16-04-2016, 06:40 AM
Warning - this is going to be a bit lengthy - sorry!
It is 5 years and 6 months since I started taking PM. Growing pains started after about 10 weeks but growth stopped after 18 months or so. I tried all sorts to get it started again, but apart from an occasional itch, nothing more happened. Since then I've mostly been on a maintenance dose of between 1 and 3 x 500mg caps per day, although few times I went right up to 6x500mg per day, just to see what would happen - nothing! (Having said that, I'm sure that there has been some further gradual change in shape). There have been gaps of a couple of weeks at a time for holidays, and on a couple of occasions I stopped for a couple of months for other reasons. All this brings me to October last year (2015).
Every year in October I have a routine blood test, the main purpose of which is a check on cholesterol and on prostate but also includes liver and kidney function and some other things. Every year it shows everything is fine within normal limits. However last year it flagged up an anomaly relating to my thyroid. The actual thyroid T3/T4 results were OK but the Thyroid Stimulating Hormone, from the pituitary, was high, implying that it was having to work overtime to keep the thyroid itself functioning within limits. The doctor wanted me to have a repeat blood test after 6 months, which I had on Thursday just gone. Now, having read that PM has been reported to affect the thyroid, I immediately put 2 and 2 together and decided that I would stop the PM until after the repeat blood test, so I've been off PM completely since early December ( 4 months). I've just had the blood test results, which are showing as "normal, no further investigation required", I'm very pleased to say, but this gives me a dilemma, should I stay off PM or restart? Was the original result just a natural blip or was PM really involved?
This is the reason why I delayed answering Julie's question a couple of days ago (actually, the day I had the blood test) on the "Wifes and Girlfriends" thread, because I wanted to get the whole thing down in one go on a thread of it's own, which I had been planning to do this at this point, anyway.
Now the interesting thing is what I have noticed in my 4 month abstinence, in no particular order:
1) I feel indefinably more 'well' in general. It's difficult to explain but I kind of feel that my body is not under stress, somehow.
2) I seem to be able to focus on tasks more easily now, previously I quite frequently couldn't be bothered with tasks .
3) Decrease in breast volume as fat goes back to male pattern.This is getting particularly noticeable as a sagging curve at the top of the breasts and an increased tendancy for my nipples to point sideways.
My current measurements (18 months ago in brackets):
Above 37.5"(38.5), Over nips 38.0"(39), Band 34.5"(35), Left boob 9.0"(9.25), Right boob 8.5"(9), Nip-nip 10.0"(9).
4) All my life I suffered with very sweaty/smelly feet, but for the past 5 years PM stopped that completely, it now seems to be returning.
5) I used to have a lot of dark leg hair which again disappeared with PM leaving me with just fine, fair, slow growing fluff, but darker and faster growing hair seems be coming back.
6) Return of 'middle of the night' and 'early morning' erections, which seem to last a much longer time than I remember from before.
7) I went through a phase, a couple of months back, of wanting/needing to look at a lot of TG porn ( not something I've ever done to any great extent), but that seemed to have only lasted 2 or 3 weeks and I'm not bothered again now.
8) Increased rate of age related 'face sagging' (I look like my grandfather now!).
9) My feet seem to be shrinking - they have got about 1/2 size larger in the last few years and that seems to have reversed ( presumably another fat distribution thing, or possibly related to water retention changes?)
10) I've been slowly putting on weight over the past 3 or 4 years, but that now seems to be moving up from female lower abdomen to male upper abdomen.
11) The crossdressing has come back big time, but since my wife is encouraging it, it isn't an issue at all. She says that I was getting unbearably bitchy and has wanted me to stop for quite a long time, although I wasn't aware of that at all, so trading feminine clothes for PM is a definite plus as far as she is concerned.
So what to do now?... being OFF PM does have some advantages to balance against the downsides. I still have about 3 months supply from before I stopped, so currently I'm inclined to use it up and give the girls one last fat boost, and then stop for good. That would also give me a chance to see which of the effects I've listed above, respond to the renewed input.
It is 5 years and 6 months since I started taking PM. Growing pains started after about 10 weeks but growth stopped after 18 months or so. I tried all sorts to get it started again, but apart from an occasional itch, nothing more happened. Since then I've mostly been on a maintenance dose of between 1 and 3 x 500mg caps per day, although few times I went right up to 6x500mg per day, just to see what would happen - nothing! (Having said that, I'm sure that there has been some further gradual change in shape). There have been gaps of a couple of weeks at a time for holidays, and on a couple of occasions I stopped for a couple of months for other reasons. All this brings me to October last year (2015).
Every year in October I have a routine blood test, the main purpose of which is a check on cholesterol and on prostate but also includes liver and kidney function and some other things. Every year it shows everything is fine within normal limits. However last year it flagged up an anomaly relating to my thyroid. The actual thyroid T3/T4 results were OK but the Thyroid Stimulating Hormone, from the pituitary, was high, implying that it was having to work overtime to keep the thyroid itself functioning within limits. The doctor wanted me to have a repeat blood test after 6 months, which I had on Thursday just gone. Now, having read that PM has been reported to affect the thyroid, I immediately put 2 and 2 together and decided that I would stop the PM until after the repeat blood test, so I've been off PM completely since early December ( 4 months). I've just had the blood test results, which are showing as "normal, no further investigation required", I'm very pleased to say, but this gives me a dilemma, should I stay off PM or restart? Was the original result just a natural blip or was PM really involved?
This is the reason why I delayed answering Julie's question a couple of days ago (actually, the day I had the blood test) on the "Wifes and Girlfriends" thread, because I wanted to get the whole thing down in one go on a thread of it's own, which I had been planning to do this at this point, anyway.
Now the interesting thing is what I have noticed in my 4 month abstinence, in no particular order:
1) I feel indefinably more 'well' in general. It's difficult to explain but I kind of feel that my body is not under stress, somehow.
2) I seem to be able to focus on tasks more easily now, previously I quite frequently couldn't be bothered with tasks .
3) Decrease in breast volume as fat goes back to male pattern.This is getting particularly noticeable as a sagging curve at the top of the breasts and an increased tendancy for my nipples to point sideways.
My current measurements (18 months ago in brackets):
Above 37.5"(38.5), Over nips 38.0"(39), Band 34.5"(35), Left boob 9.0"(9.25), Right boob 8.5"(9), Nip-nip 10.0"(9).
4) All my life I suffered with very sweaty/smelly feet, but for the past 5 years PM stopped that completely, it now seems to be returning.
5) I used to have a lot of dark leg hair which again disappeared with PM leaving me with just fine, fair, slow growing fluff, but darker and faster growing hair seems be coming back.
6) Return of 'middle of the night' and 'early morning' erections, which seem to last a much longer time than I remember from before.
7) I went through a phase, a couple of months back, of wanting/needing to look at a lot of TG porn ( not something I've ever done to any great extent), but that seemed to have only lasted 2 or 3 weeks and I'm not bothered again now.
8) Increased rate of age related 'face sagging' (I look like my grandfather now!).
9) My feet seem to be shrinking - they have got about 1/2 size larger in the last few years and that seems to have reversed ( presumably another fat distribution thing, or possibly related to water retention changes?)
10) I've been slowly putting on weight over the past 3 or 4 years, but that now seems to be moving up from female lower abdomen to male upper abdomen.
11) The crossdressing has come back big time, but since my wife is encouraging it, it isn't an issue at all. She says that I was getting unbearably bitchy and has wanted me to stop for quite a long time, although I wasn't aware of that at all, so trading feminine clothes for PM is a definite plus as far as she is concerned.
So what to do now?... being OFF PM does have some advantages to balance against the downsides. I still have about 3 months supply from before I stopped, so currently I'm inclined to use it up and give the girls one last fat boost, and then stop for good. That would also give me a chance to see which of the effects I've listed above, respond to the renewed input.
