Testosterone Replacement

[Chelsea B]

So, I?m a CD?er and my typical pattern is once every week or two. That seems to be how the desire ebbs and flows.
About two months ago I went on testosterone replacement, and as I started, I wondered what effect it would have on my desire to dress.
Contrary to my expectations, it?s been way stronger. I dress more often, and with very profound satisfaction. I crossdream more than ever, and it has been coming to me in my sleep dreams as well, which is not usually the case.
Not that I am complaining. Anyone else have experience with this?

[monalisa]

Might be interesting to see what happens if you increase the testosterone replacement.

[Robertacd]

I do not believe there is any correlation to T levels and desire to CD or being TG.

My T levels have been in the normal range for a GM all my life, and yet here I am...

[Aunt Kelly]

If your dressing has a fetish component to it (not judging at all, BTW) then your observations would make sense. If not, the return to more normal T-levels will still have effects that are beneficial and welcome. Makes sense to me, at least.

[Tania]

I have been on testosterone replacement for some time. The desire to dress has stayed the same, or maybe a bit more. Less tummy fat, feel better.

[sometimes_miss]

If testosterone increase leads to increased desire to crossdress, perhaps it's connected to your libido, whether you're aware of it or not.

[Piora]

It seems to me that it wouldn't affect your feminine side of your personality. It would only affect your body physically, wouldn't it? Just speculating, I'm not too sure.

[Lululover]

I started getting testosterone shots two years ago. My t levels were extremely low. I get tested every six months.I thought for sure my desire to dress would go away, it hasn't changed. Maybe even a little stronger. I'm a closet dresser and full time underdresser, with a understanding and amazing wife.

[Glenda2]

This should be a wake up call for me. Am getting on in years and have never been tested for T level.


Glenda

[Tracii G]

Never been tested for T levels but I don't see where there would be a correlation.

[MiniRock]

If it wasn't for testosterone, I wouldn't want to do it at all. It's a man thing, leastwise for me and perhaps most of us. Pity many women can't see it that way instead of destroying their own marriages over it.

[Vickie_CDTV]

Low testosterone can cause depression-like symptoms, including a lack of desire to do things you enjoy, and lack of energy to do things you enjoy (or any thing for that matter.)

[Nikki.]

a discussion about t levels and cross gender drive or impulse that’s interesting https://crossdreamers.blogspot.com/2015/04/on-anne-vitales-theory-on-testosterone.html?m=1

[Devi SM]

I'd been 20 months on HRT. One of the components is spirolactone that's used as testosterone blocker, so my testosterone level is the same low as a woman and the estrogens at the same level of a woman as well.
It's a known sideeffect that this therapy kind of kill the libido in the way men use to have but not disable to feel pleasure and sex drive but now is in the way women experience it.
When people talk here thinking that testosterone replacement wouldn't affect crossdressing is ignoring that hormones make big changes in many aspects physically end emotionally. It's a fact.

[GretchenM]

I have been on testosterone suppression since early August. Big changes in the first 4 to 6 weeks. No desire to dress or even think that way. Not much desire to do much of anything other than get through prostate cancer treatment. But a couple of months in Gretchen came back and I returned to the way I was before and I have been that way ever since even though I have a couple more months of suppression nothing seems to be changing. So, I concluded that it was the period when the hormone levels were changing that created a problem and once stable at near zero the basic self returned. Biologically that is the way most hormones work - it is the change of state that is noticeable but once stable it is not so noticeable.

Testosterone has been given a bad rap. It is a masculinity modifier but not an enhancer as has been thought for so long. It makes bad masculine worse and good masculine better. But I doubt it has much impact on the total gender identity. That seems to be a more fundamental process that is part genetic and part environmental (social).

If testosterone is a behavior modifier then it seems to me that it would shift whatever behavior that is occurring at the moment in a positive direction. Unfortunately, my research on the literature of how testosterone influences the behavior of gender identity has found nothing in peer reviewed literature. So, at this point, with my scientist hat on, I have doubts that the hormone has much effect on gender identity in a male. In a female that might be a different story just as female hormones in a male body influences a lot of things including sense of self because the body is reacting to something that, physiologically and psychologically, is not supposed to be there. It is a fascinating subject though, but probably not worthy of endocrinologists getting funding to study it. Maybe someday the actual effects will be identified. For now I think the responses here show that testosterone probably doesn't have a lot of effect on how one identifies. It's only anecdotal and a tiny sample, but considering the nature of the testimony of CDs and TGs here, it opens a tiny window on what happens and its effect basically creates a conclusion of, "Not much."

[Krisi]

My doctor told me that "normal" testosterone levels vary widely in men. Mine sunk below the "low normal" a few years ago and I have been on testosterone replacement gel since then. So now I'm in the "low normal" range. I don't think it has anything to do with the desire to dress as a woman.

[Cheryl T]

I can honestly say that T replacement is the LAST thing I would want at this stage.

[CynthiaD]

I suspect that my T levels are low, although I’ve never been tested. My natural breasts have gotten larger (B cup) and my skin has gotten much softer. But if I went for hormone replacement it would be for E not T.

[BTWimRobin]

I've been on T-blockers for the past 10 years due an enlarged prostate. Adding T would be a bad thing for me. Adding E on the other hand .....

[Bea_]

I've been on T shots for years now. Ironically, and coincidentally, my taste for women's clothes started at about the same time as the shots. Definitely no reduced tendency to dress. Increased body hair is a downside for me. I don't go hairless, but I don't like having more than before. Without the shots I'm on the low to low-normal spectrum and it effects my mood negatively.

[Jamz1b]

I was told that in males testosterone aids in the production of estrogen. gynoclomastia in puberty is often caused by this sudden increase in testosterone which increases estrogen.
I did experience the same increase in feminin feelings when starting testosterone, and also sensitivity in breast which i never had before.