[GoneGirl]

I can see the logic in what you are saying, Miranda. I think we forget there are plenty of bio-females out there who have masculine stereo typical personalities (gender identities?). How do FTM transgender men express their masculine side? It's not always easy to discern. Females have much more freedom of expression in society than we males.

In my view, testosterone acts as a heavy blanket that covers our emotions, dulls them, if you will. Hormones aren't the source of a compassionate individual, but they can modulate one's emotional response.

Every time I take a PM break, I encounter an instance or two where I unknowingly do or say something insensitively. When my hurtful behavior is pointed out to me, I'm usually regretful and apologetic. By contrast, when I'm fully charged up with PM, that kind of behavior rarely happens, at least without my realizing it immediately. But, clearly, no amount of estrogen is going to make a hard-hearted person empathetic and compassionate if it isn't in his basic nature to begin with.

Clara

[Samantha Rogers]

Two points about this...
I do believe without question that messing with our hormones can certainly produce erratic mood swings, which can, depending on the individual, produce strong emotions, whether that be crying or anger or euphoria or whatever. Heck, just look at most any female at that certain point in their cycle.
But in relation to males with GID, does it matter at all if a heavy tendency toward emotion is a "female" characteristic in fact or not, so long as the individual in question believes subconsciously that it is? If the mind is trying to quiet anxiety by a deliberate attempt to express a feminine side, then what that individual mind believes is "feminine", whether real or fantasy, conscious or subconscious, will be what is expressed. Won't it?
Just making conversation here...

[GoneGirl]

I would have to agree, Sammie. Being or feeling feminine is bound to be different for each of us. It isn't some kind of checklist that we all have to conform to.

Clara

[MissC]

It isn't some kind of checklist that we all have to conform to.

Oh yes it is... on those other forums!

[AnnieBL]

It isn't some kind of checklist that we all have to conform to.

Oh yes it is... on those other forums!

All the more reason to be grateful that we have this forum.

[GoneGirl]

I was on a seven day break last week (thank god it's over). During the first three or four days of a break I seem like my normal self, but by the end, I feel like I was injected with a shot of testosterone. Its effect is quite remarkable.

Aside from the return of morning wood and renew interest in sex, my emotional balance shifts from being sensitive and ready to tear up over the most harmless things, to being hard and quick to anger. It's like the flip side of the emotional coin, if you will. It's not that I'm less emotional, it's more that my emotional response is triggered differently.

I also sense that during a break when my T-levels go back to near normal, I also detect a return to feelings of male chauvinism. Maybe it's not that, but a sense that women should be women, and men should be men. Can you relate to that?

I'll relate an example of what I'm talking about. I saw this picture of a woman Olympic hockey player (I thought of you Karren ) all dressed to the gills in hockey regalia (including a wire face mask). This image produced an emotional response in me. Her delicate, beautiful face (complete with eyebrow pencil) looked rather out of place behind the hockey headgear. Feelings of resentment, or maybe anger, or maybe jealousy came over me. How can she, with accolades, encroach onto male ground, but I can't do the same without incurring the disapproval and outright wrath of society.

When my T is back down to near female levels, I don't have these kinds of emotional reactions. In this sense, being on NBE herbs makes me LESS emotional, at least in some ways. Curious.

Note: Before my last break my total serum testosterone was measured at 109 ng/dL. The reference range for a normal male is 250 to 1100. My measurement was only 24 ng/dL higher than the high end of normal for a woman.

My conclusion is that one's T-level has everything to do with your emotional response to everyday happenings.

Clara Kay

[SarahSchilling]

Note: Before my last break my total serum testosterone was measured at 109 ng/dL. The reference range for a normal male is 250 to 1100. My measurement was only 24 ng/dL higher than the high end of normal for a woman.

My conclusion is that one's T-level has everything to do with your emotional response to everyday happenings.

Clara Kay

My total T was 75 ng/dl. I guess that means I'm in the female range then

Anyways, I totally agree with you about lower testosterone not making me more emotional, just different emotionally.

Like now, I'm nice(for me) and tear up easily. If my T was in the male range, i would be really pissed off and depressed.

Not more or less emotional, just different, far better emotions on DHT/T blocker and E.

[GoneGirl]

Yup, at 75 ng/dL, you are at the high end of the female normal range for testosterone, Sarah. Yahoo! My level is about double yours. I guess that means I'm twice the man you are...LOL.

I stopped taking Spearmint and Pygeum 10 days before my blood draw because I was testing whether it was causing my itchy skin (it wasn't, btw). I imagine that my TT level would be even lower if I'd kept up the AAs.

BTW, I'm starting to notice other feminizing effects from my NBE program. These have taken much longer to appear than my breast growth (I'm now in my 5th month of NBE):

1. I can see my veins on the backs of my hands more clearly. I think that's due to thinning skin.
2. The hair on the backs of my hands is thinning out, especially on the left hand.
3. I'm getting a layer of fatty tissue on my thighs. My DW says my legs are looking more girly.
4. My butt doesn't feel as boney as before (I've recently added MACA)
5. My skin is much drier. I have to put lotion on to stop the itchiness.

This has nothing to do with the OP, except that it does make me very happy to see these subtle changes.

Clara

[Samantha Rogers]

Yup, at 75 ng/dL, you are at the high end of the female normal range for testosterone, Sarah. Yahoo! My level is about double yours. I guess that means I'm twice the man you are...LOL.

I stopped taking Spearmint and Pygeum 10 days before my blood draw because I was testing whether it was causing my itchy skin (it wasn't, btw). I imagine that my TT level would be even lower if I'd kept up the AAs.

BTW, I'm starting to notice other feminizing effects from my NBE program. These have taken much longer to appear than my breast growth (I'm now in my 5th month of NBE):

1. I can see my veins on the backs of my hands more clearly. I think that's due to thinning skin.
2. The hair on the backs of my hands is thinning out, especially on the left hand.
3. I'm getting a layer of fatty tissue on my thighs. My DW says my legs are looking more girly.
4. My butt doesn't feel as boney as before (I've recently added MACA)
5. My skin is much drier. I have to put lotion on to stop the itchiness.

This has nothing to do with the OP, except that it does make me very happy to see these subtle changes.

Clara

Lets see...
1 - check
2 - check
3 - have not noticed but I hardly eat
4 - check (but I want more!
5 -check and double check

[GoneGirl]

I could never understand people who claimed that having a could cry will make you fell better. Last night DW and I watched the 2011 film "We Bought a Zoo" starring Matt Damon. Toward the end of the movie when young Dylan experienced his 20 seconds of courage, feelings of joyous emotion rose up within me. I had tears streaming down my cheeks. I looked at my wife and saw that she was crying, too. What a wonderful sensation! I'm looking forward to my next cry.

Clara