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Female pelvis starts shrinking with the onset of menopause (2016 study)

Started by MeSStan, December 14, 2017, 11:49:10 AM

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MeSStan

I know that there are a lot of people here (me included) who feel dysphoric about the size of their hips. It was always thought that no matter what, one would be stuck with the size of their hips for the rest of their lives, until now that is. Apparently the pelvis does shrink back with time (and the onset of menopause which results in much lower Estrogen levels, the hormone responsible for widening the pelvis in the first place). Somewhat bad news however, is that this is a very slow proccess which you can see in the youtube video linked below.

Study:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27114515

Youtube video:


The animation in the video only looks at the average amount of change in the pelvis, however, and I would imagine that for some individuals this shrinkage was more significant than others. The thing I've been trying to find out myself is whether this shrinkage is sped up in younger individuals who are undergoing HRT.

I would imagine even if it's sped up it would still be slow. But it would still be nice if it was 10 years instead of 40, which was the case in the study.

So what I would like to ask is if there is anyone here who was blessed with wide hips, who has also undergone HRT for a long time (10+ years)? Have you notice any changes in your hips, which you don't think was attributed to just fat redistribution?
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Jailyn

Unfortunately for us the estrogen does not affect our bones, except for osteoporosis. Our hips as mtf's don't flex or move. There is an overall different bone structure for us. So when you say does anyone have wide hips due not to fat redistribution. Now some of us may have wider hips but, overall that is not what we are blessed with except for the fat. Good thought though.
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MeSStan

Quote from: Jailyn on December 14, 2017, 01:29:25 PM
Unfortunately for us the estrogen does not affect our bones, except for osteoporosis. Our hips as mtf's don't flex or move. There is an overall different bone structure for us. So when you say does anyone have wide hips due not to fat redistribution. Now some of us may have wider hips but, overall that is not what we are blessed with except for the fat. Good thought though.

Sorry if I misunderstood your comment, but this was actually aimed at the ftm's here who feel disphoric about their hips. I'm just wondering if someone here has been undergoing HRT for a long period of time, and feel that their hips have shrunk even after losing their fat around their hips. The reason I ask is because it should happen, but I'm just not sure just how quickly.
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TransAm

Quote from: Jailyn on December 14, 2017, 01:29:25 PM
Unfortunately for us the estrogen does not affect our bones, except for osteoporosis. Our hips as mtf's don't flex or move. There is an overall different bone structure for us. So when you say does anyone have wide hips due not to fat redistribution. Now some of us may have wider hips but, overall that is not what we are blessed with except for the fat. Good thought though.

I believe they're referring to FTM's and how HRT is similar to early-onset menopause for us given that our estrogen production is similarly reduced.

It's an interesting process and one that I hope, like MeSStan, happens within a useful timeframe.
"I demolish my bridges behind me - then there is no choice but forward." - Fridtjof Nansen
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AquaWhatever

I'm just glad I was the only female bodied person in my family to keep my narrow hips past 16.
;D ;D ;D

I thought hips widened with age in women though?
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RedSoxMichael

My hips widened at about 20/21. It's good to know that they can slowly shrink back. This post made me feel more hopeful.

I lost some weight while on T and it made my hips much slimmer around. But the bone structure certainly makes a difference when I decide what style of jeans to buy and so on. I started off a "large" bottom and a "small" top, now I am US medium in both. (H&M large)
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Paige

Hi MeSStan,

I think this is plausible but it would be interesting to hear from long term hrt users.   

So the question I would ask is if this is all from hormone reduction?  If it is, does this mean hormones can slowly change skeletal structure in adults?  Perhaps not directly but as muscle strength and elasticity decrease because of hormone reduction does this change the stressors on the bone and actually change the shape?  And if hormones are increased does that also slowly change the body skeletal structure because of changes in the muscle and fat?

Very interesting.  Thanks for posting,
Paige :)
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Jailyn

Whoops, my bad!!! Well I responded sorry yes, I see it is for FTM's now, hehe!
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SeptagonScars

It is an uplifting post, but maybe I'm just way too realistic to the point of being cynical about my own hip situation to even get my hopes up about this. I was pretty much born with wide hips (by my mother's account and from having seen baby pictures of myself), and unfortunately they got wider and wider from then on. And also my hip fat is extremely stubborn even now almost 5 years on T. So I say meh, even if my pelvis shrinks over time, it would have to shrink by several inches to get near reasonable dimensions. I don't know.

Before T and being just a little bit overweight I was a size medium in shirts/upper body and somewhere between 2x large and 3x large in pants/lower body. Now I'm at a healthy weight, size small in shirts and large in pants. So it did get better, but my body shape still looks noticably female in comparison to most cis men. I do plan on seeing what I can possibly do about that with some degree of body building and a big dose of self acceptance, so I haven't give up all hopes yet though. It's just that it's gonna require a lot of work which I don't think would be smart to start with before I can commit, so I'll wait until after my SRS this/next year. I may not be able to shrink my hips, but I have still hopes for bulking up the rest to match my hips.
Mar. 2009 - came out as ftm
Nov. 2009 - changed my name to John
Mar. 2010 - diagnosed with GID
Aug. 2010 - started T, then stopped after 1 year
Aug. 2013 - started T again, kept taking it since
Mar. 2014 - top surgery
Dec. 2014 - legal gender marker changed to male
*
Jul. 2018 - came out as cis woman and began detransition
Sep. 2018 - stopped taking T and changed my name to Laura
Oct. 2018 - got new ID-card

Medical Detransition plans: breast reconstruction surgery, change legal gender back to female.
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Doreen

Quote from: Jailyn on December 14, 2017, 01:29:25 PM
Unfortunately for us the estrogen does not affect our bones, except for osteoporosis. Our hips as mtf's don't flex or move. There is an overall different bone structure for us. So when you say does anyone have wide hips due not to fat redistribution. Now some of us may have wider hips but, overall that is not what we are blessed with except for the fat. Good thought though.


I'm in my own strange new world but my hips widened every time I went on HRT... now my hips are 41" and waistline 28-30"., and I suspect the 'growing' isn't done.  Then again my puberty never really worked
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