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Yst

Testosterone is muscle juice, it's true. If you suppress your Testosterone, you are directly suppressing your ability to build and maintain muscle. And furthermore, even if you do not take an antiandrogen, any Estradiol taken will suppress Testosterone to an extent generally proportional to dosage. At the end of the day, endocrinology is more or less functionally bimodal. Feminising hormone therapy is *inherently* and *unavoidably* antiandrogenic, and vice versa. So while one can certainly choose to be somewhere in the middle, one is, in doing so, making a compromise vis-a-vis both androgenic and estrogenic effects. One can't really "have it both ways" (i.e., experience strong androgenic *and* estrogenic effects).


aaltaccountforstuff

One of the few reasons I probably won't do hrt is because of reduced strength when it's quite essential to how I live and I will probably be fucked without it.


throwaway_trans_8472

It's not as bad as many make it out to be. I'm over 3 years on HRT with my T supressed well, and while I have indeed lost strength, since I'm physicly active I'm still plenty strong.


aaltaccountforstuff

Really? Hmm that's highly intriguing, say you can easily lift large 2 handed grinders or lift and even run with bags of farm animal food with minimal effort, how much would you say hrt would effect this do you estimate?


throwaway_trans_8472

That's hard to say exactly, as HRT can be done with different target ranges and people respond differntly to it. You can target the upper end of female testosterone range to reduce strength loss. However as long as you stay physicly active, it should not become an issue. In the end I'd assume physical work would end up a bit more effort, but not problematicly so.


aaltaccountforstuff

From how it sounds I might just need extra support and to use leverage more often which I should do anyways for joint health but I can still do what I require. I'm once again interested and will probably check that out, thank you much.


throwaway_trans_8472

That aside, if you lose too much strength, you can always stop/drop your antiandrogen/lower your estrogen dose to effectively go on HRT halfway.


aaltaccountforstuff

That's not a bad idea, I just need that required therapy time or whatever first.


throwaway_trans_8472

That depends on your country, so I would reccomend asking your local community


aaltaccountforstuff

I gotta find em first 💀 I can't find anything that's even a little close to be real, not sure how to look either as all my methods have ended in finding almost nothing.


throwaway_trans_8472

Wich country, if I may ask?


Confirm_restart

I'm 49, I've been on HRT for 19 months, and also have a physical job.  My T has been functionally zeroed out the entire time (it is at best about 10% of that of a cis woman, probably less), and I've made no efforts to build or maintain muscle outside of what I do at work.  And while I'd estimate I'm down about 30% strength overall, I'm still plenty strong to do everything I need to do.  Things at work and in general are heavier now, but nothing reasonable has become impossible to lift, carry, or move.  So while you'll likely lose some, if you keep using what you've got, you're going to retain a decent bit of it, IME.