In June 2016, I was placed on:
- 2 mg of Estradiol twice a day 4 mg total
- 100 mg of Spironolactone twice a day 200 mg total
- 5 mg of Finasteride once a day.
I have been a member, since 2011 of a yahoo group that discusses MTF HRT treatments. Along with additional readings and research, I was able to know enough about HRT to have a good discussion with my doctor. I felt his regimen was appropriate.
The medicine has changed me so much physically and mentally. I am very satisfied with the results.
However, about 2 weeks ago I decided to change my regimen by reducing my Spironolactone from 200 mg to 100 mg and stop taking the Finasteride. The Spironolactone reduced testosterone and the Finasteride reduced DHT which is the testosterone by-product that leads to male pattern baldness.
I have been bald for decades and I read that once your testosterone is low enough, the Estradiol will keep the testosterone low and 100 mg or less of Spironolactone will be enough to help the Estradiol keep the testosterone low.
Therefore, I suspect my testosterone level is up. My dysphoria is not back and I am still physically changing, but mentally I feel I am going backward.
So I am going back to my original regimen. I do not want to screw around with my medicine. But, this short experiment shows me how much I have mentally changed.
On March 23rd, I back to my Doctor and I am going to discuss this in detail with him. I hope he will get too upset. But expect him to not want me to experiment anymore. And I agree.
Definitely check with your doctor. I'm not sure but I seem to remember reading somewhere stopping finasteride suddenly can cause a T bounce, a sudden increase. I may very well be wrong on that but it seemed to be lurking in the back of my mind. Thankfully, I don't have to worry about the anti-androgens. But I did notice when my doctor upped me from 1mg E twice a day to 2mg twice a day, some of the libido I had lost after the orchiectomy came back for about 2-3 months. It's settled back down now.
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