One Year on HRT

April 8, 2021 marked my one year transversary of cross hormone treatment (commonly know as hrt†). I thought that in this post that I might share some of the results I have had so far. I hope this will be helpful to anyone considering hrt themselves and will be informative to the general public.

There are many sites that will give you information of the feminizing effects of hrt. A few of them if you care to have a look are provide as number notes.‡ [Note – The descriptions below could be consider adult content. But, you will not find photos.]

• Breast enlargement – The main purpose for me in doing hrt at all, although I will admit that other effects are rather nice too. I can now claim noticeable a-cup breasts. They even fill out my a-cup bras. At first all I desired was breast this size, as I always felt they were cute looking and have always been turned off by large breasts. But, now that they have grown in, I think I would not mine something in the b-cup range. Anyway, I am most pleased with the amount of development so far, and I could live with it, if no more growth occurs, but I think more development is in the works.
• Decreased volume (shrinking) of testes – This is difficult to tell, and honestly I did not do any measurements when starting, so I they could have decreased some.
• Decreased sperm production – This is practically impossible to tell as I have retrograde ejection (it goes into my bladder) due to partial prostate surgery. Although, I rarely play with my thing down there as I do not see it as a sex organ any more, but I do get curious, if it is working, and I will occasionally orgasm to vibrator stimulation every once in a while. Most of the time nothing much happens.
• Decreased libido (sex drive) – Okay as far as my penis (yuck) that had already deceased significantly before starting hrt. Mainly it is do to focus on my prostate stimulation, which is a far better way to orgasm for me. Although, I have never came like a genetic woman from the description and observation it is more like a female orgasm. It is a whole body phenomenon and can be continuous as well as repeated without any refraction time needed. This desire has not been lost at all. And, I do it often—almost everyday. And, I no longer use penetration.
• Decreased spontaneous erections – I have had absolutely none, that is zero, zilch, nada.
• Decreased muscle mass/strength – This is another area that is hard to determine, especially my legs, as I walk twice a day (weather permitting) at a 3 mph pace, which seems no more difficult to do after beginning hrt. For my arms it seems carrying out the trash takes more effort, but I am uncertain about the actual muscle mass there.
• Softening of skin, less oily skin – The softening of skin effect is hard to determined as my skin was soft and smooth due to my skin care routine that I have been doing for several years, so it has been in this condition for a few years prior to my start of hrt. The less oiliness is noticeable as I see my face often because of application of makeup.
• Slower, thinner growth of facial and body hair – Thinner or slowing of facial hair is hard to tell as I shave everyday still. My hair dysphoria (which was the earliest dysphoria that affected me and continues to be almost as intense as when it first started) will not allow me to see what the results would be because I fear seeing the slightest bit of beard growth. The effect on my body hair I believe is noticeable. If I desired I can and often do skip a day for chest and tummy shaving. For my privates I could do the same, but I rarely do. My legs seem to require less shaving. As for the fineness of the hair it is hard to determine as I don’t allow my hair to grow out, so I cannot tell. I can say the same for my arms, which I only shave about once a week. However, my back hair does seem finer and grows much slower. I will admit it receives less attention as I rarely look at my bare back. With summer coming on this will change, so I can wear my summer dresses.
• Decrease in male pattern baldness – My hair loss on my head is a lost cause. However, as my hair grows longer there seems a bit more hair in front, while the bald spot on the back of my head doesn’t seem much affected. Thank goodness for wigs, hats, and head scarves.
• Body fat redistribution (more fat on buttocks, hips, thighs, face) – This one was the most surprising as I did not really understand the changes that could occur or how much of an effect hrt would have on these areas. I will begin with my face as this was the most surprising. The fat or whatever it is has soften the male features that I posses (e.g. chin). I do not think this is wishful thinking because as I said I wasn’t even expecting it, and it has been confirmed by others. The next most surprising change was the added fat to my thighs. This effect appear earlier than the face and was notice first as I was taking one of my walks. The added hip fat appear about the same time as the hips, but I was expecting that effect more. And finally, my girlfriend has made comment on numerous occasions that my buns are bigger. The overall effect in this area gives me somewhat of a figure. More from behind than in front. Mainly it has to do with my big belly at the moment. As the weather has become more conducive to walking I am looking forward to reducing some of that belly. I also just looked into self-defense classes, and I found one place that includes a fitness component if you wish. Hopefully, whatever they have me do, my belly will decrease even more.

Here is a separate list of some of the possible emotional and intellectual effects of hrt.

• Feeling more emotional and more in touch with their feelings – Like many of the physical effects above this effect of hrt can be hard to evaluate. Shortly before I began to explore my femininity after years and years of dealing with depression and anxiety, I started to pay much more attention to my emotions and feelings as my mind was set free because of not being depressed or anxious anymore. I become efficient in accepting and evaluating my feelings, which continued to improve my mental wellness. So, by the time I started hrt I was already more in touch with my feelings. There is one area of feelings that may have been influenced, but again it had already become set after beginning my transition. I am talking about intuitions. I use them and use them well, and has probably strengthened since beginning hrt. I must say though that I am more emotional and sensitive too.
• Crying more easily – Oh yes definitely. Watching movies with a sad or touching or tender moment will bring forth my tears. During a time over the winter when my thyroid went south on me, and I was very irritable and depressed, having several episodes a day at least, I was crying at a drop of a bucket. I had gone through 30+ years of depression and never cried like this. During this time there were episodes where I acted like a teenage bitch. I certainly never had done that before during my whole entire life.
• Mood swings – Except during the drop of my thyroid functioning, not so much.
• Depression or sadness – Only during the thyroid disruption, otherwise only sometimes sadness in appropriate context, and depression not at all.
• Thinking differently, having different ways of looking at things – If you consider intuition as a form of thinking this is a big yes. Maybe the thinking change was just paying attention and utilizing my intuitions. I will admit that this way of thinking occurred before hrt. Actually, it began soon after I identified as a woman, and made use of them on coming out to people. Sometimes it was the timing of such events; at other times it was should I even share my transgender status.
• Feeling “more like myself” when taking a hormone that aligns with gender identity; feeling more comfortable in one’s body – If you include liking my body more this is also a definite yes. My sense of femininity has been growing ever since I identified, but hrt has probably given it a boost (I am working on a post: “My deepening femininity”).

So, this pretty much covers what this year of hrt has amount to for me. [Note – I worked off Nebraska Medicine’s web page on hrt – https://www.nebraskamed.com/transgender-care/feminizing-hormone-therapy, which does include breast development]

† This is hormone replacement treatment. I feel that cross hormone treatment is a more accurate term for receiving estrogen and also an anti-androgen for a male-to-female (MtF) transgender woman. This is because I am not replacing these hormones in my endocrine system, but I am taking hormones that cross over from the hormones normally found in a person assigned male at birth (AMAB). Hrt is the most common term for this type of hormone treatment for a transgender person, so I mainly stick with it for those that are familiar with the term.

¹https://www.mayoclinic.org/tests-procedures/feminizing-hormone-therapy/about/pac-20385096

²https://transcare.ucsf.edu/article/information-estrogen-hormone-therapy

³https://www.nebraskamed.com/sites/default/files/documents/transgender/hormone-therapy.pdf (offers a handy chart at the beginning of the document, but without breast growth)