These are the things that I wish I had known before I’d begun! (Not that it would change my decision by any means—but rather so I could have been prepared!) Specific to FHRT and, of course, limited to my experiences only (n=1 and all that).

  1. Tired! And moody! (And, therefore, empathy for what teenagers are going through.)
  2. Intense low mood occasionally if the hormone dose isn’t correct (easily fixed by getting endocrinologist’s blessing to increase dose).
  3. Having to buy new clothes every 2 months. Embrace the Kmart.
  4. Much higher demand for energy (calories) than I’m used to—and when I forget, symptoms of undereating (light headed, nauseated, poor sleep, feeling cold, etc). (Seeing a trans-friendly dietitian about this; highly recommended.)
  5. Since some parts of the body get bigger and others get smaller, this leads to specific physical signals noticed by the brain (e.g. clothes tighter in certain areas, such as chest), which in turn trigger the brain’s subconscious “Ahhhh help I’m gaining weight” (an unhealthy mindset, certainly; but we’ve all got a bunch of crap like this in our head from living in this society).
  6. Nausea. Motion sickness.
  7. Melty butterflies. If you know, you know.
  8. Very obvious decreases in strength, speed, and endurance when exercising.
  9. Nightmares and other visually intense dreams. Though unsure if hormones or antidepressants.
  10. Much more comfortable seeing reflections/photographs of myself. (It’s amazing how many of aspects of my behaviour have been completely resolved by HRT.)

And in case it’s not blindingly obvious: despite all of this, life as a whole has become so much easier.