What are Reversible and Irreversible Changes on Feminizing Hormones?
Feminizing hormone therapy involves a combo of estrogen and androgen blockers. Sometimes progesterone is added to the mix.
If you are on HRT or are planning on it, I highly recommend reading the following posts:
Estrogen is the main hormone responsible for promoting female physical traits. It works directly on tissues in your body. It can also indirectly suppresses testosterone.
Each person responds to estrogen differently. It’s difficult to predict how quickly the changes will take place for you. Including how much you will feminize.
Estrogen can be taken by:
pill
injection (intramuscular)
skin patch or gel
or as implanted pellets
Let’s get the bad news out of the way. The things feminizing therapy will NOT change. This a concerning question for many.
IRREVERSIBLE CHANGES
Eliminate hair follicles.
Change bone structure.
Change Adam’s apple.
Change hand and foot size (although some report changes in foot size).
Change vocal pitch.
Change height.
Protect against sexually transmitted diseases.
PERMANENT CHANGES
Breast growth varies in size from one person to another.
Up to a 40% shrinkage in the size of the testicles.
Now let’s take a look at reversible changes. Keep in mind that these may change back if you stop feminizing therapy. While mostly reversible, even these changes vary from person to person.
REVERSIBLE CHANGES
Less acne.
Slowing of hair loss, especially at the temples and crown of the head.
Softer skin.
Finer body hair, but keep in mind it won’t go away.
Less noticeable body odor.
Change in the quantity of sweat from the armpits.
Decreased fat in the abdomen.
Increased fat in the buttocks and thighs.
Decreased or complete loss of morning and spontaneous erections.
Inability to obtain an erection hard enough for penetrative sex.
Decreased sex drive.
Don’t forget that the feminizing effects of hormone therapy may take several months to become noticeable.
It can take up to 5 or more years to reach their maximum effect! And there is no way to predict how fast your body will feminize or change on hormones.