Stress symptoms due to testosterone
Posted: February 5, 2015 Filed under: Testosterone | Tags: androgyny, anxiety, emotions, gender identity, genderqueer, hormone replacement therapy, lgbtq, mental health, non-binary, stress, testosterone, trans, transgender, work 12 CommentsI have been under a lot of stress lately. Between taking on an acting supervisory role at work for 3-4 months and being hospitalized, I can’t remember the last time I was so stressed out. Probably throughout college, over 10 years ago. And although it sucks, there are some interesting things I’m learning about myself at the same time. Namely, that stress is interacting with the added testosterone in some typical (but surprising-to-me) ways.
I’ve been on testosterone for close to 2 years now. And in that entire time, I did not experience a lot of the negatives you hear about – oilier skin, heightened agitation / quicker temper. Right now, I’m experiencing that. Plus some added hormonal weirdness: I feel hot and then cold and then hot and then cold. I am stress-sweating a lot. I STINK! My skin feels prickly, then I feel light as a feather, then I feel like I’m weighted down, back and forth. I’m getting more hairs on my chin and around my nipples. I am pacing and dancing and taking magnesium and doing a lot of other things to try to counteract these stress symptoms and just calm down. I feel calm right now, as I’m writing this.
Not too long ago, I was planning on increasing my testosterone because I’d like to appear even more androgynous. Now I’m thinking that won’t be anytime soon. There will be a time – it’s just not right now. I’m even considering stopping Androgel for a while, but that’s not something I’d do lightly. For right now, I’m hanging in there, because in my own mind, I’d like to be on it… We’ll see. I’ll probably talk to my therapist about it, first and foremost. She has witnessed a lot of my agitation lately.
Normally when I’m stressed out, I might tend to clench my teeth. I will have trouble sleeping. I will have obsessive ruminations in an extreme sense. Those thoughts can get pretty dark and even turn to uncontrollable visions of violence. I would probably get a cold, due to my immune system being compromised.
Right now? I haven’t been sick all fall/winter. I previously was having a lot of trouble sleeping, but due to my new medication, now I am not. I am clenching my teeth a lot. And my obsessive gauge is going at full throttle for large chunks of time. I’m taking super good care of myself – eating well, showering daily, applying deodorant often and chewing gum, to mask bad bodily smells.
I am really off my game, but I’m hanging in there…
These symptoms due to testosterone (educated guess) are really throwing me for a loop.
janitorqueer 
This is why hormones must be taken seriously.
I think that I shared with you, some time ago, how off-track progestin got me. Like a stone sitting on me all of the time.
Knowing that your stress is induced by the medicine is the thing that can get you back down to Earth in the midst of tough times.
I know nothing about medicine. But other times that I have felt funny, it was because of wild hormonal fluctuations. Maybe you should talk to your doc about more frequent lab tests.
Be well.
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I don’t know whether I’d say the stress is induced by the medicine (testosterone) so much as I’d say the stress in induced by life events; T thrown into the mix is making some weird things happen. T without the stress was working out just fine! Haha.
Thanks for sharing your experience with progestin. And yes, more lab work would be a great idea! I’m curious to see what’s going on here…
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I would be curious if stopping T helps you feel better. If it does that tells you something. If it doesn’t, then that also tells you something too. Maybe a full blood work up would be helpful too. I was feeling really off a few years ago and it turned out my thyroid was messed up. Hope you feel better soon.
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Thanks for this feedback – I didn’t really consider my thyroid. I got a full blood work up while in the hospital, and I’m getting more blood work tomorrow, so maybe it’s more than the T – I’ll have to set up a dr. appt…
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If they did a full blood work up in the hospital they probably checked your thyroid levels. It’s worth checking on anyway. Good luck.
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Although… the blood work was before starting my new medication, so that’s something I’m considering… Thanks for your input!
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If you switched any of your meds around you may want to check for interactions- also i know a while back you wrote about changing from 1.0 to 1.62 Androgel and i was wondering if the dosing might also be catching up with you.
Situations like this are strange because you can’t really tell what is causal, what is coincidence, and what is random. All you know is that it looks like you are reacting differently to T than you were a couple of months ago.
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You’re not alone Janitorqueer, right now I’m experiencing T weirdness, stress and my teeth hurt from clenching! Sending you good vibes across the ocean .
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So there might be something else going on that could be worth considering. Not that there is a really easy solution, but… It is something I don’t hear talked about too much and this comes from my doctor, not just my experience, so I thought it worth mentioning.
My doctor said that the “fight” between T and the body’s natural hormones produced by female reproductive organs could easily cause a lot of the problems I had been having. I am much steadier now than I was before I had my hysterectomy. My doctor said that was a really common thing, in her experience, for people to feel much better on T after the hysterectomy than they did before.
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I’ve heard that as well from a few different sources.
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This sounds very much like what my roommate is going through, who just started taking T. You sound like you have it a lil worse than them. Though they are horney as all hell so maybe you have avoided that or maybe just ommitted it. They seem to be going through puberty and menopause (it’s double the fun right?)
Eitherway I feel for you and would suggest meditating and supplemental herbs. I’ve been doing both and have felt a world of difference. The herbs, especially ashwagandha are meant to help better balance your hormones especially for FtM persons. They also just support you through the transition and better help your body process the hormones you are pumping into your body. I’m no expert, so I’ll just suggest this website which talks about different herbs to support you and mitigate side effects. http://www.ohlonecenter.org/research-papers/holistic-health-for-transgender-gender-variant-folks/ .(browse about half way to skip the surgery section)
Hope all this craziness comes to an end soon, but at least you’re still off work, right?
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I – hate – testosterone!!! Hate! lol! I am sooooo glad to have finally tamped it down for all the symptoms stated in your post. So, I have no advice at all for you. I’m like, the world would be such a better place without so many T based organisms with guns and muscles and such. But that’s dumb. Humankind needs some T.
In fact, while I spent most of my life hating men for their T based psychology, now that I’ve transitioned to an E based physiology, I have sympathy and empathy for men. And, that has to be one of the absolute most surprising aspects of my transition, besides learning I didn’t smell anymore, THAT was awesome, AWESOME! Sorry.
Seriously, I hope you are able to find that right mix/balance to feel your most genuine.
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