Breast Shrinkage

[Amanda Roberts]

Hello Sisters,

I have been on HRT now for over 2 years and I am struggling to fill a B cup.  I have seen this happen on several occasions where I have increased my HRT dosage and in the first month or so my breast swell somewhat and then shrink a bit and stall.   There is nothing more frustrating than getting closer to a lifelong goal and then only to see it slip away.  Has anyone else seen this? 

I am really good at weight control. I am 6'2'' and weigh 190.  As a boy I had weighed as much as 270 pounds but learned how control my weight to get to healthier BMI numbers.  I am wondering if I am doing this to myself by not letting my weight increase or is there another process at work. 

Any thoughts?

[suzifrommd]

Dissatisfaction with breasts is a nearly universal female experience. It comes with being a woman. We take the good with the bad.

Our breast size is pretty much determined by our genetics. Though if it really affects your mood, there's always implants.

[pebbles]

yep that will happen.

Are you familiar with type II diabetes? it's the non-insulin dependant type that typically happens to obese people.

Basically your Islet cells produce Insulin in bursts which correlate with when you eat food specifically sugary food. and your body regulates it's Glycemic index, however if you eat alot of sugary food ALL the time which is prone to happen in western and especially US diets where alot of food contains large amounts of sugar, your body begins to become insensitive to insulin. in that the insulin receptors on your cells begin to vanish through overuse, Even those these peoples bodies produce insulin, they don't react to it.

From what I understand a similar thing happens with estrogen, You have a genetically predetermined sensitivity to estrogen. If you increase your dose the amount your body will lower it's sensitivity in kind.

Pain in the ass I know... I encountered the same thing on injectable estrogen. I'm only an A-Cup, No matter what my estrogen level is there is only very slight oscillation around that even when I take very large doses. Most of the females in my family are medium/large sized in the chest department. but i'm also the same height as them. (despite begin born male)
I then saw a picture of my Paternal Grandma when she was young. Tiny flat chested lady...
DAMN! >_< It's painfully obvious to me now that I got her genes, if I'd been a natal female I'd be 5'2 and flat as a board. instead of 5'7 and flat as a board which is what I got.

Never get what we want eh?

[Amanda Roberts]

Pebbles,

I'm crying, because that is exactly what I've been experiencing.  I was wondering if there was possibly another process going on in my body that was reducing the effectiveness of the E not just my weight control.  Thank you for letting me know that I'm not crazy... Even though it's not such great news.

Best Wishes to you as well...  xoxoxoxo

[Randi]

SHBG, Sex Hormone Binding Globulin is worth learning more about.

When estrogens combine with SHBG it is "bound" and not free to act on estrogen receptors.

It's the "free" estrogen that matters.  Often increasing the intake of estrogen will only drive up the total estrogen, and SHBG increases so that free estrogen stays about the same.

I was wondering if there was possibly another process going on in my body that was reducing the effectiveness of the E not just my weight control.

[SonadoraXVX]

Its genetics, no matter how much in dosage you may take, if you have already dabbled with your hrt dosage, your probably not going to get any more response. My Endo, has me a low dose of estrogen of patches and spiro, I may probably in December increase my own hrt, since I let the Endo call the shots this time, once I get a baseline at my first year mark, I will dabble somewhat with my hrt dosage.

P.S. I'm also sorta flatchested, but I do get weird signs from my male counterparts at work though, I'm 9 months going on 10 months on the 28th of this month. I hear you need to let the hrt do its work for 3-5 years, before considering implants.

[Bardoux]

SHBG, Sex Hormone Binding Globulin is worth learning more about.

When estrogens combine with SHBG it is "bound" and not free to act on estrogen receptors.

It's the "free" estrogen that matters.  Often increasing the intake of estrogen will only drive up the total estrogen, and SHBG increases so that free estrogen stays about the same.

To my understanding this is as a result of estradiol being processed to some extent by the Liver and gut when taking orally. My endo was letting me know that this wasn't the case when the delivery method bypassed the liver all together, i.e patches, creams and pellets.