I’m an enby and soon to start HRT.
I just had a strange conversation with a friend is saying that estrogen is messing up their dopamine levels.
They said on the pills, they felt ok, but the dose was too low. And then switching to weekly injections, they get a high for 4 days and then they have like a depressive crash on the last 3 days.
It’s started a little bit of a spiral for me as god knows I’ve struggled with brain chemicals all my life. From drepression to anxiety and back and forth, but I’ve been doing much better the past year.
And so I’m kind of freaking out that estrogen will make me spin out.
Has anyone else had issues like this with the injections. I know its very subjective what people feel.
Sounds like your friend is making assumptions about the correlation between their mental/emotional state and dopamine levels. It’s a superficially reasonable assumption, but given the interplay between hormones and brain chemistry it’s seems possible to me that dopamine levels simply have nothing to do with it and the issue is wholly to do with hormones.
I would be interested in reading any studies that support what your friend is saying. But minus evidence I have to think that your friend is l drawing incorrect conclusions about what would cause the phenomenon they’re experiencing.
You may well be right. People do like to do a bit of armchair neuroscience now and then. I suppose im not too bothered on whether it’s due to dopamine or something else. Just the mood swings are a concern for fear.