I wrote this thinking about about aggressive male behaviours, but if you read through, especially the second link, you will see that it seems to affect mood in a variety of ways:
Re: estrogen making men more volatile/prone to anger and that feeling counterintuitive... I’ve been posting on another thread about dogs and how their behaviour is both nature and nurture combined (aggression is not purely a matter of how they are raised, it can be in their breeding of a result of being in pain, for example). I’m a firm believer in reminding ourselves that we are just mammals, big brained, complicated mammals, for sure, but still mammals. Reading this thread and the dog thread in tandem today and, well, incoming spergery ...
In dogs (especially male dogs) there is this pervasive idea that castration will fix a lot of behaviour issues, and it
can work, but it’s dependent on what is the root of those behavioural issues.
What is rarely talked about is that in some dogs, perhaps in lots of dogs, castration can actually
cause aggression, this kind of aggression is usually described as
fear based aggression.
Extract from
https://www.dogsnaturallymagazine.com/new-research-does-neutering-help-with-aggression/
Some of the negative behaviors found in neutered male dogs in the study included:
- Rather than reduced aggression, the neutered male dogs in the study were found more likely to show aggression when strangers such as delivery workers were near the home, when the dog was approached by an unknown female dog and when small animals entered the yard.
- The study also found that the behaviors were worse in dogs that were neutered earlier.
- The neutered dogs also demonstrated more fear-based behaviors like reactions to loud noises and new situations.
- Intact dogs were less likely to eat feces – either their own or another dog’s. They were also less likely to roll in feces or other smelly things.
- Intact dogs were also less likely to bark persistently when they became alarmed.
- Intact dogs were less likely to mount objects, furniture or people.
- Intact dogs were also less likely to chase animals.
“The pattern of these results is quite clear: Neutering male dogs causes an increase in aggressive behavior, fearful behavior, over-excitability and a variety of other miscellaneous, undesirable behaviors,” wrote Coren. “What is also clear is that early neutering produces an even greater negative effect on behaviors.”
Why does this happen? Well, it’s broadly accepted that it’s caused by the reduction in circulating testosterone (which is what MtF troons induce in themselves, either with blockers (GnRHa drugs) anti androgens, or via abnormally high levels of oestrogen (via E mono therapy)
Quote from here:
https://www.theveterinarynurse.com/...hs-commonly-associated-with-neutering-in-dogs
(my bold)
Increasing fearfulness
Circulating testosterone is associated with increased self confidence and reduced fearfulness (Terburg and van Honk, 2013) so castration can potentially increase fearfulness, especially in dogs that are already nervous.
I don’t think it’s a big leap to assume that those MtF troons who already have low self confidence and/or social anxiety and choose to artificially suppress their testosterone via chemical or surgical castration will experience a similar rise in fear based aggression.
Male sex offenders have been treated with pretty much all the same drugs that are currently used in MtF transition, their use is pretty controversial because even when successful at killing off the libido, they either do nothing about the aggression or make it worse. This is why a male offender shouldn’t be able to use a cock chop as an entry ticket to a female prison, he’ll still be an aggressive sex offender, he’ll just be a) even angrier and b) more inventive in his pervery, now that he can‘t be a standard rapist (wannabe rapists with erectile dysfunction often resort to using objects for penetration, as any true crime fan knows).
