Will Estrogen Make Me Able To Cry?

[Guest Soph]

I start hormones the 20th. Have a session set up and everything. Funny how since its so close it seems to be taking forever >_<

But what I want to know is this: Will estrogen make me able to cry? There is a distinct difference between that and will estrogen make me cry more, because as it is I am largely unable to cry. I can look at a situation and say, "Well, i certainly should be crying right now, but I just can't". And its not any kind of conscious emotional deterrent that inhibits me. Rather it seems to be a physical inability to cry. I know, I have some bad emotional expression problems, right?

I'm pretty sure I'm not completely alone there, though (hope, at least).

So for those who were rather emotionally limited before, did estrogen make them able to cry? I really want to be able to... Matter of fact, I wouldn't mind crying all the time

[Guest Zabrak]

Since I started T and my estrogen levels started to drop(everythings dieing down there now) I haven't been able to cry. I have TRIED to make myself cry because I should be upset, I got *a* tear out but it was mostly forced. Now I just get angry or forget easily.

Before I started HRT and my estrogen levels where normal-ish, I cried a lot and over the stupidest things. I even told one of my family members who caught me crying a few years ago that I couldn't control myself - It just happens.

I truly think estrogen 'helps' you cry.

[Guest Donna Jean]

That's really interesting, Soph.....

I didn't cry for years...just didn't.

But when I came out to my wife and broke down and accepted myself as Transsexual.....well, I can hardly STOP crying!

That was before I started hormones!

Just the act of becoming free after all of these years!

And since I've started HRT I cry a LOT!.....lol

And you know what?

I love it...I cry at the stupidest things

The other day I swatted at a deerfly and I started crying...not because it bit me, but, because I killed it!.....My wife calls me a weepy 14 year old girl.....

It may be that way for you, also...

Gotta wait and see, I guess.....

HUGGS!

Donna Jean

[Guest Evan_J]

(looks left and right before answering to make sure the coast is clear before answering since sally has a big skillet and Donna Jean knows how to do olympic-type hurling things with a bottle of cherry red nail polish....)

If around here is any indicator, you not only will be able to cry, you will make cocoa for people you don't even know, rescue kittens, write poems and start ovulating probably.

(RUNS before any woman finds him)

<-- is feeling particularly "boy" right now

[Guest Elizabeth K]

Answer

OH YEAH

Rollercoster for a wihile.

Lizzy

[Guest Laura1977]

Interesting. I've always been quick to cry, sometimes even at the strangest things. I have been known to cry at movies, songs, even the odd poem. I have never had any hormone therapy of any kind though. I never really connected it to gender, though I know that culturally, boys aren't *supposed* to cry. I've never understood why.

So let us know if the hormones do make you cry. I'd be interested to find out.

[Guest AllisonD]

I'm 56, been on hormones for decades, and still cry at commercials. Donna says in mock disgust I'm the biggest girl she has ever seen. 'Course, that may not count 'cause I can't remember ever not being able to cry. It has always been a wonderful cleansing release for me.

Allison

[Guest Eth]

I'm the same way Soph, and this is actually something I've been wondering as well.

愛 Eth

[Paula ult]

Men are not supposed to cry, there were times that i did, always in private, always alone and it was not very often. Now i been on hormones 14 months i can cry at just about anything and i do. I have cried more in the last 6 months than i have in the last 57 years, not counting when i was a baby.

Oh and Soph congrats on starting hormones in a couple weeks.

Paula

[Guest My_Genesis]

(looks left and right before answering to make sure the coast is clear before answering since sally has a big skillet and Donna Jean knows how to do olympic-type hurling things with a bottle of cherry red nail polish....)

If around here is any indicator, you not only will be able to cry, you will make cocoa for people you don't even know, rescue kittens, write poems and start ovulating probably.

(RUNS before any woman finds him)

<-- is feeling particularly "boy" right now

hahaha!

I kinda feel the way Zab does...I'm not taking T but I tend to get angry about stuff, sometimes the urge to cry comes and passes so quickly it just doens't happen..and sometimes i feel like crying but if i do it doesn't last long enough to become like..an all-out cry.. which kinda sucks and i sometimes wonder if that's healthy, cuz i have a really bad temper and theres really nothing i do about it except wait for it to pass. lol.

[Guest Soph]

Thanks for the responses

I'm just looking forward to starting estrogen so much >_< 11 days as of four minutes ago

Maybe I'm expecting too much from the hormones, but I not only have difficulty expressing emotion, but also feeling.

Like, if I think of a hypothetical situation in which a family member or friend dies, I only see me being upset as much as it inconveniences me... not that I don't like them, I just think my mind won't let me feel that emotion or something.

Maybe I'm hoping that the hormones will enhance all the emotions I do feel, while unlocking some that I should.

Also:

My doctor is starting me on the estrogen first, then putting me on anti-androgens (probably in case there is some sort of medical disagreement, it'll be easier to track down whats causing it). Will the emotional changes without blockers be the same as those with? I know thats a really specific question...

[Guest Janis]

I have always been a emotional person so I really haven't noticed much of a change since starting HRT. I'm a bad example I suppose.

Janis

[Paula ult]

Soph expect to start with a lower dosage of estrogen then over the next few months it will be increased, the same thing once you start anti-androgen's. The Docs do it to make sure you have no adverse reactions.

Paula

[Guest Rosie2012]

Wow, thats a scary thought for me...

Because without any hormones I can cry pretty easily.

Examples:

I cried watching Spider-Man the movie for the 1st time (lol I did)

The Last Samurai (the last part when all the samurais are getting shot at)

Any romantic movie...

A good book or VG with an immersive story line can make me cry,

Good music that feels my soul or makes me very happy can make me cry.

When I killed my first Lobster (at work, because I have to if a customer requests it) I had a nervous breakdown and couldn't breath for a minute, and EVERYTIME I have to kill one, I still feel like crap for a couple of minutes for taking the life a the poor animal.

So once I start HRT, I cant even imagine how is it gonna be like... I think I might even get in trouble at work for not being able to kill a Lobster or for crying to much if I do it...

Wow... Its gonna be crazy... crazy good

...I cant wait.

[Guest April63]

I don't cry too much. Sometimes I feel like it, but I hold it back. I don't like crying. It makes me feel like a baby. I think girl's cry too much.

[Guest ~Brenda~]

Dear Soph,

I am currently not on hormones, but I cry at everything. Dang! even TV shows make me cry!! TV shows are not even real!!

I used to be stoic... not anymore.

I get emotionally involved in everything that I experience.

Girls cry too much? This girl cries just enough.

HUGS

Brenda

[Guest Sydney_W]

Y'know, I was actually wondering about this, but about what T would do. I don't cry that much (fortunately for me), but when I do it's almost always at the stupidest times, like when I'm trying to explain something important that bothers me. Like when I first told my parents that I couldn't live under the female gender role anymore. Just when I really wanted to be taken seriously.

It's never something that I've felt comfortable about doing, mostly because I don't wanna deal with interacting with my body and all of the convulsions and noises and things that come along with it. Plus it made me feel like a girl (no offense to the ladies in the room).

But even though I can usually avoid big sob fests, some of the ways that my body reacts to emotions just screws me up. Like the lobster thing reminded me of something that happened today. I was driving home from work and was already in a weird mood because I was thinking about coming out to my parents (again), and I see this groundhog scurrying under the car in front of me. But somehow it made it over to the left side of the road when BAM -- it got smacked by the wheel of a car coming the other way. I managed to see it tip over and its legs go stiff before I passed it by. The next thing I knew I'd GASPED and clapped my hand over my mouth.

Uuuuuuugh dude.

Why did I do that?? It was bad enough that I just saw somebody get destroyed, but why did my body have to do that? I sure hope it was estrogen 'cause my brain alone wouldn't do that thing. I don't mind other people doing it but I'M NOT supposed to, it's NOT ME.

[/typicaltransangst] I'm gonna go try and think about something stoopid-manly now.

[Guest Zabrak]

Hi Sydney_W, I just wanted to remind you know you aren't alone. Like I have admitted(and have no problem doing it) I was a emotional wreck before T. I too have 'cried' trying to talk about something. It was annoying, stupid and senseless but I did it because I couldn't STOP it. I reminded myself it wasn't my fault.

[Guest Evan_J]

There's nothing wrong with crying. There's nothing wrong with being "an emotional male." Do I realize the social pressures toward each stereotype? yep And I also realize that there's a bit of self-imposed restraint as well as release/allowance for each gender as evidenced in this thread. Is there any solely hormonal influence to either? Probably. But to what degree will likely vary. Either way, best advice is to find your own personal comfort level and make peace with it. And if necessary, threaten a few other people that they better "make peace" with your right to have it.

[Guest skyy]

i was watching a children's cartoon the other day, and a girl got to see her long lost father. i have lived with me father almost my entire life, and have never experienced anything like this in real life. a 30 minute cartoon made me almost cry. so yea, get used to that you'll find many annoying situations will make you want to cry instead of get angry. also, happy things can make you cry too, believe me, it will make sense when you get there. have fun on the estrogen-coster. i hope you get progesterone too, it really calms it down a lot.

and to help the dudes on this sight who havent got T, it is sort of like this. instead of crying for no reason, you get mad or annoyed. instead of crying in joy, you are just happy. when something terrible happens, you may just feel a tightness in your chest, and you may rim up in tears, but not really cry, even if you want to. sometimes you can cry though, but it almost always is for good reason. even when i wanted to cry before, sometimes i couldn't. part of the crying thing is socially constructed, but from personal experience, a lot of it really is hormonal. T makes it harder to cry, and gets rid of most of the random, pointless crying that i'm still getting used too. good luck, i hope you get your T soon, it will make you feel more sane and human. best of luck to all of you

[Guest Zabrak]

There's nothing wrong with crying. There's nothing wrong with being "an emotional male." Do I realize the social pressures toward each stereotype? yep And I also realize that there's a bit of self-imposed restraint as well as release/allowance for each gender as evidenced in this thread. Is there any solely hormonal influence to either? Probably. But to what degree will likely vary. Either way, best advice is to find your own personal comfort level and make peace with it. And if necessary, threaten a few other people that they better "make peace" with your right to have it.

There's nothing wrong with it. My bio male boyfriend cries a lot and hes fine and open about it. I think it just depends person to person and hormone levels.

[Guest leo]

agrees with April sometimes i get the need but i hold it back

i used to cry for no reason, used to really bug me

but i aint cried in ages since i discovered im trans

[Guest (Lightsider)]

I tried to avoid this thread. Ok...well here I am. I would say that estrogen levels to effect emotional levels and make a person more apt to cry. However i have seen some men who are big cry babies and they are not developing breasts.

I think it comes down to the person more than anything else. HOWEVER....this last week...hmmm I am lucky there was not a flood in my apartment. There is a component to me to hold back tears...not show them to any one...My mom was like that. My Dad was like that. What an unhealthy trait.

Any way...just my two cents.

[Guest Neil!]

I used to cry all the time. Like, all the time.

I cried when I got into an argument with someone

I cried when I told my parents I was gay - not because I was afraid or upset, but because it was such a big event for me

I cried at the end of the movie Aliens a few months ago, because I was just so glad the main characters survived

and it goes on and on. :l

I've only been on T for a month, but I can't do it anymore. Nothing comes out. It was frustrating at first, but now the urge is just... gone. Pretty much what Zabrak said - either I just feel more aggressive than I used to, or I shrug it off and don't let it get to me.

(...Wait, did I just admit to crying at Aliens? Oh my goodness)

[Guest]

From my email many on estrogen do report being able to cry easier. This happened to me and stopped when i came off hormones for health reasons. Now that I'm on them again i can cry easily and often do over letters I get here some of which are heartbreaking.

My father was emotionally abusive. I cried as a child up to age ten when I was threatened not to ever cry again many times. I actually lost the ability to cry until i was on hormones. Ironically he died before I started them and I could not cry for him at his funeral. I wanted to but couldn't. So crying ability may be as much psychological or emotional as much as hormonal. It's probably a combination of the three. Some are "conditioned" not to cry.

Laura