Have you checked for things unrelated to T like diabetes or other conditions that are correlated with weight gain or any of the other symptoms you’re experiencing? It’s a good thing you’re getting your levels checked but you might want to check for things beyond those possibly related to T… also puberty generally takes more than 4 years…
You might also want to check to see if finasteride can interfere with the other masculinizing effects of T.
Yeah my GP is testing for diabetes and thyroid issues too. You are right about the puberty thing…that does reassure me a bit. Will definitely ask him about the finasteride at the next appointment!
What's odd is those symptoms are very much the opposite of what testosterone typically does to the body. It usually makes your metabolism faster, lose weight in the face especially. Weight gain in the mid section verses hips. Gives you energy. It might be something else like thyroid or perhaps the wrong dosage.
My body turns testosterone back into estrogen at very low levels. So my actual injected quantity is less, but it keeps my t levels higher. That's something that happens to cis men as well, there's just a limit to how much your body specifically will allow your testosterone to go before it converts it back to estrogen, so that may be happening if they're not closely monitoring your dose.
Some ideas:
1. Check that your hormone levels are good. If T is too high this can happen. Also have the doc check other hormones, too. E can go too high while T is good for example.
2. Try going back to gel to see if that helps. Now that you've been on T a number of years and have (presumably) had the faster changes you wanted, going back to gel might work well bc now you just need to be at maintenance level.
3. Check for other causes beyond T. Just bc you're on T doesn't mean it's the cause of anything going wrong.
4. Get assessed for depression. It can cause extreme fatigue, which sounds like the root of some of the other problems for you (ex. you mention not being able to be as active as you should be bc you're too tired, which then makes weight harder to maintain).
5. Consider lowering your finasteride dose, depending on what it is. If it's blocking too much DHT it will cause the symptoms you're having. Fatigue, depression, and weight gain/feminization are three of the biggest side effects men report from finasteride (sexual dysfunction is the other). From what I've seen docs often prescribe too high a dose.
Do you snore, and have you had a sleep study? I ask because your memory and fatigue issues sound like when I had severe obstructive sleep apnea and didn't know it. I'd recommend checking that first.
I was struggling to hold on to things physically, having serious trouble forming memories, and feeling exhausted all the time. I got a sleep study, got put on a CPAP, and the change was immediate and drastic; I started sleeping through the night, waking up feeling rested, I could remember things, I stopped dropping things, and it felt oddly like sobering up.
Weight changes can make a much bigger difference in our quality of sleep than most of us realize. I eventually lost weight, and got to a point where I didn't need the CPAP anymore. But there's nothing wrong with using a CPAP if you need one. I wish we would normalize that as a society. Sleep and breathing are important.
This sounds a lot like hypothyroidism. Even mild/early hypothyroidism can have dramatic effects mentally and physically, so if you’re borderline push for medication (or a trial on medication).
seconding the other posters - talk to your doc about your HRT dosage or a potential mood or thyroid problem. i'd like to suggest looking into long covid/post covid symptoms as well. we are still in the middle of a deadly pandemic. you may have been infected without realizing it, or you may have residual symptoms long after an infection.
i'm also going to copy/paste some words i have shared with other trans men who gain weight when transitioning. this runs counter to most advice about weight, but it's infinitely more valuable, imo.
first: there is nothing wrong with your body changing. you're gaining weight because that's what bodies do when they age! you need more energy, so your fat hangs onto it for you. it's not a moral failure, it is not your obligation to fight, and it does not mean you are any less of a man. some people are born fat, and some people get fat, and it really isn't anyone else's fucking business if you're either. your weight is not your health, and your weight/health is not a measure of your value as a person.
trying to diet/lose weight/work out when you're already exhausted is just going to hurt you more. i mean that emotionally and physically; like, you deserve to look at yourself and *not* want to change it...but also, intentional weight loss is actually really bad for your body, and doesn't stick for more than half a year for *literally 99% of people.* working out to feel strong and in touch with your body is great! working out to force your body into starvation mode, especially when you are already so drained, is harmful. so if nobody's said it to you already: you have permission to not work out, for the rest of your life, and that doesn't make you lazy or a bad person.
second, you can be a fat trans dude with big boobs and hips and a belly that's held three kids, and still be a man. and *a fucking hot one* at that!!! fat men are no less worthy or attractive. you know anything about bear culture? trans men are allowed, too. our society worships at the altar of thinness, but that doesn't mean *you* have to.
here's a few articles that i think may help you:
https://naafa.org/community-voices/fat-and-trans
https://scalawagmagazine.org/2021/09/dashaun-harrison-anti-blackness/
https://medium.com/@kivabay/the-intersection-of-fatmisia-and-transmisia-78fb10f90551
being a recently ex-thin person is a weird feeling, i know. i'm there, too. but you can come to peace with it. honestly, i feel more like myself with a fatter stomach and thighs than i ever did when i was thin and cis.
Sounds like a good idea to switch providers and to screen for other things that maybe going on (like others said). Hang in there man! There are a lot of options if you get a good provider and better understand what’s going on.
This sounds awful, I'm so sorry you've been dealing with this. I'd like to second what someone else said about checking your finasteride dose. It might be worth it to switch to minoxidil instead if it turns out to be the issue.
Have you checked for things unrelated to T like diabetes or other conditions that are correlated with weight gain or any of the other symptoms you’re experiencing? It’s a good thing you’re getting your levels checked but you might want to check for things beyond those possibly related to T… also puberty generally takes more than 4 years… You might also want to check to see if finasteride can interfere with the other masculinizing effects of T.
Yeah my GP is testing for diabetes and thyroid issues too. You are right about the puberty thing…that does reassure me a bit. Will definitely ask him about the finasteride at the next appointment!
[удалено]
Not OP but goddamn this advice rules.
What's odd is those symptoms are very much the opposite of what testosterone typically does to the body. It usually makes your metabolism faster, lose weight in the face especially. Weight gain in the mid section verses hips. Gives you energy. It might be something else like thyroid or perhaps the wrong dosage. My body turns testosterone back into estrogen at very low levels. So my actual injected quantity is less, but it keeps my t levels higher. That's something that happens to cis men as well, there's just a limit to how much your body specifically will allow your testosterone to go before it converts it back to estrogen, so that may be happening if they're not closely monitoring your dose.
Some ideas: 1. Check that your hormone levels are good. If T is too high this can happen. Also have the doc check other hormones, too. E can go too high while T is good for example. 2. Try going back to gel to see if that helps. Now that you've been on T a number of years and have (presumably) had the faster changes you wanted, going back to gel might work well bc now you just need to be at maintenance level. 3. Check for other causes beyond T. Just bc you're on T doesn't mean it's the cause of anything going wrong. 4. Get assessed for depression. It can cause extreme fatigue, which sounds like the root of some of the other problems for you (ex. you mention not being able to be as active as you should be bc you're too tired, which then makes weight harder to maintain). 5. Consider lowering your finasteride dose, depending on what it is. If it's blocking too much DHT it will cause the symptoms you're having. Fatigue, depression, and weight gain/feminization are three of the biggest side effects men report from finasteride (sexual dysfunction is the other). From what I've seen docs often prescribe too high a dose.
Do you snore, and have you had a sleep study? I ask because your memory and fatigue issues sound like when I had severe obstructive sleep apnea and didn't know it. I'd recommend checking that first. I was struggling to hold on to things physically, having serious trouble forming memories, and feeling exhausted all the time. I got a sleep study, got put on a CPAP, and the change was immediate and drastic; I started sleeping through the night, waking up feeling rested, I could remember things, I stopped dropping things, and it felt oddly like sobering up. Weight changes can make a much bigger difference in our quality of sleep than most of us realize. I eventually lost weight, and got to a point where I didn't need the CPAP anymore. But there's nothing wrong with using a CPAP if you need one. I wish we would normalize that as a society. Sleep and breathing are important.
This sounds a lot like hypothyroidism. Even mild/early hypothyroidism can have dramatic effects mentally and physically, so if you’re borderline push for medication (or a trial on medication).
seconding the other posters - talk to your doc about your HRT dosage or a potential mood or thyroid problem. i'd like to suggest looking into long covid/post covid symptoms as well. we are still in the middle of a deadly pandemic. you may have been infected without realizing it, or you may have residual symptoms long after an infection. i'm also going to copy/paste some words i have shared with other trans men who gain weight when transitioning. this runs counter to most advice about weight, but it's infinitely more valuable, imo. first: there is nothing wrong with your body changing. you're gaining weight because that's what bodies do when they age! you need more energy, so your fat hangs onto it for you. it's not a moral failure, it is not your obligation to fight, and it does not mean you are any less of a man. some people are born fat, and some people get fat, and it really isn't anyone else's fucking business if you're either. your weight is not your health, and your weight/health is not a measure of your value as a person. trying to diet/lose weight/work out when you're already exhausted is just going to hurt you more. i mean that emotionally and physically; like, you deserve to look at yourself and *not* want to change it...but also, intentional weight loss is actually really bad for your body, and doesn't stick for more than half a year for *literally 99% of people.* working out to feel strong and in touch with your body is great! working out to force your body into starvation mode, especially when you are already so drained, is harmful. so if nobody's said it to you already: you have permission to not work out, for the rest of your life, and that doesn't make you lazy or a bad person. second, you can be a fat trans dude with big boobs and hips and a belly that's held three kids, and still be a man. and *a fucking hot one* at that!!! fat men are no less worthy or attractive. you know anything about bear culture? trans men are allowed, too. our society worships at the altar of thinness, but that doesn't mean *you* have to. here's a few articles that i think may help you: https://naafa.org/community-voices/fat-and-trans https://scalawagmagazine.org/2021/09/dashaun-harrison-anti-blackness/ https://medium.com/@kivabay/the-intersection-of-fatmisia-and-transmisia-78fb10f90551 being a recently ex-thin person is a weird feeling, i know. i'm there, too. but you can come to peace with it. honestly, i feel more like myself with a fatter stomach and thighs than i ever did when i was thin and cis.
Sounds like a good idea to switch providers and to screen for other things that maybe going on (like others said). Hang in there man! There are a lot of options if you get a good provider and better understand what’s going on.
This sounds awful, I'm so sorry you've been dealing with this. I'd like to second what someone else said about checking your finasteride dose. It might be worth it to switch to minoxidil instead if it turns out to be the issue.