Yeah, estrogen does make you lose considerable muscle mass. That really, really shouldn't be surprising. I used to be able to do overhead shoulder presses at around 40 kg without deliberately maintaining muscle mass. After 10 years of estrogen and antiandrogens, I can't do 18 kg and that is with active training including a much more careful protein-based diet.

All your example suggests is that the 6'3" trans woman can do is... Something a 6'3" woman can do. Cisgender people aren't discriminated against because of their natural height, their frame or their reach either, but applying that to a trans woman for something as non-competitive as yoga is all kinds of weird.

While frame doesn't change much, it becomes much, much harder to use that frame, which becomes a considerable disadvantage. Muscle mass of trans women is less than cis women, our T levels (if properly suppressed) are drastically lower than that of cis women.

Or, to be as pithy as your final comment. Bones and the muscoskeletal system have mass, WTF?

I would love to know a trans masc called Steve. I do know multiple Haydn and Rylan though! Most of the trans femmes I know either pick a perfectly fine normal name or they are a flower. So many Rose.

Niantic and Google are (were?) not companies with very strong links to the Saudi Arabian government.

I've seriously reconsidered how much I use Google in recent months, but Google and Niantic aren't owned by a government that is incredibly repressive and discriminatory of people like myself.

I honestly cannot fathom how you can be looking at the situation of the US currently and not realising how wedge issues based on lies and bigotry work and the absolutely deletrious effect it is having on minorities.

I suppose you'll still be equivocating and making excuses when it's gone past travel bans (https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/marco-rubio-state-transgender-visa-b2704734.html), erasure of LGBT literature (https://www.nbcnews.com/news/nbcblk/banned-books-lgbtq-transgender-black-people-of-color-pen-america-rcna193879), banning of social and medical transition (https://www.hrc.org/resources/attacks-on-gender-affirming-care-by-state-map, https://www.msn.com/en-us/politics/government/texas-not-for-freedom-house-bill-could-ban-gender-affirming-care-for-transgender-adults/ar-AA1AjTF5), the creation of specific crimes for the existence of transgender people (https://msmagazine.com/2025/03/03/montana-hb-446-criminalizes-trans-existence-social-contagion/), the removal of protections in law (https://www.hrw.org/news/2025/01/23/trump-administration-moves-reject-transgender-identity-rights) and we're in camps waiting to be "purified".

Why are you falling for wedge issues that are designed to wipe out a group of people in a way that absolutely parallels actions taken by Nazis? Is a discussion about 10 athletes out of hundreds of thousands that important?

What conversation do you want exactly?

If you want to pretend there is nuance you will be fully aware that the evidence that supposedly supports banning trans athletes, which is an initial step of control used to further limit transgender people by e.g. preventing them for entering the country, are meta studies based on comparisons of cisgender men and cisgender women, right?

There isn't a nuanced debate to be had and I'm sick of pretending that people like myself who just want to live our lives are a subject for debate.

So yes, worrying about tens out of hundreds of thousands of athletes when there isn't clear evidence of an advantage is bigoted and not calling that out leads to situations where conservatives and the far right try to introduce bills like that which was recently struck down (thankfully) in Montana.

Now, question for you - why is it so important to you that a minority of people should have their basic humanity and ability to participate in society be questioned in the way that transgender people are? Why do you support that? Why do you consider that to be an okay thing to do, when the consequences of allowing it are so plain to see?

They aren't and, if they were, is that a problem?

Look at what right-wing echo chambers have led to. Look at what the "centrist" internet has led to.

Its 2025 and there are still people on the Fediverse convinced that the problem is the "left". Utterly divorced from reality.

Remembrance of Earth's Past trilogy. Pushing Ice. Semiosis trilogy. Ninefox Gambit. Schild's Ladder. Firefall.

Good for them

I put weight on deliberately when starting on HRT and at points when I increased my estrogen dose.

It didn't help and I have very small boobs. I've done caloric restriction and large amounts of exercise a few times when further increasing estrogen or changing from pills to patches and it's not really impacted breast growth.

Some trans girls are just up against the genetic lottery and you'll end up small no matter what. In my case, none of the cisgender women in my immediate family have anything above an A cup and coupled with broader shoulders from an original testosterone puberty means I've got not much at all!

Which is a lot to say that trying to game it via weight gain and loss isn't going to make a huge difference and you should get development no matter, unless you are on a starvation diet.

The bed is so daft, I must have it.

He's somewhat gotten the point and it's definitely not the worst reaction but be prepared for things not to be smooth and for the acceptance and understanding never to come. This may not be the case, but from my experience, those who state that they would rather you explore other options first will always have an alternative option that is perceived by them to be a better outcome.

Just be ready to cut this person out of your life. I really hope it doesn't come to that for you, but I've had people like that which still fail to accept and understand after multiple diagnoses and over a decade later.

I'm not surprised sadly - I have a PhD in chemistry and then continued to a postdoc and teaching before heading elsewhere. During my undergraduate there was a woman on the course who was very good and very competent but was also evangelical to the point of believing in a young Earth. To her, concepts such as half-lives were just lies that needed to be learnt.

Normally that has been flushed out by the time of doing a PhD, but if not it really should be.