I have a couple of trans friends who are in their mid-30s who started hormones back around the year 2008ish, and they both say that they're still seeing improvements even 4+ years after starting hormones... namely in the form of their fat distribution looking more and more womanly with each passing year.
Speaking realistically here, the way that fat redistribution works is not that fat is stored in different places as you gain and lose weight... it happens when fat cells die and are replaced, which happens at a rate of about 10% per year. When a fat cell dies, hormones play a part in deciding where a new fat cell will be born, so slowly fat repositions itself to more feminine areas. So it takes a LONG time for all of the fat cells in the body to die and replace themselves in gender-appropriate areas. It also depends on age and health, since younger healthier bodies tend to be better at repairing themselves than older or less healthy bodies.
To the person who said that lipo transfer is unnecessary, though... here's the thing. Cis women still have a biological advantage since at the time they're going through puberty, their bodies are still growing. So new fat cells are being born not only to replace dying ones, but also because the body is still adding fat cells as it grows to its adult height and weight. We're usually already at our adult height and weight when starting hormones, so we still have a bit of a disadvantage there. Also, even though our fat cells do eventually come very close to cis women in terms of where the fat is stored after many years, we will still inevitably have a slight disadvantage in bone structure, which makes our feminine fat stand out a bit less. Boobs look smaller on a bigger frame, even if ours are technically the same volume, and hips and butt stand out less when you have a narrower pelvis and wider upper body. So yes, our fat distribution is, for all practical purposes, female in the same way that a cis woman's is female. It just might take a little longer and not look quite as traditionally-feminine though, even though it's the same fat in the same area.
