How "Reversable" is HRT?

[SarahNicole]

I fully realize that breast growth and infertility are guaranteed to stay even after stopping HRT, but what about everything else? I'm curious what I can expect to return to "normal" if the event happens that I decide that hormones are not for me. I'm pretty confident that they are, and I'm sure I'll be happier on them, but I have to think about the worst case scenario here. Anybody ever run into information about somebody's experience in stopping Estrogen and letting their body go back to normal?

[Saturday]

Assuming you haven't had surgery when you stop HRT, your body would just pick up and start producing testosterone again. Your body fat would redistribute to a more male pattern, and though I'm not sure how electrolysis would affect it, presumably your body hair and facial hair would grow back. Your skin and hair would stop being as smooth and soft. I know that for FtMs who have stopped taking T, their voices tend to stay the same, or feminise only marginally once their body resumes estrogen production. I don't know how much estrogen changes the voice, but I'd actually think it would revert more for a transgirl if she stopped hormones (solely because HRT seems to have more effect on the voice for transguys; I could be wrong).

That's all I know, and I might be off base. Just be careful looking up stories about detransitioning or stopping HRT--there are some real horror stories out there, and those tend to be the ones with the most prominence in search results, the people who have detransitioned (even to the point of going through a second surgical/medical transition back to their birth sex) and are loud about all transpeople being wrong. (The Shiny New Converts, if you will.) So just...take everything you read about detransitioning with a grain of salt. It can be very discouraging or even triggering.

[virginia]

Like facial hair/lowering of the voice for anyone on testosterone HRT, whatever breast growth a person experiences from estrogen HRT is permanent. But it takes a fairly long time for hormones to actually destroy the testicles, not just shut them down. The rest is reversible until that point but how long that is varies from individual to individual- reinforcing the need to take HRT under medical supervision.

But don’t play roulette with your health with the opinions self proclaimed experts like me. The British and Canadian Governments have wonderful series of transgender references at:

http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/Publicationsand ... /DH_081580

And

http://transhealth.vch.ca/resources/library/index.html

[SarahNicole]

See... The problem is that I've been getting conflicting thoughts again, and I do not want to let the doctors know about this for fear that they will change their minds about letting me start on HRT. I normally dislike lying, and especially hate it when it comes to something important like my health... But I'm considering trying it anyhow just to see. So I wanna be sure that I'm not making a stupid unhealthy choice, and I wanna feel better about hiding my uncertainty from the doctors.

[Vibe]

The problem is that I've been getting conflicting thoughts again, and I do not want to let the doctors know about this for fear that they will change their minds about letting me start on HRT.

Argh, the gatekeeper fear again! I'm going into Danish parliament within three weeks to tell them that the psychiatric observation intended to help us make the best decisions actually results in us not being able to address our doubts!

As for your question: The best you can do is get a counsellor who is not connected with the persons doing your assessment. This way you have a person to talk to without fear.

Go deposit sperm. Fertility is reversible, but it may take a long time for it to restore after quitting or pausing hormones, because they make your testicles shrink and because spermogenesis takes three months (!) itself. Hormones may well affect your wellbeing positively and certainly affects your emotions. The people who have later decided to pause hormones because they wanted children deerly regret going off them for half a year and starting to see their bodies masculinize again!

For the first six months estrogen is considered fully reversible unless your still in puberty. After six months everything but breast growth is considered reversible. This means you can feel safe experimenting for some time if you're reasonably sure. The feeling you may have that HRT is some magic point-of-no-return is not true.

But consider your motives. I went the official GID Clinic 1-year pre-HRT observation route because I wanted professional guidance talking through my decision, effects and complications. For gatekeeper fear I ended up never really sharing what doubts I had and the year ended up a complete waste, rather actually gave me a very bad impression of the GID Clinic and hurt the relation I should have benefitted from in the second year of the process. When I did get the HRT experiencing the changes, especially emotionally, was almost like an epiphany! Knowing what I know now getting a direct referral from my GP to a gyneacologist and starting HRT before I entered the GID Clinic would have benefitted me more than waiting a year. The best thing I could have done would however probably have been to get a referral for another clinic and have used the regional clinic for open, honest counselling and the national clinic for the mandatory evaluation.

Because I never got space for my doubts I still have them to some extent. This means, that now when I have actually been approved for surgery I don't consider myself ready, but rather consider myself at the beginning of the process which will lead to my eventual decision on do or don't. Gatekeepers really make you waste a lot of time this way!



Best wishes
Vibe

[virginia]

People tend to focus on the physical changes, but HRT probably has more of an affect on the brain than the body. A better question is has anyone ever stayed on hormones long enough to experience unwanted breast growth and sterility before they realized they were not right for them? There is a huuuge difference between starting HRT and trying to detransition from a non reversible surgery like breast removal/SRS or life altering social changes like coming out or living as another gender. Anyone not wired for hormones will “know” long before the physical effects become permanent if they are right for them. Stop trying to second guess your doctor. If you don’t trust him, you need to find one you do. If your medical professional is comfortable prescribing the medication, take it. That’s the best you can hope to do. I’m wondering if a bigger fear might not be finding that out?