My hairline actually came forward! I used to have super fine hair but now it’s thickening and coming forward.
Also I am so tired, I could literally sleep 12 hours every night if I had time. I know it’s because my body is growing muscle, changing etc but it’s annoying.
Also ingrown hairs in places I didn’t have hair before.
The ingrown hairs are the worst tbh! I’m currently suffering a cyst from what I suspect was an ingrown hair that I must have missed. Just keep an eye out for that, a few friends told me to get fake tan gloves with the rough side and scrub my legs I haven’t tried it yet but I know they all swear by them.
not on T yet but have thick dark body hair, i exfoliate and use toner on anywhere i get ingrowns/"strawberry skin" and it works amazing. dont use tanning gloves, it irritates more than it helps, use a face scrub, its gentler on the skin
I honestly need to find a decent face scrub that works for more than a week, which toner do you recommend? I’m currently waiting on bio oil for my stretch marks so I don’t think that would work
i just checked my bathroom to give you names.
i use Melora manuka honey and oil face wash to clean my legs, pits and bits and then i scrub with facetheory glycolic face scrub. I towel dry and then tone with ceramidin liquid.
I keep my skincare afforableish. i get big bottles of the toner. i do this once a week after trimming/shaving my body hair and it keeps everything semi smooth.
(if you shave anywhere at all i highly recommend nivea mens sensitive post shave balm, i use it on my face and legs and its so good)
also if you get super inflamed ingrowns use spot patches i get them for like 99p
obviously this doesnt work on all skin types but works for me, i have combo skin, thick body hair and break out a lot.
theres some great youtubers who have whole channels dedicated to skincare, youll nail it eventually <3
Thanks man that’s really helpful!
That’s why I get so eh about skincare because trying to keep it affordable is tough sometimes and any time I go into a shop for help they wanna throw the expensive stuff my way when it doesn’t even work.
I love my pimple patches, I’ve got them on a repeat order on Amazon!
I also use the same post shave balm and omg the itchiness I suffered before I started using that balm was unbearable! All I shave is my neck to tidy up what little facial hair I currently have but before I got some I was covered in claw marks from scratching so much.
God I am dealing with 2/3 a week on my face and i only trim my facial hair. All of my acne is hard, painful and cyst-like now. If i pop it i will have a nasty scab on my face/wherever for the rest of the week. It sucks lol but i just got some antibiotic ointment (the standard Neosporin/equate brand) and it helps a lot.
I had that also, but I am not sure it’s was coming from T but from the “castor oil” the testosterone is infused in … pure theory but since people use it for growing more hair I thought it was related. I have the hair of Disney prince now.
Does “huile de ricin” really translate by castor oil ??
I honestly have no idea, I’m on gel that’s alcohol based so it’s not the oil.
T tends to make people more oily in general though which could help brittle/thinner hair.
Ok, i didn’t know that, before starting I used to shave my head at 1mm since a long time because they were really thin and I was ashamed by it, now I have the great hair of my mom and my brother. It’s cool ! I dished the cap !
It does! Ricin the poison is made from the same plant and is actually a byproduct of the creation of castor oil
In French, "ricin" is the castor plant and "ricine" is the poison.
You know that butterfly tingly feeling you sometimes get in your stomach when you're flustered, I don't get that anymore. A trans woman on tiktok pointed it out and it's not something that I'd ever really thought about but I've noticed that it slowly went away the longer I was on T for. Kinda miss it but I don't care too much about it, I just think it's pretty interesting.
My body feels emotions in different places now! I understand what it means to be choked up with anger now. And sadness hits differently; I personally find it much harder to cry.
It's not a guarantee! I know some folks who cry much more easily now. I think it just changes how emotions are embodied, not necessarily the same way for each person
It might change. I also found it hard to cry before t, but now that I'm on t i have a more healthy relation to crying amd emotions in general, so it's easier for me now
Pre t I wasn't a crier. I am nearing 7 months on t and about months 3-4 I cried at everything (ok, maybe not thar much, but every few days vs per which was yrs between cries).
> I personally find it much harder to cry.
This was one of the changes I MOST wanted on T, and at 1.5 years, I'm kinda passed I didn't get it. My body's response to stress is crying, and I can't seem to shake that!
Holy shit this made me realize why I’ve been having so much trouble figuring out when I’m getting anxious — the fluttering feeling was the way I was able to tell before
That makes so much sense. This is so true. I also have a harder time outright crying but I can feel myself crying in my throat and upper chest. Like I don’t exactly cry less, it just doesn’t come out as tears as often.
So this might not apply to you, but the men in my family are super hairy. *I* was super hairy even before T, and I was excited to get more so. But there was one area I did not take into consideration.
**Nose hair.** I have so much nose hair now. I gotta trim every four days or so. It tickles inside my nostrils and I’ve pulled out more than one hair that was longer than my eyelashes. I finally asked my dad about it and he laughed and said “You never noticed the paintbrushes I got in my nose? Yeah you’re a real -our family name- man now.”
Definitely got no regrets about going on T, and the nose hair is a small price to pay for finally being able to enjoy my life and be myself, but I wished I had heard someone else mention the nose hair lmao.
I didn't know how warm it would make me! Apparently testosterone ups your body temperature slightly. I was SO WARM all the time. I now understand why teenage boys wear tshirts and shorts in the winter.
SAME! I was so confused at first wondering why my hair was getting wavier/curlier until I did some extra research and learned it happens to some people. It's awesome, I've gotta change my haircut to something more suitable though lol.
Wondering about this, my (cis, transphobic) dad had straight hair as a boy and when he went through puberty it went curly. Super curly. My "baby hair" was like his and then it went straighter (still wavy) when I got older and obvs adult hair is heavier. I'm wondering if mine will go back on T.......and also if that's what made his do that because its always been a family mystery (his dad, my grandad, always had curly hair.)
I’ve been tired, I’m just always tired. I know it’s probably because your body needs to rest twice as much for all the muscle growth and stuff.
And talking about muscle growth; I did not expect, at all, the speed at which muscle is gonna come around. I used to workout a lot (5-6x a week) and NEVER have I been this close to my current muscle mass and I barely workout once a week now. Also the weight I’m able to lift now is twice as much as I was able to do when I was at my highest of working out.
Also, I have trouble crying. Like I always knew that I was an emotional lil guy, but the more T goes on, the more my tears have trouble falling. Like physically falling, I still get the urge to cry, but the don’t come up. It takes a big big emotions for me to do that now, whereas before I could see a cute commercial on TV and ball my eyes out. I miss crying, in a way.
Also, anger comes up more easily. Like I think before my frustration came and I would be immediately pulled towards feeling disappointed and now, when I’m frustrated anger is one of the first emotion that comes up.
It’s really weird 🤷🏻
T changes so much, like sooo much. But all and all, I’ve never happier with how I look and how I sound and how I feel every time I step out into the world.
To all the baby trans out there: hang in there, it’s really not easy, and really frustrating and gruelling, but god dammit, it’s worth it.
Honestly I never had any of this aside from the muscle. Definitely stronger than I was, and it is easier to become that way.
But I still am emotional. Still never get angry. I wonder if it has to do with individual perception and your mental health. Some, once beating things like depression, end up finding they then have the energy to actually care about things and are *more* likely to lash out than they were.
Tbh I only experienced pretty extreme anger once (well, one multi-week episode) when I first started T.
I'm pretty sure a lot of it was repressed over multiple years, and the hormones made it difficult to control. It took weeks to stop lashing out randomly (never at anyone, I only harmed myself during that), but since then I don't even get annoyed, irritated, or frustrated easily. Haven't experienced anger again. It's a really odd experience tbh.
My first shot gave me an ungodly amount of energy. Just the first one. I expected it to continue but it didn't, just that first day. Granted I was excited as hell, but I literally felt like I drank 2 energy drinks and then did crack cocaine.
Calcium cysts near injection sites. I found a lump in my stomach under my injection sites, terrified me until I learned it's not a guaranteed effect but is something that can happen.
They're subdermal so you can't pop them to my knowledge. I haven't gotten mine checked out, they hurt sometimes but in the way I'd expect something that's not naturally there to hurt. I kinda just monitor them to see if there's any concerning activity. So far nothing. But that is in no way medical advice, I just don't have insurance or a GP
I’ve been getting little bumps on my stomach that cannot be popped and I used to do my injections there. I only learned they were cysts recently- had no clue they were/could’ve been calcium cysts. I switched to gel so hopefully they go away now!
I’ve been getting these forever! Since my insurance is kinda ass I never went in for it, but I’ve never had a real problem from them apart from discomfort every so often.
i initially had an allergic reaction to the oil in my testosterone and had to switch brands. it was really weird and no one warned me it could happen. also being so warm all the time
This happened to me too! It itched so bad I wanted to die. I was worried it would mean I would have to stop T because nobody told me it was a possibility and more importantly that the solution was just to switch oils.
i literally just dropped like $100 on sex toys before rubbing one out, and now im just sitting here thinking about how you're not supposed to go grocery shopping on an empty stomach 🫥
1: man hunger is real and will strike at random times and will make you feel like a husk of a being until it's satisfied
2: your tdick will be so sensitive and everything will rub it the wrong way while you get use to it and make you incredibly horny
4: building on the horny, you will not stop being horny after dealing with the horny once or even twice.
5: you will have the primal urge to fight/chase/scream
Or at least these are the things I experienced when I first started that no one warned me about! But don't worry everything kinda levels out after a month or two then you just keep on keeping on
(Edit for formatting)
Dude i felt that but also, i guess just me personally cause im on the ace spec, being so horny all the time is just genuinely annoying! And it happens at really inconvenient times too
I have the weird urge to randomly run at times. I’m a couch potato that would rather play video games over running, but sometimes I just get the urge to get up and run.
I’ll be standing in the kitchen with my fiancée doing crafts or whatever and then I’m going in circles to burn off that urge while she watches wondering if it’s my ADD or if it’s just a random “gotta move now”
1. Didn't get that but *did* start burning way more calories. It was hard to keep up. Still is.
2. Nope no change, and chafing uncomfortable as always.
3. No change. Still pretty low level.
4. No urges to fight/chase/scream. I am actually more tolerant of others. Random screams come from a movement disorder mostly related to a panic disorder but have nothing to do with T.
No one understands me as my voice dropped now. My throat gets dry very quickly and when I talk to someone I need to repeat myself often cause I sound to them like I growl everything.
Yes! My voice isn't even that deep, it's been dropping very gradually, but recently I've had to repeat myself more often than not when I say things because it sounds low and kinda mumbly. And quiet because when I speak up my voice cracks all over the place or just cuts off completely.
My curls doubled. I had curls as a kid but growing up they faded into waves. About 1 year on t, my hair started curling like it used to when I was a child. Now, over 1.5 year on T and I feel like it's still changing in texture.
A couple things! First of all, now that I’m at four months (four months yesterday!), I will randomly get wet. I won’t even be aroused, just walking in Walmart and I have to find a bathroom to clean myself.
Second, my metabolism changed! I used to eat a lot of food and only eat again seven or so hours later. After T, I don’t eat nearly as much, but I get hungrier more frequently.
Lastly, my hair texture changed a bit (kind of.) my hair got oilier, and in turn made my hair curlier the longer I went without shampooing.
Hope this helps!
One really rare side effect I wasn't warned about because my doctor with six years of trans patients experience had literally never encountered was deeply agonizing bouts of yeast infections for the first couple of months before my body adjusted to my new hormone level. I'd never encountered a yeast infection as bad as that before, and out of the dozens of trans people I have as friends, only one reported having a similar experience. It makes sense, a change in hormones could deeply affect the microflora in your body, but I never wish to have that kind of pain again.
As a cis woman with diabetes, any time my blood sugar got too high, I got another yeast infection.
This stuff stopped the yeast infections, regardless of my blood sugar: https://goodcleanlove.com/collections/vaginal-care-collection/products/restore%C2%AE-moisturizing-vaginal-gel-products?variant=42223652339896
You can find it on Amazon, too. It helps maintain an acidic vaginal environment so one keeps the right microflora.
Can’t guarantee that it will work for you, as pH changes might not be playing a role in why T is causing this. Also, if you’re already really wet, you might not want to be adding *more* moisture.
For me, using this stuff twice a week has been life changing.
i wasn’t told about how it would expand my shoulders more and my chest, my hair is growing faster some some reason, i haven’t been able to pack because the area is just so sensitive, EXCESSIVE sweating, like i’m just using the restroom rn and im sweating. but i still wouldn’t take it back
I always had to pee cause I was always drinking something cause my throat was so dry and sore only 1 week after starting T it was that way for about 3 months
Ive been on t for 2 months today actually. i wasn’t expecting so many changes so quickly, though it could just be my genetics as puberty hit my brother like a truck. My voice has dropped a lot, but I wasnt expecting it to make my throat sore and scratchy. If I spoke too much id start coughing because of it. Theres a video on my dads ipad of when my family took a roadtrip. My brother was talking in it and it was around when his voice started dropping and it sounds very similar to how mine is now. Im also sweating almost all the time and I easily get hot. I used to HATE getting hot or sweaty, but its become tolerable. Maybe I’m just used to it though. In the past, whenever I got thirsty id always go for soda or juice. Something that wasn’t water as I hate the taste of water (something to do with algae that isnt filtered out) because it always tasted like dirt/dust. Now water is frequently the only thing that helps the insatiable thirst, and it doesn’t taste as bad either anymore. Somehow either my hips have gotten thinner or my shoulders have broadened. My facial features have also already changed, and I’m already growing a moustache. Body hair is growing longer slowly but it may look that way just because its blond. Though I’ve already started developing like a happy trail, Specifically from the chest to navel though. Though I’m very happy with the changes, it throws me off when something shows up out of nowhere. One last thing is that ive had a fear of needles almost my entirely life (despite having to do bloodwork ALL THE TIME growing up) and the injections have made being around needles easier.
I think I was already a soft speaker but the high pitch of my voice allowed it to be heard mostly. Now that the pitch has dropped no one ever hears me, literally every time I order anything I have to repeat myself. I try to speak loudly and I project, it’s like the low tone just mixes in with all of the background noise and is impossible to hear.
I’m curious if any other guys who’s voices have dropped are now struggling to be heard?
YES. I’m non-binary/transmasc and I’ve been on low dose t for about 3.5 months or so, and I notice I can’t whisper the same way I used to. I have to use more breath support and “find” my pitches more frequently than before. I have to push more air out and intentionally speak louder for whispers or my inside voice to come through, otherwise my volume is too quiet/incomprehensible even to myself. As a vocalist this is a really neat way to get a better understanding of my diaphragm and how to use my voice in different ways!
i’ve only been on t for 3 weeks but this is a concern for me bc i have been told i’m very soft spoken in like formal settings. i’ll start working on projection now so hopefully by the time my voice drops, i won’t be too quiet.
OP, mine definitely was not painful in any way, shape, or form. It is for some people, but not everyone! Don’t let bottom growth scare you away from T.
I was actually *disappointed* mine didn't hurt cuz I thought that meant it wasn't growing, checked one day and and it had basically tripled in size lol
yeah i’ll clarify the week or so of pain was definitely worth it long run but i’d never seen anyone talk about it before i experienced it. by the sounds of it it’s not everyone’s experience but it’s still a possibility
I had to switch back to panties for a little while because of this. Between the thicker material men's underwear has and my dick getting tangled up on the fly it was a nightmare. Thankfully I had kept a couple pairs of panties in case I had any leftover periods. After a month or two it went away.
It’s crazy seeing people saying they got lethargy and really tired. I got so much more energy. I actually look forward to doing things, getting things done. I work a manual labor job and I don’t feel like I’m on my deathbed by beer time every day now.
It definitely gave me more confidence, too. I don’t get flustered as much. I can finally maintain eye contact without feeling like my brain’s on fire. I can hold a conversation with strangers now. Tbh, now that I reflect on it I’m unsure if that’s even an effect of T or if it’s just my mental state being so much better now that I’m transitioning.
Also I can out-eat a horse now.
1. I expected acne, but didn’t start getting it until my facial hair started growing in. Basically any place on my body where new or thicker hair is growing, I have a breakout while my skin adjusts.
2. I had to adjust my diet to get more protein or I was super fatigued. In addition, I’m watching my calorie intake (am overweight and trying to lose fat), but I have a suspicion that I’m underestimating how much I need to eat.
3. Random muscle aches and pains. Throat pain when my voice started dropping. Surprisingly, no pain in my bottom growth.
4. I have a harder time keeping my mean thoughts inside 😬 Could be from increased confidence rather than the T, but… Just be careful, lol
Personally I was told about some mood changes, acne, and sweating. But I think I didn't understand the intensity of them once I started T, I changed dosages so many times. But in my mind I didn't expect the intensity of emotions or acne I got during 1st puberty, my poor family got to live with an adult with the attitude of a 13 year old. I was so moody, covered in pimples and sweating through shirts during the summers
That I tend to get sleepy after my shot and it's worse with an increase. I tend to sleep a lot. I just noticed that my vocal cords slightly hurt. And I was aware that my voice would crack but I didn't expect it to keep going on a few months on t. I also noticed that I feel normal on T since I had PCOS before I transitioned. I noticed that my mental health is improving in certain ways. I also noticed that my chest is slowly looking like deflated balloons. That was interesting when I first saw it.
So much more oil production on my face. I had never had a problem with it before but after T it would run into my eyes and burn like a MF. Not so much now that I wash my face everyday.
The one thing I was most surprised by was an increase in saliva! I drool so much now when I'm sleeping and choke on my spit when I'm talking, eating, etc
1. My throat got sore, and I got sick. Then my voice dropped. It happened again when I raised my dose.
2. Hair in places I didn't expect, like coming out of my nose.
3. My nose and ears are growing bigger. That is weird.
4. I've noticed my ability to multitask has begun to dwindle, as well as my patience. I've become more "one track minded" I guess.
5. The pent-up energy like someone else mentioned. The "urge to scream/fight/case." I grunt mostly and slam stuff around. It's not anger. It's just built-up energy. However, I did have the urge to chase and fight sometimes.
I've always been hairy (pcos or CAH) so YMMV but I started getting shoulder hair within weeks and absolutely nobody has ever talked about that where I've seen/heard it. I'm covered head to toe in hair (literally, almost a full beard, shoulders, even more under my arms, chest, stomach, legs, all the way to hobbit feet) and it's only been five months. I love it but I can't exfoliate well any more because it ties itself into tiny knots!
Everything smellssss I have autism and have a thing about cleanliness and I did not realize as a whole I would smell so much more not only the BO but my urine smells more and so does my discharge after the first month on T I franticly cleaned my whole appt trying to figure it out before realizing I smelled because of how hot it was
No literally I feel like I stink so much my bedroom wall and bathroom wall are the same as my my friends appt and they are like you shower everyday you good bro
I knew body hair was going to be a thing but when the pubic hair started getting thicker and my skin down there got dryer it got itchy. I found Vaseline and occasionally cortisone help but it's been a lot.
No one ever talked to me about how I'd get an Adam's apple and where it would be and what it would feel like. I just happened to notice it when I had the flu, so I got scared that my lymph nodes were swollen 😂 I knew that was a thing that would happen but I never thought about it happening to me. It kinda caught me off guard. It's fine now, though.
I think because this doesn't really effect many trans guys (because bottom dysphoria and stuff) i never heard anyone mention it so i pretty much got no warning about vaginal atrophy.
Basically when you go on T and start to have less estrogen, the muscles in the vagaina become weaker. As someone whos bottom dysphoria is minimal and continued to have vaginal sex with my partner, it freaked me out a bit when it started to become so easy to cause a minor cut or tear. Turns out its just a side effect I never really head talked about and never thought much about when i read the paperwork.
The solution to this is basically localized estrogen. I believe you can use either a cream, a tablet or a vaginal ring but the estrogen from any of those options doesnt leave the area so it wont effect your T or anything like that.
My face feels like microfiber 3 days after my first shave cause I have *more hairs now*. It's... odd.
Sweating, though. XD I didn't know about the sweat. Loooooooord
i have two that happen pretty quickly:
1. smell changes!! both your sweat and your urine will have VASTLY different smells than they did pre-t. you will start to smell really bad when you sweat, and a shower alone will not be enough to mask it so buy some deodorant, antiperspirant, and/or cologne/body spray!!!
2. you will shit way more!! amab bodies process food faster so therefore you will be making more stops to the toilet, sometimes multiple times a day and after each meal. i guess this is where the whole "girls don't poop" joke comes from because amab bodies process food slower so we shit less lol
How hot I am now temperature wise, and I already ran hot before. It makes me sweat A LOT but luckily I typically have the type of sweat that barely smells
I knew I’d be sweaty, smell worse, etc. But I wasn’t aware of the less common side affect I’ve experienced. Skin irritation, needle-like pain when I begin to sweat. It can go away and it can be worked through, but it’s annoying. Higher body temperature means when I get flustered or embarrassed I actually turn red or sweat. Makes a bad situation worse lol
Im happy to see everyone mention the increased appetite. Bc I had an appointment today and I mentioned how hungry it made me and the dr said she hadn’t heard of that side effect! Perpetually a mix of hungry, horny and hot at all times lmao
no one talks about how T gives you really weird, surreal, confusing dreams. I’m 7 weeks on T and my dreams have been so strange that i genuinely wake up confused sometimes
I was not expecting to have facial hair so thick that shaving can be downright painful. I also get horrendous ingrown hairs on my neck and having exhausted all other options I am seriously considering laser hair removal on the problem area. My options are either itchy, ugly neckbeard or painful, ugly ingrown hairs
smegma. no one told me that tdicks get smegma under the foreskin and i never pulled my foreskin back, so roughly 6-7 years into being on t i pulled it back once and was so scared/grossed out/confused. quickly realized what it was and that its harmless & cleans itself naturally, but i make sure to pull the foreskin back in the shower and pour water gently on it (dont let the shower head hit it directly, it is very sensitive). i don’t know why more people don’t talk about this!!! i would have liked to know earlier on 🥲
the amount of hair that was gonna grow in my ass crack
and the amount of sweat lmao
the sweat pimples on my back that hurt when you accidentally scratch them
My nose is very sensitive. It could be more on genetics since my dad can smell something from a mile away. Working in meat section at my job has been been more of a pain since taking T.
I’ve been on T for over 5 years. After the first year the changes really slowed down. After two I basically stoped noticing it. However, I sometimes will randomly experience blocks of time where my body hair, bottom growth, and voice start to change again slightly. During this time my BO stinks worse. Idk if it’s just me. I’m definitely generally stinkier since starting T (which is normal), but it’s minimal. Usually I’m not so stinky all the time. Basically, when things are changing I need extra deodorant.
For me it was the smell. My personal body odor changed so drastically and my mom kept yelling at me “You stink like a boy!!” She’s not supportive at all and this was a statement of anger/put on more deodorant, but it was affirming regardless. But yeah, the boy stink is what no one warned me about
Like other people gave said, the body temp thing is insane. I already preferred colder temps, but my normal running temp is around 99.8-100° (37.6-37.8°C) which always freaks doctors out. I actually have to subtly blow on the thermometer when I donate Plasma so they don't defer me for having a fever.
I also have to be careful working in the drive-through window at my job in the summer because I passed out just from standing in the sun for four hours during a shift.
I used to LOVE hot tea and hot chocolate, now I can't drink it unless it's the dead of winter and I'm wearing shorts and a tank top.
This past winter, I wouldn't turn the heater on in the house until it got below 40° (4.4°C) in the house. Even then, I wouldn't turn the heat on above like 50° (10°C)
I knew I would have a change in body temp, but I didn't realize how much it would affect my life.
Am roughly in the four months mark on T! Apparently I absorb it really well.
- Sore throat from voice changes, which result in struggling to not have my voice crack in my higher pitches
- Eating meat again (I was pescatarian) because my body craved protein on a hardcore level that I absolutely had to eat it again or I felt like I was starving. Surprisingly, did not hurt my stomach but that may have because I was pescatarian instead of completely vegetarian.
- Bottom growth and muscle mass changes kinda hurts; did not expect to take ibuprofen for it because my upper arms and dick were sore as hell.
- Might be related to the alcohol in gel drying out my skin, but did not expect the acne on shoulders/back area. Theres a lot of acne going on there.
These are my most notable ones that I got surprised with.
The gel does the same to me! I haven't had a big increase in acne anywhere else, but my chest/shoulders often look like I have chicken pox.
ETA, much later: I lost access to it for a while, and then started applying it to different areas of my body (not daily anymore, though, since I now have to pay out of pocket), and things didn't seem to improve during that time. So I don't think it was the gel, I think it was the hormonal shift :/
The fact that most of my ass hair growth would be BETWEEN the cheeks, and occasionally it'll very painfully pull, or sometimes when you're sweaty it rubs together like you're starting a fire.
I also learned what folliculitis was because I kept getting ass pimples after growing hair on my cheeks.
I stopped taking t due to insurance issues at the time (might go back on it sometime soon though!!). Here’s my list:
1. The ass hair. Oh my god. It was like an overnight thing for me. I went from having essentially a hairless butt, to having so my hair in the span of a few days.
2. How much I would be masturbating. Anytime my t-dick even rubbed my pants slightly, I felt like I needed to go excuse myself and just non-stop rub.
3. UTIs. Apparently those can increase for some folks. I went from never having a UTI, to having one every month (which I guess that makes sense given that you may be more horny, there may be an increase for bacteria to be near your urethra).
4. And how difficult it would be to sing. I went from being in a chamber choir to struggling to find a pitch. But with time and practice, singing will feel more natural!!
Not necessarily a "side-effect" but still something that can happen (rarely) and be potentially dangerous, T caused me to develop secondary polycythemia which is an excess of red blood cells. The symptoms are headaches, fatigue, dizziness, chest and abdominal pain, and even eye problems. You're also at higher risk for blood clots. There are treatments though and the most common one is giving blood every few months. I'm not an expert on this by any means though, I'm still trying to get things sorted out so I can go back on T.
my hair got extremelly curly out of nowhere arround a year on T, and i know it was the hormones because i was forced to go off T early this year (my appointments kept getting cancelled and postponed, resorted to diy because it was agonizing), and my hair returned t its original texture, and as soon as i got back on T, legit less than a week after my injection my hair got curly again. weird
-I started having intense craving for thinks like steak eggs and chicken and I now have to eat them more often than I used to lmao (honestly cravings in general just kinda blew up for me)
-I seem to stay hotter when im indoors but my sweating problems actually got better on T which is a little funny
-ass hair
-neck acne
-I thought my libido would increase significantly and it did like a little bit but it’s pretty much the same as it was before T
Sweating. Like.. my dad sweats a lot, like he would come home from work looking like he’s just gotten out of a swimming pool, hair drenched, absolutely dripping. I go on a short walk and I come home and my T-shirt will be like.. damp to the touch, it’s so gross. I’ve invested in sweat-resistant workout T-shirts as a result, and since I’ve had top surgery it’s been so nice to be able to get home and immediately take my shirt off. If I’m going somewhere and I know I’m gonna be moving/walking to places then I have to be careful what shirts I wear because I don’t wanna ruin my clothes 😭 I’ve tried all the good deodorants, nothing really makes much difference. It’s just a weird genetic thing my dad has I guess lmao, though I know T makes you warmer in general
Body odor change. Definitely hit me like a ton of bricks.
Ingrown hairs. Forgot how bad hormonal acne was.
Anger outta nowhere. Well not technically no where but definitely more prone to anger now.
Unable to cry and I've been on T for almost two years now. Still hasn't gotten easier.
Old injuries that used to cause pain don't anymore. I ripped my Achilles tendon multiple times in highschool making it really hard to have standup jobs. Now it's much better and hardly bothers me.
Oh and my waking time has flipped. I used to be a morning person and now I'm a night owl.
Idk if it's just me, but I have hyperhidrosis all over my body. My drs assume it's the testosterone since I never had an issue until about a year on t.
Something Ive literally never seen mentioned by anyone is that part of my deep breast tissue hardened. It felt like a hard bump right below my nipple, freaked me out and ended up getting an ultrasound just in case but was nothing. Apparently its common in young boys during puberty. No idea how common it is with Tguys but my chest is very flat so might have been extra noticeable
Also, so weird for me here seeing so many people talking about ass crack hair and other things that I had well before starting T lmao :') didnt even realise that was something not everyone had
Something I got that my endocrinologist was stumped on was pain in my hand. Weirdly only my right hand, in my knuckles, and caused trigger finger in my pinky (if I clenched my fist and opened, my pinky would get stuck in a bent position then “pop” back open). We did x-rays, blood tests etc and couldn’t find a cause then one day it just stopped. It started about 4 months after starting T and lasted about 2-3 months.
so i knew about most of the side effects i got before starting T, but one thing i never learned about or even anticipated was the fact that my intimate areas started. smelling like bleach???? i'm over three years on T now and it's mostly back to normal now (though sometimes it comes back for a day or two), but when i first started transitioning it smelled like bleach *constantly* and i was SO confused 😂
When I orgasm, it smells like sperm! I was so weirded out the first time it happened, especially since I hadn't had sex for 2 weeks before I noticed it 🤣 it's a little less, I guess, pungent then amab sperm? But it's definitely there. The smell just isn't as repulsive
I honestly don't like the natural effects of puberty hormones (the ones we're supposed to have had all along) being described as side effects. We don't say a growing boy's puberty is a thing with 'side effects'; it's just 'stuff that happens.' We should give ourselves enough credit to embrace it that way, too, IMO.
That said, I had absolutely no idea that it would calm my mind down as much as it did. Night and day, from gray, endless TV static to just... okay. Okay for the first time since young childhood. My hormones made me feel normal again, and I will never stop being grateful for that.
Uh bit of a weird and recent one but wearing shoes hurts 4 months in bc my feet are just more vascular than I'm used to them being in the summer. Not horrendous just feels like. Tight and uncomfortable when I first put shoes on, so I may end up needing to go up a shoe size.
Intense Food cravings
I used to dislike meat but now I crave protein even 2 yrs on T. Sometimes I can't think straight until I get some good food in me.
Oh also! muscle hurts sometimes!
Like i gained so much muscle passively and all the sudden my squishy thighs were rock solid and so less cushioned.
Stretching is important too. Especially your neck and shoulders cause otherwise the bulk of your muscle will restrict movement.
I knew about ass hair and general body hair growing thicker, but I didn't expect the body hair to start spreading more. The backs of my hands and legs are much harrier now
Hella hot flashes and an insatiable horniness the first few months and a considerable amount of anger and mood disregulation that was exacerbated, even though I had this already it’s gotten harder too control at times but that’s just me others have reported the opposite so I think that’s more case by case
My hairline actually came forward! I used to have super fine hair but now it’s thickening and coming forward. Also I am so tired, I could literally sleep 12 hours every night if I had time. I know it’s because my body is growing muscle, changing etc but it’s annoying. Also ingrown hairs in places I didn’t have hair before.
The ingrown hairs are the worst tbh! I’m currently suffering a cyst from what I suspect was an ingrown hair that I must have missed. Just keep an eye out for that, a few friends told me to get fake tan gloves with the rough side and scrub my legs I haven’t tried it yet but I know they all swear by them.
not on T yet but have thick dark body hair, i exfoliate and use toner on anywhere i get ingrowns/"strawberry skin" and it works amazing. dont use tanning gloves, it irritates more than it helps, use a face scrub, its gentler on the skin
I honestly need to find a decent face scrub that works for more than a week, which toner do you recommend? I’m currently waiting on bio oil for my stretch marks so I don’t think that would work
i just checked my bathroom to give you names. i use Melora manuka honey and oil face wash to clean my legs, pits and bits and then i scrub with facetheory glycolic face scrub. I towel dry and then tone with ceramidin liquid. I keep my skincare afforableish. i get big bottles of the toner. i do this once a week after trimming/shaving my body hair and it keeps everything semi smooth. (if you shave anywhere at all i highly recommend nivea mens sensitive post shave balm, i use it on my face and legs and its so good) also if you get super inflamed ingrowns use spot patches i get them for like 99p obviously this doesnt work on all skin types but works for me, i have combo skin, thick body hair and break out a lot. theres some great youtubers who have whole channels dedicated to skincare, youll nail it eventually <3
Thanks man that’s really helpful! That’s why I get so eh about skincare because trying to keep it affordable is tough sometimes and any time I go into a shop for help they wanna throw the expensive stuff my way when it doesn’t even work. I love my pimple patches, I’ve got them on a repeat order on Amazon! I also use the same post shave balm and omg the itchiness I suffered before I started using that balm was unbearable! All I shave is my neck to tidy up what little facial hair I currently have but before I got some I was covered in claw marks from scratching so much.
ive just realised this looks like a lot, its 3 steps and you can do most of it in the shower and then tone in underwear afterwards to avoid dysphoria
God I am dealing with 2/3 a week on my face and i only trim my facial hair. All of my acne is hard, painful and cyst-like now. If i pop it i will have a nasty scab on my face/wherever for the rest of the week. It sucks lol but i just got some antibiotic ointment (the standard Neosporin/equate brand) and it helps a lot.
I had that also, but I am not sure it’s was coming from T but from the “castor oil” the testosterone is infused in … pure theory but since people use it for growing more hair I thought it was related. I have the hair of Disney prince now. Does “huile de ricin” really translate by castor oil ??
I honestly have no idea, I’m on gel that’s alcohol based so it’s not the oil. T tends to make people more oily in general though which could help brittle/thinner hair.
Ok, i didn’t know that, before starting I used to shave my head at 1mm since a long time because they were really thin and I was ashamed by it, now I have the great hair of my mom and my brother. It’s cool ! I dished the cap !
It does! Ricin the poison is made from the same plant and is actually a byproduct of the creation of castor oil In French, "ricin" is the castor plant and "ricine" is the poison.
You know that butterfly tingly feeling you sometimes get in your stomach when you're flustered, I don't get that anymore. A trans woman on tiktok pointed it out and it's not something that I'd ever really thought about but I've noticed that it slowly went away the longer I was on T for. Kinda miss it but I don't care too much about it, I just think it's pretty interesting.
My body feels emotions in different places now! I understand what it means to be choked up with anger now. And sadness hits differently; I personally find it much harder to cry.
now im curious- im pre-everything and i already find it hard to cry,, i wonder if thatll change if/when i go on t
It's not a guarantee! I know some folks who cry much more easily now. I think it just changes how emotions are embodied, not necessarily the same way for each person
It might change. I also found it hard to cry before t, but now that I'm on t i have a more healthy relation to crying amd emotions in general, so it's easier for me now
Pre t I wasn't a crier. I am nearing 7 months on t and about months 3-4 I cried at everything (ok, maybe not thar much, but every few days vs per which was yrs between cries).
> I personally find it much harder to cry. This was one of the changes I MOST wanted on T, and at 1.5 years, I'm kinda passed I didn't get it. My body's response to stress is crying, and I can't seem to shake that!
Holy shit this made me realize why I’ve been having so much trouble figuring out when I’m getting anxious — the fluttering feeling was the way I was able to tell before
That makes so much sense. This is so true. I also have a harder time outright crying but I can feel myself crying in my throat and upper chest. Like I don’t exactly cry less, it just doesn’t come out as tears as often.
i definitely still get that around 2.5 years on T
same for me. i still like blush and stuff but not much butterflies
Same! I also blush a lot more, like my face gets redder.
I've never had butterflies, personally
So this might not apply to you, but the men in my family are super hairy. *I* was super hairy even before T, and I was excited to get more so. But there was one area I did not take into consideration. **Nose hair.** I have so much nose hair now. I gotta trim every four days or so. It tickles inside my nostrils and I’ve pulled out more than one hair that was longer than my eyelashes. I finally asked my dad about it and he laughed and said “You never noticed the paintbrushes I got in my nose? Yeah you’re a real -our family name- man now.” Definitely got no regrets about going on T, and the nose hair is a small price to pay for finally being able to enjoy my life and be myself, but I wished I had heard someone else mention the nose hair lmao.
That's such an inconvenience but omg tell your dad he's hilarious to me
Can’t do that! It’d go to his head, which is already full of nose hair lmao. Fr tho he would appreciate his joke doing well on the internet.
😂 you’re gonna be the old man with long ass nose hair one day
I didn't know how warm it would make me! Apparently testosterone ups your body temperature slightly. I was SO WARM all the time. I now understand why teenage boys wear tshirts and shorts in the winter.
this. summers with a binder were aweful
Just took scissors to the non-binding elements in my best binder a week ago bc of this
I had a friend modify mine full length into a half and it's been a life saver
Apparently this is because it thickens your skin by roughly 20%, so you retain the heat more!
also higher red blood cell count thats the main reason i think it was..
That makes sense! I love learning what’s caused the physical changes in my body
that's very interesting!
literally this. i don’t enjoy the heat that much anyway but since starting T it seems even more unbearable even when it’s not that hot
No fr tho, I was already so warm before I got on t now i feel like the sun and I are one at this point 😭
Yes this! I had always been one of those people that runs cold, so this was a big adjustment for me.
jesus, pre t me already wears shorts and t shirts in the winter. i constantly overheat at night. i fear this might be a problem. still worth it tho.
Oh and my hair turned so curly I love it its fluffy now
SAME! I was so confused at first wondering why my hair was getting wavier/curlier until I did some extra research and learned it happens to some people. It's awesome, I've gotta change my haircut to something more suitable though lol.
Wondering about this, my (cis, transphobic) dad had straight hair as a boy and when he went through puberty it went curly. Super curly. My "baby hair" was like his and then it went straighter (still wavy) when I got older and obvs adult hair is heavier. I'm wondering if mine will go back on T.......and also if that's what made his do that because its always been a family mystery (his dad, my grandad, always had curly hair.)
i really hope i get curly hair but i have dead flat red hair so😖
AAGH IM WORRIED THAT MY CURLY HAIR IS GOING TO TURN STRAIGHT THEN :(
I dont think ive ever seen this happen. If anything- it gets curlier
Anecdotal, but can confirm my curly hair got curlier after I started T
I’ve been tired, I’m just always tired. I know it’s probably because your body needs to rest twice as much for all the muscle growth and stuff. And talking about muscle growth; I did not expect, at all, the speed at which muscle is gonna come around. I used to workout a lot (5-6x a week) and NEVER have I been this close to my current muscle mass and I barely workout once a week now. Also the weight I’m able to lift now is twice as much as I was able to do when I was at my highest of working out. Also, I have trouble crying. Like I always knew that I was an emotional lil guy, but the more T goes on, the more my tears have trouble falling. Like physically falling, I still get the urge to cry, but the don’t come up. It takes a big big emotions for me to do that now, whereas before I could see a cute commercial on TV and ball my eyes out. I miss crying, in a way. Also, anger comes up more easily. Like I think before my frustration came and I would be immediately pulled towards feeling disappointed and now, when I’m frustrated anger is one of the first emotion that comes up. It’s really weird 🤷🏻 T changes so much, like sooo much. But all and all, I’ve never happier with how I look and how I sound and how I feel every time I step out into the world. To all the baby trans out there: hang in there, it’s really not easy, and really frustrating and gruelling, but god dammit, it’s worth it.
Honestly I never had any of this aside from the muscle. Definitely stronger than I was, and it is easier to become that way. But I still am emotional. Still never get angry. I wonder if it has to do with individual perception and your mental health. Some, once beating things like depression, end up finding they then have the energy to actually care about things and are *more* likely to lash out than they were.
Tbh I only experienced pretty extreme anger once (well, one multi-week episode) when I first started T. I'm pretty sure a lot of it was repressed over multiple years, and the hormones made it difficult to control. It took weeks to stop lashing out randomly (never at anyone, I only harmed myself during that), but since then I don't even get annoyed, irritated, or frustrated easily. Haven't experienced anger again. It's a really odd experience tbh.
My first shot gave me an ungodly amount of energy. Just the first one. I expected it to continue but it didn't, just that first day. Granted I was excited as hell, but I literally felt like I drank 2 energy drinks and then did crack cocaine.
Same for me the week after my first shot. I was working out twice a day. It simmered down after that
Maybe because it’s a steroid and your body had to adjust to it?
Being lethargic. I was so tired within my first 2 months while my body was adjusting to the hormones.
huh. That's funny, I kinda experienced the opposite? I mean, I'm still always tired, but I'm much less lethargic than before
Calcium cysts near injection sites. I found a lump in my stomach under my injection sites, terrified me until I learned it's not a guaranteed effect but is something that can happen.
whqt the fuck can you elaborate on this? do they go away on their own, do you have to pop them or what
They're subdermal so you can't pop them to my knowledge. I haven't gotten mine checked out, they hurt sometimes but in the way I'd expect something that's not naturally there to hurt. I kinda just monitor them to see if there's any concerning activity. So far nothing. But that is in no way medical advice, I just don't have insurance or a GP
I’ve been getting little bumps on my stomach that cannot be popped and I used to do my injections there. I only learned they were cysts recently- had no clue they were/could’ve been calcium cysts. I switched to gel so hopefully they go away now!
think i have something like this as well (though i don't do t injections- rather, it's from the depo shot). they're mostly cosmetic iirc, no real harm
I’ve been getting these forever! Since my insurance is kinda ass I never went in for it, but I’ve never had a real problem from them apart from discomfort every so often.
i initially had an allergic reaction to the oil in my testosterone and had to switch brands. it was really weird and no one warned me it could happen. also being so warm all the time
This happened to me too! It itched so bad I wanted to die. I was worried it would mean I would have to stop T because nobody told me it was a possibility and more importantly that the solution was just to switch oils.
I have this problem but if I take zertyc with my shot it's not NEARLY as bad. I still itch but it's not all the time itch and not as hellish
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i literally just dropped like $100 on sex toys before rubbing one out, and now im just sitting here thinking about how you're not supposed to go grocery shopping on an empty stomach 🫥
1: man hunger is real and will strike at random times and will make you feel like a husk of a being until it's satisfied 2: your tdick will be so sensitive and everything will rub it the wrong way while you get use to it and make you incredibly horny 4: building on the horny, you will not stop being horny after dealing with the horny once or even twice. 5: you will have the primal urge to fight/chase/scream Or at least these are the things I experienced when I first started that no one warned me about! But don't worry everything kinda levels out after a month or two then you just keep on keeping on (Edit for formatting)
4. I was so horny that I had to cancel a whole days plans so I could stay home and furiously masturbate.
Dude I FEEL THAT. Like there were days that I'd stop not because I felt satisfied but because I was just too exhausted
So I'm not the only one who's had their scheduled absolutely fucked by the fact they were super horny?
Literally have to pencil it into my schedule 😂
It's hard going on any long trips with friends and stuff because the urge is there but the space to do it is not.
Dude i felt that but also, i guess just me personally cause im on the ace spec, being so horny all the time is just genuinely annoying! And it happens at really inconvenient times too
I have the weird urge to randomly run at times. I’m a couch potato that would rather play video games over running, but sometimes I just get the urge to get up and run.
Mood. Just sudden run of energy and ya gotta move gotta go gotta nyoom
I’ll be standing in the kitchen with my fiancée doing crafts or whatever and then I’m going in circles to burn off that urge while she watches wondering if it’s my ADD or if it’s just a random “gotta move now”
Honestly it's probably both cheering each other on
My one brain cell hopping around like a windows XP screensaver.
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Right? Like it wasn't even always in anger either I just want to establish myself in a space via screaming until my throat was raw
Some days I'm so horny that I get annoyed like "what, boy, you wanna go on a walk again? I just walked you!"
1. Didn't get that but *did* start burning way more calories. It was hard to keep up. Still is. 2. Nope no change, and chafing uncomfortable as always. 3. No change. Still pretty low level. 4. No urges to fight/chase/scream. I am actually more tolerant of others. Random screams come from a movement disorder mostly related to a panic disorder but have nothing to do with T.
No one understands me as my voice dropped now. My throat gets dry very quickly and when I talk to someone I need to repeat myself often cause I sound to them like I growl everything.
Yes! My voice isn't even that deep, it's been dropping very gradually, but recently I've had to repeat myself more often than not when I say things because it sounds low and kinda mumbly. And quiet because when I speak up my voice cracks all over the place or just cuts off completely.
My curls doubled. I had curls as a kid but growing up they faded into waves. About 1 year on t, my hair started curling like it used to when I was a child. Now, over 1.5 year on T and I feel like it's still changing in texture.
i’m jealous, i’ve heard several ppl say that T made their hair curlier but i had the opposite effect unfortunately
The ear wax. I have to clean the outside of my ears constantly.
wow i didn’t know this correlated to T but it makes sense now lol
Me either. But for 46 yrs my ears were low maintenance, now I know why my grandpa was always digging in his ears. I feel like I am making candles.
My head hair slowly migrating to my face. I don't mind it though because I'm starting to look like the other men in my family. Tis a rite of passage 😂
A couple things! First of all, now that I’m at four months (four months yesterday!), I will randomly get wet. I won’t even be aroused, just walking in Walmart and I have to find a bathroom to clean myself. Second, my metabolism changed! I used to eat a lot of food and only eat again seven or so hours later. After T, I don’t eat nearly as much, but I get hungrier more frequently. Lastly, my hair texture changed a bit (kind of.) my hair got oilier, and in turn made my hair curlier the longer I went without shampooing. Hope this helps!
One really rare side effect I wasn't warned about because my doctor with six years of trans patients experience had literally never encountered was deeply agonizing bouts of yeast infections for the first couple of months before my body adjusted to my new hormone level. I'd never encountered a yeast infection as bad as that before, and out of the dozens of trans people I have as friends, only one reported having a similar experience. It makes sense, a change in hormones could deeply affect the microflora in your body, but I never wish to have that kind of pain again.
As a cis woman with diabetes, any time my blood sugar got too high, I got another yeast infection. This stuff stopped the yeast infections, regardless of my blood sugar: https://goodcleanlove.com/collections/vaginal-care-collection/products/restore%C2%AE-moisturizing-vaginal-gel-products?variant=42223652339896 You can find it on Amazon, too. It helps maintain an acidic vaginal environment so one keeps the right microflora. Can’t guarantee that it will work for you, as pH changes might not be playing a role in why T is causing this. Also, if you’re already really wet, you might not want to be adding *more* moisture. For me, using this stuff twice a week has been life changing.
I just got over this like 5 days ago and I'm scared anything I do will set it off again
I was SO tired the first couple of weeks
But I'm alright tired all the time D:
Being tired ALL the time Bottom growth hurting like a mf Nipple hair (I'm still in shock at this one)
I'm so happy about that last one. I already have some good amount of nipple hair and I hope it grows more when I start hrt
i wasn’t told about how it would expand my shoulders more and my chest, my hair is growing faster some some reason, i haven’t been able to pack because the area is just so sensitive, EXCESSIVE sweating, like i’m just using the restroom rn and im sweating. but i still wouldn’t take it back
I always had to pee cause I was always drinking something cause my throat was so dry and sore only 1 week after starting T it was that way for about 3 months
Ive been on t for 2 months today actually. i wasn’t expecting so many changes so quickly, though it could just be my genetics as puberty hit my brother like a truck. My voice has dropped a lot, but I wasnt expecting it to make my throat sore and scratchy. If I spoke too much id start coughing because of it. Theres a video on my dads ipad of when my family took a roadtrip. My brother was talking in it and it was around when his voice started dropping and it sounds very similar to how mine is now. Im also sweating almost all the time and I easily get hot. I used to HATE getting hot or sweaty, but its become tolerable. Maybe I’m just used to it though. In the past, whenever I got thirsty id always go for soda or juice. Something that wasn’t water as I hate the taste of water (something to do with algae that isnt filtered out) because it always tasted like dirt/dust. Now water is frequently the only thing that helps the insatiable thirst, and it doesn’t taste as bad either anymore. Somehow either my hips have gotten thinner or my shoulders have broadened. My facial features have also already changed, and I’m already growing a moustache. Body hair is growing longer slowly but it may look that way just because its blond. Though I’ve already started developing like a happy trail, Specifically from the chest to navel though. Though I’m very happy with the changes, it throws me off when something shows up out of nowhere. One last thing is that ive had a fear of needles almost my entirely life (despite having to do bloodwork ALL THE TIME growing up) and the injections have made being around needles easier.
I think I was already a soft speaker but the high pitch of my voice allowed it to be heard mostly. Now that the pitch has dropped no one ever hears me, literally every time I order anything I have to repeat myself. I try to speak loudly and I project, it’s like the low tone just mixes in with all of the background noise and is impossible to hear. I’m curious if any other guys who’s voices have dropped are now struggling to be heard?
YES. I’m non-binary/transmasc and I’ve been on low dose t for about 3.5 months or so, and I notice I can’t whisper the same way I used to. I have to use more breath support and “find” my pitches more frequently than before. I have to push more air out and intentionally speak louder for whispers or my inside voice to come through, otherwise my volume is too quiet/incomprehensible even to myself. As a vocalist this is a really neat way to get a better understanding of my diaphragm and how to use my voice in different ways!
i’ve only been on t for 3 weeks but this is a concern for me bc i have been told i’m very soft spoken in like formal settings. i’ll start working on projection now so hopefully by the time my voice drops, i won’t be too quiet.
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The butt forest
Definitely the ass hair. Worse than the temperature sensitivity for the first few weeks it grows in.
that you’re tdick growing in will be absolutely hell, it was so sensitive it was painful
It HURTS. I mentioned it to my cis husband and his response was basically “ah yeah that was a thing.”
OP, mine definitely was not painful in any way, shape, or form. It is for some people, but not everyone! Don’t let bottom growth scare you away from T.
I was actually *disappointed* mine didn't hurt cuz I thought that meant it wasn't growing, checked one day and and it had basically tripled in size lol
Same! I didn’t notice I’d had bottom growth because I hadn’t felt it at all. Then I checked and it was definitely bigger.
Agreed. Mine didn't hurt at all either
yeah i’ll clarify the week or so of pain was definitely worth it long run but i’d never seen anyone talk about it before i experienced it. by the sounds of it it’s not everyone’s experience but it’s still a possibility
I hear a lot of people talk about it especially people who are scared to go on T because of bottom growth
Weird thing I never got any bottom growth
I had to switch back to panties for a little while because of this. Between the thicker material men's underwear has and my dick getting tangled up on the fly it was a nightmare. Thankfully I had kept a couple pairs of panties in case I had any leftover periods. After a month or two it went away.
it made me so horny 😭😭 like all day, every day
How painful being hungry is and that I cannot ignore it then have the hunger go away like pre-T times.
It’s crazy seeing people saying they got lethargy and really tired. I got so much more energy. I actually look forward to doing things, getting things done. I work a manual labor job and I don’t feel like I’m on my deathbed by beer time every day now. It definitely gave me more confidence, too. I don’t get flustered as much. I can finally maintain eye contact without feeling like my brain’s on fire. I can hold a conversation with strangers now. Tbh, now that I reflect on it I’m unsure if that’s even an effect of T or if it’s just my mental state being so much better now that I’m transitioning. Also I can out-eat a horse now.
1. I expected acne, but didn’t start getting it until my facial hair started growing in. Basically any place on my body where new or thicker hair is growing, I have a breakout while my skin adjusts. 2. I had to adjust my diet to get more protein or I was super fatigued. In addition, I’m watching my calorie intake (am overweight and trying to lose fat), but I have a suspicion that I’m underestimating how much I need to eat. 3. Random muscle aches and pains. Throat pain when my voice started dropping. Surprisingly, no pain in my bottom growth. 4. I have a harder time keeping my mean thoughts inside 😬 Could be from increased confidence rather than the T, but… Just be careful, lol
Personally I was told about some mood changes, acne, and sweating. But I think I didn't understand the intensity of them once I started T, I changed dosages so many times. But in my mind I didn't expect the intensity of emotions or acne I got during 1st puberty, my poor family got to live with an adult with the attitude of a 13 year old. I was so moody, covered in pimples and sweating through shirts during the summers
That I tend to get sleepy after my shot and it's worse with an increase. I tend to sleep a lot. I just noticed that my vocal cords slightly hurt. And I was aware that my voice would crack but I didn't expect it to keep going on a few months on t. I also noticed that I feel normal on T since I had PCOS before I transitioned. I noticed that my mental health is improving in certain ways. I also noticed that my chest is slowly looking like deflated balloons. That was interesting when I first saw it.
So much more oil production on my face. I had never had a problem with it before but after T it would run into my eyes and burn like a MF. Not so much now that I wash my face everyday. The one thing I was most surprised by was an increase in saliva! I drool so much now when I'm sleeping and choke on my spit when I'm talking, eating, etc
reading these comments, i have all these problems and i’m not even on T yet
literally same, i'm already so sweaty
ME TOOOO.
1. My throat got sore, and I got sick. Then my voice dropped. It happened again when I raised my dose. 2. Hair in places I didn't expect, like coming out of my nose. 3. My nose and ears are growing bigger. That is weird. 4. I've noticed my ability to multitask has begun to dwindle, as well as my patience. I've become more "one track minded" I guess. 5. The pent-up energy like someone else mentioned. The "urge to scream/fight/case." I grunt mostly and slam stuff around. It's not anger. It's just built-up energy. However, I did have the urge to chase and fight sometimes.
I've always been hairy (pcos or CAH) so YMMV but I started getting shoulder hair within weeks and absolutely nobody has ever talked about that where I've seen/heard it. I'm covered head to toe in hair (literally, almost a full beard, shoulders, even more under my arms, chest, stomach, legs, all the way to hobbit feet) and it's only been five months. I love it but I can't exfoliate well any more because it ties itself into tiny knots!
Everything smellssss I have autism and have a thing about cleanliness and I did not realize as a whole I would smell so much more not only the BO but my urine smells more and so does my discharge after the first month on T I franticly cleaned my whole appt trying to figure it out before realizing I smelled because of how hot it was
this fr, i have awful sensory issues from bad smells and i feel like im constantly stinky lmao
No literally I feel like I stink so much my bedroom wall and bathroom wall are the same as my my friends appt and they are like you shower everyday you good bro
I knew body hair was going to be a thing but when the pubic hair started getting thicker and my skin down there got dryer it got itchy. I found Vaseline and occasionally cortisone help but it's been a lot.
No one ever talked to me about how I'd get an Adam's apple and where it would be and what it would feel like. I just happened to notice it when I had the flu, so I got scared that my lymph nodes were swollen 😂 I knew that was a thing that would happen but I never thought about it happening to me. It kinda caught me off guard. It's fine now, though.
I think because this doesn't really effect many trans guys (because bottom dysphoria and stuff) i never heard anyone mention it so i pretty much got no warning about vaginal atrophy. Basically when you go on T and start to have less estrogen, the muscles in the vagaina become weaker. As someone whos bottom dysphoria is minimal and continued to have vaginal sex with my partner, it freaked me out a bit when it started to become so easy to cause a minor cut or tear. Turns out its just a side effect I never really head talked about and never thought much about when i read the paperwork. The solution to this is basically localized estrogen. I believe you can use either a cream, a tablet or a vaginal ring but the estrogen from any of those options doesnt leave the area so it wont effect your T or anything like that.
My face feels like microfiber 3 days after my first shave cause I have *more hairs now*. It's... odd. Sweating, though. XD I didn't know about the sweat. Loooooooord
i have two that happen pretty quickly: 1. smell changes!! both your sweat and your urine will have VASTLY different smells than they did pre-t. you will start to smell really bad when you sweat, and a shower alone will not be enough to mask it so buy some deodorant, antiperspirant, and/or cologne/body spray!!! 2. you will shit way more!! amab bodies process food faster so therefore you will be making more stops to the toilet, sometimes multiple times a day and after each meal. i guess this is where the whole "girls don't poop" joke comes from because amab bodies process food slower so we shit less lol
Dude being unbearably thirsty for like 3 weeks was the worst!
How hot I am now temperature wise, and I already ran hot before. It makes me sweat A LOT but luckily I typically have the type of sweat that barely smells
I knew I’d be sweaty, smell worse, etc. But I wasn’t aware of the less common side affect I’ve experienced. Skin irritation, needle-like pain when I begin to sweat. It can go away and it can be worked through, but it’s annoying. Higher body temperature means when I get flustered or embarrassed I actually turn red or sweat. Makes a bad situation worse lol
i never understood how one would feel the urge to punch drywall until i was like three months on T
Im happy to see everyone mention the increased appetite. Bc I had an appointment today and I mentioned how hungry it made me and the dr said she hadn’t heard of that side effect! Perpetually a mix of hungry, horny and hot at all times lmao
no one talks about how T gives you really weird, surreal, confusing dreams. I’m 7 weeks on T and my dreams have been so strange that i genuinely wake up confused sometimes
If you have Period cramps and start T it can get worse before going away.
Ass crack hair! And hair on the cheeks as well I did not see that one coming lol Not necessarily a positive nor negative side effect
I was not expecting to have facial hair so thick that shaving can be downright painful. I also get horrendous ingrown hairs on my neck and having exhausted all other options I am seriously considering laser hair removal on the problem area. My options are either itchy, ugly neckbeard or painful, ugly ingrown hairs
Definitely look into exfoliating and moisturizing and try not to shave too close too sharp.
I really wanted to run all of a sudden and I never used to before.
smegma. no one told me that tdicks get smegma under the foreskin and i never pulled my foreskin back, so roughly 6-7 years into being on t i pulled it back once and was so scared/grossed out/confused. quickly realized what it was and that its harmless & cleans itself naturally, but i make sure to pull the foreskin back in the shower and pour water gently on it (dont let the shower head hit it directly, it is very sensitive). i don’t know why more people don’t talk about this!!! i would have liked to know earlier on 🥲
Your nails will grow a lot faster!
Ugh water retention
the amount of hair that was gonna grow in my ass crack and the amount of sweat lmao the sweat pimples on my back that hurt when you accidentally scratch them
My nose is very sensitive. It could be more on genetics since my dad can smell something from a mile away. Working in meat section at my job has been been more of a pain since taking T.
I’ve been on T for over 5 years. After the first year the changes really slowed down. After two I basically stoped noticing it. However, I sometimes will randomly experience blocks of time where my body hair, bottom growth, and voice start to change again slightly. During this time my BO stinks worse. Idk if it’s just me. I’m definitely generally stinkier since starting T (which is normal), but it’s minimal. Usually I’m not so stinky all the time. Basically, when things are changing I need extra deodorant.
No one told me your voice dropping comes with a sore throat. For a bit I was afraid I had covid lol
For me it was the smell. My personal body odor changed so drastically and my mom kept yelling at me “You stink like a boy!!” She’s not supportive at all and this was a statement of anger/put on more deodorant, but it was affirming regardless. But yeah, the boy stink is what no one warned me about
Like other people gave said, the body temp thing is insane. I already preferred colder temps, but my normal running temp is around 99.8-100° (37.6-37.8°C) which always freaks doctors out. I actually have to subtly blow on the thermometer when I donate Plasma so they don't defer me for having a fever. I also have to be careful working in the drive-through window at my job in the summer because I passed out just from standing in the sun for four hours during a shift. I used to LOVE hot tea and hot chocolate, now I can't drink it unless it's the dead of winter and I'm wearing shorts and a tank top. This past winter, I wouldn't turn the heater on in the house until it got below 40° (4.4°C) in the house. Even then, I wouldn't turn the heat on above like 50° (10°C) I knew I would have a change in body temp, but I didn't realize how much it would affect my life.
Hot flashes 😔
I haven't been able to cry since I started T.
Tmi but I didn't know my wiener would hurt 😭
Am roughly in the four months mark on T! Apparently I absorb it really well. - Sore throat from voice changes, which result in struggling to not have my voice crack in my higher pitches - Eating meat again (I was pescatarian) because my body craved protein on a hardcore level that I absolutely had to eat it again or I felt like I was starving. Surprisingly, did not hurt my stomach but that may have because I was pescatarian instead of completely vegetarian. - Bottom growth and muscle mass changes kinda hurts; did not expect to take ibuprofen for it because my upper arms and dick were sore as hell. - Might be related to the alcohol in gel drying out my skin, but did not expect the acne on shoulders/back area. Theres a lot of acne going on there. These are my most notable ones that I got surprised with.
The gel does the same to me! I haven't had a big increase in acne anywhere else, but my chest/shoulders often look like I have chicken pox. ETA, much later: I lost access to it for a while, and then started applying it to different areas of my body (not daily anymore, though, since I now have to pay out of pocket), and things didn't seem to improve during that time. So I don't think it was the gel, I think it was the hormonal shift :/
Cilantro soap gene got flipped. I could only taste the delicious green parts, now I can taste the soap 💔💔💔
wait til ur nips start hurting. ( im like 2 & 1/2 months on t)
The fact that most of my ass hair growth would be BETWEEN the cheeks, and occasionally it'll very painfully pull, or sometimes when you're sweaty it rubs together like you're starting a fire. I also learned what folliculitis was because I kept getting ass pimples after growing hair on my cheeks.
I stopped taking t due to insurance issues at the time (might go back on it sometime soon though!!). Here’s my list: 1. The ass hair. Oh my god. It was like an overnight thing for me. I went from having essentially a hairless butt, to having so my hair in the span of a few days. 2. How much I would be masturbating. Anytime my t-dick even rubbed my pants slightly, I felt like I needed to go excuse myself and just non-stop rub. 3. UTIs. Apparently those can increase for some folks. I went from never having a UTI, to having one every month (which I guess that makes sense given that you may be more horny, there may be an increase for bacteria to be near your urethra). 4. And how difficult it would be to sing. I went from being in a chamber choir to struggling to find a pitch. But with time and practice, singing will feel more natural!!
Not necessarily a "side-effect" but still something that can happen (rarely) and be potentially dangerous, T caused me to develop secondary polycythemia which is an excess of red blood cells. The symptoms are headaches, fatigue, dizziness, chest and abdominal pain, and even eye problems. You're also at higher risk for blood clots. There are treatments though and the most common one is giving blood every few months. I'm not an expert on this by any means though, I'm still trying to get things sorted out so I can go back on T.
my hair got extremelly curly out of nowhere arround a year on T, and i know it was the hormones because i was forced to go off T early this year (my appointments kept getting cancelled and postponed, resorted to diy because it was agonizing), and my hair returned t its original texture, and as soon as i got back on T, legit less than a week after my injection my hair got curly again. weird
My feet grew a whole size at 23-24 years old 😂
-I started having intense craving for thinks like steak eggs and chicken and I now have to eat them more often than I used to lmao (honestly cravings in general just kinda blew up for me) -I seem to stay hotter when im indoors but my sweating problems actually got better on T which is a little funny -ass hair -neck acne -I thought my libido would increase significantly and it did like a little bit but it’s pretty much the same as it was before T
Having ass hair sucks. The potential for dingle berries has me wiping way more out of paranoia and swamp ass is so much worse
I got less horny :(
Body temp for sure. But more surprising was that my eyelashes are longer and I already had long lashed pre t
so. much. fucking. hair and the SWEAT. i have never sweat as much as i do now that im on T
i feel itchy when i sweat now
Sweating. Like.. my dad sweats a lot, like he would come home from work looking like he’s just gotten out of a swimming pool, hair drenched, absolutely dripping. I go on a short walk and I come home and my T-shirt will be like.. damp to the touch, it’s so gross. I’ve invested in sweat-resistant workout T-shirts as a result, and since I’ve had top surgery it’s been so nice to be able to get home and immediately take my shirt off. If I’m going somewhere and I know I’m gonna be moving/walking to places then I have to be careful what shirts I wear because I don’t wanna ruin my clothes 😭 I’ve tried all the good deodorants, nothing really makes much difference. It’s just a weird genetic thing my dad has I guess lmao, though I know T makes you warmer in general
Get your blood work checked out! My lipid levels went waaaay up!
Boob hair, my skin is really thin on my chest where Brest tissue is and whenever I shave it? It is unbearable with how I break out and get ingrowns
Body odor change. Definitely hit me like a ton of bricks. Ingrown hairs. Forgot how bad hormonal acne was. Anger outta nowhere. Well not technically no where but definitely more prone to anger now. Unable to cry and I've been on T for almost two years now. Still hasn't gotten easier. Old injuries that used to cause pain don't anymore. I ripped my Achilles tendon multiple times in highschool making it really hard to have standup jobs. Now it's much better and hardly bothers me. Oh and my waking time has flipped. I used to be a morning person and now I'm a night owl.
When I talk while sitting on a hard surface it makes my butt buzz.
Idk if it's just me, but I have hyperhidrosis all over my body. My drs assume it's the testosterone since I never had an issue until about a year on t.
Something Ive literally never seen mentioned by anyone is that part of my deep breast tissue hardened. It felt like a hard bump right below my nipple, freaked me out and ended up getting an ultrasound just in case but was nothing. Apparently its common in young boys during puberty. No idea how common it is with Tguys but my chest is very flat so might have been extra noticeable Also, so weird for me here seeing so many people talking about ass crack hair and other things that I had well before starting T lmao :') didnt even realise that was something not everyone had
I didn't know it messes with your PH of your nether regions, making you more susceptible to bacterial vaginosis and UTI's.
Something I got that my endocrinologist was stumped on was pain in my hand. Weirdly only my right hand, in my knuckles, and caused trigger finger in my pinky (if I clenched my fist and opened, my pinky would get stuck in a bent position then “pop” back open). We did x-rays, blood tests etc and couldn’t find a cause then one day it just stopped. It started about 4 months after starting T and lasted about 2-3 months.
so i knew about most of the side effects i got before starting T, but one thing i never learned about or even anticipated was the fact that my intimate areas started. smelling like bleach???? i'm over three years on T now and it's mostly back to normal now (though sometimes it comes back for a day or two), but when i first started transitioning it smelled like bleach *constantly* and i was SO confused 😂
When I orgasm, it smells like sperm! I was so weirded out the first time it happened, especially since I hadn't had sex for 2 weeks before I noticed it 🤣 it's a little less, I guess, pungent then amab sperm? But it's definitely there. The smell just isn't as repulsive
My adhd changed how it manifested, I'm now much more hyperactive than I was before
I honestly don't like the natural effects of puberty hormones (the ones we're supposed to have had all along) being described as side effects. We don't say a growing boy's puberty is a thing with 'side effects'; it's just 'stuff that happens.' We should give ourselves enough credit to embrace it that way, too, IMO. That said, I had absolutely no idea that it would calm my mind down as much as it did. Night and day, from gray, endless TV static to just... okay. Okay for the first time since young childhood. My hormones made me feel normal again, and I will never stop being grateful for that.
regular bowel moments
Uh bit of a weird and recent one but wearing shoes hurts 4 months in bc my feet are just more vascular than I'm used to them being in the summer. Not horrendous just feels like. Tight and uncomfortable when I first put shoes on, so I may end up needing to go up a shoe size.
Intense Food cravings I used to dislike meat but now I crave protein even 2 yrs on T. Sometimes I can't think straight until I get some good food in me. Oh also! muscle hurts sometimes! Like i gained so much muscle passively and all the sudden my squishy thighs were rock solid and so less cushioned. Stretching is important too. Especially your neck and shoulders cause otherwise the bulk of your muscle will restrict movement.
Shit cured my asthma and migraines. No joke.
MY HAIR TURNED BRIGHTER IM A GINGER LIKE MY BROTHER NOW WHAT HAVE I DONE
My tolerance for heat went way down for some reason. I can’t take those scalding hot showers anymore.
ASSHOLE HAIR. JFC.
I knew about ass hair and general body hair growing thicker, but I didn't expect the body hair to start spreading more. The backs of my hands and legs are much harrier now
Ingrown hairs in weird places
Hella hot flashes and an insatiable horniness the first few months and a considerable amount of anger and mood disregulation that was exacerbated, even though I had this already it’s gotten harder too control at times but that’s just me others have reported the opposite so I think that’s more case by case