Well, I've finally started my HRT, after a roller-coaster of well finding out I'm sterile and the associated bull. What should I be looking forward to in the good the bad and the ugly?

I have been on HRT for just on a year.  microgynon only, no anti-androgens, and my T levels are way down.
I had a slight feeling of nausea for the first couple of days only, but that was all in the way of adverse physical side effects.
I felt  the depression that had been plagueing me for over 40 years, off and on finally lift after about a week, and I felt a lot happier and content with my life.
Emotionally a lot more open and sensitive, and caring. 
Breast growth took a couple of months to become noticeable, and seems to happen in bursts. Body hair became a lot finer after a couple of months, to the point where my epilator would cause it top break off under the surface, causing itching and many ingrowns.  I now shave again, with the occaissional wax as a treat.
Body fat relocation is slow but steady. 
I found I lost a fair bit of upper body strength and endurance as well as feeling tired a little more easily. 
All in all though, the best step I could have taken.

Mood swings... get ready for them. I feel sorry for your peoples

Keep a diary, later you will be glad you did.

I might have had hot flushes in the first few weeks at night - but I wasn't sure whether it was just from being too warm (bought a new quilt around the same time *lol).
I don't think my moods have been affected, but someone close to me said I was a bit snappier than usual.
And be ready for the sore nipples!  I've had to relearn how to sleep in the last month or so as I can no longer sleep on my tummy (and I've been sleeping that way since I was little!)

Get ready for breasts. I thought it would be two or three months before I got breast buds. Nope. I got them in three weeks and they're pretty noticeable. Granted, I'm a teenager but you never know.

The first thing to happen was a change in well being, but that could well have been imagined because it happened very quickly. Within a week or two my nipples got very sore to the touch. Then my skin changed rapidly. It became much softer and smoother, especially on the upper chest. Breasts became noticeable to others at about 4 months.

The first facial changes was that I started to look younger. At about 4 months I started getting the confused looks from people and a co-worker (I was not yet out at work at the time) who had formerly worked with my aunt was one day baffled by how much I resembled her when he came into my office to talk to me 

I can't really say there were many bad things. The spiro made my hands rather dry at times and nails got rather brittle. In the beginning I also got very sleepy. I would constantly fall asleep while watching TV or reading. Then there was the mood swings. Crying fits for nothing and at times and intermittent bitchiness 

As Dale suggested, keep a diary. I did for the first year of my transition. I read it back just a little while ago and it was a very interesting read.

QuoteFinaly starting HRT, any advice?

Create a schedule and stick with it.  For me, fluctuating the time of day in which they are taken and/or missing a dose, had quite a negative impact on progress.  Once I finally set myself a schedule to stick to, things started getting much better.  Of course, everyone's different.  Keeping a diary is a great idea also... I wish I had done that.  Anyway, congrats!

So far, sleepy is right on the money, I jsut woke up from what turned into a 2 hour nap and I'm on;y up because I'm fighting it, emotional too. I was dealing with a bad thing yesterday and I found my self calling, like every one I knew to find some one to answer the phone so I could jsut talk to them lol

I started on May 1st, and aside from the beginnings of the physical changes, I've found myself having bouts of hyper-emotionality. I'm much more reactive emotionally to the objects of my focus, and each successive bout of moodiness is a bit stronger than the last 

I also feel swings between feeling much more comfortable in my own skin and having more dysphoria than ever before - but I spend most of my time in the former state.

Oh, and socially I've become more touchy-feely and emotionally expressive.

I now know why my wife loves naps. I can nap at the drop of a hat.

I weep at things that never used to move me. I have to be on guard for sudden unexpected events that might send me to weepy land since boys aren't supposed to cry* (my daughters high school graduation was a prime example of that).

I've lost a lot of strength and endurance. Doing ordinary things wears me out quickly, and i can't lift anything anymore.

I've got more mental fog going on now. I'm more forgetful too.

I look down and i have boobs. The wife recently said that she hopes they stop growing since they are quite noticeable in the wrong shirt.

Life is a whole lot smoother without the violent ups and downs that GID brought. GID was a force that was sending me down a bad, bad path.

* - i'm bigender and take HRT to live my normal boy life; my girl mode is quite happy with the changes HRT has brought while boy mode puts up with them.

for me it's hunger pangs, not so bad now as they were last year, but coupled with a full time desk job it makes finding time to get any excercise done at all

  It has been more than a month since Jennifer has been on HRT.  It is still early to tell what will happen, physically and emotionally.  Try not to be too hypersensitive of your changes, both self-perceived and noticed by others.  I started HRT when I was too old, too fed up, and too scared of my prostate problems to exist the way I was and where I was heading to.  I decided to calmly let the chips fall where they may and to calmly let things come to me.  It took two months to slowly notice the emotional changes, I was no longer yelling at myself at the slightest mishap.  Instead I was swearing at the mechanism of that mishap.  The months long mood swings are now reduced to hours with less severity and frequency, a departure of the usual I see here on Susan's. 
  Joelene

Hang on and enjoy the ride.  You will experience things you only dreamed of.  You go girl!