Susan's Place Transgender Resources

I'm afraid, they just feel overly wide, masculine, and angular... My hips look really nice, but I feel they are eclipsed by my shoulders. What should I do?

Hello, you can try either larger breast forms with ones that give you more to the side under the arms as this will make your shoulders look smaller, I am broad too, or you could try long hair that cover your shoulders to hide some of them. Clothing can make a big difference to the way you look when you are broad I have the same problem, but remember we all come in different shape and sizes so with what looks good and be proud.

And how wide exactly they are? Chances with HRT and dieting might be that You will actually loose a lot - there have been amazing transformations of people changing from scary bodybuilders into delicate yet athletic looking girls :).

How many years have you been on HRT? Because it takes time (a LOT) before the upper body muscle mass reduces significantly. Another thing is fat deposition, masculine and feminine pattern in upper arms and overall upper body area are also very different. And all those changes doesn't happen quickly. You can't change structure underneath, but you can experiment how diet changes your body, losing some weight, and gaining some weight, and observe the differences.

You can also remedy this by knowing what to wear :)

V necks, Dolman, Scoop type tops would flatter your body type. Put more emphasis with the bottom part of your body wear a lot of printed pants and colorful shoes :)
Boot cut jeans will give you an instant curve .

Avoid skinny jeans or anything that will make your bottom half skinnier.

Clothing works wonders to put more emphasis away from the areas you see as problems. I have the broad shoulders problem too, but I wasn't really too worried about it. I know a few female bodybuilders that have broader shoulders than me and they pass just fine :)

Quote from: mmmmm on April 13, 2015, 03:03:45 PM
How many years have you been on HRT? Because it takes time (a LOT) before the upper body muscle mass reduces significantly. Another thing is fat deposition, masculine and feminine pattern in upper arms and overall upper body area are also very different. And all those changes doesn't happen quickly. You can't change structure underneath, but you can experiment how diet changes your body, losing some weight, and gaining some weight, and observe the differences.

^this, like I finally saw a change in my shoulders at around 2-2.5 years in and I had little muscle mass to begin with. My shoulders have finally fully rounded out at 3 years, plus my band size went down too.

Also stick to wide strapped tops/dresses, they help minimize your shoulders by a lot. Its best to avoid spaghetti strap styles if you're trying to minimize your shoulders. 

In my case shoulders were the first ones to shrink - it took hardly a year for them to go down from 20" to ~16", so all my L size male clothing became literally useless (now I am somewhere in female M size).
Oh, and having wide shoulders was one of the biggest worries which I had, because I kept looking in the mirror and just could not see even a hint of female body frame in that person.
Here is linkie showing short and kinda rough timeline https://www.susans.org/forums/index.php/topic,168444.msg1602374.html#msg1602374 (https://www.susans.org/forums/index.php/topic,168444.msg1602374.html#msg1602374)
So yes, they can and will go, but that will be a slow process which will heavily depend on Your genes and personal investments (diet, crazy cardio etc).

I've only been on HRT for about 11 weeks. Still though, I thought shoulders didn't change at all? Is this just one of those things that you're lucky to see if you start young enough?

Bone structure (your skeleton) is generally constant or unchanging but you will experience some minor changes due to the changes your body (muscles and ligaments) will experience during HRT which will mainly be imperceptible.  The big changes that will cause your shoulders to shrink will be the loss of mass in that area mainly due to shrinkage of your muscles due to the absence of testosterone.  It will take time but unless you are super lean you should shrink in the shoulder area.

Quote from: Jean24 on April 14, 2015, 03:08:46 AM
I've only been on HRT for about 11 weeks. Still though, I thought shoulders didn't change at all? Is this just one of those things that you're lucky to see if you start young enough?

The bones wont change but if we look at average male and average female, the bone width is in pretty close range (that's why we can see men with narrow shoulders and women with broader ones) - it's the upper body bulk from various muscles which adds that perception of "broadness" which we rarely see even in athletic females (look up Eve Gracie (ex Torres) if You want to see an example - she is cis, very attractive and extremely fit, being in very good shape as a top Brazilian jiu-jitsu fighter - look how broad her shoulders are, yet they do not seem to be out of proportion, because muscles are lean not bulky).

I have no hips or butt and fair-sized shoulders, so I have found that empire-style dress that flair out as they go below the breasts do a fantastic jobs at creating an illusion that I have a more feminine shape. Anyway that you can get your hip area to be larger than your shoulder area through clothing is helpful...

Also, girls have all types of bodies!

Bone structure does not change, however depending on your body structure, endo and other things you could lose heaps of muscle and redistribution with HRT you may not have a problem after a year or so anyway.

I am late in life and after many years have managed (circumference) shoulders 105cm, under bust 90cm and hips around 99cm... But you know what it's always changing for me...

Butt has not gained much, but my lower back has arched in nicely over time

L Katy