Hello.
I just read this article (http://www.secondtype.info/breastdev.htm) about breast development, courtesy of SilentArchitect.
Currently I have my breasts at Tanner III, that prior to any form of hormone treatment.
I was wondering if any of you, ladies, had the same thing.
Also, are you satisfied with how your breasts have developed or are developing overall?
A few factors in play:
A lot of breast development is weight-related, so heavier girls will have more developed breasts even before HRT or female puberty, regardless of their birth sex.
The body's fat cells store some estrogen, and more of it is released during weight loss, so heavier male bodies naturally have more estrogen and estrogen effects on development especially when they lose a lot of weight.
Some commonly ingested substances and some non-HRT medications promote gynecomastia. For example, hops in beer. Hence, 'beer boobs'. I won't list all of the medications. There are environmental chemicals that do the same thing.
The hormone cycle is a complete circle, so excessive androgens will be converted into estrogen. The men in my family have very high testosterone, which makes them have a very high estrogen level for males. Mine was higher than my wife's before I started HRT.
Both males and females produce some testosterone and some estrogen for health. The testes/ovaries are not the only glands that produce sex hormones, though they produce the lion's/lioness' share.
Some of us are intersex as well as transgender, and may have naturally high estrogen production.
Rarely, tumors in other parts of the body can produce testosterone or estrogen. These can be benign or cancerous.
Some people are chimeras (having the tissues or genes of more than one individual), theoretically due to the natural processes of twin absorption or mother-child cell transfer in the womb. If one has tissues of both a male and a female individual, this can create complicated mixtures of physical traits including hormone production and hormone responsiveness or insensitivity.
That should about cover it!
Weight throughout your life definetly comes into play. i was a real chunky monkey as a kid. (For some reason I hated my body :o ) By the time I finished h/s I was 250 lbs of fat. After dropping about 100 lbs I was argueably a Tanner III, II for sure.
I already have pretty high estrogen levels and low testosterone levels.
I've lost a lot of weight recently as well (plan on losing a lot more). Not much of a beer drinker and
my body mass is mostly muscle, because I used to do a lot of sports and
natural body building (no steroids) when I was a teen. I guess I did body building
to fight my femininity, now regretting it (was always out of place as a kid).
Always had boobs, except for my athletic youth, since building muscle mass increases testosterone levels.
I was just wondering if my Tanner III will help me develop a decent bust post-HRT.
P.S.: weight is not the only factor. A colleague of mine is twice my size and has a flat chest.