serious question: are there "detransition" communities that don't suck?

Submitted by twovests in just_post

I very recently started HRT after ~a decade of considering it.

I'm going into this very open-ended, knowing I can stop any time. Pills that turn you green and whatnot.

I'm enjoying it, and already kind of fearing coming off of it. Just a week in, and now I know how I feel about things without having to introspect about it afterward (Hence my previous "Flowers for Algernon" post). Plus many other side effects. I am loving the pills that turn me green.

And I know if I continue, I'll have a pretty knowledgable community surrounding me with decades of information tucked away into messageboards and forums and wikipedia articles.

But I don't know of any good communities if I talk the other path, and quit.

I've had some weird physical effects. Pain in the testes, tingling in the arms, and some of my skin has turned rashy after being very soft for awhile. If this continues, I'll definitely stop. That might be months in, a year in, etc.

I've had a few friends who stopped transition / were detrans, etc. I know detrans people aren't the universal Paragons Of The Sex Binary that transphobes and TERFs want them to be.

I was told some good things about r/detrans years ago. But whatever good it had, it's definitely not there anymore, One of the top posts is, "GNC people being harrassed in the bathroom isn't because transphobes fault, it's trans peoples faults". I go to top recent posts, and another is "God made me Cis and he can Fix you too!", so they're obviously way off the deep end.

I can't find any detrans culture of knowledge-keeping, I can't find any culture of sharing knowledge, etc. It's pretty emotionally-centered, to put it generously.

That's just one example, but in all my searching, I found none better.

I'm realizing jstpst might have some folks who started and later stopped HRT, or might know of places that might live under another umbrella? Are there good communities for people who quit HRT after some time on it?

My big worry, really, is stopping in a year or so, and not being able to find any community for it.

TLDR: I'm on HRT and might eventually stop. I'm worried about having no community around that. I'm wondering if there are any good communities about stopping HRT? All the "detrans" ones I can find are pretty bad in various ways.

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I_got_killed_one_time wrote (edited )

i cant really answer the intended question of detrans, but i think the more important question is What the fuck are you taking. after a week nearly nothing should be happening, let alone the pain and other things youre describing. i imagine if youve been so hesitant for so long, youre starting out on some thing super safe and low level, probably some planned parenthood shit, which also probably means spiro. idk, im not a doctor, this isnt medical advice, but you might allergic to something in the pill or some thing.

over all , this is a very anxious post and i do understand the desire to cover every base and have contingencies just in case, but you did say youre happy with it and enjoying it, so enjoy it ! but you should probably go to the doctor about the pain and rashes, it might not even be related to the hrt and just coincidentally started at the same time. sorry i didnt actually help withwhat you asked

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500poundsofnothing wrote

I mean part of the thing is that there is a big difference between stopping HRT and de transitioning you know. I know a bunch of people who have had to stop for both medical and financial reasons but didn't like detransition and all that. If you find a space that is advertising itself as for detransitioners you will find yourself most likely surrounded by people who will most likely also regret socially transitioning and from my experience are incredibly bitter. I don't know if there are any good spaces for people who stop hrt tbh.

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twovests OP wrote

Replying to I_got_killed_one_time (#19,561)

I appreciate the response. I'm just on 2x daily 1mg oral estrogen, no spiro.

I think my anxieties reflect the ~10 years of thinking this through, lol. I feel like I'm wearing all the thoughts I ever had on my sleeve, and I'm preparing go-bags for all eventualities.

I've also been told that it's strange for me to feel effects so fast (other than the widely-reported mild moodswing / warm face people get after their dose). I would attribute it to just the placebo effect, but some changes were undeniable. (A patch of skin on my ankles, which was terminally and perpetually tough, became smooth; and the pungent onion-y scent in my body odor has disappeared. Even if I eat a whole raw onion.)

That said, the tingles, chest feelings, etc. also came after some confounding factors (lots of time outside in a heat wave, being around a friends cat) so I'm definitely staying on this for at least another month or so.

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twovests OP wrote

Replying to 500poundsofnothing (#19,562)

You do have a point. Tbh, I don't actually know where I'd draw the line. I see a lot of verbiage like desist/detrans/retrans/ftmtf/mtftm/etc.

I would expect a "detrans" or similar space to overrepresent regrets, but I really couldn't bear participating in a space that's anti-transition in general. In my lurking, I'm seeing no useful info haha, even in trans subs re: stopping HRT. (Other than the common knowledge of needing some amount of hormone in the body)

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