What happens if you stop taking Hormones for one week ?

[Princessolga]

Hi, probably this question sounds stupid to a lot of people here, but it concerns me. I have transitionned when i was relatively young (sixteen) so i started taking hormones at a young age , and i could hold my voice relatively feminene and my bone structure isnt that masculine. I want to have sexreassignment surgery as early as possible. But most doctors say that i have to stop taking Antiandrogens and hormones, one week before the surgery. Iam afraid that my voice will get deeper and more masculine and that my body-hair will grow. Please dont make jokes, because this is a serious concern of me, i know it sounds stupid, but Testosterone has a very rapid effect on the body.
Thanks
Olga

[mishadark]

Not stupid at all
& a very serious question.
You need to come off because of the very real risks of dvt.
This is the case for any surgery, not just SRS.
I'm having FFS next year & will need to come off hormones for the same reason.

I had surgery on my arm 2 yrs ago & came off hormones. After 2 weeks the effects were horrible. I could feel the testosterone hitting me. It felt familiar yet totally alien. ALL the effects were mental....surly, argumentative, stropy, aggressive....total nightmare.
But better than DVT / death...

One week off hormones seems far too little though.
In the UK, the health service says off for a 6 week period, but in private overseas ie thialand, its 2 weeks
I dont know if there is a faster recovery period, meaning that you can move around sooner after surgery.

There is a uk trans site http://www.tvchix.com/
which has an excellent forum catagory "ask dr Emma"
I suggest you join & post your question there. Emma has a huge depth of experience on these areas; Nats wallis would probably contribute to the reply, as she has also a great depth of knowledge as well.


I hope that helps a little.
M. xx

[flabbybody]

make sure you go to the forum section cause the rest is basically an escort site.

[melissacarter]

The information written thus far is wrong! First, there is no reason why hormone therapy, including testosterone blockers needs to be halted for surgery. Perhaps this is a unique risk for you personally that your doctor is taking precaution. I had 2 rounds of feminization surgery in addition to implant surgery two weeks ago, and I was not required to slow down or cease any medication.

Secondly, the notion that you will react violently to pause in your HRT is a bit much. Sure, there will be mild effects but you must understand these medications are long-term in scope. The power of their effect is not over a period of weeks, or even months, it is measured in years. If you must for whatever reason cease HRT for a few weeks its no big deal.

[AmyDaly]

I have heard from many people who have had SRS that coming off HRT for a week or 2 was the normal thing and just fine.

[mishadark]

Hiya again
I've just done a quick look there
http://www.tvchix.com/forum/topic.php?tid=25082
This thread covers hrt & surgery & your exact question.
You will need to join the site but its free.
& you can post your concerns on that forum board & get useful suggestions.

[meditation]

Hi, probably this question sounds stupid to a lot of people here, but it concerns me. I have transitionned when i was relatively young (sixteen) so i started taking hormones at a young age , and i could hold my voice relatively feminene and my bone structure isnt that masculine. I want to have sexreassignment surgery as early as possible. But most doctors say that i have to stop taking Antiandrogens and hormones, one week before the surgery. Iam afraid that my voice will get deeper and more masculine and that my body-hair will grow. Please dont make jokes, because this is a serious concern of me, i know it sounds stupid, but Testosterone has a very rapid effect on the body.
Thanks
Olga

I heard it is more than one week, maybe like 1 month or even 3 month.

Yeah it sucks, but you will survive through it, dont worry about it. You won't become a guy if u stop taking hormones for one month or even 2 to 3 months. My friend goes without hormones sometimes because she doenst have money. God , i hope that doesnt happen to me. I would become a major bitch, but as far as physical changes, maybe ur hair will get a bit oily or ur face will grow a pimple or two, but no big deal. It's more like your mood swing i would worry about. Good luck!1

[mishadark]

Yep, seconded.

[GIA LOVES RON]

I don't know about your doctors but my FFS surgeon here in Boston and endo strictly told me to stop my estrogen intake two weeks prior to my FFS because it might give me complications such as BLOD CLOTS while i'm under surgery.

But maybe it is different from one person to the next. Also, i'm alittle weary of me going bitchy and crazy because I just stopped my hormones but they did not say to stop my testosterone blocker. They said spiro or aldactone doesn't affect any surgery whatsoever.

Before my boob job, my endo also told me to stop my premarin a few days b4 my surgery and resume a week after. I did it anyway just to be safe. We as transsexuals always have that idea that if we stop hormones ....we are gonna start loking like a MAN again (LOL!!!)...it takes a while for that to happen but even so. Long term use of estrogen can really make a huge difference in our face but it doesn't change your vocal chords. It takes practice or whatever you need to do to feminize that voice.

My friend went to dr.Thomas in Oregon to get her voice done but you can only go so far.

Hope that helps!

[flabbybody]

wouldn't the fact that the OP started hormones at such a young age a short term break would have less effect?

[AmyDaly]

wouldn't the fact that the OP started hormones at such a young age a short term break would have less effect?

I think so. Its still going to effect her emotionally though. I get really emotional after the first week of stopping taking my medicine.

[Princessolga]

Dr. Suporn says, that you have to stop taking oral tablets like antiandrogenes and Östrogenes one week before traveling to thailand. And iam gonna go to him for my sexreassignment surgery.Once in tv i saw a documentation about very young transsexuals who had taken Antiandrogenes even before there "false puberty". The doctor said, that one week of stopping hormones would have an rapid effect, like voice-deepening and facial hair growth. of course, i havent started hormones that early , but i does still concern me, you know as a transsexual woman, some of the worst things that can happen to you, and which you are afraid of is masculinization .
Thanks a lot for the answers. Its very nice, that you all try to help me.
Your Princessolga

[SarahG]

I remember this topic being talked about a year ago on here, but I couldn't find the thread. the consensus then iirc was that estrogen does pose a risk, but it is an extremely small risk. I cannot for the life of me figure out why some surgeons still insist on this crap, let alone for great lengths of time. Sadly trans health care is so bureaucratically operated, that surgeons will often take a "this is the policy, follow it or go somewhere else" stance even when there is no logic behind their rules. If a girl has been on hrt for ten years, has had an orchi and breast implants- is there really any use requiring two letters from shrinks to show that the patient "is really trans"? Fuck no, and yet because "that's the rule", that's what some surgeons will ask for. :roll:

Only your surgeon is going to say for sure.... but if I am understanding the risks correctly, the concern is because estrogen can increase the risks for blood clotting during surgery (the reason why that is bad is pretty simple, it can easily & quickly kill you).

This explains going off of estrogen before a surgery... but it does NOT explain going off of anti-androgens. Spironolactone does not, as far as I've read, effect blood clotting one way or another. If your doctor lets you keep taking spiro while ceasing the estrogen, then there is no way testosterone will be able to do anything. Spironolactone doesn't stay in the system for long, that's why it is only effective if taken multiple times in the day (ideally three), so telling someone to stop spiro a week or more before a surgery is pointless.

Consider this: if a tgirl gets an orchi (testes removal), there is nothing left to produce meaningful amounts of testosterone. When a girl, after that orchi- gets a major surgery (FFS, SRS, whatever), all they make her do is stop taking estrogen. Having no T in the system (for a short time period like this) poses no problems. A girl who is on t-blockers should be no different from a girl who has had an orchi, as far as the endocrine system is concerned.

It could be that spiro poses a separate risk that surgeons worry about in addition to the estrogen, if so I can't comment there.

I am pretty sure you can get an orchi done without going off HRT because its such a minor surgery, so if you can't get a surgeon to let you stay on spiro- you could always get an orchi first. Just make damn sure the orchi is performed the right way or the scar tissue could leave problems once it comes time for SRS (the surgeon you want to use for SRS will prolly be able to tell you the best way to have an orchi done given the concerns about srs). Some surgeons do charge more for SRS for patients who have had orchi's, but its usually not a big difference in price.



I heard it is more than one week, maybe like 1 month or even 3 month.

No, 3 months is crazy long. I would be very interested in hearing which SRS surgeons require going off of hrt for 1-3 months.



wouldn't the fact that the OP started hormones at such a young age a short term break would have less effect?

Actually the reverse is true.

I am sure other people can chime in here, but my observation would be that HRT for anyone (this rings true for both MtFs and FtMs) shows the most rapid progress during the first 1-9 months.

Yes HRT works slowly, yes it takes years for its full effects to occur (and this is true for both MtFs and FtM's; no FtM has a full beard at 9 months) but the speed of progress is uniquely fast at the beginning. Puberty is the same way really, it takes years to work fully but when it initially starts its faster at the beginning.

So if you have someone who has never been exposed to T, due to starting HRT early enough, then basically the patient has never had male puberty (at all) which is a MAJOR difference from someone who has had a male puberty in their past. If a patient were to go onto normal male T levels for 1-3 months, while never having had a male puberty before- I would bet money that it would lead to voice changes (even if its just the early stages of it like a squeaky voice), facial hair (not a full beard, but some), but probably nothing else as far as irreversible changes go. I can remember my first three months of HRT and how rapid that was, and that was for someone starting at 18 (not pre-puberty) and when talking about estrogen, which does far less in the way of lasting changes (face it, the most estrogen will do that's irreversible is hip bone growth & breast tissue formation, the former can't happen if you start HRT long enough after puberty and some GG's won't get defined hips until after giving birth, depends on your genetic makeup).

A week on the other hand? I have trouble seeing a week on full male-T levels to be enough to do anything for anyone, even someone who has never had male puberty. Long term HRT use will also impact its ability to readily produce testosterone. The body basically shuts off or down the T production after enough time on estrogen & tblockers. If the patient has been on hrt for years, I highly doubt a week would do more then the mood-swings/changes. Going off of estrogen (after years of use) cold-turkey WILL be uncomfortable, it will cause mood swings, hot flashes, possibly cramps (even if there is no uterus there)- and that's true for GG's too (if a GG has her ovaries out, the cold-turkey change in E causes the same issues).

[alyssats]

1 week of not taking hormones will make you fucking horny as hell all your testosterone goes out hehe. That what happens to me whenever im not in the mood to take hormones. So fucking horny as hell I masterbate twice a day and cum alot and so thick and white.