The positive mental effects of HRT

[Alexis.j]

To those that are on m2f HRT, what mental changes have you noticed? Better or worse than before? How long before you noticed the change, if any. And do they change over time (long term effect).

I have been of HRT for a month, and am much less moody, less agressive, and generally more easy going and more carefree.

Im not looking for general Internet answers, but rather responses from actual people that is on HRT.

[Angela Campbell]

It comes slowly. In a year you will hardly remember what it used to be like.

[Aprilrain]

I cry more easily now but I'm hardly a water fountain. I basically went from pretty much never crying to being able to cry when I'm really sad. I don't cry when I'm happy.

My sex drive has changed significantly, it's not that I don't have one it's just that the urgency is gone. I think about sex quite a lot actually and can get lost in fantasy (sexy romance novels are my new guilty pleasure, lol) but there is no need to go do something about it anymore. Also my functionality is severely reduced which often makes "doing something about it" not worth the time and or effort.

I'm probably not as quick to anger but it's not a huge difference. If I feel attacked I get defensive however I can't remember the last time I felt pure rage which used to happen a lot when I was married.

I think it's one of those things where it happens so gradually that I haven't even noticed all the subtle changes and like Angela said I can't really remember how I used to feel or think.

[Nigella]

I concur with April and Angela, you personally will not notice the difference, it gradually creeps up on you, its those around you that notice the difference, then one day, a short while down the line, they will make a comment about how you have changed, then it clicks

[Alexis.j]

Thanx for the comments so far ladies.
Im also happy about the reduced sex-drive, which used to bug me before. As April stated, I now don't HAVE to act on it anymore.
LOL, I also had serious anger and frustration when I was married too. So bad that I thought I was getting a heart attach at one stage...

[GabbiSophia]

I also am a little over a month into it.. i noticed the gd let up some for a bit but has started to return. Thou g h the craziness in my head went away a few days into it. I thou h he it was a placebo effect but after asking around it was not. I don't have as much of a hair trigger as i did and that is nice. Other than that no changes

[sandra-leigh]

In most ways, I don't notice much difference.

I went through a phase for a few months where my eyes would leak during sappy emotionally-manipulating movies, but I think that is pretty much gone (I've had a small touch of that for some time.)

I think I might read even more erotica than I did before. When I do, I have some physical response, but it is usually weak. My visual appreciation for women is still present, but not many arouse me now. I have been in the presence of beautiful naked women and little to nothing happened physically.

At the moment the evidence seems consistent with the possibility that before I get much of anywhere physically, I need a perception that I am being offered something sexually. Pictures, porn DVDs, in-person conversation with a nude woman who has a partner: none of those situations present real sexual potential, and my body can't be bothered to respond. Note that my reaction this way is quite possibly a continuation of a process begun in my relationship, in which I would see my partner naked more days than not but sexual reactions on my part were... somewhat discouraged.

I do, from time to time, go through periods where I do "have to do something about it", but those periods last at most two weeks, and seem to be associated with my testosterone levels having risen (I am not on any anti-androgen.) But when I am not in those periods, it can easily be more than a month between times where I feel like "bothering" to go for a sexual release. Getting an erection can take some work now.

There is one area that I did experience a large change in mentally. Before HRT I was going through a long stretch where I was taking more and more chances about my dressing, more risks, and it was like a compulsion. I had to wear my C-cup forms at work during an all-staff presentation by a VP. Not that I literally could not avoid any one time, but I felt pretty bad if I did. It wasn't "disappointment". I would go as far as to say that there was a stretch where I was not in my right mind. My need to present as female in public and at work was like a pressure inside me battering me around; I was getting pretty close to the point of telling work that I needed to dress as female, knowing that doing so might cost me my job sooner rather than later.

When my HRT settled in, I stopped feeling that internal pressure. I do not mean that I reduced my dressing, but I wasn't being mentally battered around and compulsive about it. My lay-off (half the section was cut, nothing personal) also meant that the "risk" aspect was reduced. I dressed more and thought about it less: my dressing had stopped being a strain and instead became part of me. I went to more places dressed and didn't bother to explain or worry about what people thought: I was just being me and I knew I would be treated pretty much like other people. A lot more internal acceptance. There was a lot less "fight" about it, a lot less "Don't you dare tell me how to behave!", no more bothering with "excuses" for why I was presenting or acting as I was, more going about my business. Less dysphoria.

The reduction in internal strain did present some mental problems, though: when the dysphoria reduces, you may well end up questioning whether you are "really" transsexual, or if maybe you could be something in-between, or maybe if you kept taking your medication you could keep presenting as a guy. How much you want to transition might become a lot less immediate necessity and might become more a matter of remembered necessity together with "preference" together, all balanced against perceived costs. Like "is it worth losing your relationship to transition more?", "is it worth the family upset?", "is it worth the danger to employment?", and so on.

So the biggest mental change for me is more peace and self-acceptance.

[Anne2345]

Im also happy about the reduced sex-drive, which used to bug me before. As April stated, I now don't HAVE to act on it anymore.


I see nothing wrong with a good, healthy sex-drive. And nothing that I know of beats the feeling and release of a really good, really big, really intense giant "O."

But like many others on HRT, my sex-drive has changed significantly, too. It's also much reduced, and at times, almost non-existent, unless (much like April also wrote) I get lost in fantasy. Oddly enough, even though I knew going into HRT that the chances were that it would change dramatically, I thought I would miss my sex-drive as I knew it back then. But the reality has been that I have been mostly indifferent about it. In the manner it has changed I consider it to be neither a good thing nor a bad thing. It just is what it is. Still, I like sex, and it is my desire to have sex in the future. For now, though, it is not a driving or motivating force. Which, considering everything, is actually a really good thing at this point for me, but I completely and totally digress. lol. :-P

[Janice Ashton]

I feel more at ease with myself, my sex drive has driven of into the distance, I feel more emotional and have more empathy with people. The big thing that I haven't noticed myself but a lot of my friends have, is they see me as a lot happier person and some have actually said they find me a lot more friendly than in the past.

I don't think we see many outward changes ourselves but the people around us do, especially if they haven't seen you for a while, in conclusion I am very happy on HRT and a lot more content with myself although I know I still have some Gender Dysphoria.

[I Am Paula]

Before HRT, I felt like my identity was what it said on my passport. Now, I feel I have a REAL identity, where my brain tells me who I am.

[LeaP]

My comments track April's. No more rage, no hair trigger. Actual happiness. Emotions flow, not dramatically, but noticeably (I get "gooey" at times out of nowhere). Sex? What's that ...

I'm stable (mostly). I'm me.

Initial euphoria over starting (appx. 21 months ago) was just that. It faded after a few months. There was a fairly rapid decrease in aggression and anger. Clarity over the source of dysphoria symptoms only really came after about 4-6 months, and some of the mental & emotional changes only really settled in after well over a year. It becomes hard to describe the changes because, like so many others, I've largely forgotten what I felt like before.

[PaulaQ]

I suffered pretty significant dysphoria related depression and anxiety before starting HRT. I wish I could tell you that the dysphoria is gone - it isn't - but it's significantly reduced. My depression and anxiety melted away. (I can't credit all that on HRT - I went fulltime as well, and that helped *a lot*.) I felt pretty normal, and relatively happy after a couple of months. I am more emotional now. I cry when I'm sad, I have a little bit of a temper - but it's more like being mildly annoyed, rather than insane rage. I feel things now, good and bad. It's great!

My sex drive initially went to zero, but it's back now, albeit without erections, and I'd still say it is lower level than before. It's hard to compare - it's different.

[Alexis.j]

Thanks for all your responses/input, ladies. It is highly appreciated. Its nice getting real people's responses, apposed to just finding generic google info... (which should never be taken as life or death accuracy)

[Lorileah]

Mostly I didn't notice any huge changes. I have friends who were radically changed, but for me it was more a "Now I am in place" feeling. My sex drive was pretty low to start with from other things that had happened, but now it is just more a once in a while thing. I don't cry for no reason. I don't feel I act differently, however people I hardly know tell me I have changed and for the better. The meds are making me crave salt...but that isn't something most HRTs do I don't think. I still anger as quickly as before but now the results are less thinking how to physically fix it to how to insidiously get back (I am more vindictive I guess). Since I am taking the estrogen by injection once a week, I joke you don't want to p*ss off the princess on Tuesday, but I am beginning to believe it is more true than a joke now.

[Angela Campbell]

I find myself to be less aggressive than before. I actually feel emotions, mine and those of others. Sex drive went away for a while, but once I got into a relationship it came back, but it is so very different. Hard to explain but everything about it is different. (Better)

I have less anxiety, I can focus. I no longer have to be the best, or have the last word.

[becky77]

I'm only into my fourth month of hormones and I can't say i feel any different. But i know this isn't true, its just you dont realise the subtle change.
I would say I am way calmer, i'm not charging around in the car anymore, im happy just to poodle along. When out shopping im not bothered what the time is, im just content, before I was always looking to 'be doing something'. Im certainly happier, can't say thats just the hormones though more like a combination of living and being my true self and then the hormones. Im definately more accepting of myself, I no longer feel the need to 'man up' I am me and if someone thinks im a tranny or at work thinks im a camp poof, so what? Before I would have been trying my hardest to hide it. And the sense of wrongness has drastically diminished.
I just feel better.