New and Scared!

[Milley]

Hello everyone!

Just wanted to say hi, I've been visiting this site for a few months now and want to thank you all for the information available here!

That being said, I am planning on starting HRT one day for a MTF transition, but I have a few fears.

Mainly my problem is that thanks to my career choice (that I am hoping to one day get away from) I have developed quite the amount of muscle mass and was wondering if I should try to lose muscle before starting, or if I will naturally lose some as I take it.

I'm about 210, some chubby still due to a 5 year depression, but overall its more muscle weight than fat. I am built like a linebacker somewhat and hope and pray there is something I can do to look less manly as it were.

Any tips or tricks you all know of? I've been dieting like a boss the last few months and try to rollerblade at least 30 minutes a day to keep the cardio going and hopefully shed more weight, but how do I lose muscle mass?

Thanks and sorry for the huge post! ^_^

[Beep]

Yeah, the hormones (estrogen) will pretty much erase most of your muscle mass. You don't even need to exercise for that.
It's going to take like a year though, and hormone replacement can't change your skeletal frame very much, so if your shoulders are super wide or something, don't expect hormone replacement to narrow them.

[Milley]

Not super wide luckily. I used to be real skinny and almost passed with just long hair and a shaven face.

Hopefully things will work out.

Thanks for making me feel better, now to peruse these forums and figure out how to find a therapist and get started one day.

^_^

[lilacwoman]

recent program showed how hard work makes bones bigger so skeleton may be larger but then my friend Natalie and I believe in the theory that estrogen will reduce the thickness and toughness of all the ligaments and cartilage between the bones to allow the skeleton to hang looser and look slimmer.

[Milley]

Yea, I know I'll have to deal with being a larger frame lady.

Luckily I'm 5'7, before I gained muscle and fat I was 120lbs at 20 and used to (key words) look slim. I wear womens size 9 shoes so I gots kinda big feet and man hands for sure but I can deal with that I think.

I've been working on dumping excess weight, got my belly close to flat again, no more spare tire just a lil belly and thighs.

Went as a sexy nurse for Halloween, if it wasn't for my arms I would've been cuteish I think (had a friend do makeup as I have 0 experience there).
Got complemented on my legs and butt, it just got scary above the waist.
Used water balloons for breasts and all that, you would all probably laugh at my feeble attempt but for a first try it wasn't too bad... I think...

I've been slowly opening up to close friends about this, told my younger brother, so far they all support me. I just dread telling my parents or older brother, though my mom did go shoe shopping with me for Halloween and got me some nice heels so that's a plus.

^_^