Effects on hands?

[BlueJaye]

Weird question, but I was wondering if anyone else noticed a change in their hands after starting MTF HRT?

I have been on Spiro and Estradiol for four weeks, and at about the two week mark I started noticing that the skin on my hands, especially palms and fingerprint areas, are softer and smoother. My wife has noticed it, too. She is pleased that my hands don't feel rough anymore.

I've also noticed a slight difference in tactile sensation of my fingertips. Nothing huge, but it does seem like I can feel finer textures and such than before. I can't see it visually, but I swear my hands and fingers feel more slender. Hard to describe. I see no difference visually, but if I wrap one hand around he other, it feels smaller than before.

[Mendi]

Yes, skin gets softer, everywhere, not just hands.

And before that happens, at least from me, the sense of touch changed. Now everything feels much much softer.

[Donna]

Don't know how quick it starts but you will start gaining a layer of fat under the skin. It makes the sense of touch change. The other thing is your sensation to temperature will change and wel as pain. Splashing bacon grease takes in a whole new meaning. My legs arms and all my skin feels softer. The face looks and feels softer and you will notice that tendons and veins etc will start to disappear in this skin change. They will not be so prominent with the new fat later trying to hide them

[Dani]

For me, it took just over a year of HRT to soften my skin. Most of the changes I attribute to losing muscle mass. Now it has been just over 3 years of HRT and the changes are really dramatic.

[Mendi]

Like said, your milage may vary...but the sense of touch change was really quick for me, few weeks with low dosage. I noticed it first from my dog, when I was so surprise, that she felt so soft 

Also, went to shower and started to scrub this body like before, with mad rage...and that hurt, badly!

So I don´t think the sense of touch is depended on fat distribution, someting else.

The softer skin was after month or two.

[KathyLauren]

Yes, softer skin everywhere is a normal and desirable effect of estrogen.  The timing for you sounds typical. 

It also gets drier.  It used to drive me crazy that, in winter, my wife would spend ten minutes rubbing lotion on her hands before coming to bed.  But this winter, I found myself doing the exact same thing!    (It's not so bad in summer, when the humiditiy is higher.)

[BlueJaye]

Yes, softer skin everywhere is a normal and desirable effect of estrogen.  The timing for you sounds typical. 

It also gets drier.  It used to drive me crazy that, in winter, my wife would spend ten minutes rubbing lotion on her hands before coming to bed.  But this winter, I found myself doing the exact same thing!    (It's not so bad in summer, when the humiditiy is higher.)

Thanks for the warning!

I expected softer skin, but honestly never considered that the palms of my hands would be softer. One of those areas of the body I gave no thought to. Arms, legs, face, etc. were all expected, but my hands kind of caught me by surprise.

[Donna]

Yes, softer skin everywhere is a normal and desirable effect of estrogen.  The timing for you sounds typical. 

It also gets drier.  It used to drive me crazy that, in winter, my wife would spend ten minutes rubbing lotion on her hands before coming to bed.  But this winter, I found myself doing the exact same thing!    (It's not so bad in summer, when the humiditiy is higher.)

Lol. I only wish about the humidity. It was 13 percent here today and my knuckles are like sandpaper and that's after lotion at lunch time.

[Jessica]

Your nails will become a bit more brittle also.  Biotin will help, but it will also make your body hair grow faster.

[Donna]

Thanks. My nails are the bane of my existence right now. The top layer is peeling off all of them and leaving them paper thin. I've had to cut them all way back.