how severe is the loss of strength on HRT?

[cindy16]

Although I am still far away from starting HRT, I had this question come up in my mind as I was carrying some groceries home today.

I have read that HRT for MtFs causes loss of muscle mass and upper body strength, which is desirable but I was just wondering how much it may affect my daily chores. I know it would vary from person to person, so maybe I'll just specify where I stand currently.

I have been mostly mesomorphic all my life, and my BMI as an adult has varied from ~22 at the end of teen years to ~28 a few years ago, but I neither looked 'skinny' at one extreme nor 'fat' at the other. I have never been too muscular either, and am generally worse at sports and most physical activities than most cis males around me. Despite this, I am able to do most of the usual chores around the house like lifting stuff, opening jars etc much more easily than my wife who weighs just 2/3rd of what I weigh. However, I am worried about becoming much weaker than I currently am and finding it hard to do even this basic stuff.

Also, what about strength and endurance in the rest of the body? e.g. I am not very physically active to begin with, but I have had many occasions when I walked 6-7 miles or more in a day or one where I drove for ~15 hours at a stretch. Will such things also become difficult on HRT?

In both cases, is it possible to maintain strength through the right exercises and diet etc? Another sort of related question - how does this loss of strength affect your self-perception of being vulnerable in public, something which may anyway be greater because of being trans and/or now being perceived as the 'weaker' gender?

[alexis.j]

Well, for me, pre hrt. i was very strong, could pick up very heavy things, and could do heavy physical work. Never had huge muscles though, but i did have the strength!
Now, wanting to lose most of my muscles due to being rather large framed, i tried to avoid as much physical activity as possible after starting hrt. Now, 10 months later, I am VERY much weaker, and if I do try exerting myself by picking up something a bit heavy, or picking something up incorrectly, i suffer for a day or two afterwards.

So, for me, YES, i have gotten substantially weaker...
Others have said, continue working out after starting hrt to keep some of your strength.
I did not, and this is where i am now, but i am not complaining at all.

[mfox]

Definitely noticeably weaker here on HRT.  To me it feels like the extra/reserve strength I had naturally without excercise (could use occasionally) is gone, but daily tasks are still OK. 

[Jenna Marie]

I actually didn't lose that much strength, and I stopped weightlifting for a time around when I started HRT so I also don't know how much is attributable to that.

Cis women typically have greater lower body strength than cis men, and I did actually *gain* some leg strength; helped with cycling.

[JustASeq]

I have experienced noticeable loss of muscle mass, but not a whole lot of strength (I think ). I do still skateboard and play guitar regularly so my arms and legs are what is exercised the most. I am also only about 8 1/2 months on HRT. Here is some pics for comparison of my arms....
       Pre-HRT                      About 5 month on HRT

[Ashley1212]

Thanks for askng this Cindy. I was wondering the same thing. I asked a similar question in the fitness sections. My was alittle more on short term effects. First three months mainly.
Ashley

[Cindy]

Leg strength has not changed, I can walk for ever. Upper body - gone! I tried to lift 30kilos the other day. No way could I move it, I use to lift that easily. 3 years on HRT.

[V M]

I lost quite bit of physical strength as the result of a bicycle VS car accident, but most of the muscle mass melted away after starting HRT though and so now I have breasts and girly arms

[cindy16]

Thanks a lot everyone for the replies.

It is reassuring to know that leg strength doesn't change, and interesting that cis women have more of it than cis men.
Regarding upper body strength, well I went to the gym a while back and tried to see how much I can lift. I struggle with 30 kg weights but can exercise with 20 kg ones at least for a while, if not a full regimen.

@ JustASeq: My arms are already leaner than even your post-HRT pic, which is why I am a little worried.

[AnonyMs]

That leg strength doesn't change or that women could have more leg strength than men didn't fit my preconceived notions about male and female, so I did a quick bit of research. It seems to be a bit complicated so I'm not totally sure of what I read, but I also don't want spend hours on it (sorry).

It appears that men have more leg strength than women in absolute terms, but by muscle mass women do a bit better than men. Men just have a lot more muscle. The gap in arm strength is also much larger than leg strength. I'd guess its not noticeable because you don't normally exert your full leg strength.

To quote the book below

"Adult females on average have about 56% of the static strength values of adult males in upper-body locations, about 64% in trunk strength, and about 72% in lower body locations"

and

"Thus in leg strength to lean body mass female performance actually exceeded that of males."

Exercise Physiology for Health Fitness and Performance
By Sharon A. Plowman, Denise L. Smith

I managed to find pages 559-660 of this book with google, at books.google.com and some long url after that.

The title of the section "The influence of Age and Sex on Muscle Function" and there's 2 nice charts showing the frequency distribution for leg press and bench press values for males and females before and after a training program.

[cindy16]

@ AnonyMs, thanks for the information. I had anyway interpreted it as relative and not absolute strength, but more importantly, from a practical point of view, it was just nice to hear that walking / running / cycling is not as affected by HRT as lifting weights etc.

[Maegan]

I have lost quite a lot of strength during my 3 years on HRT. I made a joke of myself recently trying to do a pull-up. Epic FAIL!!
As Cindy said, walking for me is not an issue. Picking up heavy things, no way. I tried picking up my hi-fi speakers to move them to another room but eventually resorted to putting each one on a little mat and just sliding them across the floor.

I also try to do as little upper body exercise as possible so as not to build any muscles.

Huggs

Maegan

[Sammy]

I was not particularly muscular pre-HRT, but somehow I had a lot of strength - exercises with weights about 18kg (biceps) or 30kg (lifting) per hand were never difficult for me, it just for some reason I could never get extra muscle mass. Now, I still can replace that 20l water jug, but I need to be careful with that cause it can easily set me off the balance (i.e. I am doing this more with my entire body instead of using only arms - as previously). I can still do two pull-ups (one clean and one with cheating), my jogging performance has dropped, but I run much more steady now instead of going for crazy exhausting spurts. I have not noticed that HRT has affected my cycling performance though.
And jars can be nasty .
I did a couple of exercises with male and female friends out of curiousity - my male friend who used to be weaker, now is much stronger than I am (and he looks bigger psychologically-wise). And I am still much stronger upper-body wise than athletic genetic female - she had no chances in armwrestling and I was not even using my full strenght (the guy, in comparison, took me down in a matter of seconds, whereas years ago it used to be quite a struggle often ending with tie). 

[Cindy]

Well to give an example, I stii go to the gym three days a week. I use to load my press machines with 100 k. Pick 40 k at at a time to load on? I struggle with 20k. The guys just help me out.  I just say please someone load my machine, I think they may have accepted me? My top machines are down to 70k. My legs are 90k. Of course these are machines. Dead weight is different.

As for groceries? Don't start. Try changing a tire!

Change a tire in high heels! Should be compulsory!

[Maegan]

Change a tire in high heels! Should be compulsory!

Been there, done that. And, it was a tyre on an SUV. I did not have the strength to put the tyre back on the 5th door at the back. The tyre rode on the back seat.

[V M]

With as much as most SUV's cost, shouldn't they be able to change their own tires?

[Ms Grace]

I think I have lost strength in my upper body but I was never that strong to begin with. Still, I've been playing tennis again recently after a hiatus of several years. I can't say I'm playing any differently but I probably am.

[cindy16]

Thanks again everyone.
@ Emily and Cindy: Ok I am embarrassing myself now, but I think I am already at the levels both of you are at post-HRT, despite me being taller and heavier. At least from whatever gym-related details I could understand. Regarding other tasks like changing tires, sports, pull-ups, arm wrestling, no to each one of them. I just avoid all of that mostly.
@ Emily: That 20L water jug can be a pain even now, and I only manage it using my entire body, not arms alone.

I don't know if this means that the effects will be lesser since I have less to begin with, or it will get much worse? 

[Sammy]

Thanks again everyone.
I don't know if this means that the effects will be lesser since I have less to begin with, or it will get much worse? 

Let me put it this way You wont feel those changes that much drastically - does that sound better? Probably it is .
And about that 20 L jug, I noticed one peculiar detail - if I try carrying it round in my arm, it becomes painful, but once I pull it up and set it on my shoulder, it becomes manageable - I can even walk up to 5th floor with that one and my arms dont hurt afterwards - so making a difference with things we are struggling with is about choosing the right tools and approaches. And sometimes it requires to change the way of thinking .

[Rachel]

My upper body muscle and strength are greatly reduced. My thighs are somewhat reduced and more lean.

I walk with a pack and have a trainer and destroy my core once a week. I will be dong 2 additional core routines weekly, less intense starting Saturday.

I was just looking at the arms of the girls at group last night. Those on hormones for a while all have thin arms.