[Isabelle]

Transsexuals like Beverley and Chrissie have a clear goal in mind. Beverley commented that that alone prevents excesses and accidents. I have clear goals too. Expressed in hormones and symptoms, they look like this:

What I want is:

1. Low insulin, to slim my waist to a Waist Hip Ratio (WHR) of 0.7.
2. Cortisol low too, to slim my waist, and just high enough to clear skin inflammation.
3. TSH, T3 and T4 high enough to lose weight to a Body Mass Index (BMI) of 23.
4. Estrogen high enough to grow breasts and fill my wrinkles and prevent osteoporosis. I continue to work on separating these goals out for estradiol, estriol (pregnancy), and estrone (post-menopausal).
5. Progesterone just high enough to balance the estrogen (no headaches) and to make the cortisol. At times, I want it high enough to experiment with female libido.
6. Testosterone high enough to build muscles in the areas that I work out (butt, legs).
7. DHT low enough to prevent hair loss and breakouts. High enough to prevent depression and osteoporosis, and to be capable of coping with stress. At times, high enough for male libido.
8. Prolactin low enough to prevent loss of libido. At times high enough for swelling. Note that there is a contradiction here: I can't have maximum swelling and good libido together, unless the swelling lasts long enough.
9. SHBG low enough to have enough free testosterone for libido, and for making estrogens out of it.

Since all of the above limits are symptoms of hormone excess or deficiency or imbalance, I need no analytical chemical hormone determinations. I steer on the symptoms.

Check this list carefully for yourself: I'm sure your goals are different. Where you are now and where you want to go will eventually determine the program you need.