Achieving a feminine body shape is an important part of transitioning and staying healthy. Hormones affect how various tissues grow and during time of puberty also affect bone structure as well as other dimorphic features of the body which are a factor in attractiveness.
Estrogen and bones
In most areas of the body estrogen causes growth plates of bones to close which is how it affects height and overall size.
Bone growth continues to occur while the epiphyseal plate remains cartilaginous; linear growth ends when the entire bone has ossified as a result of the process of senescence of the chondrocytes. This is thought to occur when the chondrocytes in the proliferative zone experience an accumulation of estrogen exposure and eventually become replaced with osteocytes. Clinically, observations from case reports of individuals with estrogen receptor defects or aromatase deficiency demonstrate very delayed epiphyseal closure and associated tall stature.
We have found that the height of transgender female (trans girls) adolescents who received GnRHa in early puberty followed by exogenous estradiol therapy attained a final adult height shorter than their birth-assigned (e.g., male) prediction, but taller than their affirmed sex (e.g., female) prediction.[1]
Fat redistribution
Adipose tissue grows by the blueprint provided by hormones, causing fat to deposit and create curves around specific areas of the body in a sex dimorphic way. When trans women take HRT their fat cells proliferate in areas such as the hips and legs and less around the waist.
Transwomen changed −0.7cm (95% CI: −1.7;0.3, P=0.23) in waist circumference and +3.2cm (95% CI: 2.3;4.0, P<0.001) in hip circumference after adjustment for age and BMI at start, resulting in a decrease in WHR (−0.03, 95% CI: −0.04;−0.02, P<0.001) [2]
https://mesityl.substack.com/p/mtf-weight-cycling
Certain medications may also be used to affect the patterns of fat tissue growth which may further improve body shape.
Waist to hip ratio
We found that the most attractive was WHR = 0.60 and the least attractive 0.80. Attractiveness was correlated negatively with WHR, when WHR was manipulated by waist size. The relation was inverted-U shape when WHR was changed by hip size. We postulate that in westernized societies with no risk of seasonal lack of food, the waist, conveying information about fecundity and health status, will be more important than hip size for assessing a female’s attractiveness.[3]
For people with a lot of fat, weight loss correlated significantly with decreases in the circumference of the waist and hips, and decreases in WHR in men and women. At comparable levels of weight loss, men had greater decreases in the waist, and smaller decreases in the hips than women, resulting in greater decreases in WHR[4]
Arched back
Men again tended to prefer women exhibiting cues to a degree of vertebral wedging closer to optimum. This included preferring women whose lumbar curvature specifically reflected vertebral wedging rather than buttock mass[5]
Leg to body ratio
Participants rated for physical attractiveness line drawings that varied in five levels of LBR. The results showed that a longer LBR was preferred as maximally attractive in women, whereas a shorter LBR was preferred in men[6]
- ↑ https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/andr.13034
- ↑ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29183889/
- ↑ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15620796/https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/abs/10.1098/rspb.2004.2712
- ↑ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/1595579/
- ↑ https://labs.la.utexas.edu/buss/files/2015/09/Lumbar-EHB-2015.pdf
- ↑ https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1740144506000830
Pages in category "Body Shape"
The following 4 pages are in this category, out of 4 total.