How Estrogen Affects Your Mood While Undergoing HRT

This article is general information only and is not medical advice. Experiences vary from person to person. Talk to a qualified clinician about your own situation.

Hormones and mood are often linked, so it is understandable that some trans women notice mood changes when they begin taking estrogen.

Mood swings can be difficult, and for some people they can feel severe.

You might sink into a hole and feel like you will never get out of it. Thankfully, you can get out of it. There are techniques and methods to power through these estrogen-initiated mood swings.

In essence, the basis of these methods is stabilization. While potent, these techniques are extremely simple to implement.    

Estrogen-based mood swings include both extreme highs and extreme lows or what are often referred to as peaks and troughs. Typically, their frequencies and magnitudes tend to be quite similar.

Thus, it might be a good idea to try and manage your mood even when you are experiencing a high, since both the ups and downs tend to be interrelated. When you learn to manage one, it can become easier to regulate the other. 

 

However, it can be quite challenging to mitigate and regulate your high moments, especially since they are often brought about by gender euphoria.

It is of utmost importance to find ways in which you can manage these peaks effectively, since highs and lows can feel closely connected.      

Therefore, once you get a hang of managing your highs, you are better equipped to handle your lows as well.

In times of low mood, managing it cognitively is more difficult because your mental resources are limited. As opposed to this, it's easier to hold it together when you're riding a high, because it's a positive feeling.

 

In theory, this sounds quite simple. However, it may seem quite vague to put into practice. This article offers some ideas that some people try; they are not guaranteed steps to control mood swings.

Pick an emotion and find yourself reaching for that positive feeling. Picture yourself climbing up towards the peak and allow joy to consume you.

While climbing upwards, try to get off the rollercoaster ride guiding your emotions and objectively watch yourself on the seat.

This way, you can gain control of the rollercoaster or the pathway evoking your emotions and thus, it may feel easier to step back from the ride when you need to. You may feel more in control at times, though mood swings cannot simply be switched off.

The control that you feel while managing your positive emotions will equip you with the confidence required to maneuver past your lowest moods.         

 

Another important thing to remember is that if you put in an excessive amount of effort to try and not feel or experience the dips in your mood swings, it becomes even harder to regulate them.

In fact, it may serve you well to accept the emotion that emerges and address it instead.

Acknowledge its existence and attempt to overpower it a little later, instead of avoiding it altogether. In fact, listen to the part of you that feels low, because it has a voice.

It most likely sounds like your inner child. Hear it out and shower it with love and attention until it is pacified. Accepting all parts of yourself may help some people feel steadier, though it does not guarantee mood regulation. 

We hope this article has helped you understand how you can regulate your estrogen-induced mood swings. Good luck!!

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