My Experience with Hormones

Several people have asked me at one time or another, What's it like taking estrogen? The following is a description of my experience -- it is not medical advice.

I started taking estrogen with the Vivelle Dot transdermal patch. When I began using it, in March, 2007 (at age 59-1/2 and two years before my SRS) I was using two, 0.1mg/day patches twice weekly.  That dose is at least double the dose that is prescribed to post-menopausal women when they are in a regimen of hormone replacement therapy (HRT).  I was also taking spironolactone, 100mg twice daily.

Since my surgery, I am down to a dose of estrogen in the normal range for HRT, one patch twice weekly, but I am still using the highest per-day dosage: 0.1mg/day.  I no longer take the "spiro".

I stopped smoking right about the time I started estrogen therapy because I heard that taking estrogen increases the risk of blood clots, and that the risk is significantly increased if you also smoke.  These are the effects I noticed from taking estrogen:

1. Within about 6 weeks, my nipples "popped".  I was hoping for breast growth, of course, but I mistakenly expected the breast to swell like balloons -- sort of from the inside out, evenly all over.  Instead they began to grow more like ripening fruit.  A squash or a melon grows first at the blossom-end of the the fruit, and gradually the fruit fills in behind the blossom.  My own breast growth was something like that, except that I was not exactly growing melons.
2. By eight weeks after starting treatment, my nipples were prominent enough that I was embarrassed to appear bare-chested, which males do when they swim.  Putting on a tee shirt was no help: why do you think they hold wet-tee shirt contests?
3. Along with nipple prominence came increased nipple sensitivity.  I mean really tender.  Before I started taking estrogen, I had no idea how sensitive a woman's nipples are.  Well, I still don't exactly, but my own nipples are maybe 8 times more sensitive than before.
4. I began to experience hug hunger, or hug lust: I wanted to hug everybody!  This is related to nipple sensitivity, but it isn't exactly the same.  I experienced the feelings over the whole of my chest and my belly: it feels so good to hug someone.  I'm used to those feelings now, but the sudden increase in wanting to hug made me giddy.
5. Within 2-3 months after starting, my erectile response significantly diminished -- not gone, but slower and less intense.  Actually, I think the response was sort of mellower.  The best part, for me, was that the urgency was gone.  That is, before estrogen, once I got erect there was an urgent demand from my body that I have an orgasmic release; failure to do so became frustrating.  After a few months of on estrogen, however, the need for immediate release was gone.  I still wanted release, but I didn't get "testy" if I didn't get it.
6. Within 3-4 months my partner noted that the shape of my face had changed, and had become softer and a little rounder. I didn't notice it myself -- still don't -- but she did.
7. Overall I became less irritable and uptight, more calm, more patient -- and that was before I decided I would proceed toward SRS.

Those are the effects I can remember, in the approximate order in which I became aware of them.  "Your mileage may vary," as they used to say in the automobile ads.  There are many different approaches to estrogen therapy, taking into account your age, weight, general health, and specific health issues you may have.  You really do need to find a licensed, trained healthcare provider to supervise your course of estrogen therapy.