More details about what happened when for me before I went on finasteride. So these are unimpeded changes on the so-called full dose--after an early menopause, so I guess my T didn't have as much estrogen to fight off. I was doing injections. I started off with biweekly but began doing weekly at a certain point. I started transition at forty-six. I am fifty now. I have been on T for three years and nine months.
I've been combing through my old journal and checking my video log. My voice was not really female anymore by three months in, and now I think that my voice was really more in the androgynous zone at that point. It's hard to tell. But before five months in, I was "passing" consistently, so my voice was good enough. My therapist said that I was in tenor range, and he should know; he is a singer.
I started seeing some downstairs growth in the first two weeks. I called it "a bit of growth--not a microphallus yet."
After nearly five months on T, I wrote up a progress report.
I had more downstairs growth, and my orgasms were much more intense than before. My fat was still redistributing to my belly. I had picked up some body hair (arms, legs), but not as much as I wanted, and the growth was a bit uneven. I had had a few stray hairs on my chest, but they disappeared under the surgeon's knife.
My hairline was male, and my hair was less thick, but I wasn't sure whether I was actually balding. I felt that my hairline was receding.
After about eight months, I did another progress report. By this time, I was on weekly injections.
This time, I noted that my thighs were still getting hairier and that the hair was coarsening. The hair on my arms was getting better, but I still wasn't satisfied (in fact, I still want more). My eyebrows were getting unruly, like my father's. I still had no real chest hair, but I had a nice happy trail and lots of pubic hair.
I had very nice sideburns (other FTMs envied them, so they were a strong point), but my mustache was terribly wispy, and the facial hair wasn't worth growing out yet. It was shaggy.
My hands had grown about a size, and the veins were more prominent.
I have been telling people that my vocal shift to baritone was impeded by finasteride, but now I see that this isn't true at all. I started going into baritone range after about 16 months, but I didn't go on finasteride until about 16.5 months in.
I have a video from that period, and I like the way I look in that video. I have a better haircut, my hairline is male, my face has masculinized quite a bit, and the voice is great, although I mention that I am still learning how to use it. A few weeks later, just about 17 months in, another video shows that my voice has stabilized nicely, although I say that I don't really know how to project.
According to my journal, I was a lot furrier all around, my skin was coarser, my Adam's apple was noticeable, my neck was thicker, and (of course), I had more muscle all over my body (the muscle started early on, but it was much more dramatic after more than a year). I had some fuzz on my butt (not sure when that actually started), and now I had more than a happy trail on my belly. My head hair darkened and coarsened; some of that might have been due to natural aging. (I used to have superfine blond hair, but it got darker and darker throughout my adult years. The same thing happened to my mother, but she wound up with brown hair, whereas I am still blond. Now, of course, I'm greying at the temples, and the grey hair is pretty coarse.)
I won't go on, since you are talking about taking T short-term. But I wonder what your male family members are like. As people have pointed out, genetics is key.
Anyway, I hope this gives you a better idea of what one guy went through.
