One of the most basic facts about biology we have known for decades is that a woman's estrogen levels are supposed to go up and down quite significantly during the course of her cycle. A cycle that starts around the same time as Puberty and which ends during menopause.
It makes no sense to me that in spite this being common knowledge doctors and even fellow trans people will parrot the idea that you can just average a woman's cycle out and as long as you stay around that average (often far below average) you'll be fine.
To me this comes from the transphobic idea that trans women and cis women are these fundamentally different creatures who respond to estrogen very definitely.
I didn't test this intentional at first but "luckily" Hrt isnt a thing in my country (trans people as far as the medical system is concerned don't exist) so I've been forced to DIY. As a result of fumbling around trying to figure out my doses without really checking levels I came to realize multiple things.
My sex drive changes depending on my dose. High doses meant for the week my libido would be very high low doses meant the opposite.
Where I felt changes (my skin stretching from fat redistribution) changed depending on dosage. Typically a lower dose meant more chest development while a higher dose meant I felt more stretching in my hips)
Emotional changes where either more present or less present depending levels
After doing a bit o research I found that all these things are natural things the majority of women go through during their cycle.
The trans people who completely lose their ability to have a libido are likely just on a dose which represents a low for them and since they constantly stay at a low they don't experience what their natural libido is supposed to be.
And on the flip side the trans people who become hyper sexual have the reverse issue. They are constantly at a level which represents a "high" for them meaning they never get a break from it and are also robbed of what a natural libido is supposed to feel like.
I'm tired of people trying to claim at x dose you should experience changes as if looking feminine is the only function of estrogen in the human body and as if "average levels" Don't already look way different from person to person.
Trans women are normal women and shouldn't be robbed of as natural of a hormone system as possible. Our current system is working backwards from the idea that trans women are just men who "want" To look like women when that's not true.
I'm not sure I really agree that we should try to replicate the cis female monthly hormone cycle, especially with regard to replicating menopause. It kind of feels like an appeal to nature to me. There's nothing magical or ordained about a hormone cycle, its just how human biology happens to work, and it comes with a lot of downsides as well. I'm sure there are a lot of cis women who would love for their cycle to go away and just have relatively constant levels all the time. I think if people want to simulate a cycle with their hormones thats cool, but we shouldn't be pushing anyone to do either unless it can be shown scientifically what the tradeoffs are.
Like it or not there are differences between cis women and trans women, especially with regard to early hormonal transition. Cis women go through puberty while they are still children and have a storm of other growth going on, with all the associated hormones. Most trans women end up going through female puberty much later in life, after having completed one puberty and becoming fully grown adults. There are a lot of hormones and growth that isnt happening when we start taking hormones, so it isnt necessarily correct to attempt to perfectly replicate the hormone levels over time seen in pubescent cis women. This thinking is the root of the idea that we should wait a couple years to start progesterone, despite there being zero evidence for any function it is claimed to serve. why would a cycle be any different? unless theres evidence showing the tradeoffs between one and another, let people do what they want.
as far as menopause thats not really a feature of our biology so much as a flaw. cis women go through all kinds of issues during menopause, which are alleviated through hrt and are its original purpose and the reason we have access to it at all. i will personally not be emulating menopause myself and wouldn't suggest anyone do so for all the health issues caused by low hormone levels.
that said if you really want to simulate a cycle you can do so with injections of some of the longer lived estrogen esters. one of them has a half life of about a month so you could do injections once a month and get a similar hormone cycle to a cis woman, provided you adjust your progesterone dose similarly. at the end of the day everyones body is different and will respond differently to hormone levels and cycle. do what works for you and let others do the same.
LOL, your reply is basically mine, but better ๐