[Mickie]

Sorry to hear that Pansy.. Like you, I get regular blood work 9mostly my cancer check ups].. and thus far, all have been normal, with one or two exceptions.

The one kidney is 'sorta' working.. but it has been that way since the other was removed.

So far, I feel blessed

[Pansy-Mae]

Unlikely. This is actually one of the common contraindications for permanent transition and hormone replacement. It indicates that Pansy is at most genderfluid, bigender, or agender. Which are all still transgender, but not trans woman.

Abi, I agree with that. I have always said that I am in some sort of middle ground. Whether I like it or not ( I don't!) I am male and no amount of pills and knives can change that. However that doesn't alter the fact that some part of my brain will do almost anything to get as close as it can.

An interesting aside which I haven't seen mentioned before - from time to time when I'm under some sort of stress, often time related, a thought from nowhere suddenly screams in my head " I wanna be a woman"

[julieTG]

Pansy

You and me both

High stress with me equals hi girl feelings

Perhaps it's the high t levels caused by stress on partial fem brain ?????

Julie

[polymorphis]

Pansy > Low thyroid function is really quite widespread. I don't have exact epidemiological data, but many people, especially women, have some degree of thyroid dysfunction. It tends to get worse with age. There are many factors that could have influenced your results, PM being just one of them. I have anecdotal information from endocrinologist that even stress can cause lower levels of thyroxine, not only elevation of TSH. So if I were you, I would completely not discard the possibilities that your result was just random fluctuation, but on the other side it could have been the first sign that you can develop hypothyroidism later on using PM or not. Maybe having a blood sampling in one year while off of PM is not a bad idea...

AbiDrew > Interesting information about the nature of contraindications! Well, I like my calmer and gentler version while taking PM more than rather grumpy and ironic me while not taking phytoestrogens. Maybe I should think about it ...

Pansy / JulieTG > I've also observed that stress causes my desire to be more feminine to increase. I've always thought that those feelings are kind of escape or venting too much pressure. I don't think that causal relations are as easy as more stress -> higher testosterone -> more feminine feelings. Higher testosterone and increased feminine desire could be just two results of one confounding factor ... or not. There are many neurotransmitter systems in play which are affected by hormone levels and hormone levels are affected by those neurotransmitter systems... Psychological factors should not been also completely neglected...

Aaah, the beautiful confusing complexity of higher brain function regulation!

[AbiDrew85]

That's okay too. Different from how I am, but it's still okay. I'm all female inside, even if the outside doesn't entirely agree right now. And inside of course only refers to my brain. I don't have ANY of the female reproductive parts or it would have been remarked on at some point to at the very least my parents and knowing my parents, removed. When I came out trans they would have said something about that, even if it came out in an offensive way. So other than my brain, the rest of my body is all male, unfortunately.

[Huggy]

Hi everybody

Thought I might add my own experience here as I've recently discovered I have a problem with PM too.

Hard to get too specific as my CFS does tend to confuse identifying what causes which symptom. But a while ago I did have a minor problem with my thyroid but put that down to over dosing iodine (my own fault), but in this context it does seem somewhat coincidental?

What is not in doubt is that the PM in conjunction with Reishi really sparked off the CFS. Increasing mental and physical fatigue by quite a margin and really stoking up the depression that comes with it. Within a week or so of stopping my symptoms began to lesson. Though whether my symptoms were a reaction to the PM and Reishi directly, or that they were just stirring up the CFS I cannot say for sure.

I am in a similar position to Pansy-Mae with the trying to find a middle ground between what the brain wants and what reality will allow.

But can also confirm that there is a direct connection with stress and increasing of my GID. It took me a while to recognise the connection, but now I have it is all to clear. Wonder if the rise in Cortisol that often accompanies stress may have something to do with it?

Huggy.