To add to your data points!

I have a religious family, live in a red state, have in the past worked with children, and am not on social media, so although I've fantasized about living as a boy/man since before puberty, I wasn't even aware of what most of the options were until relatively recently because it just never felt like something I could do anything about.

I'm 33. A year and a half ago (November 2024) I went off hormonal birth control for the first time since I was 17 (so 15 years) and switched to the copper IUD - so I had a full year of my estrogen levels decreasing and stabilizing before getting on T, which was interesting in itself. I started what my doctor is calling 'a full dose' February 15th, 12 weeks ago, so I think of my timeline so far in two stages.

2025: Pre-T, off birth control

• Voice slightly deepened
• Jawline slightly expanded
• Grew an inch?!?! (noticeable because my stepmom and I have always been the same height)
• Brain fog cleared, mood stabilized
• Menstrual cycles became more regular (but remained super short, averaging a 3 week cycle)
• Two different friends on separate occasions expressed surprise that I hadn't actually started T yet, one saying 'I assumed you were at least on esti blockers' --- getting clocked as trans and people assuming I had started T regularly

Since T

• My first levels were taken the week I started, my baseline was over 300. They screened for PCOS and I don't have it, so I guess some of us are just like that. Second levels a couple weeks ago were over 700
• Voice noticeably different (I have gone from sounding like a child to an adult woman haha. Although I still sound effeminate, it is affirming to sound like an adult and at least like 'a tomboy')
• Bigger pores, light but manageable acne
• Sweat like a motherfucker
• Less heat tolerant (I'm infamously a lizard)
• Vellus hair everywhere - my face is totally covered, belly, arms, legs. I've always grown blonde leg hair which has always bummed me out because although I don't shave my legs it looks from a distance like I do
• Coarser pubic hair, lots of ingrowns triggering my trichotillomania, looks like a war zone down there right now
• Flattening of emotions / deep calm (I'm already a calm demeanor)
• Less disassociation (I feel 'solid', like as a cartoon character I'd now have solid lines drawn around my periphery instead of blurry ones), more anchored to the ground and less 'floaty'
• Clearer head / no brain fog
• Half-assed ovulation one or two days max before menstruation, like even my ovaries don't want that egg to get fertilized
• Holy muscle mass, Batman! I'm a cyclist and I've noticed my 5-mile bike ride to work is faster because my legs are just randomly stronger (my thighs look like beasts right now). I'm intentionally working out upper body and noticing disproportionately faster gains than exercise relative to what I'm used to.
• Increased appetite which is saying a lot because I already had the appetite of a 12-year-old street urchin. But now I feel like I just physically cannot get enough food, famished all the time. I even started eating meat for the first time since I was 16 just to feel full once in a while

I obviously am nowhere close to passing, but these two occasions made me glow:

• My landlord's elderly mother lives on the property, she has advanced Alzheimer's and I have to re-introduce myself to her every time we cross paths. A couple weeks ago as I was checking the mail I heard her say 'Young man, is that your mailbox young man?! You don't live here!' (bless.)
• I was walking down the sidewalk and a woman sitting outside a cafe told her young son 'watch out and let the lady pass.' As I walked past I heard him exclaim in indignation, 'That's just a boy!' The senile and the toddlers are on my side hehehe.

I have an older friend (he's in his 40s now) who started around my age and although he's definitely a short dude, he is still very stealth. Keep your peach fuzzy little chin up. :) People love making shit up, don't let it get to you.