Susan's Place Transgender Resources

Just curious , I'm on my 22 month of HRT and I'm struggling with the simple task of twisting off bottle caps. I haven't had to open a pickle jar lately , but I think that might not be possible.

stephanie, it may not just be the hrt . I have a tough time with jar lids due to arthritis in my hands. Kitchen places such as Bed Bath & Beyond sell lots of gadgets to give a person better grip and leverage for opening jars and such..... not very pricey either.

Always have :P Its been one of the things I got called wuss or was called girl for not being able to do.

But the amout of guys said, I loosened it when it came to me being able to open pickles kinda makes up for it :P

well, I do have arthritis , but its more to do with the muscles now. I do need a jar opener though, last time I tried to open a pickle jar I almost gave up and threw it in the garbage, but I love pickles so I prevailed .

Tap the lid on the counter, turning the jar around so you tap all the way around. That usually does the job.

I just carried an old portable air conditioner down 3 flights of stairs. I have to say I'm glad I was going downstairs not up it was quite an exertion - I remember taking it up the same 3 flights fairly easily several years ago but wow, I really don't have the same strength I used to.

I'm sitting in a Subway sandwich shop with a bottle of minute made lemonade and tapping doesn't work it's sealed with that perforated plastic strip and I'm sitting with no one around and no muscle strength , but I did prevail.

My cis friend actually got annoyed when I was struggling to open a bottle of juice for our kids at a birthday party and she puched me out of the way and opened it herself  :embarrassed:

Mountain Dew bottle caps are my nemesis (even before I started HRT); those suckers are tight! As for other things like pickle jars, I just tap on the lid with the handle of a butter knife, or ask my husband to open it.  ;D

Oh, she's also a skinny 100 and nothing of a girl. I weigh more then 2 of her, was definitely a little frustrated at myself.

Confession: I was thrilled the first time I couldn't get a water bottle open. One of my male friends had to open it for me.

Sometimes I use a self-hypnosis trick. I picture I'm a muscle man, a real Charles Atlas type. I can feel the bulging he-man muscles on my body. I'll have no trouble opening that cap.

I find this helps a bit.

Any (bio) male taking female hormones will lose a lot of physical strength.  I'm sorry but that is the way it works.

The strength loss sort of sneaks up on you.  You go to open a bottle or lift something and it is somehow heavier than it should be.  I really noticed this when another TS and I were helping friends move. After everything was loaded and we were just talking someone commented that both my trans friend and I reacted the same way.  We'd go to lift something, make a surprised expression, then put our backs into the lift.

Welcome to the world of womanhood!

It's a little embarrassing when you struggle with a pop bottle , I'll have to start carrying around one of the elongated bottle openers

Stephaniec:

There is a devise that can open jar lids. Just slip it on the lid and move it over the lid til it becomes tight. I  bought it at Jewel, ace Hardware, or a dollar store. It does a very good job.
As far as bottle caps , maybe a pair of tongs will help.

It has a unique name   "Jar Opener"   no company name

have a nice day.

I dunno if you tried it this way, but there is a lot of torque in the "pit" between the thumb and index finger. Doing it that way, you actually twist it with your wrist instead of your fingers.

yea, that's not going to work for me, my wrists aren't in good shape from arthritis, but those tools will work because of the leverage, but it's going to be weird seeing me open a 20 oz coke bottle with a 6 in. device.

yes hrt will make you weaker, if you don't have a boy around there are plenty of devices to make things easier (ok that sounded dirty)

a trick with stubborn jars is get a butter knife and prise the lid till the seal pops, then it will open easily.

Not on hrt, but I often struggle to open plastic bags and other stuff. Hrt is going to bring that to a whole another level, but I will embrace it with thirst. So, it is good to have scissors and other tools that help open stuff.

Quote from: Serenation on August 09, 2015, 11:55:12 PM
a trick with stubborn jars is get a butter knife and prise the lid till the seal pops, then it will open easily.

I am using heavy plastic handle of a knife to bash jar's cap into submission, and there I usually add warning to watch out not to harm an eye or face. Be careful.

thanks for all the useful advice

Not the same as a bottle cap but we just got done putting in 1000 feet of fence for our horses (over the past 3 weeks).  I've had a horrible ache in my arms since that started that wouldn't have been there before.

We tried to get the job done with contractors but they were just way too expensive and the DIY'er in me took over lol.  I used to do this kind of stuff all the time without a second thought but yeah, I'm feeling it now that it's over (and I'm so glad that it's done!)

Bottle caps/jar lids irritate me too, especially when my wife asks if I want some help with them.  (Ok, yeah I usually hand them over)  :P