Some things from me:
- Early on, darkening of the perineal raphe was quite a surprise (aka the “sack stripe”). It’s not something I’ve seen mentioned in most HRT guides.
- How incredibly unreliable my own perception of how feminine I look is. People were treating me as a woman well before I could see even hints of it in my face.
- It’s nice that women will sit next to me on the train now. As the carriage fills up I quite often find myself in the center of a cluster of women, which is very affirming.
- Makeup areas in bathrooms. I had no idea this was a thing, and they’re great!
When I started taking E, my breasts started developing about 3 weeks in and by about 2 months, I had some solid tissue behind my nipples which I would squeeze and feel around to gauge how much it had grown. This was not the surprising part. What shocked the ever loving crap out of me was the fact I had fluid coming from my nipples! I did some reading on it and apparently it’s because milk ducts were forming, but nobody warned me my tits would leak!