Unexpected pros/cons of transitioning
Unexpected pros/cons of transitioning
Socially, medically, or otherwise.
Unexpected T pro: my cat loves aggressively head butting my facial scruff after a day or two of not shaving
Unexpected T con: my cat’s hair gets caught up in my facial hair any time I do this and it’s annoying to get it all out
Unexpected E pro: Crying now actually releases my overwhelm and sadness. No more does it make me feel worse. It's truly releasing.
Unexpected E con: I have to cry a lot. And I mean a lot.
Seriously, I cry on like a daily basis now. It's almost annoying, lmao.
Pro: faster metabolism, I can eat more
Con: faster metabolism, I have to eat more
Specifically for progesterone:
Con: near constant ravenous hunger Pro: greater difference in fat distribution, especially top growth
I didn't know progesterone did that
Unexpected pros of E:
- after 3 - 4 months on E, my leg hair has become more thin and light colored, so I can get away without shaving before it becomes ick
- I seem to be able to communicate what I'm thinking / feeling better, both better verbal skills but also just more internal clarity in general, I am more likely to know what to say in a situation and I stand up for myself more and interact more like a real human rather than dissociating and having to "think" my way through social interactions
- my skin is much, much softer than I thought it was going to be, all over
- even though I can't sleep as much on E, I feel more rested with less sleep. Pre-HRT I could probably sleep 11 - 12 hours every night, 10 - 11 hours and I wouldn't necessarily feel fully rested even though I clearly should be. Now I can sleep 8 hours and I feel fully rested / normal.
- how extremely "normal" I feel, basic tasks that were hard before become straightforward and simple, motivation comes more naturally, happiness comes to me more easily, etc.; I really did not expect how extremely it altered my mood and mental health.
Unexpected cons of E:
- sometimes it feels like my brain is having to recreate pathways I used to have and rely on (for example when I was writing code when first starting E, it seemed like E made me a worse programmer, e.g. I was less meticulous and kept missing small, tricky syntax errors; over time I think this has gotten better, so I think I just had to sorta "relearn" some of those habits on E, which was weird)
- with less anxiety and stress I am also less prepared and put together sometimes, I'm more likely to not think everything through or be late to something; I think anxiety made me more reliable as I couldn't help but obsessively think about all the ways I was going to miss something, etc. and now that I'm just happy and less neurotic I find myself having to be more intentional about thinking through everything (rather than relying on obsessive, anxious rumination).
- breast growth can be really painful and can make it hard to sleep in certain positions sometimes
- my fingers started to look different and I hadn't noticed, and while doing something for a brief moment I couldn't recognize my own hand, it suddenly looked like someone else's hand, which was not necessarily a happy moment despite the fact that my hands look more like I want them to look; just the sudden disconnect before identifying with the new was unsettling, lots of changes and it can be hard to know how to feel about them, esp. when obsessively watching them and asking yourself how you feel over every small change
even though I can't sleep as much on E, I feel more rested with less sleep. Pre-HRT I could probably sleep 11 - 12 hours every night, 10 - 11 hours and I wouldn't necessarily feel fully rested even though I clearly should be. Now I can sleep 8 hours and I feel fully rested / normal.
Not gonna lie, girl, this specific one sounds more like you just got out of depression.
Happy for you though ^^
@Daxter101 @dandelion my sleep schedule shortened too always been an early riser. But since starting hrt. I sleep 5.5-6 hours. And feel absolutely amazing and just love greeting the day
yes, HRT pretty much instantly cured my depression, the only experiences like it before were from taking drugs (usually stimulants)
I do think the changes to my sleep could be related to the depression lifting (that seems somewhat obvious), but I also think it's more than that because even without the return of motivation and anhedonia typical of my depression symptoms, the nature of my sleep seems to fluctuate with my hormone levels (just before injection my sleep tends to be deeper and longer; when my estrogen seems to be peaking I don't seem to be capable of sleeping in).
Note, I only take estrogen, no progesterone yet (I'm just over 3 months into starting HRT, I'm on monotherapy currently).
Unexpected e pro: way more confident
Unexpected e con: I lost 1 cm of height! I can no longer stare you down from 200 cm and 199 is just not the same :(
Cats are weird about beards haha, my parents cat used to let me hug her, put my chin on her head, and just move my jaw around (practically scrubbing her head with the beard), she loved it for some reason haha
e pro: no longer angy all the time
e con: ~mood swings~
Just wait until you get on the beard cycle: shaving sucks, so stop -> grow beard -> beard gets in mouth/everywhere -> beard sucks, so shave.
Or genetics determine "your beard will be this long. Any more and the individual hairs will fall out." That could just be me combing it out a bit too hard though, that and hard water is brutal on all my hair...
Shaving can be tedious and getting hair in my mouth is the worst. I have a pretty good medium going now, keeping my "mouth perimeter" hairs shorter with a trimmer and wet shaving my neck with a DE and shave brush. Less annoying and kinda fun.
Dude my cat does this too. I found that an old-fashioned boar bristle brush gets the cat hair off quickly. And it feels nice.