So I'm going to be starting hormones in less than a month and wondering what i should be expecting. From what I can gather is that Ill grow breasts, lose muscle and my body hair will become thinner. Is there anything else I can expect, should i be realistic in thinking that I can attain a natural female hairline from a receding hairline, can I expect my voice to slightly change or is it all practice, will my emotional state be changing to? Those are just a few questions I got, I'm brimming with them!

Quote from: JuliaVB on December 13, 2012, 08:43:56 PM
So I'm going to be starting hormones in less than a month and wondering what i should be expecting. From what I can gather is that Ill grow breasts, lose muscle and my body hair will become thinner. Is there anything else I can expect, should i be realistic in thinking that I can attain a natural female hairline from a receding hairline, can I expect my voice to slightly change or is it all practice, will my emotional state be changing to? Those are just a few questions I got, I'm brimming with them!

1) Your hairline recovery depends on genetics and, from what I understand, how long the follicles have been miniaturized. The hair you've lost in the past ... say 3 years or so may come back, but anything over that, maybe not.

2) Your voice will not really change. Practice getting the reverberation out of your chest now.

3) Your emotional state will probably change. The first thing was I was much more volatile. Mood swings will be a reality. Your emotional attachment to sex will probably strengthen too. You'll have to get used to caring about others too, because that's hard not to do on estrogen.

4) Your natural body odor will change, too. You may not notice much change, but others will. I've had a couple comments pre-transition and a couple right after transition to the effect of "Your house / car smells like a girls".

5) Sweating will probably be reduced noticeably.

6) Scalp hair may grow faster.

7) Your feet may shrink slightly (or dramatically like mine... I went from an 8.5 / 9 mens to a 7.5 / 8 womens).

Your height may lessen. This could be due to the fatty layer in the bottom of the feet disappearing, and ligament shrinking throughout the body. I even stand different now. I can't really stand straight up like I used to... my back has a natural arch in it, which is probably why I did shrink nearly 3".

9) Your skin may be "shinier" due to the upper layer of the epidermis (stratum corneum) becoming thinner and smoother, bringing the transparent layer (stratum lucidum) closer to the surface.

10) You will probably have less acne, yet drier skin (due to the sebaceous glands being less productive as a result of less testosterone availability)

11) Your nails may become more brittle (but this may be due to Spironolactone drying out the body, leading to drier nails)

12) Gain weight easier (fat).

13) You may gain more sensitivity to male pheromones, and the sensitivity to female pheromones may decrease. For me, I notice immediately when I go into a room that a guy sleeps in, when previously that was a more dulled sense. The opposite was true for females to me. Also, oddly enough women smell more stale to me than they ever did before. My sexuality didn't change, I was into men before, and I'm into men now. However I am *more* attracted to men than I was before. Women are equally if not more repulsive to me now than they were before.

14) People say I suck more at driving... and I kinda agree with them =/

15) Adorable stuff becomes more attractive ♥

I'm sure there's more.

This image is an overview of the "official" effects of HRT. Other unproven or more subjective changes, that you might get but might also not get, or that are hard to quantify, such as nails, odours and shrinking, are not there.

Thanks! I'm so curious of what will happen and kinda scared that the changes won't happen. My biggest hope is that one day I will be able to completely pass and live in relative stealth. At heart I'm a woman and have to live as one, just so nerve wracking the upcoming process is seeming! Hoping that my body will grow in perfectly well and that my hair will make some improvements as I'm a norwood type 1 mpb. Hoping the new year goes well, got 3 weeks until I start!

Good luck! You need to start growing your hair out now, Since hair takes a month to grow half an inch, it'll take a good 14-16 months to get it to a decent enough length. Hair is like 60% of passing visually imo. So find a good stylist when it gets longer! Estradiol will probably produce more scalp hair. It may not cure MPB but it will probably give you a fuller head of hair where the hair does grow.

Girls here have tended to say "I'll just get a pixie cut"! Don't - it will not look good on you because your forehead is too pronounced. Growing it out from there will look strange too. Just brave the storm and get long hair. You'll need bangs, too. And probably color your hair to something more ashy.

I'm a hairstylist if you can't tell, lol!

Its hopefully going to be a fun journey, just wish the 3 weeks  have left goes by fast! Now that I'm on propecia I have noticed my hair has been growing faster than it used to even though I've been on it for a couple weeks now. Really hoping it grows in thicker and my thinning ceases to be noticeable in the coming months. Finally will have the body I've always dreamed of!

Will it have any effects on Hip size? I mean for someone who isn't done puberty... I keep hearing mixed stories...

Also, Julia, you have a very feminine physique already (well when it comes to men) I am excited to see the results.

I know every thing is different for every one, but I'm sure your emotions will change & it may be the first thing you notice as I did. Hopefully it won't be as drastic as it has for me.  One day I'm a raging bitch, the next I'm chill, the next I'm crying, the next I love everything etc. 

Quote from: Freyja_Joro on December 14, 2012, 03:02:34 PM
Will it have any effects on Hip size? I mean for someone who isn't done puberty... I keep hearing mixed stories...

For everyone, there should be some degree of increase in terms of fat. This is sort of a lottery, but everyone gets some.

As for bone itself, it's a lottery as well. The younger, the higher your chances. If you're below 14, it'd take a catastrophe for you not to see anything. If you're below 16, you most probably will see something. If you're below 18, I think you're still more likely to see something than not. If you're below 20, you're less likely to see something than not. If you're below 25, it's a stroke of luck if you see any changes. If you're any older than that, you'd better not buy any lottery ticket, because your luck has been depleted forever with this growth.

The amount of change is vastly dependent on age too. Even if you do get changes at 18 years old, chances are that you'd have had much more at 14, for example.

Personally, starting HRT at 21 minus four days (yes, four), I've had minor hip bone growth - barely visible, but I felt it in my previously-perfectly-fitting-pants - despite being on such a low dose of estradiol that it's still in a perfectly normal male range. Maybe my body, being put in such a state that it has almost no T and a little bit of E, sort of believed it was a child again, and made me change a bit like girls do a bit before they enter puberty? I don't know. Maybe I'm just trying hard to find good sides to this prolonged state of being-on-HRT-but-not-really-being-on-HRT-actually, too.