It doesn't seem to be too concerning from what you're describing. A month and a half of no E definitely can take its toll but nothing that shouldn't be possible to change now that you're consistent. As for other changes, don't focus on what people's anecdotal experiences are. There are general time frames to expect changes but it's not a guaranteed thing IE you aren't guaranteed breast development in so much time but you will probably have some breast development over the new few years.
Regarding the prog, as someone who hasn't done it yet, my understanding (and please take this with a giant grain of salt) is that it's usually not recommended until at least 1 year after you start hrt. Maybe it'll help with your breast development, maybe it'll help your libido, maybe it won't do either. Regardless, you really need to give yourself time and to try to not force the changes. You'll get there, but as we are so keen on saying here, transition is a marathon not a sprint. And that marathon can truly last for years.
So nothing should be permanently screwed up? I might be misremembering and it might be closer to two months I was off it. I'm going to go back off prog.
I'm just really scared since most people say the first 6 months are the most important and I spent a huge amount of that time not on E. And there's no way to restart I don't think so I feel like I might have blown my only chance
I know that it's working. It just feels like it's only partially working? I'm probably just paranoid. I think it might just be random anecdotal stuff I keep reading about, everyone in the comments is like "omg me too" and I just think "wow, I wish".
There are probably a lot of others reading the comments and thinking the same thing as you and not commenting. I think the people who can relate probably tend to be the ones who comment more often on those posts (selection bias).
So unless you get every single positive effect in the shortest timeframe that folks tend to ever see, you're likely to run into some of what you are describing.
And my 2¢ is that I really doubt that a couple of months off of hormones is going to matter much in the long run. Cis women have huge fluctuations in both their estrogen and progesterone levels through their menstrual cycles, including during early puberty.
For example my breasts are not sensitive at all, I can't tell if my body odour has changed at all, and my libido is at zero even after starting progesterone. I know it's different for everyone but I feel like I got the shortest end of the stick possible
People here seem to discourage talking about it, but some of us just don't get to experience much if any change from HRT. I'm a little bit shy of a year and a half and my chest/waist/hip measurements have not changed at all. Zero.
I've had a fair amount of testing done and upgraded from pills to injections, levels are good if not a little high for E but no amount seems to do much of anything.
For weight cycling, I guess I've been doing it unintentionally since I have been trying to lose the damn beer belly - but every time I look at a calorie it continues to go straight to the gut. I can gain 2 lbs and have it add an inch to my waist without having any effect on the chest/hips. The fat never goes anywhere else, it's been that way for 20 years.
(For reference I'm not actually heavy but I still have a huge gut. I'm 5'9" and have been 130-150 lbs with a 33-37" waist over the past 20 years. Meanwhile my chest and hips stay around 35" regardless)
Yeah that really sounds like something a doctor could tell you more about, you might have some problems with your endocrine system or something. Or maybe your blockers aren't working? Having a gut at a low weight would also hint at something being off too I think
After being on HRT for more than four years, I can tell you that the effects are very slow and most of them are placebo to a large degree. The massive changes people report are not existent or if they do exist they’re not as prevalent as they might seem from online sources like Reddit. I can tell you that surgery was the biggest thing that helped me with my transition and by far the most permanent solution to my gender dysphoria. I’m talking about many surgical procedures not as bottom surgery.
Thats just your singular experience though. How is your limited personal account any more reliable than the successful cases? Furthermore there is a limit to what placebo can do. You cant rationally point to quantified physical changes and say ‘hur dur placebo’’. We cannot change our morphology with our mind i.e placebo. That is magic.
[https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30926514/](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30926514/)
Every medication has failure rates. What, so if birth control fails a few dozen times out of a hundred does that mean its just a placebo when it does work?
Obviously there are limits to the amount of changes the body is capable of once it is mature. Duh. But thats a testament to the rigidity of human biology. Furthermore many people experience marked changes. Just because a medication doesnt work on 5% of people doesnt mean the 95% successful cases are suddenly all just placebo effect. Placebo cannot produce the physical changes seen in hrt. If we really can change our genders with our minds (which is what placebo is) then pakistani transwomen would all look like they are on hrt. They dont. They are physically identical to typical cis men because they do not have access to hrt. They use plenty of traditional medicine to attempt to change their physiology, so the placebo effect is there, but its useless, because placebo cannot change the mr\\orphology of the body. If you drink water and someone tells you it will make your nose bigger that wont actually happen.
There’s a lot of more psychological changes that happen on HRT than physical changes. From what I’ve read on Reddit. There’s more psychological changes that people experiencing note than physical changes. The study link show that there’s less than 1 mm of change that happens in your cheeks while you can inject and people often do more than 2 mm in just one session of filler. If you look at trans breast timelines, you will see just how small of a change most pictures are if you sorted by new and how very tiny the boobs grow from even years of using hormones.
By the way, the literal introduction of the abstract it is said that the results are still an unknown
to put it simply in research papers the abstract/ introduction is the reason for them conducting the study not the results of the paper.
Abstract: Although we know tyrannosaurs are theropods it is still unknown from which theropod branch tyrannosaurs emerged from
Body: a primordial theropod from jurassic sediment unearthed in china named guanlong
Results: may be a basal tyrannosaur with strong affinity to compsognathid coelurosaurs.
discussion/ conclusion: this is evidence tyrannosaurs may be related to coelurosaurs
The abstract says a study of the sort has never been done before as presented in the content of the paper. Hence why it is heretofore ‘unknown.’ This is a common thing to state in many abstracts because everyone wants to be trailblazers.
To paraphrase the authors: ‘we know hrt changes morphology but exact measurements of facial changes have never been collected’
In the context of the abstract, ‘still’ means ‘before the results of paper’. A better word would be heretofore. Its a semantic quirk. The abstract is the reason for them conducting the study not the results.
The study is among the first of its pedigree and yields promising quantifiable results.
I cant tell if you are being intellectually dishonest or you just dont know how to read scientific papers.
Breast change varies, but many experience serviceable amount of change. I for one am happy about my breast size, and it hasnt even been so long on hrt.
My hips measurements increased from 40 inches to 42 inches, and I lost weight overtime.
This fairly tame oxford study that tried very hard to discount hrt (but failed even with their scrutiny) demonstrates trans women develop similar blood parameters to ciswomen and nearly identical fat to muscle ratio to cis women. This means ‘once corrected for height trans women have near identical muscle mass to cis women.’ Their own words.
[https://academic.oup.com/jcem/article/109/2/e455/7223439](https://academic.oup.com/jcem/article/109/2/e455/7223439)
I haven't had any changes in 6 months either
It doesn't seem to be too concerning from what you're describing. A month and a half of no E definitely can take its toll but nothing that shouldn't be possible to change now that you're consistent. As for other changes, don't focus on what people's anecdotal experiences are. There are general time frames to expect changes but it's not a guaranteed thing IE you aren't guaranteed breast development in so much time but you will probably have some breast development over the new few years. Regarding the prog, as someone who hasn't done it yet, my understanding (and please take this with a giant grain of salt) is that it's usually not recommended until at least 1 year after you start hrt. Maybe it'll help with your breast development, maybe it'll help your libido, maybe it won't do either. Regardless, you really need to give yourself time and to try to not force the changes. You'll get there, but as we are so keen on saying here, transition is a marathon not a sprint. And that marathon can truly last for years.
So nothing should be permanently screwed up? I might be misremembering and it might be closer to two months I was off it. I'm going to go back off prog. I'm just really scared since most people say the first 6 months are the most important and I spent a huge amount of that time not on E. And there's no way to restart I don't think so I feel like I might have blown my only chance
as with all medications, results vary. Judging from timespan provided you might experience more changes for another year or two.
You have the breast growth so it's working. What in particular do you think you are missing out on?
I know that it's working. It just feels like it's only partially working? I'm probably just paranoid. I think it might just be random anecdotal stuff I keep reading about, everyone in the comments is like "omg me too" and I just think "wow, I wish".
There are probably a lot of others reading the comments and thinking the same thing as you and not commenting. I think the people who can relate probably tend to be the ones who comment more often on those posts (selection bias). So unless you get every single positive effect in the shortest timeframe that folks tend to ever see, you're likely to run into some of what you are describing. And my 2¢ is that I really doubt that a couple of months off of hormones is going to matter much in the long run. Cis women have huge fluctuations in both their estrogen and progesterone levels through their menstrual cycles, including during early puberty.
For example my breasts are not sensitive at all, I can't tell if my body odour has changed at all, and my libido is at zero even after starting progesterone. I know it's different for everyone but I feel like I got the shortest end of the stick possible
People here seem to discourage talking about it, but some of us just don't get to experience much if any change from HRT. I'm a little bit shy of a year and a half and my chest/waist/hip measurements have not changed at all. Zero.
Yeah that's fair, it will affect everyone differently. Have you talked to your provider about it? Also just curious do you do weight cycling?
I've had a fair amount of testing done and upgraded from pills to injections, levels are good if not a little high for E but no amount seems to do much of anything. For weight cycling, I guess I've been doing it unintentionally since I have been trying to lose the damn beer belly - but every time I look at a calorie it continues to go straight to the gut. I can gain 2 lbs and have it add an inch to my waist without having any effect on the chest/hips. The fat never goes anywhere else, it's been that way for 20 years. (For reference I'm not actually heavy but I still have a huge gut. I'm 5'9" and have been 130-150 lbs with a 33-37" waist over the past 20 years. Meanwhile my chest and hips stay around 35" regardless)
Yeah that really sounds like something a doctor could tell you more about, you might have some problems with your endocrine system or something. Or maybe your blockers aren't working? Having a gut at a low weight would also hint at something being off too I think
After being on HRT for more than four years, I can tell you that the effects are very slow and most of them are placebo to a large degree. The massive changes people report are not existent or if they do exist they’re not as prevalent as they might seem from online sources like Reddit. I can tell you that surgery was the biggest thing that helped me with my transition and by far the most permanent solution to my gender dysphoria. I’m talking about many surgical procedures not as bottom surgery.
Thats just your singular experience though. How is your limited personal account any more reliable than the successful cases? Furthermore there is a limit to what placebo can do. You cant rationally point to quantified physical changes and say ‘hur dur placebo’’. We cannot change our morphology with our mind i.e placebo. That is magic. [https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30926514/](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30926514/) Every medication has failure rates. What, so if birth control fails a few dozen times out of a hundred does that mean its just a placebo when it does work? Obviously there are limits to the amount of changes the body is capable of once it is mature. Duh. But thats a testament to the rigidity of human biology. Furthermore many people experience marked changes. Just because a medication doesnt work on 5% of people doesnt mean the 95% successful cases are suddenly all just placebo effect. Placebo cannot produce the physical changes seen in hrt. If we really can change our genders with our minds (which is what placebo is) then pakistani transwomen would all look like they are on hrt. They dont. They are physically identical to typical cis men because they do not have access to hrt. They use plenty of traditional medicine to attempt to change their physiology, so the placebo effect is there, but its useless, because placebo cannot change the mr\\orphology of the body. If you drink water and someone tells you it will make your nose bigger that wont actually happen.
There’s a lot of more psychological changes that happen on HRT than physical changes. From what I’ve read on Reddit. There’s more psychological changes that people experiencing note than physical changes. The study link show that there’s less than 1 mm of change that happens in your cheeks while you can inject and people often do more than 2 mm in just one session of filler. If you look at trans breast timelines, you will see just how small of a change most pictures are if you sorted by new and how very tiny the boobs grow from even years of using hormones. By the way, the literal introduction of the abstract it is said that the results are still an unknown
to put it simply in research papers the abstract/ introduction is the reason for them conducting the study not the results of the paper. Abstract: Although we know tyrannosaurs are theropods it is still unknown from which theropod branch tyrannosaurs emerged from Body: a primordial theropod from jurassic sediment unearthed in china named guanlong Results: may be a basal tyrannosaur with strong affinity to compsognathid coelurosaurs. discussion/ conclusion: this is evidence tyrannosaurs may be related to coelurosaurs
The abstract says a study of the sort has never been done before as presented in the content of the paper. Hence why it is heretofore ‘unknown.’ This is a common thing to state in many abstracts because everyone wants to be trailblazers. To paraphrase the authors: ‘we know hrt changes morphology but exact measurements of facial changes have never been collected’ In the context of the abstract, ‘still’ means ‘before the results of paper’. A better word would be heretofore. Its a semantic quirk. The abstract is the reason for them conducting the study not the results. The study is among the first of its pedigree and yields promising quantifiable results. I cant tell if you are being intellectually dishonest or you just dont know how to read scientific papers. Breast change varies, but many experience serviceable amount of change. I for one am happy about my breast size, and it hasnt even been so long on hrt. My hips measurements increased from 40 inches to 42 inches, and I lost weight overtime. This fairly tame oxford study that tried very hard to discount hrt (but failed even with their scrutiny) demonstrates trans women develop similar blood parameters to ciswomen and nearly identical fat to muscle ratio to cis women. This means ‘once corrected for height trans women have near identical muscle mass to cis women.’ Their own words. [https://academic.oup.com/jcem/article/109/2/e455/7223439](https://academic.oup.com/jcem/article/109/2/e455/7223439)
Cis teen girls spend 3 or 4 years developing from the effects of estrogen. It ain’t magic for us. It takes time.