I hadn't heard of this. This sounds out of the range of my character but I'll definitely look into it just so that I have a working understanding.
They don't have to be so expensive as all that; I went that route due to extreme insecurity and plenty of disposable income (like, $7-800 play money after bills each month) to where it wasn't really an unreasonable investment. Most trans folks (trans women in particular) don't make enough money to be able to throw it away on stuff like that though. These particular ones are pretty cool though TBH, totally worth it lol. They stick on without support, and now that my breasts grew out enough naturally, the inserts actually feel surprisingly accurate to actual breasts (like, feel as in the way they hang on your body and move as you move, not feel like with hands)
In the sources I've found, from what I understand they usually don't fully develop without surgery in if HRT starts post-puberty? Is this a case of Your Experience May Vary or is there more to it?
I don't know what sources you've looked at, so I'm not going to bother trying to figure out why they said that. I'm just gonna say, honestly, they're wrong.
My hormonal transition began at 27, I'm 30 now; my bra size is 38C/40B depending on body weight fluctuations, and I've literally never done anything except take androgen blockers and estrogen, and I do a shitty job of remembering to take them on schedule. There's more options available that I haven't even attempted, too, and certainly keeping a better schedule would make a big difference too. My roommate has very similar results, starting at about the same age range as well.
Certainly, as your sources suggested, the early a trans person gets their hormones under control the better. But by no means does it mean that transitioning as an adult is pointless. And that kind of misinformation is
DEADLY. Full stop. A lot of closeted adult trans women go through a hell of a lot of self-loathing because they're convinced that it's too late to do anything about it, hormonal therapy won't get good results, etc... I've dealt with suicide and alcoholism for the last 7 years because I felt trapped and like I'd waited too long (I became homeless at 16 for coming out and ended up joining the military as a last resort, and there was absolutely no choice to come out back then). So I
reaaaally want to stress that your source, at least as far as the suggestion that breast development cannot occur in hormone therapy after puberty, is not only wrong, but also harmful.
Okay, this is something I hadn't really heard of. Any experience I've had with cis woman and any sort of padding tended to be a high school comedy and the character was depicted as either particularly insecure or attention-starved. That's probably because this is something that's unlikely to come up in mixed company or on social media, I imagine.
I can't give any numbers on actual percentage of women, etc, and couldn't find much after a couple quick Google searches, but I can definitely say in my own life that most of the women I have known well enough to have that kind of conversation with, knew what they were. And they aren't necessarily for insecure people either. Sometimes you just need a little boost for a particular outfit. Sometimes you wanna really
pop at a particular event. Most people wouldn't wear inserts on a regular basis, but might keep a set around for special occasions. And pretty much any lingerie or bra section at basically any store you can think of, carries some form of them, usually on the much lower end range. The fancy stuff like the ones I mentioned, are found on specialty websites. They can range anywhere from 5-500$ and come in a ridiculous variety lol.
