4 ms·

Can any trans folk comment on if they've noticed significant changes in their hands in response to hormone treatment?

btilly 7y ago
I know trans people whose hands are closer to the gender that their brains say that they are than their biological one. However they also took hormones during puberty, so it is an open question whether this was the effect of hormones during development, or hormones after development.
whelming_wave 7y ago
Anecdotally, I feel like my hands have changed to be slimmer after 3.5 years of estrogen, but I haven't taken any measurements and don't have detailed photos of my hands before/after.
delecti 7y ago
Not really. At least from personal anecdote, it seems more likely it's due to her losing a bunch of weight. Most of hand bulk is bone structure which is mostly static after puberty. The skin does definitely change though, and that plus the weight loss IMO explains everything. Edit: For context, I started hormones a week before my 20th birthday, almost 13 years ago. Long enough ago that I've seen the full effects I'm going to, and it was after most of puberty.
AprilArcus 7y ago
I've been on hormones for nine years. None of the reported changes strike me as implausible. My skin became gradually softer, and my hairs finer and less pigmented over the first couple years of hormone therapy, and by about six and a half years in, some skeletal changes became evident. I've noticed that folks' skin tone tends to darken and lighten about a shade on testosterone and estrogen, respectively. I did not personally notice pigmentation changes, but my skin was very light to begin with. As for my hands, I can't make interesting specific comments; all these things seem to be systemic. I'm sure that the ratio of the lengths of my ring and index finger (a sexually dimorphic trait) did not change. I have a vivid memory of looking at the back of my hands while driving and feeling intensely uncomfortable with my "man hands", just around the time I started hormones. That thought never crossed my mind again, though, after a short time I felt fine with them and haven't been bothered by them since. I suppose they must have changed enough to relieve my anxiety while I was distracted by other more dramatic effects.

I know trans people whose hands are closer to the gender that their brains say that they are than their biological one. However they also took hormones during puberty, so it is an open question whether this was the effect of hormones during development, or hormones after development.

whelming_wave 7y ago

Anecdotally, I feel like my hands have changed to be slimmer after 3.5 years of estrogen, but I haven't taken any measurements and don't have detailed photos of my hands before/after.

delecti 7y ago

Not really. At least from personal anecdote, it seems more likely it's due to her losing a bunch of weight. Most of hand bulk is bone structure which is mostly static after puberty. The skin does definitely change though, and that plus the weight loss IMO explains everything. Edit: For context, I started hormones a week before my 20th birthday, almost 13 years ago. Long enough ago that I've seen the full effects I'm going to, and it was after most of puberty.

AprilArcus 7y ago

I've been on hormones for nine years. None of the reported changes strike me as implausible. My skin became gradually softer, and my hairs finer and less pigmented over the first couple years of hormone therapy, and by about six and a half years in, some skeletal changes became evident. I've noticed that folks' skin tone tends to darken and lighten about a shade on testosterone and estrogen, respectively. I did not personally notice pigmentation changes, but my skin was very light to begin with. As for my hands, I can't make interesting specific comments; all these things seem to be systemic. I'm sure that the ratio of the lengths of my ring and index finger (a sexually dimorphic trait) did not change. I have a vivid memory of looking at the back of my hands while driving and feeling intensely uncomfortable with my "man hands", just around the time I started hormones. That thought never crossed my mind again, though, after a short time I felt fine with them and haven't been bothered by them since. I suppose they must have changed enough to relieve my anxiety while I was distracted by other more dramatic effects.