# Would testosterone injections affect the psychology of an 18yr old girl? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 8, 2017, 11:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-testosterone-injections-affect-the-psychology-of-an-18yr-old-girl/779314 "2017-02-08T11:19:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![femmejean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/0ea827/32.png) [@femmejean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/femmejean)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2017, 11:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-testosterone-injections-affect-the-psychology-of-an-18yr-old-girl/779314/1 "2017-02-08T11:19:36Z")
Don’t need an answer fast and I believe this should stay in GQ as opposed to GD since I would prefer a discussion about sex hormones. Just a hypothetical scenario. I know sex hormones are given to transgender people who want to transition. However, those usually involve AFAIK in MtF performing an orchiectomy and then mimicking average levels of testosterone and oestrogen in women. But if it’s where a girl was taking testosterone to mimic the same levels as the average man and not an excess to body build, there would be physical effects and some _disputed_ psychological effects. However, how noticeable would these be? ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2017, 11:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-testosterone-injections-affect-the-psychology-of-an-18yr-old-girl/779314/2 "2017-02-08T11:46:32Z")
Yes it would. I expect **Una** will have much better data than me, but in general, taking testosterone will make someone more agressive and more likely to have a narrower focus (which isn’t a criticism, for some things a narrower focus happens to be better). The general effects are similar whether the person taking testosterone is male, female, other, 18yo, 81yo or in between. And the hormonal treatment starts way before any surgery. You wouldn’t begin MtF with that surgery which some people even choose not to have. ---
**Author:** ![femmejean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/0ea827/32.png) [@femmejean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/femmejean)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2017, 12:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-testosterone-injections-affect-the-psychology-of-an-18yr-old-girl/779314/3 "2017-02-08T12:18:55Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > Yes it would. > > I expect **Una** will have much better data than me, but in general, taking testosterone will make someone more aggressive and more likely to have a narrower focus (which isn’t a criticism, for some things a narrower focus happens to be better). The general effects are similar whether the person taking testosterone is male, female, other, 18yo, 81yo or in between. > > And the hormonal treatment starts way before any surgery. You wouldn’t begin MtF with that surgery which some people even choose not to have. Hmm… how much of aggression in males is due to socialization from parents, classmates, teachers, media along with biology? We can’t take away the biological component but society plays a large role. I assume there are various types of aggression. In what ways might they be expressed? ---
**Author:** ![guitario](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/3d9bf3/32.png) [@guitario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guitario)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2017, 12:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-testosterone-injections-affect-the-psychology-of-an-18yr-old-girl/779314/4 "2017-02-08T12:30:52Z")
Due to popular culture, many people fall into the ‘roid rage’ myth and assume that supplementing with testosterone creates aggressive behaviour. The ‘aggression’ isn’t that at all, it’s more to do with intensity and being able to focus more on the task at hand. Long term use may change a female brain physiologically, but it will be in developing more ‘male’ traits… not creating outward signs of aggression. Another way to think about it - alcohol generally doesn’t make people violent, although there are a small percentage of people who become so when drunk… but they have that in them when sober, just it’s not as prevalent. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2017, 12:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-testosterone-injections-affect-the-psychology-of-an-18yr-old-girl/779314/5 "2017-02-08T12:33:11Z")
There have been studies in women showing that those who have naturally more testosterone than other women (all naturally occurring levels, I hasten to add) tend to be more assertive, more competitive, and more outgoing than their peers with less testosterone. “Aggression” isn’t always expressed in fighting, it can be intellectual competitiveness, drive to succeed, and so forth. > [@femmejean](#): > > I know sex hormones are given to transgender people who want to transition. However, those usually involve AFAIK in MtF performing an orchiectomy and then mimicking average levels of testosterone and oestrogen in women. For FtM they give male hormones to mimic the levels in the average man. I don’t know why you’d think they wouldn’t do it that way. ---
**Author:** ![femmejean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/0ea827/32.png) [@femmejean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/femmejean)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2017, 12:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-testosterone-injections-affect-the-psychology-of-an-18yr-old-girl/779314/6 "2017-02-08T12:57:19Z")
> [@guitario](#): > > Due to popular culture, many people fall into the ‘roid rage’ myth and assume that supplementing with testosterone creates aggressive behaviour. The ‘aggression’ isn’t that at all, it’s more to do with intensity and being able to focus more on the task at hand. > > Long term use may change a female brain physiologically, but it will be in developing more ‘male’ traits… not creating outward signs of aggression. > > Another way to think about it - alcohol generally doesn’t make people violent, although there are a small percentage of people who become so when drunk… but they have that in them when sober, just it’s not as prevalent. So taking a guess, does this mean that it’s quite rare to find a young man could have an inherently ‘feminine’ personality? Not the ‘gay camp’ myth where a man is into fashion, gossiping or being girly (high pitched voice) etc but being more nurturing with friends, no physical/verbal aggression towards others, being friendly? ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2017, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-testosterone-injections-affect-the-psychology-of-an-18yr-old-girl/779314/7 "2017-02-08T16:35:01Z")
> [@femmejean](#): > > So taking a guess, does this mean that it’s quite rare to find a young man could have an inherently ‘feminine’ personality? Not the ‘gay camp’ myth where a man is into fashion, gossiping or being girly (high pitched voice) etc but being more nurturing with friends, no physical/verbal aggression towards others, being friendly? Not really, because a person acclimates somewhat to their own hormonal norm. What you have in real life is two populations (male and female) with a real difference in the average behavior of those two populations but also a huge spread within EACH population and a lot of overlap. Thus you have some female people with very masculine personality behavior nuances tastes priorities and so forth, and some male people with very feminine sets of those characteristics — they’re just the exceptions to the general rule. I should say “we” not “they”, since I am one of them. When you take a female person who has been accustomed to the androgen levels supplied by her adrenal glands and boost her androgen hormones to the level typical of males, yes I would anticipate it would make a significant difference in how her mind works. But if she had been born male and had typically male levels of hormones throughout her life, that person might actually be quite feminine. We know that women with higher than typical levels of naturally occurring testosterone tend to display what we usually think of as male personaltiy and behavioral characteristics, but what’s interesting about that is that that same serum level in a male would be unusually low. ---
**Author:** ![Una\_Persson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/una_persson/32/346_2.png) [@Una\_Persson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Una_Persson)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2017, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-testosterone-injections-affect-the-psychology-of-an-18yr-old-girl/779314/8 "2017-02-09T04:18:09Z")
> [@femmejean](#): > > Don’t need an answer fast and I believe this should stay in GQ as opposed to GD since I would prefer a discussion about sex hormones. > > Just a hypothetical scenario. I know sex hormones are given to transgender people who want to transition. However, those usually involve AFAIK in MtF performing an orchiectomy and then mimicking average levels of testosterone and oestrogen in women. Transgender women (“M2F”) almost never take testosterone. I’ve never met or heard of one, in fact. You are thinking of transgender men (F2M), who do take lots and lots of testosterone. > [@](#): > > But if it’s where a girl was taking testosterone to mimic the same levels as the average man and not an excess to body build, there would be physical effects and some disputed psychological effects. > > However, how noticeable would these be? From my social and professional interactions with a couple hundred transgender men, I’d say there is absolutely a significant change in personality (aggressiveness, assertiveness, outgoing behavior, etc. all increase). For some young transmen there is a problem with constant fighting and anger issues. Parents, spouses, and friends often comment that the transgender man often seems like a very different and “aggressive” person. Sometimes the aggression level is only modestly greater, but I only know of a few cases where there was no significant change in behavior. Typically after a few months some sense of order and calm returns, but those first few months can be a doozy. ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2017, 5:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-testosterone-injections-affect-the-psychology-of-an-18yr-old-girl/779314/9 "2017-02-09T05:25:28Z")
> [@Una\_Persson](#): > > Typically after a few months some sense of order and calm returns, but those first few months can be a doozy. In my more limited experience, bother men and women become more extroverted after they are a little way along in transitioning, and finally feeling “whole,” sort of, and starting to feel generally accepted as the gender they experience internally. The couple of men I have known (and one was very young) became much more assertive, but not aggressive, and I perceived that as a function of their being more extroverted, not a testosterone thing. The other male I knew well (I’ve know 7 or 8 women very well, only two men very well, but some other were acquaintances, because one woman who was a really good friend introduced me to several others, and one of the men went to my synagogue), was older, but got really seriously into fitness. That could have been a function of testosterone, or it could have been a function of improved body image. Probably a little of both. ---
**Author:** ![Surreal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/eada6e/32.png) [@Surreal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Surreal)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2017, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-testosterone-injections-affect-the-psychology-of-an-18yr-old-girl/779314/10 "2017-02-09T15:55:08Z")
Here’s an excerpt from Andrew Sullivan’s NY Times article on his experience with testosterone injections: [http://www.nytimes.com/2000/04/02/magazine/the-he-hormone.html](http://www.nytimes.com/2000/04/02/magazine/the-he-hormone.html) > [@](#): > > At that point I weighed around 165 pounds. I now weigh 185 pounds. My collar size went from a 15 to a 17 1/2 in a few months; my chest went from 40 to 44. My appetite in every sense of that word expanded beyond measure. Going from napping two hours a day, I now rarely sleep in the daytime and have enough energy for daily workouts and a hefty work schedule. I can squat more than 400 pounds. Depression, once a regular feature of my life, is now a distant memory. I feel better able to recover from life’s curveballs, more persistent, more alive. These are the long-term effects. They are almost as striking as the short-term ones. > [@](#): > > My attention span shortens. In the two or three days after my shot, I find it harder to concentrate on writing and feel the need to exercise more. My wit is quicker, my mind faster, but my judgment is more impulsive. > [@](#): > > Late last year, mere hours after a T shot, my dog ran off the leash to forage for a chicken bone left in my local park. The more I chased her, the more she ran. By the time I retrieved her, the bone had been consumed, and I gave her a sharp tap on her rear end. ‘‘Don’t smack your dog!’’ yelled a burly guy a few yards away. What I found myself yelling back at him is not printable in this magazine, but I have never used that language in public before, let alone bellow it at the top of my voice. He shouted back, and within seconds I was actually close to hitting him. He backed down and slunk off. I strutted home, chest puffed up, contrite beagle dragged sheepishly behind me.