Do the changes ever stop?

[SpeakYourMind]

My friend asked me a good question a while back she asked me how long i'd be on testosterone and i told her my entire life and then she asked if there is a certain time in my life where the changes will stop, and that part of the question i'm uncertain of  so when do the changes stop or slow down?

[Dena]

In both genders, changes happen all your life. Men might lose more hair, and their face may become more masculine than they were as a young adult. Sometimes I see pictures of men who served in WWII and then I see them as old men. Besides age, their faces show other signs of age. Women also have a more mature look to them where the feminine features are more define. These changes take place over many years but I think they continue to happen.

[kinz]

Like Dena says, change is an inevitable part of being human, which doesn't exclude changes that occur due to aging and due to the specific effects of hormones on aging. So no, the changes don't ever stop, but at a certain point there's no real distinction between "the changes happening because of the hormones" and "the changes happening because of you", because both of those are the same thing and have been for a long time.

[Kylo]

My friend asked me a good question a while back she asked me how long i'd be on testosterone and i told her my entire life and then she asked if there is a certain time in my life where the changes will stop, and that part of the question i'm uncertain of  so when do the changes stop or slow down?

If you mean how long will it before T will have done all of the changes it is going to do to make you male about 5 years apparently.

Unlike most cis people those of us on HRT may not experience falling hormone levels with age because we can give ourselves the hormones, for life. Can't do anything about ageing though. Some people never go bald etc. - that's down to genetics mostly it seems

[FTMax]

It takes about 5 years to maximize the effects of T. So while you may still see minor changes after that point, they will most likely not be new changes but rather further progression of things you have already experienced.

Example: You might be able to grow facial hair on T by 5 years. But your beard may continue to fill in or expand more after that point.

[SpeakYourMind]

Like Dena says, change is an inevitable part of being human, which doesn't exclude changes that occur due to aging and due to the specific effects of hormones on aging. So no, the changes don't ever stop, but at a certain point there's no real distinction between "the changes happening because of the hormones" and "the changes happening because of you", because both of those are the same thing and have been for a long time.

Yes i get that but changes of the human body is one thing
Changes due to medication is another, (Even though its still the human body) there has to be a slower point doesn't their?
I guess i don't comprehend this. 
Bare with with me example: You get older and you'll change but the body does that anyways
with med's theres gotta be a point where things slow down because most the changes and effects it does to the body has been completed. Or am i not getting something?

[SpeakYourMind]

It takes about 5 years to maximize the effects of T. So while you may still see minor changes after that point, they will most likely not be new changes but rather further progression of things you have already experienced.

Example: You might be able to grow facial hair on T by 5 years. But your beard may continue to fill in or expand more after that point.

Yes that solves my curiosity and that's more along the lines of what i was trying to grasp
thank you max.

[SpeakYourMind]

If you mean how long will it before T will have done all of the changes it is going to do to make you male about 5 years apparently.

Unlike most cis people those of us on HRT may not experience falling hormone levels with age because we can give ourselves the hormones, for life. Can't do anything about ageing though. Some people never go bald etc. - that's down to genetics mostly it seems

Thank you kylo yes, that's what i was wondering. Also solves my curiosity and helps me explain.

[Dena]

Yes i get that but changes of the human body is one thing
Changes due to medication is another, (Even though its still the human body) there has to be a slower point doesn't their?
I guess i don't comprehend this. 
Bare with with me example: You get older and you'll change but the body does that anyways
with med's theres gotta be a point where things slow down because most the changes and effects it does to the body has been completed. Or am i not getting something?

The bulk of the changes should complete in 5-10 years but minor changes will continue throughout your life. Aging is complex with more than one factor resulting in an older appearance. Skin sagging, weight gain, additional hormone action and sun exposure all work to product the aged appearance. It can be hard to determine what factor resulted in an appearance change.

[Raell]

I was surprised to read how Native American Indians routinely lived to 120, without losing hearing, vision acuity, strength, etc. At 120, they'd have a ceremony, tell everyone good-bye, lie down on top of a hill, and voluntarily die.

I read that on reservations this is still common.

The Indians 200 years ago generally ate sporadically; when they made a kill, everyone would feast on the spot, often on raw meat and organs, then maybe not eat for another five days. Some tribes grew gardens and most dug roots and ate wild food that was available, dried meat, but other tribes semi-starved over the winter and anyone not strong enough, died.

But, if not killed in battle or while hunting, or starving, most lived very long, healthy lives, with few aging problems.

I read a stack of books on Indian captives and was surprised to learn that if not recaptured by their families within 6 months, these Caucasian kids would be totally turned to Indian ways. The army scout men who returned them, often had to "capture" the children again, since the kids didn't want to leave their new Indian families, usually could no longer speak or understand English (past SIX MONTHS), and even if returned to their families the children would no longer accept their lifestyle.

They could make a weapon out of anything in minutes, ride and control any horse, no matter how wild, shoot arrows, or throw knives with deadly accuracy, and do supernatural things like make game animals appear, control the weather, tell the future, heal animals and people from a distance with their minds.

They usually refused to live indoors or eat cooked food, and continued their Indian lifestyles, sleeping on the ground outdoors year around, and usually escaping back to their Indians families at the first opportunity, or after they were old enough to make their own choices.

Few ever cared about making money or harming the land with ploughing, and most spent their lives outdoors.

Strangely, these white people ALSO lived to 120 years without loss of strength, sight, hearing, etc., so it had little to do with DNA.

[Dena]

I am not sure about the starving part. Jerky was a common way of preserving anything they killed. Organ meat would be eaten fresh as it couldn't be preserved and the muscle turned into Jerky. Western indians could gather seeds but also farmed a number of crops including corn. Eastern indian had a larger selection of food but still farmed. The primary thing that I think extended their life was a minimal intake of carbohydrates as they lived on a more protein rich/fat diet from animals and seeds. They tend to develop diabetes on a western diet because their body is unable to handle the excessive amount of sugar/carbs that we commonly consume. It also didn't hurt that they had a far more active life style so they tended not to put on excessive weight.

[FTMax]

I was surprised to read how Native American Indians routinely lived to 120, without losing hearing, vision acuity, strength, etc. At 120, they'd have a ceremony, tell everyone good-bye, lie down on top of a hill, and voluntarily die.

I read that on reservations this is still common.

The Indians 200 years ago generally ate sporadically; when they made a kill, everyone would feast on the spot, often on raw meat and organs, then maybe not eat for another five days. Some tribes grew gardens and most dug roots and ate wild food that was available, dried meat, but other tribes semi-starved over the winter and anyone not strong enough, died.

But, if not killed in battle or while hunting, or starving, most lived very long, healthy lives, with few aging problems.

I read a stack of books on Indian captives and was surprised to learn that if not recaptured by their families within 6 months, these Caucasian kids would be totally turned to Indian ways. The army scout men who returned them, often had to "capture" the children again, since the kids didn't want to leave their new Indian families, usually could no longer speak or understand English (past SIX MONTHS), and even if returned to their families the children would no longer accept their lifestyle.

They could make a weapon out of anything in minutes, ride and control any horse, no matter how wild, shoot arrows, or throw knives with deadly accuracy, and do supernatural things like make game animals appear, control the weather, tell the future, heal animals and people from a distance with their minds.

They usually refused to live indoors or eat cooked food, and continued their Indian lifestyles, sleeping on the ground outdoors year around, and usually escaping back to their Indians families at the first opportunity, or after they were old enough to make their own choices.

Few ever cared about making money or harming the land with ploughing, and most spent their lives outdoors.

Strangely, these white people ALSO lived to 120 years without loss of strength, sight, hearing, etc., so it had little to do with DNA.

What does any of this have to do with the original question?

[kinz]

Yes i get that but changes of the human body is one thing
Changes due to medication is another, (Even though its still the human body) there has to be a slower point doesn't their?
I guess i don't comprehend this. 
Bare with with me example: You get older and you'll change but the body does that anyways
with med's theres gotta be a point where things slow down because most the changes and effects it does to the body has been completed. Or am i not getting something?

To put it another way...after about four years on hormones, in the last couple years my perception is that other factors (like weight gain/loss) have had a greater effect on my appearance than the simple effect of the hormones alone. This suggests to me that I've reached some kind of "stable" state for my body. Obviously, if I stopped taking hormones, I would age differently, I'd get early osteoporosis, and so on. But as long as I stay on them, the aging that I experience is certainly different, but it also seems weird to assign every change that happens to my body to hormones when at this point, I've reached a new normal. Like others have said, any changes after that point feel different in that they're not really part of the "puberty" involved in transitioning, but just a typical part of being an adult with a particular kind of hormone mix.