Something we maybe don't take into consideration about breast growth...

[missy1992]

A female rib cage isn't 28 to 32, many are 36  or 38. The difference just isn't that drastic for the most part.

Well thanks for making me feel better
Really though, aren't they? Like if you have a 32 band bra is means your "underbust" is 28 inches (you add 4 inches to your ribcage measurement if its even to get your band size, 5 if the number is odd). Maybe the women with a 36+ measurement are simply overweight. My mother for example has a large band size, larger than me, but that is because she is overweight. I, on the other had, am thin and I don't see that measurement going below 32 inches ever. Same with my waist. In the presence of testosterone my trunk "widened" unlike that of a cisfemale. Now, when im in shape, I can easily have a 27 inch waist, heck i can squeeze into a 25! But, and this is a big but, I can never really go down from 27 inches because at that point I would not be cutting fat but muscle, bones, etc. Had I not been exposed to T, I am sure that I would have a much smaller waist, smaller rib cage, shoulder, etc. Now of course everyone is different but the poisoning I experienced through puberty can never be reversed

[LordKAT]

When my waist dropped below 28, I ended up in the hospital for malnutrition. I was also stronger than many of the  guys I worked with
as was the sister that did farm chores with me. My rib cage now is 40. My doc said it expanded from my breathing problems.  BTW, I didn't say band size, I said measurement around ribs. Mine was 36 and I was thin then.

[pebbles]

My breast growth has platued and no matter how you look at it I'm smaller than my mum and my sister in that department.

I've wondered if it had to do with the gain of mass and human growth hormones during the period of puberty. When your in your teens your body "wants" to build and develop, When you transition abit later your final mass has been largely set so you don't gain as much chest in development.

[Ms Grace]

I suppose I was thinking more about when cis girls start puberty, their rib cage/chest circumference would presumably be less than when they reach their later teen years and adulthood. Whereas most trans women start their female puberty in adulthood and unlike a teen cis girl are growing breasts from a much larger foundation than had they started as young teens themselves - which is what seems to make early growth sometimes seem a bit disappointing.

[LordKAT]

That makes sense, Grace.

[missy1992]

That makes sense, Grace.

Indeed it does. The HGH undoubtedly has an affect as well. For example, starting hormones in my late teens was somewhat of a blessing. I underwent a growth spurt (from 5'6 to almost 5'8!) and low and behold, my breasts grew most during this spurt, as did my hips! 

[Jenna Marie]

Yep. But of course those 12-year-old girls grow and get bigger in the rib cage too. So you're absolutely right that it doesn't *look* as big on a grown woman as on a girl, but I bet somewhere there are teen girls who developed late bemoaning the same thing!

The average bra size in the US is 36C... which means that a LOT of women must be at least a 36 band, and presumably there are as many who are bigger as smaller (since that's how averages work).

My wife is 37 inches under her bust and I'm 39. It's not a huge difference. We can both wear the same 38 bra in some styles, even. Those bra sizes aren't really in inches, or at least if they are the variation is ridiculous; there's no other explanation for how she can fit into anything from a 36 to a 42.

(Heck, I'm anything from a 38D to 42DDD depending on style. Bra size is a bad way of judging measurements.)

[Violet Bloom]

  Just to add some real-world observations, there's one girl at work who is so huge across the shoulders she could have been a linebacker if she wasn't 4'10".  She is an extreme inverted-triangle and quite heavy too with a very large bust.  Then there's another girl as tiny as a skinny 12-year old.  The variation is all there in real life whether we transwomen get judged fairly or judge ourselves fairly for the same attributes.

[Emmaline]

Yeah.  Sigh...   objectivity is a rare thing when your trans.  I have a few cisgirlfriends who I have charged with slapping me if I don't pass, make fashion faux pas and be brutally honest.  I am hoping that will work.