Physical Attributes and Pants

[A]

Okay, so I recently got myself two pairs of women's jeans. I wore one of them today, and they fit so much better and are so much more comfortable than my old ones. However, I still have a problem: I don't quite have enough stuff in my hips and butt to fill them up and my thighs seem too muscular, so basically, my pants are continually going down, might I have a belt or not. It's understandable, as I'm still waiting for HRT (and I'm still taking tips here by the way).

So first, do you have tips to counter this?

Also, I would want to get some approximate numbers on what you all went through / are going through. I would be grateful if you could answer the following questions:

-How old are you / were you when you started HRT?
-How far into HRT are you?
-What is your "basic" body type? (short, slim, tall, fat, muscular, not muscular)
-How much weight did you gain or lose since the start of your HRT?
-How much did your hips grow (or shrink  ) in circumference since the start of your HRT? (Try a percentage if possible.)
-How much volume did your butt lose or gain since the start of your HRT?
-How much, in an approximate percentage, muscular mass did you lose (or gain ) since the start of your HRT?

And finally, I would like to ask something about voice. I know HRT will not feminize my voice. However, since I started working it (and I've always been using my most female voice as my "normal" voice) when I was, like, 12 (I am 20), I have always noticed how my body seemed to be fighting me and I always need to fight back pretty hard to regain what I had one week before. Does this stop with HRT? Practice can't suffice, because, as I have said, I have never truly spoken in a male voice, so I really feel it's something biological. Plus, I am already doing a lot of singing.

[azSam]

-How old are you / were you when you started HRT? ---- 26 / 24 when starting HRT
-How far into HRT are you? ---- 15 Months or so
-What is your "basic" body type? ---- Fatty mc.fatpants, non-muscular
-How much weight did you gain or lose since the start of your HRT? ---- Stayed about the same
-How much did your hips grow ---- Hard to say, to be honest. But they definitely grew enough to form a healthy hour-glass shape.
-How much volume did your butt lose or gain since the start of your HRT? ---- I never really thought to check compare. I do believe it's a little rounder, if that helps.
-How much muscular mass did you lose since the start of your HRT? ---- In a percentage, no idea. But I know that now I have trouble lifting anything over 70lbs. I try and I try, then my body starts to shake and I just can't lift it.

There has been a lot of discussion about voice stuff lately. It's a simple process, but it's not terribly easy. It takes training. I was thinking of making a set of tutorials to help people with their voice, but that takes time to do.

[AweSAM!]

-How old are you / were you when you started HRT? 20/18
-How far into HRT are you? 17 months
-What is your "basic" body type? (short, slim, tall, fat, muscular, not muscular) Tall, a bit bulky, somewhat slim, but far from slender and still a bit muscular @ 5'11" and 143lbs.
-How much weight did you gain or lose since the start of your HRT? I lost about 15-17lbs, mostly due to muscle mass loss.
-How much did your hips grow (or shrink ) in circumference since the start of your HRT? (Try a percentage if possible.) My hips have increased negligibly from 36" to 37", and I assume due to some fat redistribution rather than bone growth, which is unlikely at best.
-How much volume did your butt lose or gain since the start of your HRT? My butt is pretty small tbh, and I'm not really sure if I gained any volume there.
-How much, in an approximate percentage, muscular mass did you lose (or gain) since the start of your HRT? No idea, I still have big shoulders and arms, but definitely less than before.

[A]

Thank you for the "poll" replies so far. I would sure love more replies, but I would also want to remind of my two problems (the pants and the voice). Does someone else have tips or answers?

[JungianZoe]

-How old are you / were you when you started HRT? 33 / 33
-How far into HRT are you? 6 months
-What is your "basic" body type? (short, slim, tall, fat, muscular, not muscular) Slim, tall, not muscular
-How much weight did you gain or lose since the start of your HRT? 25 pounds (on purpose, eating 4000-5000 calories a day)
-How much did your hips grow (or shrink  ) in circumference since the start of your HRT? (Try a percentage if possible.) ~10% gain
-How much volume did your butt lose or gain since the start of your HRT?  I think almost all 25 pounds I gained went to my butt... not the breasts as I hoped!
-How much, in an approximate percentage, muscular mass did you lose (or gain ) since the start of your HRT? Was weak before, now pathetically so

So technically I'm 9 months HRT and started three days before my 33rd birthday, but my numbers were so bad after my first three months (along with no physical changes) that my doc says not to count them.

I have the same problem as you when it comes to girl jeans... even with a belt, they fall down.  I've gained in my butt, but that's not enough to keep them up.  Also, my belly has expanded as if I'm still putting on fat in a male pattern, so that's not helpful.  That might also be because I'm putting on weight and eating normally after years of anorexic eating and being seriously underweight, and a distended belly is typical for what I've just done.

As for voice, I have much of the same problem: a day or two of a beautiful singy voice, then weeks of crap.  But then I realized I might push things too high in some situations because my voice has the ability to go pretty high.  I don't notice when I do it until my vocal chords get tired either, so I've tried to be more cognizant of when I'm doing it and then working on dropping back down into a more manageable range.  As Sarah pointed out, we often hear our voices lower than they really are and it's a good thing to remember when working on your voice.  Even on days when I think I sound like complete rubbish, I still get identified as female 100% of the time when I'm on the phone with strangers.  Just try recording yourself and listening uncritically.  If it helps, let others listen too and give their opinions!

[MarinaM]

-How old are you / were you when you started HRT? ---- 27/27
-How far into HRT are you? ------ 3 months
-What is your "basic" body type? (short, slim, tall, fat, muscular, not muscular) not short, not tall, slim, muscular (kind of)
-How much weight did you gain or lose since the start of your HRT? I have lost 4 pounds
-How much did your hips grow (or shrink  ) in circumference since the start of your HRT? -3% (30 to ~28) wait, that's waist size... hips are the same.
-How much volume did your butt lose or gain since the start of your HRT? I believe I lost the aforementioned 3% here as well.
-How much, in an approximate percentage, muscular mass did you lose (or gain ) since the start of your HRT? No idea.

Pants: If they're necessary, Express, Abercrombie, The Buckle, etc (high end retailers)... all carry an enormous range of pants sizes- and they seem to cater to oddly shaped bodies fairly well. Especially Buckle.

Voice. Abandon your male voice slowly, this will take time and constant serious effort. Start with an androgynous template and work from there.

[JenniL]

-How old are you / were you when you started HRT? 33/33
-How far into HRT are you? 6 months
-What is your "basic" body type? (short, slim, tall, fat, muscular, not muscular) right now its on the chunky side lol
-How much weight did you gain or lose since the start of your HRT? lost about 35lbs and still loosing.
-How much did your hips grow (or shrink  ) in circumference since the start of your HRT? (Try a percentage if possible.) not sure percentage wise but the hips have stayed roughly the same size while the waist is getting smaller.
-How much volume did your butt lose or gain since the start of your HRT? never really paid attention to my butt honestly.
-How much, in an approximate percentage, muscular mass did you lose (or gain ) since the start of your HRT? I lost a little bit muscular mass, but strength wise heavy objects are well more difficult to pick up and or carry.

Not the best person for pants issues as I am still loosing weight. which is my goal in the first place. but when i do get new pants they fit fine for a couple of months until i start loosing more weight.

As for voice, as a few pointed out the voice what we hear in our heads tend to be lower than what is being projected. Record yourself so you can hear yourself from the outside of the head.  If you can find someone to practice with a close girlfriend to give you feedback.

Jennifer

[justmeinoz]

Have you thought about having them altered by a tailor?   
My therapist suggested that would be worthwhile for me  as I am 6'3" and have a swimmers build. Broad shoulders and no real waist due to narrow hips. It is not that expensive if you buy good quality that lasts, and there is also the possibilty of adding padding.
Karen.

[A]

Well um. I just got the courage to buy just these two pairs of pants and ask a clerk for help (even though I tried to make up a story about my sister always saying I could never find clothes with my build and blah blah), so uhm. Taylors... Not sure. ^^'

Voice : Well, actually, I can reach a pretty satisfying result. The problem is that I can't get it to be stable, even though I've been trying for, like, half my life.

[Myself]

-How old are you / were you when you started HRT? ---- 19/22
-How far into HRT are you? ------ 3 years or so
-What is your "basic" body type? (short, slim, tall, fat, muscular, not muscular) short I guess, not sure about the rest (164cm 5'4 feet/inch I guess)
-How much weight did you gain or lose since the start of your HRT? I used to be 90kg sometime before HRT, dropped to 55kg (about half before hrt half after) and gained back to 59-60kg, my current weight
-How much did your hips grow (or shrink  ) in circumference since the start of your HRT? I don't know, they are tiny 34 inch right now
-How much volume did your butt lose or gain since the start of your HRT? I dunno.
-How much, in an approximate percentage, muscular mass did you lose (or gain ) since the start of your HRT? No idea.

[V M]

-How old are you / were you when you started HRT? 49/48
-How far into HRT are you? 20 Months
-What is your "basic" body type? (short, slim, tall, fat, muscular, not muscular) Tall/Slim
-How much weight did you gain or lose since the start of your HRT? Gained about 30 LBs
-How much did your hips grow (or shrink  ) in circumference since the start of your HRT? (Try a percentage if possible.) About 10% (at a guess)
-How much volume did your butt lose or gain since the start of your HRT? Not sure, but it is rounder and more girly looking
-How much, in an approximate percentage, muscular mass did you lose (or gain ) since the start of your HRT? Lost allot of muscle

I've always been told that I had a girly looking butt and now after HRT it looks even more girly... I tried various types a jeans and found the basic Levi's 501 jeans to work out the best for me 

[JadeS]

-How old are you / were you when you started HRT? 17
-How far into HRT are you? 10 months (18 years old now)
-What is your "basic" body type? (short, slim, tall, fat, muscular, not muscular): slim (small frame, no muscles, ~110lbs ), not too tall (5'6)
-How much weight did you gain or lose since the start of your HRT? 40-50lbs, went from ~150-160 down to 110
-How much did your hips grow (or shrink  ) in circumference since the start of your HRT? (Try a percentage if possible.): went from 31" to 32" but I also lost a good chunk of fat, so definitely more, and it seems it's the bone that expanded, because i'm skinny now
-How much volume did your butt lose or gain since the start of your HRT? it grew a lot and looks great now, it used to be 100% flat
-How much, in an approximate percentage, muscular mass did you lose (or gain ) since the start of your HRT? nearly everything, went from having a good chunk of muscles to being super weak

[Debra]

So first, do you have tips to counter this?

This was a problem for me as well before....hips and butt severly lacking. This changed over time but there are things you can use like padding...I never really wanted to because it just felt so fake.

-How old are you / were you when you started HRT?
-How far into HRT are you?
-What is your "basic" body type? (short, slim, tall, fat, muscular, not muscular)
-How much weight did you gain or lose since the start of your HRT?
-How much did your hips grow (or shrink  ) in circumference since the start of your HRT? (Try a percentage if possible.)
-How much volume did your butt lose or gain since the start of your HRT?
-How much, in an approximate percentage, muscular mass did you lose (or gain ) since the start of your HRT?

- I was 28 when I started HRT
- I'm 18.5 months into HRT now
- I'm average/slim for the most part
- My weight has kind of wavered up and down since HRT. I gained more after surgery from not being able to work out though
- My hips didn't seem to grow a whole lot but my waist did shrink a bunch creating an illusion of more hips...but only slightly.
- With HRT alone it wasn't much and very slow. I have recently noticed more butt growth since my surgery though.
- Not sure about muscle mass loss. I never had a lot to begin with and about 6 months into HRT, I was still able to lift more than some of my guy friends. I practiced yoga and zumba religiously and that helped keep basic muscle mass...but I did find when I quit yoga/zumba for any amount of time, it seemed to take a lot longer to come back up to things when I went back.

And finally, I would like to ask something about voice. I know HRT will not feminize my voice. However, since I started working it (and I've always been using my most female voice as my "normal" voice) when I was, like, 12 (I am 20), I have always noticed how my body seemed to be fighting me and I always need to fight back pretty hard to regain what I had one week before. Does this stop with HRT? Practice can't suffice, because, as I have said, I have never truly spoken in a male voice, so I really feel it's something biological. Plus, I am already doing a lot of singing.

I'm not sure. I went to a voice coach for 4 months and after that I was able to stabilize my voice to the point where it truly is my natural voice. I *have* however noticed that when singing, it is like you describe...my body fighting back. I cannot sing high which sucks.....but with speaking, it's natural and no strain.