I wouldn't have known for sure until I'd started taking the stuff. Before you take it it is a leap into the unknown. The only thing you can really be sure of before, is that you have really explored and analysed your reasons why you want to start, and you can objectively assure yourself in your own mind at least, that you are of (reasonably) sound mind. That your decision is not influenced by clouded judgement from other things going on your life, substance or alcohol abuse, and that it is not a form of idealism, wishful thinking or escapism. And that you have thought through all the possible negative consequences, and are prepared to live with them if they happen to you. It is easy to think you won't regret changes or decisions but for me there have been consequences I was aware might be a possibility, but now in reality appreciating the full gravity of their significance, it plays more heavily on my mind that these things are irreversible and this is now my life forever. With some things there is a point of no return and once you pass that point, you better hope you made the right decision or otherwise, well you have to live with it all. In the end for me its not a decision any more, with the benefit of having lived with hormone treatment and without it, I know one state I have functionality and can operate in life as I need to. The other is torment and difficulty, and ongoing dysfunction. So really it is not a choice, I have to take hormone treatment, and wouldn't have understood that fully until I'd actually started experiencing life with a right for me hormonal physiology.