FTM's and Transitioning

[Vincent]

Originally Posted by DapperButch

Hey, Vincent. I would love to answer your question, but I am not too sure what it is? You mentioned missing a shot and having hot flashes (you get your shot every 3 months), and you said that the next time you got a shot on time and they went away. That makes total sense to me. I guess I miss what you find strange?

It just confused my endo,as I had been on T for 8 yrs and she thought that my overies had given up on creating estrogen and that was before my hysto,this time I missed a shot for 6 mths,I have them now every 10 weeks,and now Ive had 2 shots in a row on time they have stopped,as far as my endo was concerned I shouldn't have had hot flushes at all,but I was,thats for sure,I guess its not so much a question than running it by others,as the community ages we are moving into unchartered waters,well thats the conversation here,plus variables,in that different people will have different reactions/symptoms,I do apologize for not being clearer,TBH,it was just another thing happening regarding my health

[Jesse]

Hey Vincent,

I am 57, and have been taking Testosterone injections for almost 17 years. I had a hysto 7 years prior to starting T. My chest surgery was in early 2000. I personally have gone without a shot for a month or two, simply because I forget about it once in a while. I have never had hot flashes from missing my shots. At most, I sometimes start feeling a little down and then I realize I am way overdue for my shot. Hope this info helps.

Jesse

Originally Posted by Vincent

It just confused my endo,as I had been on T for 8 yrs and she thought that my overies had given up on creating estrogen and that was before my hysto,this time I missed a shot for 6 mths,I have them now every 10 weeks,and now Ive had 2 shots in a row on time they have stopped,as far as my endo was concerned I shouldn't have had hot flushes at all,but I was,thats for sure,I guess its not so much a question than running it by others,as the community ages we are moving into unchartered waters,well thats the conversation here,plus variables,in that different people will have different reactions/symptoms,I do apologize for not being clearer,TBH,it was just another thing happening regarding my health

[Vincent]

Originally Posted by Jesse

Hey Vincent,

I am 57, and have been taking Testosterone injections for almost 17 years. I had a hysto 7 years prior to starting T. My chest surgery was in early 2000. I personally have gone without a shot for a month or two, simply because I forget about it once in a while. I have never had hot flashes from missing my shots. At most, I sometimes start feeling a little down and then I realize I am way overdue for my shot. Hope this info helps.

Jesse

Hey Jesse,
I went 6 mths plus I'm on reandron which is every 10 weeks,ive just had 2 shots in a row on time and the hot flushes have stopped,I have an appointment to see the endo my next shot,I wonder if the hormones effects us all differently?
Thanks everyone for chiming in and Corkey I will ask her about that.Although it seems for me it was low levels since they are gone,over here we go to the hospital and have our bloods done before every shot,its free so our levels are constantly monitored,I was on every 12 weeks and started to get hot flushes about 3 yrs ago,she"my Endo"said my levels were low and changed it to every 10 weeks,and the flushes stopped,and now I'm back to normal,also my body likes the high end of the scale,I guess I'm putting it out there coz there really is no real test group,just our own experience,especially for us older guys,thats just my thinking,also our population is tiny compared to the USA.So thanks for the input

[DapperButch]

Ok, Vincent, I see what you are saying here.

I am going to assume that when you say you had a hysterectomy, you had a oophorectomy (removal of ovaries), during that surgery (not everyone does, but I think that is part of the standard hysto for trans guys in Australia).

However, here you are, 8 years later, having menopausal symptoms after stopping testosterone for a period of time.

I just spent the last 45 minutes doing a bit of research on the web. I read that some females can have menopausal symptoms (i.e. hot flashes), up to 10 years after hitting natural menopause ("menopause" = determined by blood work). That is a long time. This is because even though the ovaries have stopped producing estrogen, there can still be a very slow reduction of estrogen in the female system.

However, you are talking 8 years after surgical menopause where the ovaries are completely removed. I couldn't find anything on the web that would tell me how long menopausal symptoms should last after that.

I am very curious about this though, so I am going to continue to look into it.

Now, on the off chance that you still have your ovaries and are saying that you find it weird (and that your doctor concurs), that after stopping testosterone for 6 months that you had a return of menopausal symptoms, I do not find that strange. Testosterone shuts down estrogen production, but only temporarily. A person can be on testosterone for 20 years, but if they stop their testosterone, the ovaries will pick back up where they left off, producing estrogen, as normal.

Two weeks ago I had a full hysterectomy (including oophorectomy). I had a massive amount of adhesions (scar tissue), due to past abdominal surgery. Amazingly, my surgeon was so committed to doing it by laproscopy so that I wouldn't have to get cut abdominally, that he spent the extra 4 hours needed to cut through all of the scar tissue to get to all of my reproductive system for removal. Needless to say, since he had such a hard time seeing everything through the mess of scar tissue, he said there is a very small chance that he didn't get every bit of the ovarian tissue of one (or both), of my ovaries. He told me that if that is the case, and I go off testosterone, there is a chance that my body will produce estrogen again.