Natural Transitioning: anyone have any experience with this?

Contributor: hatman hatman
Ok, so we've all seen the posts on tumblr about it
but does anyone here have some actual experience with this?

Any good results?
Any complications?
Do you recommend it?
06/15/2012
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Contributor: thisisadeletedaccount thisisadeletedaccount
I don't have any direct experience, but one of my friends has been taking zinc supplements for a while and definitely has more facial/body hair as a result. It's not over-the-top dramatic, but it makes a difference. I also haven't heard about any side effects in particular from taking large zinc supplements, but it'd be good to check in about that.
06/18/2012
Contributor: TransMarc TransMarc
It seems there are lots of way to transition naturally, but when I searched about it I found that: link
And it made me wary of the kind described in the article. However I remember a trans guy on Blogger who "transitioned" by eating way more proteins and catalogued his changes (he got more muscular, etc.) I don't remember if he was taking anything with it and it won't be accessible to you if you're vegan/vegetarian unless you take supplements and eat lots of lentils and all. I won't call it a transition, because the dysphoria inducing parts are still there, but it sure might help to pass to be more muscular.
06/18/2012
Contributor: britanny0620 britanny0620
I'd never even heard about it until I saw this question. Thanks hatman for posting and everyone else for answering
06/18/2012
Contributor: Andrew1992 Andrew1992
I'm doing some things along those lines now. I'm taking DHEA, ZMA and tribulus, and exercising and eating right. I've definitely seen changes; just genital growth, mild facial hair, acne etc. I'm only doing it while I wait to start T, but it definitely isn't a bad idea in my opinion.
06/18/2012
Contributor: einad einad
i'm kind of new to this...what does "natural" transitioning mean?
06/30/2012
Contributor: butts butts
I did a high-T diet (ate things that encouraged T production and discouraged E) for a few months while I wasn't on HRT and definitely noticed a difference. Most noticeably my sex drive was heightened, but I don't think I was on it long enough to cause any extra hair growth/clit growth/etc. You can definitely FEEL it when you've got more T in your body, but I wasn't doing anything hardcore. There's a good website about this called link, the owner of the site is naturally transitioning and last I checked, had a lot of good information on supplements and diet changes for increased T.
07/01/2012
Contributor: sodapin sodapin
Quote:
Originally posted by hatman
Ok, so we've all seen the posts on tumblr about it
but does anyone here have some actual experience with this?

Any good results?
Any complications?
Do you recommend it?
I'm going to play devil's advocate here and question what the perceived benefits over "natural" transitioning is over "synthetic" transitioning is? From my understanding, pharmaceutical T can come in bio-identical forms, hence the body can't distinguish whether the introduced T is "synthetic" or "naturally" made from the body itself. From my very very basic understanding (please correct me if I'm wrong), I prefer the pharmaceutical route anyway for a variety of reasons:

1.) I live in Canada where DHEA is illegal.
2.) Excess intake of vitamins is usually excreted and the usefulness of some vitamins has been questioned and even regarded as harmful (link)
3.) A lot of "natural remedies" (not including commonly found foods) aren't screened, whereas pharmaceutical drugs are tested often so there MAY be an issue with safety and/or dose quantity from some natural sources.
4.) "Synthetic" T is actually often derived from sources such as soybeans and yams so they're not some crazy chemistry experiment in vial lol as some people tend to believe when they see the word "synthetic".

Anyway, just providing food for thought and I don't doubt the claims concerning people's positive experiences through natural transitioning. However, I'm somewhat confused as to the rationale and therefore am providing an opposing viewpoint to hopefully gather more info. Thanks!

If nothing else, please read this guide as it explains the whole "natural" vs. "synthetic" thing: link
07/02/2012
Contributor: sodapin sodapin
Quote:
Originally posted by TransMarc
It seems there are lots of way to transition naturally, but when I searched about it I found that: link
And it made me wary of the kind described in the article. However I remember a trans guy on Blogger who "transitioned" by eating way ... more
Lol I just read that link and it's definitely a good read for someone considering the natural transitioning route described by Tristan Skye. I'm already cautious of that guy because he's scammed a bunch of guys out of money promising them STPs and then just flat out disappeared on them....The list of supplements provided from that link is astounding as well.
07/02/2012
Contributor: quantumspork quantumspork
I believe I'm the friend beatingthebinary was talking about who was taking zinc—it definitely gave me a good deal more hair, and also made my voice drop a few tones, but I stopped because it was giving me nausea. I've had problems with stress-related nausea in the past, though, so I'd still recommend it to anyone with a strong stomach.
07/03/2012
Contributor: thisisadeletedaccount thisisadeletedaccount
Quote:
Originally posted by quantumspork
I believe I'm the friend beatingthebinary was talking about who was taking zinc—it definitely gave me a good deal more hair, and also made my voice drop a few tones, but I stopped because it was giving me nausea. I've had problems with ... more
Yep, you were the one I was referring to - I'm sorry to hear it made you nauseous. =(
07/10/2012
Contributor: FindingJames FindingJames
I started the Zinc think a little while ago. I haven't noticed much changes yet, but I should soon. (I hope).
07/11/2012
Contributor: pestilence pestilence
I haven't found a lot of conclusive information about natural transitioning (other than that the supplements DHEA & tribulus generally aren't worth using), and when I have the time and energy I try to learn more, but it's extremely frustrating trying to verify claims I find on random sites and separating truth from fiction. I'm on testosterone right now but don't expect to be on it forever, and I'd love to know whether certain diet/exercise decisions make real differences so I'd know if I should start making a habit of them now.
07/20/2012
Contributor: sodapin sodapin
Quote:
Originally posted by pestilence
I haven't found a lot of conclusive information about natural transitioning (other than that the supplements DHEA & tribulus generally aren't worth using), and when I have the time and energy I try to learn more, but it's extremely ... more
I was reading articles on bodybuilding sites and they've collected a bunch of scientific papers that conclude that the testosterone boost that comes with weightlifting is only minimal in female-bodied persons, but is a significant boost in male-bodied persons :S so I'm unsure how this would work in persons who are taking T, but otherwise have "female-bodies".

I looked up more stuff on my own and there was a 7 week study conducted on high school aged female runners and there was a significant increase in testosterone, DHEA, DHEAS, leptin, and cortisol when comparing from week 1 to week 7. So it may be the TYPE of exercise you take part in that produces more T.

Getting rid of body fat is a sure-fire way to lower your E levels and perhaps increase T levels because adipose tissue (body fat) is a huge producer of E and also a site of aromatization (the process by which testosterone is converted into estrogen).

Other than that, it's really hard to say what's the "best" route here :O. I can get you the links for the article if you'd like, just let me know . And also, may I ask why you may stop testosterone in the future? I feel like I might be missing something because a lot of guys have said the same thing.
07/20/2012
Contributor: pestilence pestilence
Quote:
Originally posted by sodapin
I was reading articles on bodybuilding sites and they've collected a bunch of scientific papers that conclude that the testosterone boost that comes with weightlifting is only minimal in female-bodied persons, but is a significant boost in ... more
Thank you so much for all this info! I'd love to see the links if you could post them, thank you. I really hope more follow-up studies are done on these sort of things, though I guess for now I just have to wait.

For me personally, I just don't like the idea of being dependent on the medical system all my life if I don't have to be. I plan on traveling a lot, and that would make getting hormones complicated, plus I always have irrational paranoia about what I would do if civilization collapsed. Because of this, I'm a huge fan of either items that last near-permanently (like Diva cups and solar-powered flashlights) or habits that don't depend on many outside resources. Obviously this isn't a sentiment shared with many others - many of the trans* people I know are simply non-binary and don't want all of the masculinizing effects of testosterone, and I suspect there's others who simply can't afford to stay on it forever.
07/21/2012
Contributor: Boyqueen Boyqueen
I don't have any personal experiences, but I have a friend who has been naturally transitioning for about 8 months due to him being unable to access testosterone at this time. But if you compare him now compared to 8 months ago there are very visible changes. His face shape, voice, facial and body hair growth, and libido have all experienced notable changes. The libido one being one that he's talked about, not one that I would know myself. They are super drastic but they've definitely increased how much he "passes".
07/22/2012
Contributor: sodapin sodapin
Quote:
Originally posted by pestilence
Thank you so much for all this info! I'd love to see the links if you could post them, thank you. I really hope more follow-up studies are done on these sort of things, though I guess for now I just have to wait.

For me personally, I just ... more
I'll just PM you the links and such because I feel like I might be getting a bit too off topic for the thread now D:.

You make a good point about "what if I don't have access to hormones one day?"; I hadn't actually thought about that.
07/22/2012