@bridgeburn this entire thread is amazing. It's been several months since I logged in but I had to get back on here to applaud the discourse in this thread. I absolutely adore your dissection of masculinity vs femininity. It's wonderful to hear about these nuances of gender and hormones that 99% of the world will never understand. It's especially interesting to hear it from a different perspective other than a transperson. Testosterone truly is the inferior hormone. I'm glad it exists though because I am super attracted to masculine guys that are pumping full of T and if they didn't exist... who would be there to carry me around?
That being said, I'm a transwoman and I had a near full recovery from a Norwood~3.5. It's fascinating seeing you talk about the other mental effects of estrogen. It's really such a beautiful and calm hormone compared to testosterone. I was gender non conforming all of my life so I'm a bit biased, but testosterone was absolutely disgusting. I honestly can not think of a single benefit testosterone gave me other than hyper competition.
Since being on HRT, I have easily lost 6 years of "age" on my appearance. Everybody always guesses 4-7 years younger than what I really am. My hairline has surged back to life and is starting to round off. My skin is way healthier (practicing skin care now too). It's so comfy. Your input on the whole gender, sexuality, and masc/fem philosophy is valuable. It's fascinating to hear a "cis male" speak with such hatred for testosterone.
This thread is soooo fun to read.
I also agree that if more males experienced what life is like on estrogen instead of testosterone they probably wouldn't switch back (don't let them know this though because the world needs beefy hunks).