Trying hard to trust the process, and while I have seen other expected changes in skin, hair, and mood, I am getting anxious that nothing is happening under my shirt. I had some minor sensitivity within the first two weeks, but never anything painful.
This Friday will be 6 weeks on HRT. 2mg Est, 4mg Prog, 200mg Spiro daily.
Edit: thanks for talking me off the cliff everyone, I’m much less anxious now 😅
Just so you know, spiro does not meaningfully change blood T levels, it is a weak androgen receptor antagonist, so it (rather poorly / partially) blocks androgen receptors in your body from using the T in your blood.
The main thing that would be stopping your body from producing T is having enough estrogen in your body, which tells your brain you have enough sex hormones and it can stop producing T.
Lupron basically does this more directly: it tells the brain to stop sex hormone production.
Lupron is really great, it should be covered for all pre-op trans people, even adults. It’s a safer and more direct medicine, and the only reason it isn’t used for adults is because insurance companies don’t want to pay for it.
So Lupron would definitely tank your T levels, but I suspect the injectable estrogen was much better at keeping your blood E levels elevated, which is probably why your T levels haven’t come back.
Patches are better than oral in terms of increasing blood E levels, but you still don’t absorb a lot of it, and it can be uneven especially compared to injections.
So thank goodness you got Lupron and switched to injections!