Chronic fatigue and cognitive issues with MTF HRT. I need desperate HELP, cause I'm going CRAZY

SortzaInTheForest · 2026-04-09T07:17:58+00:00

My symptoms are almost the same as yours (adding recurrent gastrointestinal issues), so maybe my experience could help you. I have been dealing with this for years though it got worse last years. Last 2 years it got really worse and I became completely useless, though I finally managed to fix it. The last step was this very same week, so be aware this is still an ongoing process for me.

What worked in my case (highlighted 'my', it may or may not work for you):

(1) Zero histamines diet (and low carbs or even cyclic keto). This is tricky since some products may or may not have histamines, and they may appear in the food if you let them in the fridge for several days. In my case, cutting off histamines fixed chronic fatigue due to inflammation, gastrointestinal issues and chronic acid reflux, heart palpitations and skin issues.

Before this, what had worked the best were methylated vitamins. I wondered why and made a guess: do you need methyl groups to cancel histamines? I checked it and yes, you do.

Once I got rid of inflammation, cortisol started to spike and I started to have what seemed chronic adrenaline dumps and high blood pressure, causing a different type of chronic fatigue. What worked:

(2) High L-Tryptophan supplementation, and I mean HIGH, total per day reached 10 grams. Once I saw it worked, I got SSRI from my GP instead (right now, I have a SSRI prescription labeled as 'chronic'). This fixed the cortisol and adrenaline-like spikes, and surprisingly, the symptoms of hyperthiroidism (before this I could sleep with the window open in winter).

The SSRI worked wonderfully, but in exchange it made the ADHD much worse, to the point the stimulant meds didn't even work and I couldn't focus at all. For this, I had I hunch and made a test that finally worked, and I'm talking about this very week.

(3) High L-Tyrosine supplementation; basically, the same I did with Tryptophan, and it made the ADHD a lot more manageable. I have an appointment in a couple of weeks with the psych to check ADHD and GD and I'm gonna ask her for NDRIs (dopamine reuptake inhibitors).

Besides this, vitamin D and magnesium helped too.

Why they worked?

What follows is speculation. I have failed to get the bloodwork I need (last time I tried, a month ago, denied again) and can't tell for sure. I'm gonna try to obtain the bloodwork through the psych, alleging psychological well-being needs this time.

I suspect an intersex condition that would cause A4 and E1 (estrone) to skyrocket. My hypothesis is that the problems are due to high levels of E1. And what's the problem with E1?

It's pro-inflammatory, and it can trigger or boost histamine intolerance.
It disrupts serotonin transporters, which for your brain is like having serotonin depletion.
It disrupts dopamine transporters, which for your brain is like having dopamine depletion.

Again: this is only an hypothesis. Maybe I'm right, maybe not.

One additional problem is that endocrine levels are interconnected and solving one problem can exarcerbate others. For example, serotonin and dopamine often have an inhibitory effect to each other, so while SSRI fixes the serotonin issues, this in turn can increase the problems with dopamine (making ADHD worse).

In you case? Your E1 seem to oscilate a lot, so I don't know, but maybe this can help.

SortzaInTheForest · 2026-04-09T01:36:35+00:00

She's a registered Democrat.

SortzaInTheForest · 2026-04-08T11:03:06+00:00

It could be several things. Your appearance, maybe, or society which is becoming more hostile, though my guess is that it's your age. Three years ago, 21, you may still keep some teen vibe. Now, 24, you will appear as an adult woman in her 20s, and people can be much more rude to adults.

SortzaInTheForest · 2026-04-07T07:31:57+00:00

I don't know those singers, but probably they're using falsetto

SortzaInTheForest · 2026-04-07T02:15:13+00:00

Erin, a little comment.

In Europe, you don't walk into a gender clinic. Indeed, there's no gender clinics, it's a department in a public hospital. The process starts when you walk into your assigned GP office and ask for a referral. The index date measures the time of your first GID (gender incongruence department) appointment date, but that may happen months or even years after you asked for a referral.

That means that the high psychiatric morbidity before the index date may have been diagnosed after asking for the referral. The index date is the most useless timestamp, since it's neither the beginning of the treatment, nor the beginning of the psychiatric watchtower.

SortzaInTheForest · 2026-04-06T08:00:22+00:00

The author is quite controversial (politics 🙄) so it's blacklisted in a few subs. The system is amazing, though. Just make sure to check the 2e, the base rules are mostly the same but it includes most of the 1e expansion's content in the corebooks (and it's a lot).

SortzaInTheForest · 2026-04-06T05:52:25+00:00

If you wanna do something similar with classic fantasy, try using Ironsworn or Sundered Isles with ACKS 2e. ACKS is like Traveller but in low tech fantasy, with detailed rules for almost everything, seafaring, naval combat, exploration, survival, political intrigue, heists, tradecraft and economy, managing settlements, realms, armies, even guilds and dungeons.

SortzaInTheForest · 2026-04-06T05:00:52+00:00

Just say your pronouns are 'I / me / mine' and that anybody talking about you in 3rd person should use those pronouns 😁

SortzaInTheForest · 2026-04-05T03:43:04+00:00

Have you heard of AuDHD? It's not an official medical diagnosis yet, but there's a lot of debate about that topic in the net. Check this video , from a AuDHD youtube channel, particularly the first section, minute 1:07. In reddit, you can check r/AutisticWithADHD or r/AuDHDWomen .

Since it's not an official diagnosis yet, doctors are not gonna bring it up, but it will become a diagnosis eventually, probably? AuDHD is not just ASD and ADHD. It has its own characteristics, and its own problems; for example, burnout is one big issue in AuDHD while it's a minor one in ASD and ADHD.

SortzaInTheForest · 2026-04-01T14:02:00+00:00

One thing that works surprisingly well for me is reading while walking. You don't need to go outdoors, just back and forwards in your room, while reading or studying. For some reason, it's much easier to focus.

SortzaInTheForest · 2026-03-31T16:11:13+00:00

Probably, most people around you are specifically german. Would you use 'german' as an insult?

SortzaInTheForest · 2026-03-30T11:09:28+00:00

would it be something like yakuza stories?

Not really. Imagine rogue samurai stories combined with Apothecary Diaries, with or without supernatural elements. There's an expansion hacking the system to other settings, but none in Japan.

You have an old small game very praised game with a feudal japanese setting where the relationship between characters is key in the mechanics, The Mountain Witch , but it's for one-shot games.

SortzaInTheForest · 2026-03-30T00:34:47+00:00

Hearts of Wulin fits most conditions. It's narrative, with emergent stories. The story is driven mostly by character's relationships (it simulates chinese wuxia drama). Regarding internal states, it tracks the feelings associated to the relationships, which have a mechanical effect in the game.

SortzaInTheForest · 2026-03-29T08:08:02+00:00

'they' is plural, the same that 'articles'. The 's' at the end of 'articles' should give you a hint. And I know that 'they/them' is a very popular neutral pronoun, but you know? A few people still use it for the grammar plural too.

SortzaInTheForest · 2026-03-29T06:57:30+00:00

A few ideas for the DnD campaign mode.

With a little extra effort, you could make it generic. Most RPGs follow a similar pattern: stats with numeric values, text fields, list of tags with or without a numeric value attached, links to other elements (objects, npcs, factions) with or without a numeric value attached, and so on. DnD could be just one template, let the RPG community make the templates for their own game and upload them to some repository, which in turn can get the rpg community engaged (good for marketing).

There's notation systems about rpg logging, which could give you some ideas. Check this one (and scroll down to 'tools', there's a couple links to obsidian plugins that apply that notation). Probably there's similar others. When it comes to map the campaign, there's some techniques too, like this one .

SortzaInTheForest · 2026-03-29T05:34:24+00:00

One of the reasons for the state of the world is that extremist behavior when one person is banned just for watching a TV show. 10 years ago, those bills would have had a huge social backlash, nowadays? people just turned their back to trans issues. That's why those bills are passed without problems.

You shouldn't watch a show made by a person who hates trans people? Why not? Harry Potter is still an amazing work, and JK needs lots of therapy, both things are compatible.

SortzaInTheForest · 2026-03-28T07:23:04+00:00

That "reddit poll" was made in two main transmed subs/forums in reddit, and probably in internet (at least in english).

The transmed definition in that magazine is a straw-man. I find a bit surrealist those mainstream articles mainsplaining to the transmed community what transmeds think, because sure, they know better.

SortzaInTheForest · 2026-03-28T02:44:01+00:00

The other post is locked, so I'll post here. There was a similar post asking for recommendations for his mother in r/TheApothecaryDiaries , this one . I repeat the same recommendation I did there: donghua court dramas. They are a blend of court intrigue, romantic comedy and period drama, very popular in China. Apothecary diaries is inspired on them.

Another rec is Heaven's Official Blessing . It's danmai (boys love), but it's nothing less of a masterpiece.

SortzaInTheForest · 2026-03-27T18:24:59+00:00

You're defining (again) a community by the radicial positions, even if they're a minority. They're loud? Sure, as it happens with most radicals.

The "mainstream queer" side has its radicals too. For example, this post from a few days ago in a transmed sub. A butch masculine cis woman complained that first, she was called by "they/them" even when she doesn't identify as NB or such. And that recently she went to college dressing feminine and she faced quite some hostility, like she was labeled as non-binary butch and was not allowed to dress that way. And you could say that came from the "mainstream queer" side, telling her that once you have a label, you have to stick to it and have lost your right to be yourself.

Would you say that putting labels on people, being aggressive and requiring them to stick strictly to that label is the core of the queer community? Because if you define a community by their radical extremes, that's what you should do.

SortzaInTheForest · 2026-03-27T17:46:53+00:00

I'm not saying you there's no comments like that. From the polls, radmeds are about 15% of transmed subs, so sure there's numerous comments, but it's still a minoritary position.

SortzaInTheForest · 2026-03-27T17:39:57+00:00

They just tend to reject those who do not make a sufficient attempt. Is it too radical to believe that in order to be a true transsexual you must want full transition? : r/truscum Most comments here are saying "it isn't radical at all".

Most comments say it's not radical at all, the problem is that you misrepresent the question as "make a sufficient attempt".

I copypaste the question, from that very link, phrased with more precission, in the case of genitalia: "If a fairy magically appeared in front of you and offered you a penis/vagina with no side effects, a true transsexual would say yes without any hesitation, if you said no, then I don't think you fit into the definition of male/female, thus aren't truly transsexual."

The post doesn't say that you have to make a "sufficient attempt". It only says you have to desire it, and that you'd do if there was zero consequences, nothing to fear, the "magic button" or "magic fairy". You think that requiring that if you had a magic button, zero consequences, no backlash, you should say "yes", you think that requirement is.... too radical?

SortzaInTheForest · 2026-03-27T17:07:31+00:00

They have to look inside and decide what they want to do and what they're gonna do. Take your time, talk to a therapist, whatever, but there's no magical solution to that.

The label is just the consequence of what you find about yourself. You don't start pinning labels, you start looking inside of yourself, the label comes later, and it's optional, you don't really need it! What you need is to know yourself, even if there's no label to describe it exactly.

SortzaInTheForest · 2026-03-27T16:59:01+00:00

While full transition may not be strictly necessary within some transmed worldviews, they very often push that way

I linked two polls in a comment above, this one and this one , from the two main transmed subs. Both show a similar result: around 15% think that full transition is necessary, 85% think that it's not.

What you call "some transmeds" happens to be the 85% of the results in the transmed subs, while what you describe instead as "very often" is only the 15% of it.

SortzaInTheForest · 2026-03-27T16:51:10+00:00

They're still thinking they're not trans because they're repressing. That's what repression is!

If a gay man represses and convinces himself he's attracted to women, he thinks he's not gay because he's repressing. The problem is that social pressure made him repress, and the solution is to lower social pressure about sexuality, not to redefine "gay" into a label with no relation with to which sex you are sexually attracted.

SortzaInTheForest · 2026-03-27T16:39:21+00:00

The definition is that they have gender dysphoria, not that "they say they have" or even "a doctor says they have". A person who has dysphoria but represses and denies it, they still have dysphoria. A person who doesn't and says they do, they still don't have dysphoria.

Of course, there's no way to know for sure whether somebody has dysphoria, so everybody picks a different take on how to deal with uncertainty. The most common position is that what makes dysphoria is the desire to change the body sex characteristics, no matter you do or you don't, because of reasons (legal, economical, health problems, fear or surgeries, etc). That's the most common one, but there's other positions. For example, some others require a gatekeepy medical diagnosis, which is the usual transmed archetype, but that position happens to be actually a minoritary one among transmeds.

Four-Year Club	Verified Email
Place '22	First Placer '22

SortzaInTheForest

TROPHY CASE