What they don’t tell you about Testosterone

Edit: Thank you so much for featuring this post! I’m so happy that it’s been useful for so many people already!! Feel free to start a chat with me if you have any questions.

Hey there!!

I felt like writing a blog about my experience with being on testosterone for 5 months now, and let you know what my experience has been like and what effects of testosterone I was not told about.

Before you start!!

Everyone’s experiences on hormone therapy is very, very different!! Just because this has been my experience (so far) does not mean the same things will happen for you! Please keep that in mind as you read this.

How I started:

I live in Australia and until early this year, it wasn’t possible to start hormone therapy until you were 18 years old.

When I found out the law had changed, I was shopping with mum and she got a phone call from my psychiatrist and when she told me I could start testosterone before I was 18 we both started crying in the middle of the shops.

I was referred to a LGBT+ specialist and for the first appointment we talked about what it was like growing up for me. We talked about when I first started questioning my gender, what my experience with dysphoria is like and more. For the second appointment she met my parents and my partner ed us as well. I am so lucky to have such a ive and loving and caring and amazing person to love and that loves me. I received my prescription for testosterone that day and I was kind of in shock that it had actually happened, and I spent the rest of the day in my new unicorn onesie. I’m also the first person to have started hormone therapy under this new law, at least in South Australia.

What I wasn’t told about being on testosterone:

Heat Flashes:

Especially in the first two or three months of starting testosterone, I’ve had a lot of heat flashes. For a few weeks I got them nearly every day, but by 5 months they’ve stopped. I don’t know if this is something everyone experiences when starting testosterone, but it is normal for it to happen.

In case you don’t know what I’m talking about, a heat flush is suddenly feeling very hot and sweaty. I’ve had them before during my period, but I know that my period wasn’t the cause because I haven’t had one in 6 months now. (I took medication to stop my period, before starting testosterone)

Blood tests:

Something I did not know about being on testosterone was the amount of blood tests that I have to have done. For the first three months I saw my specialist monthly, which meant I had to have a blood test done monthly before seeing them. Now it’s every 2-3 months and soon it will be 6 months.

Now the way I take testosterone is through a gel, it’s kind of like hand sanitiser and I just let it soak in on my stomach. So I don’t have to inject it.

If you’re someone who doesn’t like needles and also wants to take testosterone through gel instead of injections to avoid needles, I just want to give you a heads up that you’ll still have a lot of blood tests done. These are done to monitor your hormone levels and other things, to make sure it’s going well and to know what dosage of testosterone you should be on. (As that can change) Personally, I’ve always been pretty scared of needles and ESPECIALLY of having blood tests done. After the 3rd or 4th test done though, I’m totally over it.

The Emotions:

When I first started testosterone, I had a lot of emotional days for the first month or two and I have had a lot of days where I have felt very vulnerable. What helped me the most through this, was consistent communication with the people ing me. That included the professionals I was seeing and my parents and partner. I would like to seriously encourage others to try and do the same while starting hormone therapy. It was so important that I let the people ing me, know how I was feeling and to talk about what was going on and what I was experiencing. It made a big difference when I talked about my emotions and anything I was feeling anxious about. It can feel pretty unknown at the start, how everything is going to turn out and that created some anxiety for me personally.

Acne:

I was aware that I would be getting some acne, because your skin will thicken and become more oily, but I was not aware of how much acne I was in for. I have had pimples on my face, chest, stomach, thighs, back, armpits, back of my neck and even in my freaking ears. My partner is a wonderful person and has helped me scrub down my back with some really good moisturiser and soap, and I’ve recently started a medication prescribed by my LGBT+ specialist which is actually helping a lot after just 2 or 3 weeks.

I definitely want to recommend starting a really good skincare routine. I’ve used some products that have tea tree in them, which really help.

Adjusting to my voice:

Something I didn’t realise, was that once my voice started to change, I actually had to kind of relearn how to use my voice. Things such as the volume that I spoke at. It took a lot of getting used to and to try and talk without my voice cracking hilariously.

So far my voice is either very deep or ridiculously high pitched, there’s no in between.

I could probably go on for a long time, but these are the main things I wanted to talk about!

I hope that you have found this helpful and if you have any questions or comments, feel free to let me know!

Sending love to you all!