Hai! I’m new-ish here. I’ve known for a bit I’m trans, but barely started anything substantial really. I’m easing into it, but I’ve had this thing stuck in my mind recently.
Whats something relatively small or cheap/easy that helps make you feel girl? I have a few loungey clothes and stuff and been working on body hair removal but I’m looking for something… Else? I’m not sure what. Just thought this could be a good place for ideas or advice.
I’m just looking for new easy ideas that might help me feel more ‘at home’? Idk I wanna be a comfy chill relaxed girl.
estrogen 😆
EDIT: before someone points out this isn’t a small thing, I think HRT should be thought of as relatively small step - so many women wait really long to start estrogen for no reason other than perception that this is some huge step that you can’t undo.
I think estrogen should be one of the first things anyone does when exploring because it gives you so much information about what feels good for you, and it can potentially be so life-saving, and because it is such a low-cost and low-risk thing to do.
There is no reason not to start with estrogen as the first little step:
Three months is a long time to figure out if estrogen is the right thing for you, if it helps, if actually it’s crucial for your mental health and basic functioning, etc.
Even past 3 months you don’t have to socially transition, you might have another 9+ months before you can’t boy-mode anymore, I have a friend on oral estrogen who is still boy-moding a year later without issue (though your mileage may vary - I don’t think I could boy-mode anymore because of my breasts). I know a woman who has been on estrogen for much longer who still boy-modes at work, and people see what they want to see - I can’t see a man in her, but because they all knew her as a man, that’s what they see still.
All this to say, estrogen should come first. It’s not a big deal.
Yes. This.
I’d been aware of the existence and effects of feminizing HRT since–well, probably my mid teens? And always thought that I’d really like it, if only I was trans. Funny thing, 25 years later, turns out I’m trans (I was also starting to get some uncomfortably dark thoughts regarding my continued existence). So I never really worried about it, just realized one day “oh right, I can do this now.”
And yeah, probably a lot of it is placebo, but I feel so much better on estrogen. When I was in the process of cracking, I read a lot of comments saying the same thing and thinking “yeah, right”. But no, starting HRT has been, by far, the best part of my transition so far.
The initial (reversible) effects will definitely let you know if it’s right for you.
Three months in is when I started getting “oh shit, this is awesome”-level changes.
My grandma took estrogen and then died. It’s a really big deal among her descendants.
I can’t tell if this is serious, or a joke I don’t get 😅
Heritable diseases are seriously preventing me from doing E.
That’s beyond fucked - but also incredibly suspicious, bioidentical estrogen especially when injected should carry no risk.
Premarin, the horse estrogen pill, was the only source of the concerns and the studies that found increased risk of blood clots, etc. AFAIK. Was your grandmother using Premarin? What heritable disease prevents taking estrogen?
That’s a goal for one of these days! Not yet though 😅 too much crazy shit going on and I don’t feel secure enough to start transitioning where I am now.
I get that, and you have to make your own choices about that, but estrogen can be supportive without necessarily forcing you to socially transition, there are many people who take estrogen but are in the closet still. Depending on how you dress, speak, and interact, you probably can pass as a male for longer than you think.
It depends on a lot of things how soon you will start to appear as a woman to people. If you have short hair and not a lot of body fat I think it would be easier, since it’s hard to grow breasts without much fat. If you are heavier you are more likely get more breast growth and it might be harder to hide that without a binder, but even that can be managed. If you have facial hair or heavy beard shadow, that heavily skews perception towards male.
You might look back and think waiting for security in your life before starting estrogen was a mistake, especially if estrogen is necessary for your brain to work well like it is for me. Even without that reason, your body will undergo further androgenization, which for me increased significantly in my 20s.
Just worth thinking it through. If you have to keep it secret from family or people you live with, you could always take the DIY route to avoid the paper trail that visiting a doctor causes.
Just don’t underestimate how important estrogen is, I did and I regret it deeply - I would do anything to go back in time and start as early as I could.