was having my ass kicked by covid yesterday, legit felt worse than i did without a vaccine (back in like november of 2020 i think when vaxes werent out yet). had maybe 3 days of symptoms up till then. cue my shock when i go to sleep for 14 hours and wake up feeling awesome. as day goes on im still not 100% but i feel way better. maybe in another 4-7 days i'll be at 100%.

shit dragged on forever on my first run with covid. so my impression is that the vaccine, at least for me, drastically reduced the length of covid but not the severity of it

nowhere else to post this so im doing it here

  • kristina [she/her]
    hexagon
    ·
    edit-2
    3 years ago

    also i hate that covid fucks up my hormones :sadness-abysmal: thank you dysphoria virus very cool

    fun fact in the past i actually measured my dysphoria with my doc at one point out of curiosity. whenever my estrogen levels dropped below something like 120 (cant remember unit of measurement) estrogen a dysphoria switch would just flip on in my brain and id go insane for a day or so. also learned that my skin hardens at that point as well, as well as a couple of other signs (can feel pain a bit easier or very slight facial changes). legit thought i was just imagining things until i did like 7 blood tests that always confirmed increased dysphoric feelings at sub 120 estrogen, even when the other symptoms werent there.

      • kristina [she/her]
        hexagon
        ·
        edit-2
        3 years ago

        yeah really fucks mine up hardcore, apparently it can do it to cis people too cause its known to affect the thyroid. talked to my doc about it

        thank you for the random boners covid very cool :screm-a:

      • kristina [she/her]
        hexagon
        ·
        3 years ago

        no clue, i just know men tend to have rougher/harder skin and women have softer. first effect of hrt for me was softening of the skin

          • VernetheJules [they/them]
            ·
            3 years ago

            My skin softness changed so fast on HRT that's basically what I use as an indicator lol. Within like two days there's a tactile difference on my arms depending on if I take my E orally vs. sublingually

            • kristina [she/her]
              hexagon
              ·
              edit-2
              3 years ago

              god i remember my first month of hrt. my body reacted to it so quickly that it legit felt like my nips were being touched with hot prongs for like 6 months. had really gross dead skin on them that i didnt dare scrub off cause it was so painful. :kombucha-disgust: went from flat chest to b cup in 3 months

              i had to buy this like silk bralette cause silk was the only thing that wouldnt make me wanna jump off a bridge lmao. showers were impossible, and i had to do a weird fucking crab dance to keep my boobs out of a bath so they didnt hurt

              worth

              • BolsheWitch [she/her, they/them]
                ·
                edit-2
                3 years ago

                Umm hi I just hatched and am still figuring all this out. How did you get HRT to kick off that fast? I'm trying to do research on all this so I can start HRT.

                Also reading your comment gave me a nice gender euphoria hit, so thanks.

                :trans-heart:

                • kristina [she/her]
                  hexagon
                  ·
                  edit-2
                  3 years ago

                  hey, so i usually just absorb drugs real fast. like one shot gets me drunk or like weed in liquid form you keep under your tongue is said to take 4 hours to properly absorb but i do it in 1

                  when i first started hrt i took spironolactone 100mg and 4mg estradiol sublingual which is pretty standard

                  • BolsheWitch [she/her, they/them]
                    ·
                    3 years ago

                    Okay thanks! Fingers crossed then! Was spiro gnarly to get used to? I'm kind of nervous about how much it supposedly makes you pee because I'm already on some meds that do that. 😓

                    • kristina [she/her]
                      hexagon
                      ·
                      3 years ago

                      i was on some other diuretics and it made me pee a little bit more but it wasnt super noticeable. just gotta stay hydrated and eat sodium

                      i had some complications with spiro later but ive got a weird body so youll probably be fine xD

            • BolsheWitch [she/her, they/them]
              ·
              edit-2
              3 years ago

              Which one works better for you? I'm trying to figure out HRT and there's so much info it's kinda overwhelming.

              • VernetheJules [they/them]
                ·
                3 years ago

                I'm on a fairly low dose, 2mg E 50mg Spiro. So to make up for that I tried sublingual E after like 3 weeks to see if it made a difference in the right direction and it did! About a month later I started feeling breast growth.

                  • VernetheJules [they/them]
                    ·
                    3 years ago

                    Yeah, 1mg E twice a day sublingual and 25mg Spiro twice a day orally.

                    Obviously everyone is different. But just take stock of the changes that do happen quickly and I think you can use those as a rough estimate of how well the dose is working.

                    A lot of people move to higher doses over time, but I'm probably going to stick with this for now since I've had minimal mood swings and haven't even noticed the diuretic effects of Spiro. It kind of caught me off guard but I had to remember there's probably lots of trans people who don't post about how their HRT is going just fine with no complaints...

          • kristina [she/her]
            hexagon
            ·
            3 years ago

            it can be a fat thing too, but hormones also effect it. like the underside of my thighs feel softer than my fingers for example