[TaylorAlexander]

I just started taking finasteride and it seems it has negatively impacted my arousal patterns. I am also transgender and taking estrogen (but no t-blockers, hence the finasteride) but I did not make any other med changes for a year when I started finasteride so the correlation feels pretty clear. I would rather not be taking it!

[tidenly]

I thought after you take estrogen long enough you don't have to take t blockers or fin anyway? Once your body see's you have enough sex hormone doesn't it naturally stop T, even if the hormone is estrogen? (Sorry for the stupid question)

[TaylorAlexander]

If you take a high enough dose of estrogen, generally referred to as estrogen mono therapy, it will knock down your T levels. But high estrogen levels have some risks as well, and different doctors have different preferred approaches. My doctor is willing to do estrogen monotherapy, but I would have to switch from oral pills to injections as the higher dosages taken orally would be hard on the kidneys. Before switching to injections, I just wanted to see how finasteride worked for me. It is okay, but not perfect.

It is hard to tell if what I am experiencing is a side effect of the finasteride unrelated to my T levels, or it is due to some reduction in the effects of testosterone because of the mechanism of action of the finasteride. If it is the latter, switching to injections and doing monotherapy to lower my T could have the same effects. The fact of the matter is the penis functions better with testosterone in my system but testosterone also leads to hair loss, so trying to get both is somewhat of an imperfect balancing act.

But hey, I'm having the best sex of my life and the people I am attracted to think I am hot as hell so I don't mind a little experimentation to see what works best! Actually its super cool what we can do with a little hormonal alchemy.

[seethedeaduu]

"High" E dosages enough to knock down your T are not that high at all. Also fin won't reduce your T, it might actually increase it, and by using fin instead of duta you still produce dht. Chances are you are still irreversiblly masculinizing if you are on a low dosage of E (including oral). Please consider an actual T blocker, and consider a suitable medication to help with erections.

[TaylorAlexander]

Im not on a low dose, I take 8mg oral estradiol per day. It’s just not a particularly high dose, just the highest my doctor is comfortable giving someone orally. I don’t care about the testosterone in my system I only want to stop hair loss (I’m very genderfucked non-binary). It was my doctor from the UCSF Transgender Care center that suggested finasteride may have effects similar to that of reducing T (specifically a more estrogen dominant arousal style). I’m already on cialis and previously I’d take 5mg a day normally and 10mg on days where I would have sex, which is a pretty high dose. On finasteride I’ve noticed reduced erection performance even with 15mg cialis which is the most I want to take in a day (20mg is the maximum recommended daily dose).

Also I’m 39, so whatever masculinization I’m due for I suspect has all happened already.

[nyanpasu64]

Alternatively it might be worth trying sublingual, turning pills into stickies for extended-release direct absorption (https://stickies.neocities.org/stickies though I suspect the author dosed low), or switching/supplementing with other routes of administration (you mentioned injections).

[seethedeaduu]

> 8mg oral estradiol per day

You are never going to supress T with just oral E.

> Also I’m 39, so whatever masculinization I’m due for I suspect has all happened already.

It never ends.

If you feel like finasteride isn't helping much try dutasteride instead.

[ImHereToVote]

I wonder what the cancer rates are for people mixing up hormones like that?

[TaylorAlexander]

I think estrogen increases my risk of breast cancer to that of a cis woman, but decreases some chances of testosterone related cancers. I really don't know much about this, but in general it seemed like I did not particularly have increased risks.

[ImHereToVote]

I hope it turns out well for you.