When to begin HRT?

Having lived for years in a body misaligned with who you are, it is your right to begin medically transitioning as soon as you deem possible. Society has stolen a lot of your precious time already, and it is fair to grieve this fact and not want to have to regret losing more.

That being said, your safety is paramount. There’s no point in transitioning if you can’t finally enjoy yourself. As such, it is important to be patient and plan things out in advance.

It goes without saying that the effects of trans feminine HRT are noticeable to those around you. Though their ability to connect the dots and realize you’re on HRT depends on their knowledge — they will still see the effects. Do not fool yourself into thinking you can stay in the closet for the rest of your life.

Seriously consider who you can and cannot come out to safely, and of those you can’t, who you can cut off, or at least move out of reach of, in the long term.

Some of these changes you can pass off as something else. The skin changes can be blamed on a new skincare routine, and the fat redistribution changes are so gradual that, as long as the people in question see you in person every week or so, they likely won’t notice much. That is, until they look at an older photo of you and realize you look very different.

The most noticeable effect to others though, as you can likely imagine, is breast development. When and how noticeable it is depends on your individual breasts — how early into HRT they start growing and what size they grow up to be. Regardless, somewhere around the first year mark, your breasts are likely to fail to ‘pass’ as man-boobs and will be noticeable to others. Here’s some stuff you can do to hide the change from others for a limited period of time:

• Wearing a sports bra (maybe remove padding from it too)

• Wearing baggy clothes, making it difficult to see your silhouette

• Wearing multiple layers of clothing (sports bra + vest + shirt, as an example)

• Wearing darker clothes — It is more difficult to percieve depth in low light

• Wearing clothes with patterns that draw attention away from your chest

• Start slouching (bad posture position with your shoulders leaning forward)

  info

  Slouching is bad for your back and neck. Please stretch regularly and maintain good posture when alone.

• Binding

  warning

  Binding is discouraged while your breasts are still growing (so around 8 years on HRT to be safe). It applies pressure on breast tissue that is just now starting to come into place. This tissue is too young to handle it well, and could negatively affect its shape and health. Tape especially can leave bruises, avoid it at all costs.

Once again, the efficacy of these approaches will vary by the growth pace and size of your breasts. Do not assume any of this will work forever, and have the worst case scenarios in mind when you plan your moves.