https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8213007/

Here's one of the more recent meta analysis papers on it. When people who detransition are asked, the majority of the cite external factors like the ones here.

In general, body hair will reduce slightly on hrt. It's still there, but in particular I saw a lot less growth for chest hair. If laser works for your skin/hair color combos at a practioner near you, I found it very effective and tolerable. Otherwise I use a safety razor for everything else. Once you're good with it, it's a very close and low irritation save.

For facial hair, almost everybody will see no effect with hrt. New growth (as in fully new follicles) should stop, but any existing hair will need to be removed if you want a smooth face all the time. I did laser for some initial clearing and now am doing electrolysis to finish up.

A note for everyone who is interested in injections but doesn't like IM, you can also do subcutaneous injections. My understanding is that estradiol in common preparations is a depot injection where absorption is controlled less by physical factors and more from the lipophilicity of the medicine itself.

Anybody who's interested can look for the article "Comparison of the Subcutaneous and Intramuscular Estradiol Regimens as Part of Gender-Affirming Hormone Therapy" published out of Dr. nippoldts group at Mayo recently.

Probably not something you can affect, but my biggest issue with trans care is just access to it through insurance. Free clinics and out of pocket payments make it doable, but around me, the offices specializing in trans care don't cover insurances except the few largest.

I've tried to use different types of corn flour, but it's never quite right. The nixtamilization process dramatically changes the texture of the resulting masa. Fresh masa is even better, and can be made yourself if you're up for a project day.

I agree that flour tortillas may be your best bet if you can't find maseca. A wine or round liquor bottle with the label removed makes a great impromptu rolling pin.

The majority of my friends leaving Austin have done so because of state politics. It's hard to feel safe when you're queer in Texas.

The fun part of transitioning is that you'll get both traditional misogyny and new, unique flavors!

Seriously though, joining a group of people that you aren't used to being in will always feel weird, but luckily that goes away with familiarity. I feel like my advice is always the same though, which is to find a therapist informed on gender issues if you can afford one.

https://genderdysphoria.fyi/

It's a pretty great description of what dysphoria can be like for some people.

I met up with a friend group I haven't seen in a while, and a lot of people made an effort to lump me into 'the girls'.

Plus electrolysis is showing good results, even if that hour a week is slowly killing my soul with pain.

I found genderdysphoria.fyi to be a really helpful resource. It was my time figuring out that it was more so that I didn't understand dysphoria than that I didn't have any.

Also, therapy with a gender affirming provider is amazingly helpful.

Even in this comment there's a distinct lack of recognition of the extent that hormones, and testosterone specifically, are responsible for dimorphism. People commonly think that the list of secondary sex traits is much shorter than it is and underestimate the effects of hormone therapy.

The Olympics have allowed trans athletes to compete as their gender identity since 2004 and yet trans women have not done well. One trans person has ever medaled. It was in a team sport by somebody who didn't have male puberty. There has been one trans woman competing in weight lifting, she didn't complete her lifts.

As far as I'm aware, the only sport where we have specifically studied athletic performance is distance running (https://www.researchgate.net/publication/307766116_Race_Times_for_Transgender_Athletes), where no advantage was found.

I'm also not sure I agree on what you personally define as transphobic. If you consistently other trans people and refer to them as separate from the rest of their gender, that's transphobic. For dating, there are a number of reasons why you may not want to date somebody. Genital preferences are a real thing and are absolutely a good reason not to date somebody. There are plenty of artifacts of being trans that are reasons to exclude somebody from who you date, but if the only reason you won't date somebody is that they're trans, that would still be transphobic.

It's a good idea in a world where that child is aware of their gender identity (which many people develop far earlier than when puberty starts) and about to start going through irreversible changes. The betrayal of their body is a big part of why trans children have such high rates of suicide.

In any case though, if you're worried about them being too young, why would you be making a stink about a medicine than exists to delay permanent changes in their body? We give it to cis children safely in the case of precocious puberty, it can be stopped and puberty will resume, and it stops a huge source of emotional pain for them.

Just because you don't need it doesn't mean that gender affirming care isn't still healthcare.