Other stuff, maybe due to estrogen, that we haven't discussed yet.

[Evolver]

Apologies to newbies who think that after reading this, they've just landed on Mars!

There's been plenty of discussion about hormone stew, estrogen dominance etc. over the past months and years and the effect that it has on us. Besides the obvious physical aspect that many of us are dealing with, there are emotions and feelings to manage as well. Being in touch with our femininity, etc. Transgender but not transitioning, etc. Hanging out with women, etc. Tears, etc.

What about other stuff that defines us? Is it due to hormone stew or is it just how we are? 

We're all here because we have something in common. How many of us are also introverts? This isn't necessarily a female trait, but I wonder if I'm not alone here. What about simple things like what we watch on TV? I do have a soft spot for The Bold and the Beautiful. What about music? I prefer Manilow over Metallica.

What are your opinions about your characteristics and what drives them? I know that there are just as many assertive, strong, hard women IRL as soft, reserved, demure men, without knowing why. But have you ever thought about more than just some aspects of your character, and joined the dots? Is every one of our traits due to our hormone stew dictating how we have reacted to situations throughout our lives?

Just curious. Personally, I have no idea what my E level is, and I have no good reason to get tested for it. My T level is in range but in the lower half. Yet, I'm girly.  

[Justagirl💃]

Apologies to newbies who think that after reading this, they've just landed on Mars!

There's been plenty of discussion about hormone stew, estrogen dominance etc. over the past months and years and the effect that it has on us. Besides the obvious physical aspect that many of us are dealing with, there are emotions and feelings to manage as well. Being in touch with our femininity, etc. Transgender but not transitioning, etc. Hanging out with women, etc. Tears, etc.

What about other stuff that defines us? Is it due to hormone stew or is it just how we are?

We're all here because we have something in common. How many of us are also introverts? This isn't necessarily a female trait, but I wonder if I'm not alone here. What about simple things like what we watch on TV? I do have a soft spot for The Bold and the Beautiful. What about music? I prefer Manilow over Metallica.

What are your opinions about your characteristics and what drives them? I know that there are just as many assertive, strong, hard women IRL as soft, reserved, demure men, without knowing why. But have you ever thought about more than just some aspects of your character, and joined the dots? Is every one of our traits due to our hormone stew dictating how we have reacted to situations throughout our lives?

Just curious. Personally, I have no idea what my E level is, and I have no good reason to get tested for it. My T level is in range but in the lower half. Yet, I'm girly. 

Personality traits?

Well, I am a firm believer that our hormones are a very strong influence on personality since I was given testosterone for two years in my late teens (because my father believed puberty was going the wrong direction). 
T made me distant, irritable, and self-centred. The physical changes were nothing compared to the emotional ones. I was not fun to be around!

That being said, hormones are only an influence on our personality and not the mold. There are so many others factors that mold us, so personalities are much more dynamic. 

In my case a step mother that would beat me bloody almost everyday after a mum that abandoned me at the age of 7 played a major role in my perspective. My brother that endured the same treatment chose different means of escape and became something of a personality much different than mine. Hormones alone can't explain how we coped differently. 

By the age of three you can see different personalities in infants. From there life experiences, hormones, and learned coping mechanisms are key in further development. 

[Sophie]

Great topic!

For me, I was maybe 4 or 5 years old when my mother found me wearing my sister's panties when she spotted the lacey waist band. Not long after she found me wearing her knee-high nylon stockings. She explained to me in both instances that these are for girls and that I was a boy. At the time, she thought that it was likely a phase of curiosity for me.

Of course, you all know the rest of my story when I started wearing a bra and shortly after, getting fitted for MY OWN first bras and panties when she took me shopping. 

These things are at least a by product of my hormonal make up. Now, is it the hormones that made me do it? Probably not. My brain was and is what it is. My brain is that of a woman regardless of what I was born with between my legs. If I could hit "the button " that would have made me being a cis-man or a cis-woman, I would choose being a woman every time, a hundred times over.

Somehow my body always knew that I was a woman. From my breast and hip and butt development to my bout with lactation and pumping them down  3-4 times a day for 3+ months. These things are tied to hormones. However, my choice to live as and truly enjoy my life as a woman is something that has always been and will always was be who my mind and soul are. 

Thank you all for always being so supportive of me throughout the years. 

Your sister,
♥️Sophie♥️

[Parity]

  Over the last several years I have reflected back on my childhood a lot.  Thinking about things I would do and how at the time they felt normal were a bit out of norm compared to other neighborhood boys.  I liked softer things.  Wasn't the competitive athlete, could hold my own but didn't need to win and felt for the looser.  I would sit and knit with mum as I watched a show.  Between adjusting the "bunny ears".

  I have always liked the softer woman's underwear and did sneak a try now and then.  When I would buy my own I bought and wore panties, and did wear pantyhose in the winter months. I have always enjoyed going to theater and never complain if a musical is performed. 

  I like the me I am.  I like that I can share it and not feel odd.  Having the need for a bra now kinda completes things.

[Justagirl💃]

It's the softer side that comes through with a feminine outlook. Crying when you're upset, feeling other people's hurt and pain (like not wanting to hit someone because 'they' would feel pain).

Holding back when 'guys' would lash out.

Love of colours and sexy things, and a strong sense of wanting to belong.

At least for me, these are some of my female traits I have 'always' had.

Funny how Google seems to know my 'likes'
by sending me ads asking if my "panties drawer needs updating". 💞💃💞

[Johndoe1]

I have never been overtly male, not into cars or hunting or home repair. I have enjoyed being in the company of women more than men. I felt more at home with them. Of course my hormones started shifting when I entered puberty and I started budding about the time other girls my age. 

I remember on incident when in college, I was visiting a girl and out of the blue her father asked me to show him my hands. I raised my hands and he responded by saying "Why do you show your hands like a woman?" It so rattled me I had no response but in my brain I was afraid he was trying to determine if I was gay because of my chest. I still to this day have no idea what the difference is between a man and a woman displaying their hands are. What it is, he saw it. 

[Justagirl💃]

 I still to this day have no idea what the difference is between a man and a woman displaying their hands are. What it is, he saw it.

Supposably if you look at your fingernails palm down it means you are feminine, and palm up bending the fingers means masculine. 

It's an old wives tale. 😉

[Parity]

That is a strange one for sure.  Only thing I can think of is did you hold out your hand palm up or palm down?  Even that, what would that indicate?  Even at that age a boys or young mans hands wouldn't be all beaten from manual labor. 

  You win!  Odd for sure.  Begs the question were you good enough for his daughter?  

[Parity]

I still to this day have no idea what the difference is between a man and a woman displaying their hands are. What it is, he saw it.

Supposably if you look at your fingernails palm down it means you are feminine, and palm up bending the fingers means masculine.

It's an old wives tale. 😉

Wow that's a new one.  I must be mixed...do it both ways.

[42CSurprise!]

I think Birdie says it well... hormones will definitely influence how we see the world and how we express ourselves, but our experiences growing up will have a great impact on how we relate to the world around us.  We've spoken often about the challenges of being different when our bodies developed during adolescence.  Having soft chests, even budding breasts, led to teenage angst.  Being different in any way is a curse for an adolescent.  That is one of the reasons why self-acceptance is such an important part of what happens here.  Instead of being ashamed of the ways we are different we're learning to accept ourselves exactly the way we are.

I read a book decades ago about differences between men and women.  The observation was made that while women were gathered around the fire engaging with one another as they performed domestic chores, men were walking single file through the jungle or circling around an animal being hunted.  Men do a better job of sitting side by side watching football and barely talking with one another while women are in the kitchen having in-depth conversations.  Many of us talk about our preference for spending time with women.  I've very little interest in spending time with men.  Yes, I put an addition on my home and can handle a hammer, saw, drill.  I pulled more than one engine out of a car when I was younger and enjoyed drinking beer with buddies and driving fast.  But I've no interest in going hunting or fishing.  I would play poker with the guys but there really aren't any in my life who want to play poker.

The only folks I share my journey with breasts and brassieres are the men here who have their own experiences with these things.  Yes, we're an unusual cohort, but it is still a pleasure knowing there is one place in the world that I can celebrate my voluptuous breasts.  I've no doubt we have differences in many ways but at least we keep our focus on what is happening with our bodies.  

[taxmapper]

One of the main points (and pointed this out before) that my "A-Male" aspects are long gone for what little I had. 

I will tell everyone in time of a situation I was recently involved with and my breasts, but the A Male aspects of desiring the latest and greatest toy that goes bang, or fast, or gets the girls or whatever, along with the "I Conquer All" attitude and "The ladies love me" aspects I now see as somewhat threatening. 

I desire not anymore Camaros, large trucks, fast guns, and lots of beer, is gone. 

I want quiet, softness, practice Zen, and have a habit of posting pictures of women when someone asks what my mood is in a pic. 

[Evolver]

What lovely replies. There's so much to unpack here, and so much yet to discover. That's the thing. We never stop learning about ourselves, I know I overthink things so I'm always questioning, why why why?

Hormones are an influence but not the mold. I like that! I know that our character as adults is a product of environment, teachings and experience, but I just wonder, if the influence of our hormones could be measured, how large a factor would it be?

Yet, it is, I agree, mostly due to the wiring of our brains. There can be no other explanation. There is a whole world of people who at some stage or other, admit that they have always been the way that they are. Proudly, I'm one of them. Hormones complete the physical and emotional features as a byproduct, no doubt, but now I'm wondering if it is the wiring of our brains which tell our hormones to stew in a certain way? 



 

[Justagirl💃]

What lovely replies. There's so much to unpack here, and so much yet to discover. That's the thing. We never stop learning about ourselves, I know I overthink things so I'm always questioning, why why why?

Hormones are an influence but not the mold. I like that! I know that our character as adults is a product of environment, teachings and experience, but I just wonder, if the influence of our hormones could be measured, how large a factor would it be?

Yet, it is, I agree, mostly due to the wiring of our brains. There can be no other explanation. There is a whole world of people who at some stage or other, admit that they have always been the way that they are. Proudly, I'm one of them. Hormones complete the physical and emotional features as a byproduct, no doubt, but now I'm wondering if it is the wiring of our brains which tell our hormones to stew in a certain way?



 

Correct, Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) studies of transgender individuals (particularly transgender women) have reported larger putamen volumes compared with individuals with matching gender identity and assigned sex at birth.

We are all wired to be 'who we are' since birth. That's why at 3 years of age the personality is already apparent. 

Then environmental influence and hormones shape us. I have always been who I am, and my grandmother knew it raising me to sew, knit, bake, and cook. 
Intersex but 'AMAB' wasn't the correct fit so she started raising me as female. 

Identifying as female is more of a homecoming rather than a choice.
It's who I have been all those years.  

[blad]

I still like buying very fast cars, but then drive them slowly.

[42CSurprise!]

I still like buying very fast cars, but then drive them slowly.

I've owned three Corvettes along the way and had so many speeding tickets as a youth that I lost my driver's license more than once.  I also have been an angry driver always in a rush to get places and always frustrated with other drivers for the things they did.  I've been aware recently how much more relaxed I've become behind the wheel.  I've attributed it to work I've been doing around trauma I experienced as a boy but it is probably true that changes in my body resulting from diminished testosterone are likely at play as well.  Estrogen can do some lovely things to our temperament, as has been mentioned quite often by men finding it easier to be with their wives who delight in the changes.

There is nothing unusual about these changes.  Testosterone diminishes with age, as does our libidinal energy.  We happen to be men who have enough concern and/or enough affection for the breasts growing on our chests, that we want to talk with other men about it.  That the conversation turns to the topic of brassieres makes it a bit unusual.  I know where that comes from for me since I developed an affection for women's undergarments as an adolescent.  It has had less to do with comfort for me than for fantasy fulfillment.  I have little doubt that the views photos posted here receive have more to do with that than simply curiosity about the mechanics of brassiere design...  For me, there is room for everything that happens here and there is NO doubt, estrogen having its way with both our bodies and minds makes all this happen.  Thanks to the BIG E...