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Comment by iiioii | Hacker News Reader

> I've also started experiencing monthly cycles where for about one week a month I feel more tired and weepy like I could cry very easily

This sounds like wishful thinking to me. In women, the periodic mood changes happen during the luteal phase of the menstrual cycle, and coincide with the rise in progesterone that is triggered by ovulation.

Males don't have ovaries, so do not ovulate, and thus cannot experience the menstrual process that causes such periodic symptoms.

I think you're seeing this pattern because you want to, not because it has any underlying periodic hormonal cause.

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>I think you're seeing this pattern because you want to, not because it has any underlying periodic hormonal cause.

If you're correct, then it's quite possible that all the other subjective feelings experienced by the poster are similar ... psychosomatic, maybe?

The placebo effect is a real thing.

I also note the part about "I’ve felt like my emotions have gotten stronger except for anger."

So far as I'm aware, there's zero evidence that women's emotions are stronger (what would that even mean?), and certainly not that while the other emotions are stronger, anger is excepted. I'm pretty certain that women experience anger just as strongly as men.

As mentioned down-thread, this could be placebo. But there are also lots of other potential explanations, ranging from the simple passage of time, maturation, and aging, to immense relief at having achieved their transition, and so on.

It’s a strong claim to suggest no evidence exists. Transgender people commonly claim certain emotions change, with some getting stronger and some smoothing out.

For my part, I had a sharp change two months ago when my estrogen dosage increased and we added progesterone to my routine. (One effect of these meds was to reduce my testosterone levels.) So that was not an aging or maturation related change because it happened in a month. I found it easier to cry and harder to get angry.

It depends on the method of administration of HRT, some methods do show fluctuations similar to those of cis women, e.g. estradiol valerate/enanthate etc.

If they are getting monthly depot injections, that could make sense. But then the periodic mood changes as described would be a function of the frequency of administration of such hormome medication, rather than of taking it in general.

I agree with this, although I suspect most of what Taylor reports is true and not "placebo", as it matches other reporting from people who are chemically transitioning.

The "monthly cycle" thing is not usually reported.

Not that I'm saying that isn't truly your experience :)

> I agree with this, although I suspect most of what Taylor reports is true and not "placebo", as it matches other reporting from people who are chemically transitioning.

Certainly I do not doubt that they have recently started enjoying romantic comedies, human interest stories, sewing, cooking and not getting into arguments about racism, but I am skeptical that these are caused by externally-induced hormonal changes, rather than correlating as part of a broader set of intentional gender-transitional changes.

It is well documented that hormone levels affect activation patterns [1-5], so I am not sure why you are skeptical about it. Using references from another commenter.

[1] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19789167/

[2] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17117339/

[3] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25505380/

[4] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29544637/

[5] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18842345/

Sorry but, pasting in five citations of papers you've not read, from another commenter who probably just grabbed the first five they stumbled across from searching PubMed, doesn't really add to the discussion.

Also, the first paper is written in Croatian and the second in Spanish, so it seems odd to link these on an English language forum. The odds of finding someone who understands all three languages well enough to discuss these researchers' work with you is, most likely, extremely low.

You can take a look at the abstract and then look for related articles in English.

You are dismissing articles that contradict your beliefs on the basis of lacking the capacity to read them, not of their content.

No comment on the other 3 references, thus that response does not contribute to the discussion, except for showing that you do not care about reaching some truth. But then again that account is only a few minutes old.

It is not my responsibility to fill in the blanks of what you want your argument to be.

If you would like to make a point about why you believe that enjoying romantic comedies, sewing, cooking, etc. are driven by hormonal changes rather than some other factor, please lay out your case.

Citing a random selection of papers that you haven't read does not help to achieve this. It just gives the impression that your viewpoint is not a seriously considered one.

My claim WAS that hormones affect activation patterns. That is a well supported claim.

Changes in activation patterns affect our perceptions, our senses, and literally the medium by which we experience the world. They may not affect our personality instantaneously, but our personality is malleable, and depending on feedback, it changes.

If our brain's activation patterns change s.t. certain things are more enjoyable, then these new patterns integrate in our personality.

Transfeminine people having monthly cycles is something that a lot of people have discussed, so I’m inclined to believe the phenomenon is real. I do seem to have a slow week once a month. It’s my partner who has normal periods once a month who has suggested I am cycling. I can’t say for sure what’s going on. There’s a lot of stuff about trans people that isn’t well studied. I do take progesterone but my dose is constant, so either my body processes it in cycles, or something else is happening, or its coincidence.

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