I’m a trans woman, and I’ve been experiencing pretty annoying levels of nausea recently – like, daily, for a few months. It’s not too disruptive, but I get hungry really sporadically, and I spend the rest of the time feeling vaguely queasy. I’m wondering if it’s at all related to the drug cocktail I’m on.
I’ve been on HRT for about 2 years now. I take estradiol (4 mg/day orally) and spironolactone (100 mg/day). I get my hormone levels checked regularly at a clinic. The spiro used to be 50 mg/day, but I had to up the dose after my testosterone levels started creeping back up several months ago.
The T uptick seemingly coincided with when I started taking bupropion for depression. My T levels are back in range, and I’ve since switched out the bupropion for lamotrigine (a mood stabilizer). But now I have all this nausea.
Despite what I’ve described, my HRT prescriber and my psychiatrist both insist that this drug combination shouldn’t be causing nausea, nor the jump in T levels. So, it’s a mystery, and quite a frustrating one. I feel like I’m a big bag of pills that’s been shaken up until it’s good and dizzy.
Not sure if anyone can relate to this – how many depressed trans women are there out there, anyway? But if you have any advice, I’m all ears.
I am ftm, but when I started trying to transition with hormones I had the same issue. I even cut weed out in hopes that was causing my nausea. Mine was so bad that I would not eat for weeks and I ended up getting a saline bag twice because I didn’t want to hydrate. My endo was not as sure as your doctors that hormones couldnt cause the nausea, and when she investigated she found it’s a very rare side effect. I quit t and was fine afterwards.
But, the fact you’ve been on hrt for so long before the nausea makes me think you have something else going on. Maybe you have an ulcer? I can see that lowering your hrt absorption. Buproprion can definitely decrease appetite, and I have taken enough mood stabilizers that I’m sure appetite loss is a common side effect. Honestly, if I were you, I’d be going to my primary care doc and trying to approach from a gastrointestinal point of view
Wow, I’m sorry to hear you had such a bad experience, but I’m glad you found some relief. I’m really hoping it’s not the HRT for me – I’ve had enough progress with that and laser hair removal that I’m finally smiling back at my reflection instead of cringing at it.
But then, I also hope it’s not some more complicated gastrointestinal issue. I had some problems like that years and years ago, and it was a long and painful road to get it all fixed.
lol i don’t know what i’m “hoping” it is, actually. food poisoning? i’ll ask my docs to take another look at things.
I’d be going to my primary care doc
well look at you, having an actual primary care doc
Lmao. You’re right, I should put “primary care” in quotes.
Good luck! I don’t know what you should hope for either, but I’m so happy that you’ve arrived to the place that you’re smiling at your reflection
The combination might not be causing nausea, but nausea is a potential side effect with Lamotrigine. When I was being treated for Bipolar Disorder, I had to switch mood stabilizers due to random vertigo spells. I hope it’s something else if you’ve been feeling stable (mentally) with your current prescriptions since changing psych medications is a huge pain!
any chance you smoke weed to help with that depression? Cannabinoid hyperemesis might be worth looking into
I started using edibles this year, for a variety of reasons – boredom, substitute for alcohol, insomnia, and yeah depression as well. I figured the timing didn’t line up with the symptoms, and I don’t experience actual vomiting. But the Wikipedia article says it can take months to years before full symptoms manifest. I’ve started cutting back, maybe it’ll help.
i feel like it’s more a diagnosis of last resort than something to jump to first off, especially if it doesn’t really line up with your usage, but I’m not sure what else it could be if the doctors don’t think those meds/combination of meds would cause nausea.
I’m on 6mg estradiol daily, 100spiro for 2 years, and new progesterone, with no nausea. Never been on the other stuff you mentioned tho
I’ve been experiencing pretty annoying levels of nausea recently – […] I’m wondering if it’s at all related to the drug cocktail I’m on.
Yes, very likely. Nausea is often a symptom of you-body-goes-through-some-change-that-your-brain-can’t-keep-up-with-and-that-leads-to-nausea. I guess it will pass once your transition is complete and your mind has adopted to the new body configuration.
You can look at it like hardware/software. The hardware changes, but the software is still the same. So the software doesn’t keep up with the hardware, and that leads to minor bugs and inconveniences. Sensory data gets reported in a skewed way, and all that leads to nausea, which is a generic way of your brain telling you “i don’t know wtf is going on”.
