Hi everyone!

I'm getting close to the one year mark for my hormone replacement therapy (May 4th, so a little under a month away) and I am really not satisfied with my breasts. I know everyone's journey is different and I did start transitioning a little late in life at 32, but I basically have no breasts at all even after nearly a full year. They're AA cup and not really noticeably different from when I started hormones aside from the aureolas and nipples being bigger.

For a while it seemed like I was growing breasts, but then I started losing weight (and body fat) and they shrank down to basically nothing. I imagine that my weight loss is at least partly responsible for me not getting satisfactory results from the hormones, but I don't know if I want to try gaining weight to see if that helps. (Especially considering that I have not met my weight loss goals yet...)

What I'm really curious about is if being in a state of dieting during this time while my body is changing might permanently prevent me from growing breasts even if I stop dieting later on. I'm less concerned about the present and more with possible long term consequences. What do you all think? Does anyone have any personal experience that relates to this situation?

Breasts are fat. Without fat, no breasts. Ask any woman, they'll tell you that when dieting, the breasts go first. It's normal. I recommend Häagen-Dazs therapy. 

Yes, I've had the opposite  experience. Before hrt I was a strict vegan, 6ft2in @149#.  The whole vegan thing went to hell real quick because my body CRAVED fat and I gained 14 pounds in 8 months which have brought my size to a decent 34 A. (almost a handful). It all depends on you though as far as your current health. Are you overweight and do you NEED to diet?

Maybe try asking your doctor for a change in HRT medication.
I was previously taking my medication orally, and after 6months, nothing.
But then consulted with my doctor who prescibed patches instead.
That was over 8mnths ago, and now so pleased with the progress ive made, especially with breast development.

I would let your doctor know that your not happy with the growth you have so far and see what they can do for you. Hugs
Mariah

Quote from: Devlyn on April 07, 2019, 02:18:43 AM
Breasts are fat. Without fat, no breasts. Ask any woman, they'll tell you that when dieting, the breasts go first. It's normal. I recommend Häagen-Dazs therapy. 

Thanks Devlyn, if this is normal I won't worry about it. 

Quote from: Devlyn on April 07, 2019, 02:18:43 AM
Breasts are fat. Without fat, no breasts. Ask any woman, they'll tell you that when dieting, the breasts go first. It's normal. I recommend Häagen-Dazs therapy. 

Devlyn can be very wise!  Of course, foot long hotdogs and cheesy pizza can go a long way too!
Banana splits though are da bomb, the way to go!  Not good for weight loss!

But... Fat seems to not be targetable, so it should just go anywhere and everywhere your body directs it to!  Would not it be nice if you could at will move up perhaps a half a cup size and at the same time keep the waist the same size?

Chrissy

Well, at 12 months in you have a ways to go. A lot of girls come into their own 3 to 5 years. Enjoy the ride. 🙂

I had an A at I think 3 years in. I had a BA to provide a B/C.

Well, beasts are partly fat, yes, but they are also glandular tissue which develops during puberty in the presence of estradiol.  Unfortunately, not everyone has the same potential for breast glandular tissue development.  Much of that potential is determined by genetics.  Part of it is determined by the presence of estrogen receptors in the epithelial cells beneath the areolas.  Also, overly high levels of estrogen is thought to stunt breast growth.  Studies have revealed that many trans women on HRT maintain high levels of testosterone.  The presence of testosterone (DHT) will inhibit breast tissue growth by blocking the effect of estrogen.  Breast tissue development in adolescent girls proceeds over five or more years, then it stops. Very little, if any, breast tissue development occurs in women once puberty is complete until pregnancy causes the swelling of milk ducts. Personally, most of my breast growth occurred on weak phyto estrogens.   When I switched to bio-identical estradiol, growth slowed dramatically.  I then opted for implants to reach my desired size.  Most trans women seek breast augmentation to make up for disappointing breast development.

Quote from: Miss Clara on April 07, 2019, 09:54:10 PM
.  Most trans women seek breast augmentation to make up for disappointing breast development.

Is this an absolute statement, with numbers/statistics to back it up?  Or is this your guesstimate?
If it would be an absolut number, it would be probably good for every trans woman to look into breast augmentation pretty early during transition to avoid all the frustration with hoping that estrogen is doing the tick with their breasts!

Quote from: Dietlind on April 07, 2019, 10:12:06 PM
Is this an absolute statement, with numbers/statistics to back it up?  Or is this your guesstimate?
If it would be an absolut number, it would be probably  to avoid all the frustration with hoping that estrogen is doing the tick with their breasts!

"Moreover, because of anatomical differences in the male chest compared with the female chest, breast size may appear smaller than the actual objectively measured volume (6). Consequently, 60% to 70% of all transwomen seek additional breast augmentation besides CHT [cross-sex hormone treatment]"

https://academic.oup.com/jcem/article/103/2/532/4642966

But, no, it would not be good for every trans woman to look into breast augmentation pretty early during transition.  Trans women develop various amounts of breast tissue under cross-sex hormone treatment.  It's best to wait until you know where you stand, and what is necessary and beneficial.  Transition is a very unsettled period in the life of a trans woman.  In my opinion, it's best to proceed with caution.

At 1 year I didn't have much either.  Growth kind of comes in spurts.  I'm not exactly satisfied with my size either, but things seem to be progressing.  I just had my first bra fitting.  I was surprised to hear B cup.  I'm close to three years into my HRT.  A month after getting my bra fitting done, the bra's are feeling tight again, either I'm growing or the bras are shrinking.

No need to be disappointed.  One day you may just wake up and find that your disappointment was due to perception bias than it actually being true. 

I think if I got rid of my belly, my breasts would be more noticeable.

just keep in mind if you are considering having augmentation done, that if you haven't waited 3 or so years for HRT to kick in you can end up with malformed breasts. I asked my endocrinologist specifically about it and he said you might be throwing thousands of dollars in the bin if you dont wait 3 years and see what your own body gives you and if they do keep growing with the silicon on top they can end up looking stretched out and odd shaped.

A good idea is to look at how big the breasts are of your female relatives, from what I have been told, usually you will end up with about a cup less than your mother or sisters. While the female's in my family have very large breasts, mine still look tiny (despite being a 14B) because I have a giant manly ribcage.

As for dieting, I include a large amount of healthy fats in it, including Flaxseed oil, avocados, walnuts and almonds, these things are supposedly good for breast development and they keep you fit too, HRT raises cholesterol so be careful.

I'm nearly 3 years on hormones, had great results everywhere except breasts. I start after turning 26.
I'm considering BA now. No point holding out for growth on me. It ain't happening :/

Quote from: Miss Kitty on April 08, 2019, 12:49:35 AM


A good idea is to look at how big the breasts are of your female relatives, from what I have been told, usually you will end up with about a cup less than your mother or sisters. While the female's in my family have very large breasts, mine still look tiny (despite being a 14B) because I have a giant manly ribcage.

This seems to be an urban legend us trans women want to believe in!  There is no scientific evidence present that it is true!

I don't know what size 14B is?

Quote from: Rachel_Christina on April 08, 2019, 12:59:04 AM
I'm nearly 3 years on hormones, had great results everywhere except breasts. I start after turning 26.
I'm considering BA now. No point holding out for growth on me. It ain't happening :/

How do you know?  Some natal girls wait and wait, and bam, almost over nice they have boobs!
Did you have an orchi?  Natal girls seem not to have testes, and thus not much problems with trying to suppress testosterone!  Removing those little guys might be a good idea, and see what happens, prior to putting silicone onto your rib cage!

Quote from: Dietlind on April 08, 2019, 08:47:16 AM

Did you have an orchi?  Natal girls seem not to have testes, and thus not much problems with trying to suppress testosterone!

Have you had your serum testosterone tested? Suppressing testosterone appears to be a huge problem for trans women.

https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/893280

It can take a while on HRT before breast tissue growth really gets rolling. My growth came mostly in the second year, particularly after Gender Confirmation Surgery (GCS).  I made it to A 34A-B.

In the United States, only about 25-30% of all transgender people have a transition-related surgery, usually GCS. Breast augmentation and facial feminization surgery is not covered by insurance for many people, and must be paid for out of pocket, so the incidence of these treatments is lower.  Detailed statistics are still hard to come by as there is not yet a standardized reporting system. (This may be a good thing in terms of individual safety.)

Quote from: Michelle_P on April 08, 2019, 09:39:33 AM
In the United States, only about 25-30% of all transgender people have a transition-related surgery, usually GCS.

I doubt that it's that high.  There are 1.4 million self-identifying transgender people in the U.S. according to the Williams Institute.  Twenty five percent would mean that 350,000 have had GCS.  A U.S. Census Bureau study in 2010 concluded that only 89,000 transgender people (living men and women) had changed their gendered name and/or sex code (male to female/female to male).  Certainly even fewer had not had undergone GCS.  Although that number has greatly increased in the past 9 years, I doubt that it has reached 350 - 420,000 individuals. 

The American Society of Plastic Surgeons reported that there were 1,759 male-to-female GCS operations in the U.S. in 2016, a 19% increase from 2015.  If that trend line were linear (it's not of course) from 2010 to 2019, the number of GCS operations in the U.S. would total less than 15,000 MtF surgeries over the past 9 years, or about 1% of all transgender people.

My own experience tells me that more trans women seek BA than GCS.  BA costs $4K - $6K, while MtF GCS costs $20K - $30K without insurance which is only slowly becoming available.  My guess is the ratio is more like 10 BA surgeries for every GCS surgery.