Not So Sure MTFs Lose That Much Strength on HRT

[Myself]

I lost a lot of strength.. although I didn't have much to begin with either!

Several years ago when I was about 16 or 17, I built the TV stand in our living room and lifted the huge 32 or 34 inch heavy (old type) tv on it!

last week I was at some house who hosted me so I can go to a meeting, there was an ftm there.
He brought a TV to the balcony to play with his playstation outside.

He lifted it easy!!! I tried, just to see what happens and I couldn't even get it a cm over the table.

One of my best friend had arm wrestling with me just to see how much I lost and I lost with two hands.

And my mother can lift things heavier than I can :X

One year on anti-androgens, 3 weeks on estrogens!

[Nero]

i'm still having problems with jars. 

[Stealthgrrl]

i'm still having problems with jars. 

Try pitching it against the wall. It will open the jar and you can strut and roll your shoulders and tilt your chin and say, "damn straight!"

[gothique11]

I know that I've lost a lot, and muscle mass.

I've never been able to open jars. o_0

[DawnL]

I lost significant strength, at least a 50% reduction in the weights I can lift.  However, it may have been self-inflicted to some degree because I stopped lifting weights during transition and let the muscle mass slip away.  As a consequence, I have fairly skinny arms that look quite feminine.

I still seem to be able to lift more weight than comparably sized women and this may be a psychological thing.  Some women buy into the weaker sex thing and don't believe they can lift heavy things.  Males are more conditioned to believe they can.

[dyssonance]

I lost a huge amount of strength, both in terms of single muscle power and also my overall strength in leveraging my body.

I've reached that two year point on hormones, myself. 

Oh wow, lol.  I reached that point *last year*.

And *just* realized it as I wrote that.  Hell, I'm going on three years...

In any case (sorry for the personal moment there), my strength levels in upper body are about a third of what they once were, and I've been trying to reclaim some of that back, since it interferes with some of the stuff I'm trying to do to earn money (like yard work on houses being staged for sale).

And yes, given I use pickles to soothe my yearning for salt...

DARN THOSE PICKLE JARS!

[Alex_C]

I think you gals may end up weaker than you were as guys, but still kick-ass girls. There's size, haight, and muscle memory on your side. To give an idea on that last thing, I took a windsurfing course a few years ago, and got down in one end of Shoreline Park's lake there where the wind blows noobs and I didn't want the embarassment of having to walk it out or have the guys come get me with the Boston Whaler, so I decided to use the "rescue" drill we'd learned, put the sail down on my legs and just paddle the board. Now, windsurfers for beginners are big ol' honkin' heavy-ass boards, and I'd not surfed since I was 17 - I was 44 or 45 years old at the time. And surfboard-paddling is a very awkward method of locomotion. But I'd done it like crazy from ages 5-17 and apparently years I'm sad of say of sedentary life and non-paddling seemed to make no difference. I motored out of there like I was being towed, to the astonishment of fellow students I passed, and could have paddled for hours. Good old muscle memory.

So I'd not want to get into a fight or even a shoving match with any of y'all lol.

[Julie Marie]

I really think a lot of our "superiority" in sports and "lifting heavy things" when compared to women with similar size and talent has to do with the conditioning of growing up male.  While I was being pushed to play sports, show my strength and do "guy" things, my sisters could be inactive and never hear a word of criticism from my dad.  I saw that in a lot of other families too.

Along the way I realized I can do a lot of things I probably would have never done had I not been pushed into it.

I know I can hit a 3 metal 320 yards because I've done it.  And all I got from my playing partners was "nice drive".  So when I get up and hit a drive 250 today, I'm not all that impressed with myself.  But your average 58 year old woman amateur would be ecstatic.  It's all relative.

I also think body type plays a lot of importance in strength and what you keep after transitioning.  I'm mostly mesomorph and I've lost very little strength.  I know girls who are more endomorph or ectomorph and they not only lost strength but size too.  I don't think I've lost any size at all.  My triceps look twice the size of Julie's, who is primarily ectomorph.

That's my unofficial, unscientific opinion based on my myopic view of the world.   

Julie

[Alex_C]

There *is* a solidness of muscle even in men who don't work out, that's different from women. I guess strength does go down quite a bit.

[Julie Marie]

The more I think about this, the more I'm convinced it's attitude.  Julie and I just got back from playing a round today.  I don't know why but I felt confident I could hit the ball like I used to 10-15 years ago, long before the first drop of E ever entered my system.

What happened was I hit the ball better, but not consistently.  I can forgive the inconsistency because I'm still recovering from surgery and I'm still very rusty.  But when I hit the ball like I used to, I actually hit it longer, except off the tee.  From the fairway I was one club shorter than I previously have been.  A 138 yd par 3 would have had me taking out a 7 iron.  Instead I hit an 8 just below the hole.  My 8 iron from 15 years ago would have been good at around 130 yards.  And yes, I still have the same irons I had then.

This defies the whole "as you get older" and "once you go on E" theory.  I've done both and, from what I'm seeing, I'm going the other way! 

Oh hell, why should I be surprised?  I've never fit into any 'norm' in my life.   

But why this means so much to me is it's like a fountain of youth.  The surgeries, the job loss, and the other losses, have left me feeling pretty devastated.  Now I'm starting to do something I used to do as good or better than I did in the past, against all odds.  Instead of feeling like I'm getting old and dying, I feel like I'm getting a second chance at life.  Not bad...

Julie

[Renate]

Testosterone heavily influences stamina, strength and libido.
Natal women normally have about a tenth as much testosterone as men.
It is produced by the adrenal cortex.
There are cases of women having low testosterone and it manifests itself as low stamina, strength and libido.
Sometimes testosterone gel is prescribed.

I have very low stamina, strength and libido.
I don't know my actual testosterone level as my endocrinologist did not see fit to measure it in the battery of blood tests he performed.

Yes, my strength has decreased drastically.
No, I don't play golf.