I definitely didn’t notice any changes in skin texture 'til around week 4 or 5, but the change in my body odor started on like day 6, way sooner than the general timeline would have sugested.
The body is a hodge-podge of Rube Goldberg machines, and trans research is wayy underdeveloped. Method of delivery and absorbancy and a billion other things probably affect the effects.
Out of curiosity, the skin changes were a huge boon to me (one that I didn’t expect to be so nice), so there’s a world where it was partially psychological. Was body odor a big dysphoria source for you?
I’m a highly scent-oriented person so I was probably more sensitive to that change than most, but I didn’t realize it was a contributing factor to my dysphoria until that very moment. It’s not that I disliked my old scent, it just never smelled like “me”, y’know?
Lmfao samee, I getcha. I had nothing against my skin before, but it was never comfy. I didn’t even realize it because it was just normal, and when it felt worse it felt like it just needed a shower (where I incidentally rubbed my skin raw. Which I didn’t even process as probably-not-great).
Mood. I lived with my dysphoria for so long that I didn’t even realize how much of my “normal” was just depression until that first dose of E lifted the weight from my shoulders.
At this point I’m trying to get off my antidepressant because I think it’s suppressing a lot of the mood changes I would have otherwise gotten from starting estrogen. So far it seems like my guess is correct; every time I step down a dose my feelings get stronger, I feel less dissociated, and so forth. It’s a double edged sword though. I’ve had some moments of extreme dysphoria while my brain is getting used to the lower dosage.
I definitely didn’t notice any changes in skin texture 'til around week 4 or 5, but the change in my body odor started on like day 6, way sooner than the general timeline would have sugested.
The body is a hodge-podge of Rube Goldberg machines, and trans research is wayy underdeveloped. Method of delivery and absorbancy and a billion other things probably affect the effects.
Out of curiosity, the skin changes were a huge boon to me (one that I didn’t expect to be so nice), so there’s a world where it was partially psychological. Was body odor a big dysphoria source for you?
I’m a highly scent-oriented person so I was probably more sensitive to that change than most, but I didn’t realize it was a contributing factor to my dysphoria until that very moment. It’s not that I disliked my old scent, it just never smelled like “me”, y’know?
Lmfao samee, I getcha. I had nothing against my skin before, but it was never comfy. I didn’t even realize it because it was just normal, and when it felt worse it felt like it just needed a shower (where I incidentally rubbed my skin raw. Which I didn’t even process as probably-not-great).
Mood. I lived with my dysphoria for so long that I didn’t even realize how much of my “normal” was just depression until that first dose of E lifted the weight from my shoulders.
It is really weird to suddenly have emotions and to be like, affected by the world around you suddenly X)
At this point I’m trying to get off my antidepressant because I think it’s suppressing a lot of the mood changes I would have otherwise gotten from starting estrogen. So far it seems like my guess is correct; every time I step down a dose my feelings get stronger, I feel less dissociated, and so forth. It’s a double edged sword though. I’ve had some moments of extreme dysphoria while my brain is getting used to the lower dosage.
Best of luck! A slow tapering of the dosage is definitely best for antidepressants.