Trans Without Politics

Hey guys,

I know I haven't been active on this forum for a while (this forum hasn't been as active as I've hoped, and I've been busy lately so I haven't been checking in on the forum activity that much), but I had a question regarding testosterone dosage. I'm scheduled to see my endocrinologist on the 17th to talk about potentially raising my T dosage (and potentially getting top surgery this summer!), and I've been on testosterone for about 7 1/2 months. I've been on the same dosage since I've started (I don't know how much, but since it's been the same since I started I'm suspecting it's a pretty low dosage). My last blood tests said I was at 686 ng/dl, if that means anything (I have no idea what that means). The reason I'm starting to get concerned is because I've noticed my voice hasn't gotten as deep as a lot of the videos I've seen of testosterone timelines. From what I've seen, from pretty much all of those videos the trans guys' voices are deeper at 6 months than I am at 7 1/2 months. Am I just being paranoid or am I on too low a dosage? Either way it should be resolved soon, as I should see my endocrinologist soon, but I wanted to know your input on it.

Matthew

I had some mood swings where I had low mood for the first few months on T, so I don't think you're the only one.

When I came out, I just dropped all of the feminine affectations that I had trained myself to do while I was "acting." I think that if you put on a new act, you're just going to seem like something is off about you, like I did when I was pretending to be a girl.

If you want to change the way you walk IMO you should wear a silicone packer if you're not already. You will naturally change the way you walk to accommodate it. Also, fix your posture because pre op trans men tend to slouch.

Sometimes mannerisms are learned and some are natural. As you live as a man you will develop the culturally-imposed male mannerisms without conscious awareness. In the meantime you should work on expressing your natural behaviors. That's my opinion anyway.

I was experiencing some periods of low mood/energy for the first couple months on T, and they seem to have resolved themselves by now. It doesn't seem all that uncommon to experience moodiness on HRT (which makes perfect sense considering how hormones influence your emotions).

So lately I've been having a lot of emotional problems recently, not just simply anger and aggression but also anxiety and sadness.  And when I become sad it's harder for me to cry or express it around others. Also a higher sex drive as well (which was already high prior T) and all these issues combined have made concentrating at work a bit harder. I get a lot of mixed responses when I look up this topic from various sources.

According to one trans man I know in person,  his first two months on T were rough emotionally, almost to the point where he considered going off it. Not saying it's all Testosterone's fault itself, but more of just due to a hormonal imbalance in general.

Then I've got other people telling me ( mostly cis men) that it's because of T and this is just part of being a guy. Basically comparing my current emotional state with that of the average teenage boy. :/ But in a way my current behavior does remind me a bit of my years in highschool.

Then the third group I've come across is people saying hormones have absolutely nothing to do with this, that I'm probably upset with something else.  But in all honesty I can't think of anything else that would be upsetting me right now. I've been getting unreasonably aggressive over dumb things that typically only annoy me prior taking hormones.

Did anyone else have emotional issues their first 2 months on hrt? FTM or MTF?  My friend said I just may have to workout more often to calm myself down. Like I literally almost exploded this morning because I felt like someone was talking too much....