diff --git a/Include/internal/pycore_pylifecycle.h b/Include/internal/pycore_pylifecycle.h
@@ -43,6 +43,8 @@ extern PyStatus _PySys_Create(
    PyThreadState *tstate,
    PyObject **sysmod_p);
extern PyStatus _PySys_SetPreliminaryStderr(PyObject *sysdict);
extern int _PySys_InitMain(
    _PyRuntimeState *runtime,
    PyThreadState *tstate);

diff --git a/Misc/NEWS.d/next/C API/2019-08-23-18-45-11.bpo-36763.q3Kh8Z.rst b/Misc/NEWS.d/next/C API/2019-08-23-18-45-11.bpo-36763.q3Kh8Z.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
diff --git a/Python/sysmodule.c b/Python/sysmodule.c
@@ -2037,36 +2037,43 @@ _clear_preinit_entries(_Py_PreInitEntry *optionlist)
    PyMem_SetAllocator(PYMEM_DOMAIN_RAW, &old_alloc);
}

-static void
-_clear_all_preinit_options(void)
{
    _clear_preinit_entries(&_preinit_warnoptions);
-    _clear_preinit_entries(&_preinit_xoptions);
}

-static int
-sys_read_preinit_options(PyThreadState *tstate)
{
-    /* Rerun the add commands with the actual sys module available */
-    if (tstate == NULL) {
-        /* Still don't have a thread state, so something is wrong! */
-        return -1;
-    }
-    _Py_PreInitEntry entry = _preinit_warnoptions;
-    while (entry != NULL) {
-        PySys_AddWarnOption(entry->value);
-        entry = entry->next;
-    }
-    entry = _preinit_xoptions;
-    while (entry != NULL) {
-        PySys_AddXOption(entry->value);
-        entry = entry->next;
    }

-    _clear_all_preinit_options();
-    return 0;
}

static PyObject *
get_warnoptions(PyThreadState *tstate)
{
@@ -2235,9 +2242,7 @@ PySys_AddXOption(const wchar_t *s)
    }
    if (_PySys_AddXOptionWithError(s) < 0) {
        /* No return value, therefore clear error state if possible */
-        if (tstate) {
-            _PyErr_Clear(tstate);
-        }
    }
}

@@ -2898,11 +2903,6 @@ _PySys_InitMain(_PyRuntimeState *runtime, PyThreadState *tstate)
    if (get_xoptions(tstate) == NULL)
        return -1;

-    /* Transfer any sys.warnoptions and sys._xoptions set directly
-     * by an embedding application from the linked list to the module. */
-    if (sys_read_preinit_options(tstate) != 0)
-        return -1;
-
    if (_PyErr_Occurred(tstate)) {
        goto err_occurred;
    }