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Smell is the one thing that’s pretty much guaranteed with HRT. Trans women smell like women and trans men definitely smell like men, even “down there”. Skin texture also dramatically changes.
Looking female will depend on this early the transition is and the individual’s baseline. Some will pass as female to the average person but remain “clockable” to people who know what to look for. Some trans women who started off hormones young enough will be indistinguishable, some are lucky to pass after a few surgeries. But we definitely can’t take any random biological adult male and making him fully look like a woman.
Reproduction isn’t there yet, but some results of sexual reassignment surgery are quite visually impressive, others less so (Thai surgeons for instance are known to have better results and use a different technique). For some, it has been enough to fool unsuspecting men before (plenty of reports of trans women going stealth) and it certainly is enough to reduce dysphoria and function as a sexual organ in most cases. However, it is a gamble.
I’d say current technology is good enough to alleviate dysphoria and at the very least there’s no point of delaying taking HRT in the hopes of a better transhumanist future. But if you’re just curious and want a magic gender swap to experience life as the opposite sex for whatever reason, obviously we’re not there yet and the current treatments should absolutely not be taken lightly as some changes are irreversible.
There are however reports that trans who were put onto cross-sex hormones before going through puberty are not going to ever have an orgasm, barring some medical miracle.
Yeah, I'm increasingly skeptical of current uses of puberty blockers as the scale and scope of their use has escalated. Some of the discussion seems to get taken out of context when repeated in socon circles -- afaict, Maria Bower's concerns and claims are specifically about Tanner Stage 2-3 vs 3-5, rather than all uses of puberty blockers, which is especially annoying since Tanner 4 and 5 are those which tend to be what trans people point to as particularly dysphoric -- but the rather blaise response by WPATH et all isn't encouraging.
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Trans men are certainly far more likely to be able to pass, at the very least as a rather short man. Testosterone is a helluva drug! Sadly that same fact makes undoing its effects on natal males exceedingly difficult, unlikely to happen before the Singularity, which ought to fix that issue if it doesn't kill us along the way.
I for one wish to overthrow the shackles of my flesh, and to the extent that Trans people seek to do the same, albeit for slightly different reasons, I can make my peace with them with hardly any issue.
Are you using "trans women" in opposite ways?
That was a brain fart on my part, I'll fix it!
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