Hey everyone! I wanted to know how long it took to see reduction in the muscles in the upper body, primary the shoulders/upper arms? I've been on hormones for 3 months consecutively now and 6 months intermittently but haven't really seen any change in muscle size yet. Should I be worried? With my endo appointment coming up on Wednesday, I should be seeing some blood work soon. The last time I had blood work, at the end of the first three months, everything was within perfect female levels.
Worry is overrated. I began to melt about nine months on, and the pace was pretty rapid and amazing to me once it began. Got to purge the metabolites of testosterone, and then be patient. You'll be wherever your body decides it belongs beginning within a few months, and the changes will continue for a few years. I'm still changing thirty months into HRT, and I hope the feminization continues for a while yet. Once nature is done, it gets expensive. ;)
Julie
Ya know what? I haven't really noticed my shoulders get smaller although when I put on jackets that used to be tight on the back, they aren't tight anymore. From the side I think it's evident that my back has gotten smaller as it has a feminine curve now but the shoulders I didn't really notice but rather just sort of realized over time randomly. Also, my friend randomly told me once that he noticed that my shoulders look smaller now. Im honestly not sure though because I visually see no difference but my clothes & friend have told me otherwise :p Just be patient. Let the hormones do their work & just go about your daily lives :) That's the best advice I can give
Edit - I was never big to begin with though honestly. I never wanted to workout because of fear of getting muscley. I had the strength of a girl to begin & now I'm even weaker :(
For me, loss of muscle mass has been probably the most dramatic effect of going on HRT. I combined HRT with an extremely low cal diet, and for a while, a very intense aerobic workout about 4 times a week. I have lost 70 pounds in 9 months. Some of that was fat, but I lost a lot of upper body muscle, especially in the chest and shoulders.
I have observed the younger you start transformation the better results over less a time, along with directed exercise as suggested by April Lee.
I started very late in life (very late forties) and been on for 10 ~ 11 years... slow process, but my boobs make clothes little tighter... not measured my shoulders... bit late now ;) Body and limb muscles have reduced, very noticeably in upper arms 8) and unfortunately my Ab's... not that I ever wanted rippling Ab's, downside (through laziness) is a slight bit of a muffin top :'(
It should come to fruition for you
L Katy
I was L size before and now I am firmly into S size, mostly dropped because of shoulder width reduction. Shoulders were one of my highest concerns before I was weighting up my options, but they lost a couple of inches from both sides (I was about 20 inches in width and now am about 16 2/3 inches.
Here are my results so far
https://www.susans.org/forums/index.php/topic,168444.msg1569093.html#msg1569093 (https://www.susans.org/forums/index.php/topic,168444.msg1569093.html#msg1569093)
and I have seen by far more dramatic transformations, but I am not really complaining atm. Sure, I do look as athletic female, maybe a bit over-athletic, but the reduction keeps occuring and cutting down on meat and animal proteins while maintaining cardio exercise does help (when I still had high T levels, I was jogging 9 km per day 4-5 times per week, but now I am exercising by doing shorter yet more intense runs).