I bound from 14 to 19 until surgery.

I never wore it more than 8hrs in a day, didn't wear it at home unless we had guests, only went outside a handful of times a month at the time. My ribs were still effected. Nothing effecting my physical health but they are misshaped with a dent. It's not terribly noticeable but does bother me when I pay attention to it.

If she feels the need to flatten her chest and won't budge on that then maybe you could suggest "k-tape" for her, AFAIK it doesn't put as much pressure on the ribcage so is "better" although truth be told there is no completely safe way to bind, only strategies that reduce the damage.

Definitely talk to her about how it could negatively effect her physical health, it's one thing for adults but I'm sure for young people, still physically developing, the effects can be more drastic as they were for me.

Agree so much, I've heard people say they're using "tough love and honesty" but that's complete bull.

You wouldn't call a woman who had mastectomy to battle breast cancer and never got implants mutilated, you wouldn't call a woman who had a hysterectomy for any number or reasons mutilated. I only ever hear the term "mutilated" used towards detrans and GNC women who took medical steps as their treatment for dysphoria.

I feel like it's used on purpose because they don't see detrans people who medically altered their bodies as worthy, as if not "realising" before anything permanent happened makes them somehow lesser.

Some detrans people use the term to describe themselves, that's okay if that's how they feel and want to describe their experience. But other people shouldn't use the word to describe others' bodies, even if they use the word themselves. Not their place.

Whatever happened to being accepting of ALL womens bodies? What about detrans people who reidentified as women but don't regret their mastectomies for example?

Calling women mutilated for not looking like your own perfect idea of woman? Sorry, just sounds like misogyny to me.

(Not to exclude, obviously my views stand for detrans men too, no one should be told their body is/looks mutilated)

Agree, if we were literal about it then we'd be calling people with things like tattoos, earrings or even some life saving surgeries (like skin grafts etc) "mutilated". But we don't, because we know it's not the right word to use no matter how "technically true" it might be. To use that word is IMO just hateful, whether someone means it to be or not and I am so glad others on this sub that also disagree with using that word.

Disclaimer I'm just passing by this sub and am likely talking out my ass but I remember a blog called gendercube (cube or cubed) and the trans guy there said he had a problem with his ovaries that "would have given him excrutiating pain" if it wasn't for the fact he was on T so they were shut down. I also recall posts about people experiencing pain after years on T without a hysterectomy. Perhaps you should ask a trusted doctor if you can get a scan to make sure everything internally is okay?

Whatever it is I hope it's nothing serious or if it is that you can get the help you need, warm wishes.

For context I'm nearing 25 now and started transition at 14. Female-to-Male. Right now I'm still unsure where I'm going in regards to gender, the only definite thing is I'm stopping T (and starting E, as I had SRS).

Sorry for any formatting errors as I'm on mobile.

This comment is mostly on the under 18s experience.

I was at a clinic for children at age 14, a year of appointments were required before blockers, then a year of blockers before HRT. I can't remember how often the appointments were but they did do at least some therapy with me. This was 2010/2011.

I think part of the problem is that children don't really have the capacity for long term thinking yet. I can't word it properly right now so I'm just gonna quote a bit from a site.

Quote- "The rational part of a teen’s brain isn’t fully developed and won’t be until age 25 or so.

In fact, recent research has found that adult and teen brains work differently. Adults think with the prefrontal cortex, the brain’s rational part. This is the part of the brain that responds to situations with good judgment and an awareness of long-term consequences. Teens process information with the amygdala. This is the emotional part." -End

And I think this is really true. When I was younger I didn't think about long term, I didn't think what if I wanted to stop HRT, what if having SRS could effect my health in other ways (Being on YouTube mentioned things such as potentially being unable to pass kidney stones due to the reconstructed urethra).

I only thought about how I felt right then. I would emphasize on how I liked boys clothes more and play with boy toys, I wouldn't mention things if I thought it would make them doubt me, I would fail to answer truthfully on some questions like when they asked be if I had any sexual abuse situations I would say no. Which was a lie.

I never talked about how certain experiences I had growing up could have caused me to dissociate from my body and associate being female with being dirty.

Admittedly I was only 14, and I was unaware of it. It's only as I got older now that I've been able to explore the reasons and recognise some things I never could before.

What kind of experience do you wish you’d had, to help you honestly explore if this was the right path for you?

Speaking as a young transitioner, looking back with hindsight...

• I think I would have benefitted from therapy away from my parents so I could speak more openly.

• I think they should have put more effort into exploring other reasons for my feelings and emphasize that it was okay to be a GNC woman.

• I think that blockers shouldn't be used for trans youth. For me they gave me hot flashes, negatively effected my weight and fatigue, they ultimately added to my distress causing me to be even more desperate for HRT because it would "fix everything".

• It would have been better if I were offered continuous birth control which would have given me a break from periods that deeply distressed me.
  It would have regulated my hormones and could have given me a clearer mind, not plagued by the extreme fluctuations I think I suffered from.
  Unfortunately it wasn't offered and I believed at the time that BC makes breasts bigger. Which is apparently a big lie I was told.

If I were made to wait for HRT until 18 I might have found by then I would have calmed down and become more okay with my body. I don't know for sure but when we look at the statistics of trans kids and how (almost? Correct me if I'm wrong) 100% of those who go on blockers end up transitioning then the alternative above at least would have given me and other kids more of a chance of becoming okay with our bodies, which absolutely should be preferred than a lifetime of HRT.

Not to mention the unknown effects blockers can have on mental growth. And the fact they can have negative consequences even for children who still want to transition as adults, see Jazz Jennings and her lack of SRS options due to never experienced male puberty.

I'm not a super critical person who believes that there are no real trans kids or anything like that, some of them sure could grow up and still want transition and I think transition is the best option some people have.

I no longer think it should be the only offered option though, and for children especially I think we need to stop any medical intervention (birth control for ftms and voice training for mtfs could be alternatives?) happening prior to 18 and focus a lot more on therapy to try and prevent anyone who doesn't actually need transition from going down that route if they don't need to.

Sorry, This is probably very 'rambly'. It boils down to I think in my case, along with other young transitioners, we could have grown up okay with our bodies if there was no early medical intervention and more consistent therapy.

I don't think anything malicious is being done, and it's difficult to deal with children and teens because of how their minds work, but there is negligence in how the treatment works right now with lack of therapy and eagerness to please the public in being affirming.

It needs to slow down, better to make everyone wait until 18 (at least) than allow early transition and risk even one child mistakenly transition and end up with a life of medication.

Great to read your post on your experience of being someone who was on T for over a year before stopping. On the subject of your voice, do you think the change is more to do with maybe a shift in how you speak or a real physical change?

I do wonder if the vocal cords may soften for female people? I don't know the ins and outs of how they work so I'm interested to hear what you think it is that causes the change?

Don't know if anyone's said this yet but re: lower growth, while it will never go back to the size it was before it can actually get smaller when you come off T similar to how MTFs can experience shrinkage on Estrogen. How much though depends on your luck.

Thanks for the answer :) I wonder if the same happens for MTF people, though afaik they often do voice therapy alongside so it could be difficult to find out. Glad you are doing well by the way, always nice to see people become happy and get to a point where they can love themselves 🙂 honestly brings happy tears to my eyes😭

I stopped T cold turkey about a month ago and am looking to go on Estrogen HRT (I had SRS) after almost 7 years on T. I've always spoken monotone and "from the chest" even before transition so it will be interesting to see if I will experience any change in voice too.

(Not too sure what direction I'm taking yet, I'm trying to figure it all out but regardless of gender I'm still switching to E for health and other reasons)

AFAIK it would work as well for you as it would for a Transwoman.

If you're looking to get it then be aware that, from what I've read on it, sometimes while the surgery itself is successful and scans even show the vocal chord (I forget technical terms) is smaller/thinner/whatever the voice for some reason could still drop back to how it was before or just not change at all. Apparently they don't know why it happens but it's a risk. I don't know the rates.

I don't know if this would help you at all, but it made me feel a bit better about my voice, there is a woman (natal female, she was pregnant in the interview I found out about her in) named Helen Leahey on YouTube who has a very masculine voice. She broke a world record with it. She does covers and sounds very beautiful, maybe hearing other women with low voices could help you feel better about your voice?

I had blockers at 15 and a half for a year that was mandatory before cross sex hormones at 16 and a half. They did a full body bone scan before I started and a year later when I started hormones. The density did go down but apparently not by a major amount. Growth plates were closed by then as well if it makes a difference. I couldn't tell you the specifics because I don't have my records at the moment.