Does a Low Dose of Feminizing HRT REALLY WORK?

Dr. Z shares her professional opinion from years of working with transgender adults on whether low-dose or monotherapy of feminizing hormones can actually be helpful—a question she gets asked frequently.

When people think about low-dose feminizing hormones, they're usually not thinking about getting a lot of physical changes. In Dr. Z's experience, clients considering low-dose are individuals not ready for physical changes, don't want noticeable changes others might see, or don't want so much estrogen that it affects sex drive or ability to maintain erections.

So what's the point then? One of the biggest benefits Dr. Z has observed is for individuals with severe or moderate gender dysphoria causing psychological distress—it occupies huge portions of their head space, they can't focus or concentrate on other life aspects. Low-dose feminizing therapy can take dysphoria a notch down, allowing them to start focusing on other parts of life.

Other reasons people go on low-dose include quieting dysphoria enough to figure out what they really want to do about their gender, experiencing whether feminizing hormones are right for them, or when they have severe dysphoria but don't think transition is worth it. For some individuals, it doesn't work at all, and people don't know until they work with a medical provider and give it a trial.

Watch this video as Dr. Z answers whether low-dose feminizing hormones actually work, why it's not placebo effect, and how hormones work differently for everyone.