Some questions/thoughts.. curious

[onerous]

My mind is a little messed up right now, so I'm not quite sure how to word these.. Started randomly thinking about some things earlier today.. wondering if anyone has any insights, girls and guys alike..

1. I'm not stereotyping or generalising any individual/group here, its just something I observed.. here, sometimes when a question is asked, it seems that MTFs are more likely to answer the question, then add own experiences about the topic.. whereas FTMs are more likely to just answer the question..? Is this just my overactive imagination/selective memory? If it isn't, is this tendency exhibited by GGs or GMs more? Is it a natural/born tendency or a learned/cultural tendency? I don't really interact much socially with either GGs or GMs, so I don't know.. I have this "adding own experience" tendency also in real life conversation, and seem to get the impression from the ggs i live with, that they don't really care to hear about it? :strugglin I dunno.. probably just my imagination.. any thoughts on this..? :straightface:

2. What are the effects of building up pectoral muscles under breast tissue? Do they increase the apparent size? I heard some sources say that they would, as there's more volume under, pushing the breast tissue outwards. But others say that they will hold the breast tissue up, making them more perky, less sag and thus look smaller? And some say that the muscle presence will help burn off the fat tissue and thus make them look smaller as well.. strength training seems to be a common suggestion on the web to cure gynecomastia. Any personal experiences on this issue? :worried:

3. Peanuts are to testosterone, as soybeans are to estrogen? :doh:

Hope these questions didn't come off as insulting to anyone.. not sure even if they made sense.. I don't know.. my brain is just kinda in a fuzz right now.. lack of sleep :eek: :bonk:

Anyway, any opinions/random comments will be greatly appreciated.. thanks. :)

[Alan]

I like to offer personal experience if I have any, but usually, I don't. I'm pretty new to this whole being trans thing. Also, I don't like talking about my own experiences, necessarily, especially not in a forum everyone can see. In the Boys' Clubhouse, I'm a lot more open about things.

But part of it is, I just don't wanna hijack the thread. And, not to offend everyone, but sometimes, I feel it's kinda like "My problems suck more than your problems do" and I hate that kind of thing. I'm not saying it happens always, but I've found that sometimes it does.

I have found, in my own life, that my male friends are more reticent than my female ones. Which, you know, I do sorta prefer.

Can't say much more about that. Or point 2, I don't know anything about THAT.

Number 3 is just WEIRD. No offense! But I'm vegetarian, so I eat TONS of soybeans, and I have insanely high t-levels naturally.

However, a random comment I CAN give: SQUISH. :D :D :D

[CaptLex]

Anyway, any opinions/random comments will be greatly appreciated.. thanks. :)
I'll give it a shot . . .

1. I've never noticed who does that more - males, females, MtFs, FtMs - so I can't say. I know I tend to do it and have been accused of playing "Can you top this?", but that's really not my motivation. I just like to relate similar experiences to show that sometimes I understand and can relate somewhat.

2. I don't have much info on that, but I found this online regarding preparation for chest reconstruction surgery:


Workout up until your surgery - Getting your chest as developed as possible will assist your surgeon. It makes it easier for your surgeon with contouring, nipple placement, and scar placement.

3. Nuts contain protein which helps build muscle - especially with T in one's system. They also contain a lot of fat, which is not good - especially in combination with T, so I think moderation is key and personally prefer other forms of (low-fat) protein. I have my doubts about soy really causing much of a difference as far as one's estrogen level, though . . . but what do I know? :idontknow:

[BadassBabyBrother]

1. I can only speak for myself (:p) but I have a tendency to just answer the question, 'cause I'm straight forward like that. Sometimes I butt my head in and give my own experiences, but usually if I think they have some relevancy to the thread.

2. Put it like this: If you lose fat, your breast size will most likely get smaller too 'cause a part of breasts is fat. I can't say anything about the whole "perkie, smaller, yadda yadda ya" thing, 'cause honestly, instead of becoming "perkier" my stuff just sags and I like to think my pecs are... well formed. Atleast they've gotten lots of training.

3. Not that I'd know of. I eat soy about once or twice a week, and I'm growing a beard. I'd pretty much say "whatever" to that claim.

[deja true]

One-ness!

Just off the top of my head, it occurred to me that the vast majority of the MtF's here are consideraby older than the majority of FtMs, also outnumber them greatly... . So with a lot more years of experiences available to them individually and collectively, there will probably be someone with an experience that relates to what the topic presented is.

And like many oldsters (snicker!) we often feel that we have a bit of important wisdom to pass along to the young 'uns. Whether that's really so or not. "Well...when I was your age..."she said in a quavery voice!

Then, too, many of us are more than willing to give up that 'strong, silent type' role that we've been playing for years. We've always had something to say, but just never said it.

So some of the chatty-ness is a real desire to help using examples and experience. Some may be in simple emulation of perceived feminine mannerisms. And some, a lot I think, comes from the possibility of finally being able to speak on matters that we have been thnking about for a long long time, but were never able to vocalize before.

Personally, you know me for a rather chatty type on this site, but in truth, 'whats-his-name' is often seen as a rather unobtrusive, mono-syllabic type in social situations. The freedom and anonymity here allow me to say what 'whats-his-name' never could.

[Ermintrude]

For question 1 - I'm guessing, but I think a lot of it boils down to the company you're in.

In a one to one conversation, talking incessantly about your experiences can get pretty boring for the other side. But when there's a group of people with a common interest gathered together, sharing experiences becomes the norm (especially if there's alcohol involved). :)

You are more likely to share when the majority of the others in your group can relate to what you are saying.
I think there's a natural tendency for people in a minority to spend more time listening than talking (not that that's a bad thing - it does mean that when they do talk, they are likely to get more attention).

So I suspect that you're right, but that it has nothing to do with gender or DNA. Part of it is simply because MtFs outnumber FtMs by quite a large margin on this forum, and therefore feel more comfortable sharing their experiences.
This doesn't invalidate any of the previous excellent answers, by the way - it's just looking at it from a slightly different angle.

For questions 2 & 3 - I have no idea. :)

[Alan]

Just off the top of my head, it occurred to me that the vast majority of the MtF's here are consideraby older than the majority of FtMs, also outnumber them greatly... . So with a lot more years of experiences available to them individually and collectively, there will probably be someone with an experience that relates to what the topic presented is.

And like many oldsters (snicker!) we often feel that we have a bit of important wisdom to pass along to the young 'uns. Whether that's really so or not. "Well...when I was your age..."she said in a quavery voice!

Then, too, many of us are more than willing to give up that 'strong, silent type' role that we've been playing for years. We've always had something to say, but just never said it.

So some of the chatty-ness is a real desire to help using examples and experience. Some may be in simple emulation of perceived feminine mannerisms. And some, a lot I think, comes from the possibility of finally being able to speak on matters that we have been thnking about for a long long time, but were never able to vocalize before.

Personally, you know me for a rather chatty type on this site, but in truth, 'whats-his-name' is often seen as a rather unobtrusive, mono-syllabic type in social situations. The freedom and anonymity here allow me to say what 'whats-his-name' never could.

Some people don't ever manage to collect experience, no matter how long they live. There are 90-year-olds to whom nothing has ever happened. And then there are 10-year-olds who have seen things you wouldn't believe. Age doesn't have anything to do with experience, as my psychology teacher tried to emphasize. I, personally, have seen a LOT -- my parents moved around a ton when I was young. I left the country I was born in when I was 2, and I had to learn an entirely new language. I was abused by an entire school system, which, btw, I don't think happens all that often. I spent a year abroad teaching. I've lived a lot already.

I am 19, and already enough sh*t has happened to me that I have PTSD.

I just don't like TALKING about it. Not because I'm the strong, silent type -- because if you knew me, you'd laugh your head off at the thought that I'm the strong silent type. Just because, it's not where I am right now, and I don't see why I should revisit the parts of my life that I find particularly stressful and painful. Parts of it are bad enough that I don't remember. In any case, it's not anyone's business but my own.

I'm very chatty, though. I love talking, I just don't like talking about my problems. Those remain firmly in my mind... they just have nothing to do with my lack of experience or with my need to be strong and silent.

[deja true]

All you say is true, Alan, there are millions of "experience challenged" souls out there. But I think it's fair to say that the couple of thousand men, women, trans, queer, etc. folks here represent a huge catalog of lifestyles, careers, countries and obviously adventurous people. There is experience here...

For many of us there are experiences that we will not talk about ever, and these personal painful memories are much of what make us what we are as we mature. But we also remember good things about our lives. We have to, to be able to relate to other people. Without a least a little feeling of the goodness of our lives and the possibility that we are able to help others, we wouldn't be here offering support and friendship to hundreds of strangers.

[Scotty]

Building peck muscle means reducing peck fat, to include breast fat.

You'll have breasts, that point down and are highly toned muslces but I doubt they would look even close to a womans.

[Cai]

Building peck muscle means reducing peck fat, to include breast fat.

You'll have breasts, that point down and are highly toned muslces but I doubt they would look even close to a womans.

Unfortunately, for female-bodied people that don't want female-looking breasts, that isn't true. Building pecs will reduce breast size for female-bodied people, but they'll never go away entirely just by doing that.

[Alan]

Unfortunately, for female-bodied people that don't want female-looking breasts, that isn't true. Building pecs will reduce breast size for female-bodied people, but they'll never go away entirely just by doing that.

Imagine if they did, though... with some working out, we could skip the chest surgeon entirely.

/happy thoughts.

[Priss]

1. I'm not stereotyping or generalising any individual/group here, its just something I observed.. here, sometimes when a question is asked, it seems that MTFs are more likely to answer the question, then add own experiences about the topic.. whereas FTMs are more likely to just answer the question..? Is this just my overactive imagination/selective memory? If it isn't, is this tendency exhibited by GGs or GMs more? Is it a natural/born tendency or a learned/cultural tendency? I don't really interact much socially with either GGs or GMs, so I don't know.. I have this "adding own experience" tendency also in real life conversation, and seem to get the impression from the ggs i live with, that they don't really care to hear about it? :strugglin I dunno.. probably just my imagination.. any thoughts on this..? :straightface:

When I thinks about it, I guess I do that... I think I do it out of an attempt to share my own experience on the topic. I kinda see all this as a form of group therapy, where one would normally share their own experiences. I don't consciously do it in an attempt to one up someone else. I'd rather be posting something here that is constructive and helpful to others rather than bickering with people about the price of gas or who's responsible for the state of the economy...

I may sometimes do it outside of this forum, but only if I seem to think that some sort of anecdote is required. From what I've noticed, people seem to take it in the pretty much the same way that I take theirs. Mostly with a grain of salt... As for who does it more, well I've never really thought to notice. I suppose it could be one of those give away traits.

In the end, don't we all go through all of this so that we can just be ourselves, whatever that may be? :2c:

[Empress Lainie]

:2c: I notice that I an mtf do generally answer the question and elaborate with my experience or that of others I know, I think it is just a built in thing in my mind to auto-do that.

I have also seen both answers on your breast and pectoral muscle build up.

3. may be right, but for phyto-estrogen, saw palmetto, red clover, fenugreek, and flaxseed oil are good. 18yrs of saw grew my nice breasts after about 12 yrs. Now it is assisted with the other 3.