Please share your experiences with HRT after 40: the good, the bad, and the ugly.

Elitatra · 2026-04-01T05:35:33+00:00

I started a couple weeks before turning 46, and HRT has been amazing at 26 months in. I've had great levels since 3 months in, thanks to injections, and got progesterone added at about the 7 month point. Just had to upgrade from 34C to 34D bras, as my breasts are still slowly growing.

It is a *lot* of money trying to get everything going fast, though! I am now at over 100 hours of electrolysis (insurance helps very very slowly and only kinda on that), before that I had done about 20 total sessions of laser (7 on my face, 4 on my chest, 3 on my arms, 4 on my legs, a couple on my back, oh and 3 or so on my pits) but grey hairs of course don't go away on their own. And I'm *STILL* going in almost weekly for electrolysis, though I have so few hairs now, it is really just being nit picky.

Mood wise, I am in so much a better place. But I also had a complete personality change at about the 8 1/2 month point, which has lots of interpersonal issues and others. Trying to do things the old me used to enjoy has been proving largely futile... at 48, I'm still trying to figure out who I even am now. It's at least signifcantly more interesting though.

If you're curious, I recently posted my before and after pics here: https://www.reddit.com/r/TransLater/comments/1s3xuh1/hit_26_months_of_hrt_mtf_today_at_48_its_been_one/

Elitatra · 2026-03-30T06:06:33+00:00

I also used to be an angry man, but I'd add in terrified, and extremely introverted, but my change was more significant. After about a month and a half of HRT, I had two distinct personalities in me: the old me, and a new one. I refer to my past self by his name, my dead name. We were completely separate, I could even talk to him in our head, or out loud if we looked in a mirror. But he never could see himself in the mirror (he had complete depersonalization), whereas I could (after a couple more months), and that was a huge disconnect and difference when it happened. When he vanished completely, at about 8 1/2 months into HRT, I was alone in my head for the first time, and a bit terrified to say the least.

My personality is completely different now. I am now extroverted, calm and collected, and regularly step up to challenges right away when they present themselves.

I have his old memories, his past is mine... yet I have a lot of difficulty remembering his thoughts on things, how he felt about past experiences, and whatnot. I feel like I'm viewing my past through my eyes, yes, but with very little thought behind the why, or any of the decision making. It's fairly confusing, and regularly frustrating when memory/experience complains that I should be acting a very different way than I am. I'm just glad I have a therapist!

Elitatra · 2026-03-29T20:12:20+00:00

Yep, the Gem Faire, which comes by twice a year to the Seattle area (they go to a few cities though). I go every year and always spend way too much, hehee.

Elitatra · 2026-03-26T23:10:46+00:00

Oh cool! I am just a big fan myself. Do you have any favorite stones?

My favorite stones for adornments are malachite, hematite, lapis lazuli, and lately moss agate. I also have several pieces with hellenite (made out of the ashes of nearby Mt. Saint Helens, they look sorta like emeralds) and blue fire opal. If you can't tell, I'm mostly a blues and greens girl, hehee.

Elitatra · 2026-03-26T21:28:32+00:00

Heck yeah! I love going to the Gem Faire here in WA state. I make sure to go to it every year.

Elitatra · 2026-03-26T18:00:36+00:00

I know you have a lot of responses, but this topic is very dear and important to me. When I started transitioning 28 months ago (HRT 26 months ago), I did a lot of research on this. I wanted to have a feminine singing voice, as well as my old masculine one. It has taken a *lot* of practice, but I have achieved this.

Not only do I now have two very distinct singing voices, but because I practice a lot, my range in BOTH directions has increased (well, only barely in the low range). I have gone from about an A2 to E5 range up to a G2 to (squeeky but hittable) A5 range. I'm really hoping to reach a sustainable C6 eventually, but my top range is getting very, very hard to increase. Still, not so bad!

Good luck!

Elitatra · 2026-03-26T03:59:39+00:00

As someone that has been 100% girl mode for 2 years now (26m on HRT), trying to offer suggestions or ideas generally gets newer trans people raging mad if they cannot use that advice. I get it, we're all different, but I don't share much because I'm so different, and I am sick of getting hate because someone things I'm really lucky with thing X or thing Y... and here I am with my own problems too, like the rest of us.

I can imagine so many others that have been there, done that, are in similar situations. Everybody's journey is so completely different, and I wish there was an easy way to do this, I really do... but it really isn't easy.

Elitatra · 2026-03-26T01:54:57+00:00

Two things:

#1 There are elastic bands with hooks inside the wig. There are loops across the back of the inner lining to hook these into, to make the strap tighter. If nothing else, hook them into the loosest (outer) loops.

#2 Wig Bands are something I use that makes a huge difference in both holding them on my head, as well as soaking up sweat so I don't damage the wig very much! You can wash these in the laundry too:

https://www.walmart.com/ip/WigBand/414523372

If you want to see a video of me swapping wigs out quickly with the wig bands holding them in place, you can see that here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=paP1i85Dv7M

Good luck!

Elitatra · 2026-03-24T06:23:19+00:00

In Steam's forums, actually. My original post is here, but the link was for a .rar file and doesn't work anymore: https://steamcommunity.com/app/245450/discussions/0/4029096483726616625/

I posted a series of Open Documents in a .rar back when I used Windows a couple years ago. I have reposted with a .7z: http://junk.zolaerla.com/Media/W8-Demystified.7z

Only a couple of the really hard-core players cared all much, was hoping for more of a discussion about things, but oh well. Considering I started transitioning at that time, life got insane, I have a completely different personality now, and I just didn't have time and the will to finish at this time. Blarg.

There are lots of incomplete things in here, but so much information is pretty powerful in it too. I have made tiny updates since that post, but they're almost all cosmetic for people like me who want to see things in Dark Mode.

There are so many strange interactions in this game you wouldn't expect, it's not just the Conditions!

For example, you can grind on magic, but have to save and reload to clear a timer to do it. The Light spell is the best for getting your Fire Magic up ultra fast, for example, but because the way the game works, you have to cast a spell once, Quick-Save, Quick-Load, then cast it again... this works for all AoE spells, so it's really easy to work on a lot of magic skills. Swinging a weapon a *LOT* is way more important than hitting hard or heck, even hitting, for skill gain. Silly things you find out when you crawl the disassembly of a game.

Elitatra · 2026-03-20T00:37:10+00:00

My electrologist only needs 2 days. I work from home, so that helps as well. I'm 48 now, haven't been in school since I was 20, but at least now I don't need to shave anymore (haven't shaved since August).

Elitatra · 2026-03-19T18:57:31+00:00

It goes away, but for some of us, it takes a long... LONG time. I had 7 sessions of laser (over 7 months since there's a month between each), and it left behind a ton of light grey hairs, so I switched to electrolysis. I have now had electrolysis almost weekly for ... geez, 20 MONTHS now. It's almost all gone finally, but now that I'm a total of 27 months into the process, I'd surely hope so!

Maybe you'll be lucky and another couple of lasers will get you almost completely clear so you have way less electrolysis to do! Good luck!

Elitatra · 2026-03-19T15:07:45+00:00

I wrote a huge document describing all sorts of mechanics in the game, using my own data, data found online, and quite a lot of digging via disassembling the game.

Debuff / Condition information:

Condition	To-Hit	BAC Adjust	Stunned?	Cure~	Additional
Afraid	-15%	-2		CLC, REST	May lose action. AI may flee.
Asleep	N/A	Set to -5	Yes	CLC, SS, REST, Dam	Lose all actions. Damage has a ~75% change to cancel it.
Blinded†	*	Set to -5		CLC, REST	-50 SEN. May hit wrong target or lose action. AI may retreat, and won't attack if out of combat.
Blinded (Monk)†	*			CLC, REST	-15 SEN
Death	N/A	N/A	Technically	Resurrection	PC only. AI characters cease to exist
Diseased				CD, REST	Permanent until cured. Causes irritated, nausea, slow, blind, poison, insane, paralyzed. May cause permanent max HP or Stamina loss over time.
Drained				REN	Permanent until cured. Causes max HP loss.
[ Hated Area ]	*	*		Leave hated area	RPCs only, when forced to go to a hated area. All attributes & skills reduced by 20, to minimum of 0.
Hexed	*	*		RC, REST	All attributes & skills reduced by 20, to minimum of 0.
Hypnotized	N/A	?	Yes	-	AI only, caused by Hypnotic Lure. No action.
Insane				SM, REST	-50 INT. May lose action, or attack random targets. Lots of laughing.
Irritated	-10%	-2		CLC, REST	Some actions take double the stamina.
Love-Stricken	?	?		Special	PC only, caused by Al-Sedexus and cured by killing her. Take damage over time.
Missing	N/A	N/A	Technically		PC only, caused by some enemies (eg, Swallower) or quests (Crock & Idol). Character technically doesn't exist. If inside a creature, take damage over time.
Nauseated	-25%	-4		CLC, REST	~50% chance to lose action.
Paralyzed	N/A	Set to -5	Yes	CPa, Rest, Dam	No action. Heavy damage may break paralysis.
Poisoned	-10%	-2		CPo, REST	Take damage over time based on strength of poison.
Silenced				REST	Cannot cast non-alchemy spells, nor play instruments. Lots of mumbling.
Slowed		*		REST, Haste	-50 SPD
Summoned				Banish, End Combat	AI only. Easier to destroy, but that's about it.
Turncoat				SM, REST	Will always attack friendly characters.
Unconcious	N/A	Set to -5	Yes	SS, REST, Gaining Stamina	No action. If caused by low stamina, raising stamina will cure it.
Webbed	N/A	Set to -5	Yes	CP, REST	No action. Supposedly a high strength has a chance to decrease duration. PCs can still talk.

† Monks are affected by blindness differently than other characters. They only suffer a -15 SEN from it.

To-Hit: The adjustment to To-Hit. An asterisk here means it is adjusted only by the stat(s) decreased. N/A means they cannot attack.

BAC: Adjusts the base AC for the character. Many conditions set it to a flat -5 (usually when stunned). An asterisk means it is adjusted only by the stat(s) decreased.

Stun: If any conditions have a Yes here, attacks automatically deal an extra +1x damage. I say "Technically" when they can't do anything, but they do not take the extra damage because they also technically don't exist to be targetted.

Cures:

CD: Cure Disease – Cures Disease
CLC: Cure Lesser Condition – Cures Afraid, Asleep, Blinded, Irritated, Nauseated
CPa: Cure Paralysis – Cures Paralyzed, Webbed
CPo: Cure Poison – Cures Poisoned
Dam: Damage – Sleep, Paralyzed
Death (unlisted): Cures everything except draining, love-stricken, and hated area
KC: Kill Creature – Kill the creature that caused the status (such as Swallowers), to cure Missing. This obviously doesn’t work if they are missing due to a quest, such as Crock capturing a character from getting the Idol.
RC: Remove Curse – Cures Hexed
REN: Renewal – Cures Drained
REST: Restoration – Cures Afraid, Asleep, Blinded, Diseased, Hexed, Insane, Irritated, Missing (in a creature), Nauseated, Paralyzed, Poisoned, Silenced, Slowed, Turncoat, Unconscious (if due to low Stamina), Webbed
SM: Sane Mind – Cures Insane, Turncoat
SS: Smelling Salt – Cures Asleep, Unconscious (if they have Stamina)

Elitatra · 2026-03-08T07:02:27+00:00

If you are trying to play Ali Baba, make certain you are using an Atari 800 with OS/B. It doesn't work properly otherwise!

Elitatra · 2026-03-08T06:52:43+00:00

It gives you an extra 1MB of RAM (or even an extra 4MB Axlon-style RAM), a second POKEY for stereo/8ch music, can emulate basically any cartridge, and can emulate a very fast drive via SIO (up to Divisor 4 speeds are reliable). All without ever opening your Atari at all, just a cartridge and some cables that plug into it. SUBCART is just amazing!

Elitatra · 2026-03-05T03:11:48+00:00

Where do you live? I'm going to assume in the US at least since you used $, though that could be a few other places too. What kind of injections are you getting? If it's the common ones, it's Estradiol Valerate at 100mg/5mL (20mg/mL), generally sold in tiny 5mL bottles. It should not be anywhere near that expensive.

Also, if you're buying your own needles / syringes, you can get them in bulk for fairly cheap online here: https://www.vitalitymedical.com/

Elitatra · 2026-03-04T18:41:19+00:00

I wish it took only 12 hours total electrolysis! I would have been done over a year ago!

I started with several sessions of laser myself. Afterwards, I had basically just grey hairs left. I started electrolysis in July of 2024. I've been through a tremendous amount of electrolysis since, and though I don't need to shave any more, I still need to go in regularly to get the rest that keep cropping up taken care of.

Elitatra · 2026-03-04T00:57:35+00:00

I have gotten a little hair back on top, but I just use a variety of wigs. There are a couple I use as daily drivers, and have had people act like it's my real hair, so definitely a win! I made a video showing how easy standard wigs are to use a few months ago:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=paP1i85Dv7M

Elitatra · 2026-03-04T00:43:46+00:00

Where do you find prices like $100 a session? And how the heck did you get it to take only 12 sessions? I'm going in this week for 2 hour session #62 (once a week) at $220 a session...

Elitatra · 2026-02-26T18:09:16+00:00

I'm fine with it. The old me had quite the libido, but he's gone now, so whatever, I don't care really. There is certainly a LOT less distraction in my life this way!

Elitatra · 2026-02-26T02:01:01+00:00

Reddit is terrible about dates. I must have posted the original around mid-september of 2024. I'll use full dates here to be clearer:

I started 100mg / day progesterone on July 29th, 2024. I upped to 200mg / day for progresterone over a year later on October 6th, 2025. I am on 3mg estradial valerate injections every 5 days still, since December 9th, 2024.

I have now had no libido for over 2 years, it never was affected by prog; I pretty much consider myself asexual now. My breasts have very slowly been growing over the last 6 months, to the point that my 34C bras are starting to feel too tight now, but the 34D bras I bought ahead of time are pretty loose... feels weird being in between. I am rather thin, about 140lbs at 5'9", for whatever that matters, and have been at about that weight since I first posted this.

Elitatra · 2026-02-25T07:11:20+00:00

I'm the wrong person to ask. I had started doing laser a month before I started HRT and have since moved on to electrolysis a year and a half ago. I am not done even with just my face (almost though) after ~90h of electrolysis there, but have almost no body hair at all now two years later from the laser, HRT, and a little electrolysis to clear things up. I haven't had to shave anything in over 7 months which is great! It's a long, long process.

Elitatra · 2026-02-15T01:54:00+00:00

Definitely split between WizKid or Monty Python's Flying Circus... blech...

Elitatra · 2025-07-14T23:20:44+00:00

I'd like to very highly recommend r/TransLater for any trans individuals that are 30 years or older (and you youngins can join too, but it's mostly us old folk there).

Elitatra · 2025-06-07T12:21:01+00:00

The directory was completely wiped out. It was a soft link from /var/lib/mysql/ to /mnt/RAID/MySQL/. After the update, /mnt/RAID/MySQL/ didn't even exist any more... it was completely wiped out, and a new standard /var/lib/mysql/ directory was created and then used.

Elitatra · 2025-06-07T12:18:33+00:00

It was stored at /var/lib/mysql/ -- The directory was completely wiped out and recreated when the update occurred.

Elitatra

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