As you might but probably don't know, I hate mine sooo much. There's literally never a day gone by where I don't repeatedly go into the bathroom to look at myself self-consciously. I just googled differences in male and female skelectons to see if there's a clear difference in shoulder-to-hip ratio.... it doesn't seem like there's much actually, aside from one being smaller. I also see a ton of ftm's and female bodybuilders who have their shoulders just like, shoot wide past their hips. I'm just curious, what happened with you, and how happy are you with the results?
I lost some upper body mass and that helped a lot. I'm fairly happy with my current ratio, my shape is better than a lot of cis women, especially at my advanced age.
I've been told by a couple people today that my shoulders and hips are roughly the same width, and i know they weren't before i started... I gained 2-3 inches on my hips and lots LOTS of muscle on my shoulders...
Quote from: silly by the seashore on December 07, 2012, 10:33:28 PM
I lost some upper body mass and that helped a lot. I'm fairly happy with my current ratio, my shape is better than a lot of cis women, especially at my advanced age.
OMG, I better get a shovel and start digging my grave, since I'm six years older than you!
Quote from: Jamie D on December 08, 2012, 04:24:57 AM
OMG, I better get a shovel and start digging my grave, since I'm six years older than you!
Just be careful and don't break a hip, ok? :P
There are a few things to consider.
There's the skeleton, which won't appreciably change with post-pubertal HRT. While the skeletal systems of young children are more or less identical across sex, there are noticeable differences once the two sexes have gone through puberty. By far, the greatest level of sexual dimorphism in the human skeleton is observed in the pelvis. This is the trait most often used to determine the sex of skeletons. This is a really rough way of putting it, since it's not quite this simple, but yes, the pelvis of a person who matured as female will be wider than a person who matured as a male. That contributes slightly to the "wider hips" of women.
But the difference in width is not really enormous. The biggest differences in the male and female pelvis are other things. And with most other parts of the skeleton, there are large numbers of people who stray into the proportion ranges of the other gender (in other words, the ranges have significant overlap). So skeletal proportions are not something which, by themselves, observers flag as out of the ordinary.
The major difference in body definition is down to two things: body fat and muscle mass. Muscle mass definitely has a huge hormonal component. Men are far more prone to accumulating muscle mass in the upper body. This is why even dedicated female body builders never develop quite the mass you see in their male bodybuilder counterparts. So yes, when you are on HRT and antiandrogens, you will begin to significantly lose this upper body muscle mass after a few months. You will have less chest, shoulder, and arm muscle definition, and you will generally appear "smaller" above the waist.
Body fat distribution also has a very large hormonal component. Women naturally accumulate large amounts of fat on the hips, while having almost none around the waist (the smallest diameter part of the torso, generally). Likewise, while glandular tissue makes up some of the volume of female breasts, most of it is also fat. Fat distribution is what primarily creates a woman's "hourglass" shape and fills out her feminine features. This will naturally change on hormones.
Bottom line, you should see a marked improvement. Most of the things that need to change, will change. And the things that don't? They shouldn't be a big-enough issue to raise red flags by themselves.
If this is a big concern of yours, I would recommend you begin the process in a fair degree of physical fitness, as having correct body fat distribution is a big component of appearing female below the neck (well, depending on how you choose to dress). Women, and this is primarily a hormonal difference, have a much more difficult time shedding body fat than men. This is especially true of areas not typically used for fat storage in women. So it would be easier to lose it now than after-the-fact.
Like I read at Susan's my fat did move around -and not only in my face- :laugh:
So, while my shoulder width has not changed, my band went from 42 to 38, and I sport a perky-peky 38 cup -no punt intended- :laugh:
My waist remains a solid 30 but my butt (hip) has increased from 36 to 40
So yeah 2 1/2 years on spiro and 15 months in estro have change my figure!
I was lucky to have very narrow shoulders for a guy. My hips continue to fill out, about a year of HRT and I have a fairly curvy body now.
I was a 42" chest, 31" waist and my thighs were prob 38.. I am 36" 27" 36"
Quote from: silly by the seashore on December 08, 2012, 08:43:03 AM
Just be careful and don't break a hip, ok? :P
Watch out there! That's a touchy subject for those of us in the over-50 crowd.
Youngsters! >:(
Quote from: Jamie D on December 09, 2012, 01:39:39 PM
Watch out there! That's a touchy subject for those of us in the over-50 crowd.
Youngsters! >:(
I'm sorry, I'll try to respect my elders better in the future. :)