Any advice for a POISer looking to transition?

[Bombardier]

Heya guys! First-time poster here, though I've been an occasional lurker since '15. As someone who's dealt with this disease for just over five years now, I'm sorry to say that I still haven't found a cure for these ailments. In fact, the only real solution I've found any success with has been abstinence, or at least prevention of orgasm. Honest to God, that's the only thing that got me through college and let me carve out a life despite this condition we all share.

With all that said, I've somewhat stumbled into a critical juncture these past few months. To put a long and eventful story short, I'm not entirely sure I want to be a guy anymore. c:

The reason I'm making this thread is to collect people's opinions on whether this condition will intensify, get better, or even subside with the introduction of estrogen and progesterone. I realize demografx and several other members have found success with testosterone replacement therapy, but given the lack of medical consensus, the myriad alternative hypotheses floating around, and the fact that floppybanana apparently responded well to progesterone; I'll have to take that with a grain of salt.

I'm going to try transitioning regardless, hopefully sooner rather than later. I'll keep you guys posted! In the meantime, I'd love to read your thoughts on the effects of these hormones, and perhaps even whatever advice you might have for me going forward. ^^

[Bombardier]

Nothin' much, huh? I was at least hoping to collect people's thoughts on the hormonal hypothesis, especially since I'll be taking those things regularly in the near future. :c

Unfortunately, I have not had time to experiment much with other remedies, though my recent trials with niacin, choline bitartarate, and antihistamines post-orgasm did not yield favorable results.

[nanna1]

Hi Bombardier,

  I think the Betaherpesvirinae stack, located in the middle of the page, will be cheapest and most effective stack for preventing POIS.

  Taking hormones will modify your endocrine system and fertility. If you are not concerned with having a reduced ability to have children, then herbal teas (such as tumeric, ginger, licorice, hibiscus) have plant based hormones that function like steroids (progesterone, testosterone) (post). 

[certainlypois2]

We have had a few women with pois so the female hormones might not help(girlwind on thenakedscientist is one, if you want to check her post).  If transitioning reduces your libido that is always beneficial.

[dizzy]

I suppose the first stages of the transition (hormone treatment) are reversible? So, I'm wondering, would it hurt in the long term to try it out and see how it goes (and properly wean off the therapy when it doesn't have the desired effect)? What does your doctor say about this?

[Bombardier]

Hi Bombardier,

  I think the Betaherpesvirinae stack, located in the middle of the page, will be cheapest and most effective stack for preventing POIS.

  Taking hormones will modify your endocrine system and fertility. If you are not concerned with having a reduced ability to have children, then herbal teas (such as tumeric, ginger, licorice, hibiscus) have plant based hormones that function like steroids (progesterone, testosterone) (post).

Thank you so much, Nanna! I regret that I haven't had time to try out your stack, but I greatly appreciate all the hard work you've put forward investigating our condition. I'll be sure to trial that and your more detailed stack sometime down the line, as well as GLC's special diet.

I might invest in some mistletoe extract too.

We have had a few women with pois so the female hormones might not help(girlwind on thenakedscientist is one, if you want to check her post).  If transitioning reduces your libido that is always beneficial.

I hear it does, which is nice! Unfortunately, I already have a rare nerve problem that makes it easy to spontaneously ejaculate, which is not-so-nice. Hopefully the two will cancel out.

That said, I've always been rather curious of how POIS disproportionately affects males. Perhaps it's an X-linked disease like RG Color Blindness or ALD?

I suppose the first stages of the transition (hormone treatment) are reversible? So, I'm wondering, would it hurt in the long term to try it out and see how it goes (and properly wean off the therapy when it doesn't have the desired effect)? What does your doctor say about this?

Heheh. While that's an interesting thought, I can't say it's something I'd recommend unless you actually want to transition. Your voice won't change on hormones, and there's a possibility your fertility and erectile function will go back to normal once you stop taking 'em, but you usually start growing breasts after the first month. You need surgery to remove them, and I imagine they'd cause quite a bit of distress to someone comfortable with their own body.

That said, it's easier than it sounds. This Reddit post details the story of someone who detransitioned.

I've been rather skittish about talking to doctors, mostly since almost all of them wrote me off as a head-case. I'm sure we all know the feel. ^^'

[Neputin]

I had POIS ever since I was 13. I am 30 and considering transitioning into feminity through estrogen. I wonder.  How would it affect my condition? Theoretically I wouldn't produce sperm and my body would run on estrogen. Is there a chance it might fix it?

[Muon]

If you are allergic to sperm then it may help. When you have mast cell issues then you may get worse. Estrogen is a strong mast cell activator. There is a woman here with POIS symptoms who got high estrogen and low T levels. I wouldn't recommend such procedure. A doctor told me he had a patient who transitioned to a more female hormonal like state but that patient didn't want to talk anymore about the subject so he doesn't know whether it helped. I think there is a member here on the forum who did the same thing but still got POIS, he is from Romania I believe, forgot the name.

[KaleidoscopeSubject]

Hi everyone,

I am a trans woman that have been struggling with POIS since my first sexual experience and suffering from abhorrent gender dysphoria beginning in early childhood.
My POIS symptoms were mostly fever-like feelings, brain fog and general weakness with anhedonia. Combined with my dysphoria it caused me to avoid any sexual activity for months at the time.

Two years ago, (when I was 20) I decided I can no longer endure my suffering and started gender dysphoria diagnosis and got my first dose of HRT.

For reference my hormone levels before starting were fairly normal for a functioning male endocrine system except DHT which was way above the norm (1100, the  norm was up to 900, don't remember the unit...), which was suprising since I always had feminine facial features and barely any facial hair - according to doctors I could be partially insensitive to androgens. (Maybe also important to note is that I've always had strong multiple orgasms)

So a few months after I began, the changes finally started to show and my body felt like it was more mine and I tried having sex for the first time in months and suprisingly the symptoms were a little less pronounced than usual. Usually it took a week for me to be functional, but now I felt fairly ok after the third day after.

A year after this during which I seldom had sex (low libido, maybe once in a few months) with the same results and got an orchidectomy, I've noticed I started to feel even better after each orgasm and symptoms like general malaise, brain fog and weakness were completely gone and the only ones left were overheating and slight anhedonia.

It's like this ever since and I'm not afraid to have sex now, because it's no longer rendering me unfunctional.

During the whole transition I have had excellent hormone levels (almost zero testosterone, little DHT and estradiol in female norms). I'm taking IM injections of estradiol valerate 5mg/week and 100mg spironolactone, before orchidectomy I also took 25mg cyproterone acetate a day to stop testosterone production in gonads (and no spiro).

Important to note:
Cis men should not attempt to transfeminine HRT, because some people have strongly gendered brain (as most trans people might have, just in the opposite way) that will react with persistent shock to incongruent body and they could end up with gender dysphoria, which was far worse to me than any POIS symptom I've ever experienced.
This post is mainly for research purposes and for any trans people here that are hesitant to transition.

[demografx]

Hi, KaleidoscopeSubject, welcome to the forum!

[berlin1984]

KaleidoscopeSubject congrats!
Great to hear...

[Iwillbeatthis]

Interesting high estrogen is usually a bad thing: increases cancer risk, blood clots and stroke risk, stimulates mast cells and increases histamine