much you have changed, you are almost not even the same person any more....." mind you this comment comes 7 years of transition.

I sometimes wonder what these changes are really attributed to. with me any way. hrt ? transition ? is it just growing up ? last time my mom knew the old me i was a 20 year old kid practically a child still .then my young adult life spent socializing my self as a young woman . stopping the process of learning to navigate life as a man and begin navigating it as a woman , when i was still trying to get into the boat to navigate my life in general. now looking back on it , so manything have changed about me. that even to my self i don't even feel like the same person i was, personally i feel i just grew up . emotionally and mentally....... though i did it living the right gender, so i could see why people that knew me before all of this. could be blown away , by the changes in me , the hardly see me any more. with lapses in time being 2 years on average last time they knew the old me i was a child , a boy . now i am a woman.

Though i am most certainly sure it was not caused by HRT in my case. but my experiences. are a tiny bit more unique, so it could be any number of facotrs really.

Sakura

Somewhere I read the theory (it may have been Jamison Green) that before transition our development as people is stunted. It is only through the process of transition that we essentially mature and grow up.

[Guest Paradox]

The changes are generally slow, so I can see how many can easily miss them. The new "you" comes about so gradually that each change can tend to become the "norm" before it has a chance to be recognized as "different than before."

[Guest shadowghost21]

For me there wasn't so much a change when I started hormones but when I accepted myself and starting living fulltime. All the times I had suppressed an action or word choice or whatever <girly action> I'm finally able to express so from a macro level my personality hasn't changed at all but on a micro level, hell yeah. Speech, movement, thoughts, what I say, when I say it, who I say it too, word choice, my view on the world. I mean I still love my car but some hobbies I don't find as appealing as I was probably doing them because they were manly. But I still enjoy disk golf and driving my car. But I developed more grooming time and I always loved shopping and can now fully experience the effect.

So I mean you might discover you had a lot of things you burried inside of you because you were afraid and you can finally let them out. To which I say, awesome, finally time to show the world who you really are!