So if I’ve understood things correctly, trans women take estrogen to get some more feminine appereance. But what exactly happens and when? Like lets say, if I theoretically started taking them, how long would it take for me to develop bigger breasts? Or do they help with breast growth? I’m a bit confused…
In: Biology
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In reality the changes are different for everyone. I’ve known some girls who immediately start looking different after a few weeks and others who don’t until a year or more. Same goes for breast growth. There’s not really any guaranteed time period for any of the changes that HRT brings.
Hormone replacement therapy is a dubious affair, with a lot of unsubstantiated claims. Just fyi there’s 20x more testosterone then estrogen in women, in fact estrogen is made from testosterone. Claims that estrogen is a “female” hormone are greatly overstated.
If you were to start taking 2mg estradiol pills without reducing your testosterone, very little would happen other than maybe some emotional soothing. That dose would do very little to affect your testosterone levels.
Now, if you started injecting 8mg of estradiol valerate every five days, that is a completely different story. You would notice emotional effects within days. As the estradiol begins to suppress your teststerone, your male libido, and the ability to get an erection would fade, and eventually be gone.
As your testosterone continues to become suppressed as you’re estradiol levels continue to increase, you’re most likely start experiencing mood swings, a decrease in agitation, anxiety, and aggression. You’ll become calmer, more relaxed, and the way you see the world and people around you will begin to change.
Your skin will get softer, thinner, less oily, you’ll notice a decrease in body hair, an increased sensitivity to colder temperatures, plus any number of probably two dozen different changes.
Once your testosterone is suppressed into female range, that’s when the feminization will begin. It is possible that your estradiol levels could reach second trimester of pregnancy levels. This thrusts your body and mind into female puberty. Even your sense of age can drastically change.
The first thing you’ll probably feel is some extreme nipple tenderness. Your senses, like taste, touch, smell and even your vision can change. The way you perceive colors will change.
You’ll finally understand what loneliness feels like, and that crying is a healthy emotion, and that you will no longer be able to hold it back as you start crying about every little thing, and you will cry for no reason at all.
You’ll start experiencing emotions you never knew you had, and have an extremely hard time processing and understanding them. They just start showing up, and you cannot stop them and you’ll be forced to deal with them in real time as your emotional feminization begins.
Your once male self is it starting to fade away.
As time passes, you start developing breast buds, and your nipples were hurt in ways you’ve never experienced before. And as your tendons begin shrinking, and restructuring themselves, you might lose height, shoe sizes, and will definitely lose your male fat and muscle. You will also lose a significant amount of your overall strength.
Your body will ache 24/7 as you begin developing a female shape. This is known as fat distribution.
Since starting your estradiol injections, your body will have started elimiting the male fat you’ve been accumulating all of your life. And, in many cases your receding hairline will begin to fill in again. And part of this process will include penile and testicular atrophy. Yes, your male junk will begin to shrink significantly.
Now, any weight (fat, and muscle) you gain, will be placed in your female places, like your butt, your hips, your breasts, and your thighs. Your face will round out, a lot of the male muscle you had in your body will turn to fat like your thighs and upper arms. Your waist will begin to narrow, an hourglass shape will begin to form, and your breasts will be begin to develop the ducts, and lobules. At some point, you may even begin to lactate. Breast development can take up to five years to complete. But not uncommon to reach an A or even a B cup within two years.
While all of these physical changes are happening, your mind will continue to feminize. Like your self perception, even your sexual orientation may change.
There’s a very good chance, at some point your sexual appetite will be switched back on, this time as female. This can bring on completely new sexual behaviors, like getting wet when you’re aroused, and having multiple orgasms.
This is only a fraction of the process that will take anywhere from three to five years to complete. Just to clarify something, this is what all trans women experience during their hormonal transition from male to female.
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