A couple I know are likely to invite me on a 6 mile hike soon. This is fantastic, should be great fun, etc.

The thing is, I know one of them from work. They know I'm trans, but I always bind at work (tritop). I generally don't bind when I workout or go on longer hikes. I'm afraid I'll have a heart attack (I have a slight murmur) or break a rib or something. Plus I can generally only get 75% of a good deep breath when binding. Sometimes, the stairs are enough to make me breathe hard. Mostly, I'm okay - this is just part of being trans. I get that.

But six miles with some serious uphill? It gives me pause.

In cooler weather, I would just use a sports bra and layer over the bulges, but it's getting freaking hot.

I'd rather not die (or slow my friends down), but I don't want them to see me like that. My friend suffers from OPP (Occasional Pronoun Problems) already .

Advice?

Correcting them sounds preferable to doing yourself in.

Don't go on a hike whilst binding. You'd feel tempted to try to keep up with your friends and this would likely lead to breathing problems. When binding you should never do anything that will raise your heart rate enough to make you pant. It's a major health risk & you could wind up being hospitalised with rib/cartilage damage or lung problems, including life-threatening infections.

If you really want to do the hike, bite the bullet & use the sports bra solution. But if this were me & my colleagues and one of them had a pronoun problem, I would rather not go on the hike than risk them seeing me without a binder, because people believe what they see far more than what you tell them so it would be likely to make the pronoun problem worse.

Your friends sound like decent people that understand your gender, even if they do mess up (It happens).

I think for your safety's sake it'd be preferable not to bind, you can tell them your situation and they should understand. And what Kylo said up there, just keep correcting them. You shouldnt let that get in the way of you having a good time.

Does KT tape not work for you in this situation? Or maybe throw a towel over the neck and drape it over the chest ...

Maybe next time you hang out it can be something less strenuous like the movies or something