It's so hard to untangle hormones from life events. I transitioned in a way that's somewhat backwards from how people typically do it these days; I was present

It's so hard to untangle hormones from life events. I transitioned in a way that's somewhat backwards from how people typically do it these days; I was presenting female or genderqueer pretty much 100% of the time before I transitioned. And through that, I found my female side was the one full of color, life, extroversion, you name it. It wasn't hormones so much as just being me. The party half of me - who went to bars, clubs, etc, was always female. It definitely does something, though. Both times I got on hormones (once after a few weeks break for surgery) I went through a period of weeks-to-months where I was very zen and in control of my life, though whatever it was, I gradually adjusted. It's almost impossible to tease out what's life events, what's hormones, and then what hormones are causing which things. Because E2 and T are coupled (E2 suppresses T, albeit with lag)... which is really driving what? And never mind P. Bottom line, biology is too complicated for the very blunt instruments we have to measure it. We're really winging it, transgender people especially. It's easy to say things like women live longer and are way more prone to migraines and depression. But why? Is that from hormones? Are people who have a little bit more of some hormone just a little bit more likely to be depressed? Or is the depression an artifact of how culture treats women? There's no basis for the assumption that cisgender hormone levels are ideal for transgender people (and even if they were, at what part of the cycle would be ideal?), but it's kinda all we got to go on. Hormones are weird, yo.