earthmoonlotus reblogged
Yo, but for real though… I am a biochemist who is on psych meds… If you are on birth control, you might have to not be
earthmoonlotus reblogged
One unexpected thing about being on T is the way that cis men are also jealous of you
Trans men being jealous? Especially those who aren't on T yet? Yeah fair, expected that one
I did not expect cis men to start being like "how are you 4 months on T and already have a deeper voice and more facial hair than me" lmao
But also it really just goes to show you that testosterone affects everyone differently and that 100% includes cis men as well. Chances are that if you're dysphoric about your voice, height, etc. there is also a cis man out there rn insecure about the exact same things
Make your own 💀
Cisgender men are extremely jealous of the way I travel through Boston
Great post everyone, hit the showers
earthmoonlotus reblogged
I am for real when I say that hrt improves your life. Everything is easier, everything feels brighter, maybe it won't cure all your problems or depression, but if you're going to be depressed anyways why not do it with hrt? Instead of putting it off as a thing in your future, make the future now. Don't die waiting. Get your hrt.
Only after months of hrt and living truthfully to myself did I ever first have the experience of looking in the mirror after waking up and being happy. I didn't realize you could see yourself and be happy.
🥲 I'm so happy for you
earthmoonlotus reblogged
hey, you! have you ever taken over-the-counter melatonin for insomnia? congratulations! you've had hormone replacement therapy! now leave trans people alone
earthmoonlotus reblogged
Heya my DIY friends: You do not transition faster or get more manly/feminine by using more than your effective dose of HRT. It's an 'on' switch on puberty, not a speed dial. A lower dose will slow it down (kinda) but you can not make a puberty go faster or further by taking more and more. It has an unmovable maximum speed.
Folks on estrogen: if you're not getting all the results you want, consider whether adding progesterone and/or testosterone-blockers are right for you. Combi therapy might take you further than constantly upping the E dose. Each medication has its own risks and side effects so read up before you start.
Folks on testosterone: taking too much actually makes you transition slower 'cause your body converts excess T back into E. The only thing you might speed up that way is balding. Sorry guys, dial it back a bit and you might actually see more results.
Y'all liked the idea of more DIY stuff on this blog. More DIY stuff is coming. I'm just taking the time to double check stuff before posting.
There have probably been doctors who did that. We've had every kind of shitty shitty doctor. But for the most part, a lot of gender clinics in the US and Europe over the past decades have been giving trans women weirdly high doses, pushing their estrogen levels to 5 times that of a cis woman, suppressing testosterone levels to zero despite the fact that cis women have testosterone, etc. Masculinity has long been treated as something that had to be nuked from orbit. & it's only in the last years that we've seen doctors and standards of care chilling out a little bit, aiming for estrogen levels close to cis womens' and not blocking T - waiting for T to lower naturally under the influence of increased estrogen - and lo and behold: they're still seeing great transition results.
earthmoonlotus reblogged
no one who is saying "girls can just try testosterone, you don't need to be a trans man if you want more masculine characteristics" is saying "HEY TAKE TESTOSTERONE NOW DONT DO RESEARCH JUST TAKE IT GIRLS JUST DO IT"
obviously you need to be informed. obviously you should do your research, talk to a doctor and know your family and medical history. know the full effects and the timeline of when you can expect the effects, how much is permanent and how much will reverse when you stop taking it, as well as other unintended side effects. you should be doing this before taking any new medication.
and I don't think anyone who is considering taking testosterone is oblivious to the main effects. I can't imagine any girl being like "yeah I'll take testosterone" and then being shocked and dismayed to find that body hair is permanent. testosterone also isn't just an instant MAN SWITCH. you can be on a very low dose and have very subtle androgynizing effects. and if you decide to stop, then a lot of those things will reverse. more than you would think, by the way. I've heard stories from trans men who were on t for 8 years fully passing as a cis man and took a few months break, then reverted to looking like a fresh faced boy just starting his 6th month in t. our bodies are so plastic and fluid and change so much!
it's common sense to tell someone to know all the effects of a medication but when you frame it like "WOAH hold on!!! you can't just tell girls to TRY testosterone! you're gonna trick them into PERMANENT CHANGES that could MAKE THEM MISERABLE" it really comes off as terfy propaganda, look out the transgenders are injecting our women with evil hormones that'll make them permanently hairy and masculine
so yeah, you can try testosterone. please do your research and know what you're getting into. some effects may be permanent, but if you're considering it in the first place, you may enjoy those permanent effects! the hormones that your body is producing now are creating permanent effects but no one is freaking out about those.
earthmoonlotus reblogged
Anonymous asked:
is there anything that has happened since starting T that you didn't expect to happen? or that you feel you were not adequately informed about (by doctors, peers, etc), and that really should be more common knowledge?
that's such a great question, thank you for asking! that's a huge yes from me! here's what i experienced that i was definitely caught off guard by and not warned about that presented some challenges:
- I was not told that because my body is changing, growing, and adjusting to a new balance in my endocrine system that i would be very exhausted for quite a while. i already have chronic fatigue but i basically struggled to get out of bed for about 2 weeks after starting T- i wasn't depressed, i was just exhausted. this is due to the fact that my muscles were becoming denser and rearranging themselves, my facial and body structure were changing, i was growing more hair, etc. that takes a lot of energy!
- Similarly to the point above, no one told me that it would make you hungry as hell, and require you to eat a lot more. if you feel like you're "over eating" after just starting testosterone, you're probably not- your base caloric intake needs to increase because you are literally growing and changing, and also, high testosterone bodies tend to need more calories anyways
- Body hair growth is ITCHY!!!! and sometimes even painful! growing hair in sensitive areas like your armpits, crotch and ass can be extremely uncomfortable if not painful at times. I've heard from even cis men who have told me that growing their ass hair was extremely painful and uncomfortable due to how that area is configured- if you find that hair growth is uncomfortable this is pretty normal, but always seek help if it becomes unbearable or you feel there are ingrown hairs. Also nose hair and ear hair become more of a thing, now
- Testosterone will thicken your vocal cords and drop your voice, but you also have to teach yourself how to speak from your chest, or how to drop your voice to sit in a lower range naturally or else you will still sound pretty similar to your pre-transition voice, unless that is your goal. The effects are very strong, but many transmascs*, trans folk* etc. don't see as much change as they would if they also trained their voice at the same time while it's dropping
- Your boobs will become flatter and sometimes smaller and a lot saggier. This is normal!
- Whenever i re-start testosterone and when i started it for the first time, i had some pretty heavy menstrual periods for a while; sometimes your body reacts in the opposite way at first before totally stopping your periods altogether. it's almost like "rebound" symptom, if you know what that mean
- Restless energy will very much become a thing, if you notice you're starting to get pissed off and can't place a finger on why you feel agitated and like you're going to explode, you might just need to do some physical activity for a while
that's all i could think of for now, but if i think of anything else, i'll be sure to add it to this post! thanks for asking, i hope this was informational! good luck out there in your journey!
earthmoonlotus reblogged
Hi speaking of medical literacy for trans people, transfems pls check out the website Transfeminine Science, especially their introductory article on feminizing HRT
Non-transfems can reblog this as well btw
earthmoonlotus reblogged
terfs really show their asses when they tell you HRT is gonna make you bald/fat/disabled/etc. i thought radical feminism included breaking down & defying conventional beauty standards queen what happened
no one's body exists to please you. isn't that what we're all trying to escape
Shoutout to intersex people triggered by everything that upholds HRT as a choice made joyfully, a powerful and empowering choice, a choice at all.
It's hard sometimes being bombarded by constant positivity for what has been used to alter our bodies against our will, that made us sick, that we were forced into with lies and rape and fear mongering and threats.
I'm glad to have the correct hormones now. I'm a woman taking testosterone after being forced on estrogen for years. I'm happy to use my T cream every day. But it doesn't stop being upsetting when you're surrounded by graphics and posts about how overwhelmingly positive HRT is when you're a victim of intersexist medical rape that led to forced hormones. It doesn't mean I don't want people celebrating their joy, either. But it hurts that much more that trans people more often than not exclude and erase intersex people entirely while we exist in these spaces. Please think of us. Please actually learn about us.
earthmoonlotus reblogged
It's honestly crazy that discussion around testosterone HRT skews so much towards the beginning stages of it (to the point that you have dozens of guys thinking their transition is "failed" if they don't pass by like a year in lol) and what the initial changes of the first couple of months to years look like, like the classic laundry list of those early basic changes like bottom growth, voice drop, etc, when IMO literally none of that compares remotely to the depth and intensity of the long term total masculinization you start to experience like 3-5+ years in.
doctors have fucked up incredibly badly with HRT timelines and advice to trans people. actual endogenous human puberty takes almost 20 years
reblogging this again actually to share some of my specific experiences on the transfem side:
doctors say body fat and boobs and stuff happen mostly within the first 3 years. but i got major spurts of breast development at 7 years and 11-12 years. my hips have become significantly wider in the past couple of years - at like 13-14 years HRT.
you will keep changing forever.
i started testosterone when i was 17 and didn't grow chest hair until i was 29.
you will keep growing and changing forever.
you will keep growing and changing forever
earthmoonlotus reblogged
Hrt will help you no matter your age. You can not get hrt "too late," because it's never too late. You will be happy, you will be beautiful, don't be afraid to pursue what you want just cuz of age.
earthmoonlotus reblogged
valid
yeag
earthmoonlotus reblogged
one thing you should know if youre starting hrt is that youre going to love yourself like you never have before
earthmoonlotus reblogged
Much love to everyone in a similar situation as me. We'll get through this <3
One day, before my parents learned to accept my brother, my mom said to me that transitioning would be very dangerous for his health. Mind you, my brother is studying medicine, so already the argument that he didn't know what he was getting into was already very shaky, but at some point, I just told her "but mom, you smoke" and
she
got
very quiet
This is a hilarious story, but it's SO representative of the wild double standards people have for HRT compared with other medicine.