So today I’m getting chest dysphoia really bad, and I feel sad and upset. I’m hoping I can get on HRT soon but I know it’ll be a long time, especially since I just came out. So I wanted to ask, how does everyone here who hasn’t started HRT yet cope with chest dysphoria? Is there something I can do to maybe feel better, even just temporarily?
I didn’t know I had biochemical dysphoria until starting HRT; my mental health improved so much I realized what I experienced before as a baseline was actually clinically significant depression, anxiety, anhedonia, etc.
That said, not every trans person responds to HRT the same way (in some of the scientific literature there is mention of trans women who actually experience increased and worsening gender dysphoria on HRT despite being the “right” sex hormone).
My experience, and the experiences of lots of trans women I know IRL and online, has been that it’s sorta hard to lose muscle mass significantly. It’s actually something that really bothers me, my body is too muscular and male-looking.
Eating lots of food and putting on fat is necessary for growing breasts, so I highly recommend it regardless of how much you exercise - the exercising is actually great for this because it increases appetite and capacity to eat, and because exercising is a much less relevant factor for fat loss than people think. You can definitely exercise excessively and still be fat, and put on fat.
That’s good to know. I guess I can still eat like that but just work out more so I stay in shape and don’t lose too much muscle. Also glad to hear that muscle loss isn’t immediate or complete, still not thrilled about losing any. I know that for some trans girls it’s something they hate and want gone but personally I want to be a very big and muscular girl since I’m going for the butch tomboy look, and also it’s nice to be strong.