i know its different for everyone but really. what are the differences it can make. if it moves the body fat where does it move to/ from etc

its hard to find specifics so i wanted to ask the people most likely to know

I hope more girl friends will answer & post actual results.

I'm 4-5 months & some changes. Breast growth some, smoother skin, mentally I feel so much better however there does not seem to be much more changes. Maybe hair grows a little slower, not sure.

Thanks for any reports.  Oh & a Happy New Year to all

I lost 20 lbs., my boob grew from a 36B to a 32D (looks more like a C), fat accumulating in thighs, testes shrunk, major facial changes (more fatty and smooth), soft skin, feel more delicate and weak and lost interest and abhor violent things like football. I'm more happy, content, never argue, and I can cry when happy, bwfore could only cry when sad. I've always been emotional I would say I'm less so. I think I lost .75 inchs in height. That it. Oh yeah waist went from 31 to 27.

On hormones for about 7 months (started a bit before that, but I don't think there was really an effective dose).

Body hair diminished.
Breast growth (A cup, but hey, a boob's a boob)
Skin softened
Facial changes help me pass
Little body fat distribution. I'm still shaped like a dude.
Sexual changes - orgasms are totally different
Emotional changes - Difficult to describe. I'm more content.

It's done a lot for me so far (well, after some time and dose increases), but it differs from person to person.  There should be some information on the wiki page about what hormones may or may not do.  In my case, I went from feeling scared about my passing potential to feeling fairly comfortable that I will be able to pass with a little effort.  But again, it differs for everyone and there is a lot of different variables to take into account.  One suggestion I have for anyone starting is to take pictures frequently.  That really helps you measure the changes even when you feel it's going slow and not happening.  That really helped me when I felt down early on about my progress.  Hormones are an important part of transitioning, but they aren't everything.  Things like laser hair removal, hair style, brow shaping, voice, finding the right clothes for you all make a major difference as well.  Hormones are great, but don't expect that it will do all the work.  It just helps (in my case, it helped a lot).

Is there anything specific you want to know about hormones? 

It made a huge difference for me. I used to be a very handsome guy, now I never get misgendered. I'm not nearly as attractive as a girl (if you can't tell), lol!

Quote from: Joanna Dark on January 01, 2014, 09:35:33 AM
I lost 20 lbs., my boob grew from a 36B to a 32D (looks more like a C), fat accumulating in thighs, testes shrunk, major facial changes (more fatty and smooth), soft skin, feel more delicate and weak and lost interest and abhor violent things like football. I'm more happy, content, never argue, and I can cry when happy, bwfore could only cry when sad. I've always been emotional I would say I'm less so. I think I lost .75 inchs in height. That it. Oh yeah waist went from 31 to 27.

This is pretty much what's happening to me, maybe less weight loss.

Quote from: Alainaluvsu on January 01, 2014, 10:03:46 AM
It made a huge difference for me. I used to be a very handsome guy, now I never get misgendered. I'm not nearly as attractive as a girl (if you can't tell), lol!

^this. I used to be a cute guy now I'm an average looking chick. I rarely get misgendered but I have only been on a proper dose for 13 weeks. Before that I was on a regular dose of E with very little AAs. Didn't think I needed them but I do. All and all I've been on HRT for 10 months. The lower dose did change me significantly however. I passed by day 73. But I'm lucky with tiny everything and a round face and high voice (170 - 175 hrtz. Natural speaking voice)

oh and LTL no offense but I think HRT is the most important part of transition by far. Laser is next, then voice work. But I have had neither and don't pass as a guy. I can go out unshaven and still pass. So I'd say if HRT was a drink you would need five parts HRT, two parts laser, one part voice and a jigger of style and mannerisms. I know everyone talks confidence and mannerisms but it's mainly HRT. You could get laser, dress right, be super confident, have perfect mannerisms and srill never pass. But you add HRT in the mix and voila, you pass. For trans peeps HRT is everything. I know some don't agree but if it's just one part then why take it? I know for me wirthin one year, I will be irreversibly female with no way back. So for people who really want to end GID I can't stress enough how important  taking hormones is. I never had dysphoric episodes though. I have no triggers. My life has been one really long depression tied directly to GID. So maybe I did have dysphoria it's just that it was a permanent state. But now, I've never been more hopeful. Okay, that's my piece. Take it or leave it.

I do agree on the other parts being really important LTL I just think as a community we shouldn't downplay HRT cause I know for me it kept me from taking hormones for years. If I woulda heard one person tell me what I know now, I would transitioned in 2004 at 21 years old. I was about to but kept hearing how it's not magic, doesn't do much, just a little boobage. Well I had boobs so I thought I just really need SRS. I'll start HRT when I get the money for that. You can imagine how idiotic that was. If only I tried, right now I'd be married, maybe have kids, and be living as the woman I am not the half girl I have always been.

^

Quote from: Joanna Dark on January 01, 2014, 10:38:50 AM

^this. I used to be a cute guy now I'm an average looking chick. I rarely get misgendered but I have only been on a proper dose for 13 weeks. Before that I was on low dose with very little AAs. Didn't think I needed them but I do.

oh and LTL no offense but I think HRT is the most important part of transition by far. Laser is next, then voice work. But I have had neither and don't pass as a guy. I can go out unshaven and still pass. So I'd say if HRT was a drink you would need five parts HRT, two parts laser, one part voice and a jigger of style and mannerisms. I know everyone talks confidence and mannerisms but it's mainly HRT. You could get laser, dress right, be super confident, have perfect mannerisms and srill never pass. But you add HRT in the mix and voila, you pass. For trans peeps HRT is everything. I know some don't agree but if it's just one part then why take it? I know for me wirthin one year, I will be irreversibly female with no way back. So for people who really want to end GID I can't stress enough how important  taking hormones is. I never had dysphoric episodes though. I have no triggers. My life has been one really long depression tied directly to GID. So maybe I did have dysphoria it's just that it was a permanent state. But now, I've never been more hopeful. Okay, that's my piece. Take it or leave it.

I do agree on the other parts being really important LTL I just think as a community we shouldn't downplay HRT cause I know for me it kept me from taking hormones for years. If I woulda heard one person tell me what I know now, I would transitioned in 2004 at 21 years old. I was about to but kept hearing how it's not magic, doesn't do much, just a little boobage. Well I had boobs so I thought I just really need SRS. I'll start HRT when I get the money for that. You can imagine how idiotic that was. If only I tried, right now I'd be married, maybe have kids, and be living as the woman I am not the half girl I have always been.

^

I agree that hrt is a very important for transsexuals if they are serious about transitioning.  It wasn't my intention to downplay it because it's done a lot for me and I've gone far because of it.  That being said, it's not the only thing which has improved my looks.  My hair style has done a lot to help me look more feminine and feel comfortable about passing.  Sure, hormones do a lot and has altered my facial appearance in a major way, but if I were bald it wouldn't be as helpful, lol.  Same thing with voice training.  Voice training has helped my voice improve, but hormones did nothing in that aspect.  If I kept my old voice, no matter how passable my appearance is people will see me as a gay guy.  Hormones are just part of the equation which equal a feminine look and presentation. Yet at the same time, it's a major part of the trans recipe to get the desired outcome if you will.  I'm just saying there are other factors that are also important and should be considered as well, that doesn't take away from hrt or what it can do.  The only thing I would say is that it won't work the same way for everyone and in all cases there are limitations.  That's where the other things come in. 

To your own perception, the changes will probably not seem that big. Just about every single trans-woman that I've ever met has said that they really didn't think they've changed that much. The thing is, though, I don't think a lot of us realize just how big of a difference these small changes can make.

For me, the biggest difference has been the skin texture. My skin is now starting to take on that creamy-white feminine glow to it, which does wonders for softening the face, and softening the body overall, into a more feminine appearance. This is pretty much universal for everyone on HRT. Almost everyone gets much softer, clearer skin. Also, for me, HRT pretty much knocked all of my body hair clean off, so that's a huge plus as well.

Muscle atrophy has indeed happened, but so far it's been more of a "feel" thing than anything. People do tell me that I'm looking skinnier, but I haven't noticed the visual aspect so much as the "feel" of it. My arms feel lighter, and freer, and I've really started moving in a more feminine way naturally because of this change in muscle structure. My voice has gotten a bit softer, and I move more gracefully rather than forcefully. This to me is the real change, is in the way you move, not so much the way you look. But it also has helped in softening the appearance of my body too. Not so much shrinking, but softening. (This is probably because I'm overweight, so most of my body's bulk is fat, and thus has not shrunk along with the muscles.)

I have gotten some boobage (up to a full B from a high A when I started,) and there has been some fat redistribution, mainly that I've put on fat in the thighs/butt, but it is very SLOOOOOOOW. Some who are predisposed for it will blossom quickly, but it's uncommon to get miracles here. There's a reason why most cis-girls really don't start looking full and womanly until they're like 17-18 or so. It can take a LONG time to start really putting on curves.

The thing is, though, while all of these changes are subtle, the combination of every single one of them, combined with female hair and female clothes, is almost always more than enough to tip the scales to the point where just about everyone will be seeing a girl when they look at you. So far, I've only ever met one person under the age of 35 who didn't get sufficient results from HRT in order to start passing. And those who started anywhere from their teens to their mid-20s, you'll usually be hard-pressed to tell that they were ever male unless you're specifically looking for common transgender features. So in short, HRT can be a miracle worker in certain people, especially if you're younger, some people get almost nothing from it, but most will probably see sufficient results in order to pass as female. I've seen very few who pass as female pre-HRT, but most pass after it. So while the visual difference may not seem like much, it makes a HUGE difference in terms of tipping the scales from male to female.

The biggest difference for me, though, is mental. That's the really awesome part. My mind is just so much calmer and more at peace, my sex-drive doesn't own me anymore, I can actually feel emotions now instead of feeling like they're buried under the surface, I smile way more at things, and I enjoy social interaction more. The difference that it's made there is astronomical in terms of just feeling "right."

Three months of HRT and so far I can see some changes:

- I am feeling happier and I am laughing all the time...err actually giggling would describe that better
- I feel more emotive. I was already a lot emotive before HRT, but now I realized that I can cry when I am very happy (it never happened to me before)
- my skin got very smooth, softer and way more translucent than before
- my skin get sunburns more easily now
- body odour changed
- my waist got a lot smaller, while my hips and my thighs are larger
- significant breast growth and tenderness (it really hurts just to touch my nipples)
- I never liked my feet, but now they are looking quite feminine. They are fuller and rounder than before.
- regrowth on previous bald areas affected by male pattern baldness (small thin hair, but it is there! yay)
- body hair growing a bit slower
- the hair on my arms are thinner and some new hair are growing blonde
- I do not get any more spontaneous erections, only when I want
- I am almost dry (can't ejaculate at all) but the orgasms feel the same as before
- my libido went down the hill on the first months, but now it is returning
- I feel more attracted to men than before

The difference HRT makes is inversely proportional to the age you start, where maximum benefit is achieved at puberty. Personally, I couldn't have done it without it. It was the critical and most important element, the foundation underpinning everything else. Hair removal, make-up, clothes, et al. would have been meaningless without it.

I agree with all the changes listed above and add some. For me, I also get a better sense of smell, change (reduction) in body odor, feminine odor in my crotch and must shower daily and clean in-between, vast reduction of anxiety, feeling of happiness, able to get 5 hours of sleep a night and realized I can get some gid relief!

This is pretty much in chronological order of when things started changing:
Happier, much more hopeful (this was immediate and probably life-saving)
Less oily skin
Thinner softer skin
Even more emotional (discovering the joy of happy tears)
Less angular jawline (thinner skin contributing to this)
Less pronounced brow ridge (thinner skin contributing to this)
Losing strength
Nails more brittle
Much less body hair
Veins receding majorly, esp on arms, hands, and legs where they were pronounced
All body hair becoming short, wispy, and practically invisible
Muscular legs becoming very skinny
Body smelling different (I only ever notice this when I pull out an old article of clothing and it smells weird)
Minimal breast growth (not on progesterone, I will be looking into trying it this year to see if it helps)
Fat redistribution creating a moderately female body shape (didn't start noticing until about 3 years in)

Then, separately there were the unexpected parts, of which HRT may have played a part along with just the effects of dropping pretense and fitting into a new life role:

Sexuality shifting from mostly asexual to hetero female
Thinking processes becoming different (not even recognizing myself in old writings, this causing some cognitive dissonance)
Having different interests and priorities (some did not change)
More extroverted
More optimistic
Kinder
Emotionally stronger, able to easily deal with things that would have crushed my spirit pre-HRT

Idk, a lot more things probably that I am forgetting.

wow. thank you for all the replies. they definitely add a sense of hope to hrt.

i asked because i saw the before and after thread and had a very distinct Holy crap how much of this is hrt!?

its all anxiety and hope being preop

Being a woman is hard work.

HRT does some magical things, mostly between the ears, and bewbs. Prepare yourself for an enfatuation with your chest. The increase in sensitivity alone will probably make it an obsession, at least until you get used to the new sensations. I have not yet. I feel huge up there (I started with and remain an A cup).

But cis women work their butts off to look how they do, and so do we.

I tend to say that the effects of estrogen are often subtle but profound - I still can't pinpoint a lot of what changed in my face, for example, but I stopped being able to pass for a guy (even in loose men's clothes and hair up under a cap) at about six months on HRT. I'll be four years on HRT soon, incidentally.

Generally, fat will be lost in male places (like around the middle) and gained in female places (like the thighs and butt and breasts). Personally, I noticed no real change in my belly, but I *did* see a dip in at the waistline that I didn't have before, and went up 2 pants sizes thanks to the increased behind. My hips have increased enough to be noticeable, and more importantly, my shoulders decreased enough that now hips are the same width as shoulders, which combined with the waist gives me a distinctly feminine shape. As with others, there was also decreased body hair (zero except for arms/legs/armpits/pubes now, and what there is is shorter and finer as it is with cis women), change in smell, softer clearer more translucent skin, lost about a shoe size, smaller more delicate wrists and arms and ankles, thicker shinier hair, "bigger, brighter eyes" (dunno what happened there to cause the effect), and lastly the  most dramatic but unusual effect for me was that I was a 42C at four months (now 42DDD).

Basically, although a great deal of what happened wasn't blatantly obvious, people who knew me before don't recognize me... and people who know me now, don't believe that the old pictures are really me. My own sister hasn't seen me since pre-HRT, and she said if she'd run into me on the street she wouldn't have known who I was! (We also look MUCH more alike now, interestingly; whereas before I resembled my father, now I have the same jawline, forehead, mouth, eyes, and nose shape as my mom and sister. I've seen pics of my sister where for a second at first glance I thought it was me, and vice versa.)

Quote from: Jenna Marie on January 01, 2014, 06:50:48 PM
subtle but profound

Yes .  It is hard to see the individual changes if you look closely at every feature but if you step back and look at the whole picture, it's an enormous difference, usually.