I've seen a lot of misinformation and ignorance--both willful and well-intentioned--about trans women's breasts in particular lately. So *sigh*...

Let's talk about my breasts.

So hi. I'm a trans woman. I have breasts; two of them in fact. I wear a 38DD bra. I have never had breast augmentation of any sort; these are just what grew in. Just like with cis women, trans women have a huge variety in the shape and size of our breasts.

I think mentioned in my vagina thread a few years back that nature is lazy and human sexual dimorphism is pretty minor. All human fetuses have the potential to develop a vagina or a penis, and all humans have the ability to grow breasts.

The trigger that (usually) makes girls develop breasts but not boys is hormones. Breast tissue reacts to estrogen and progesterone. Most girls' bodies produce plenty of this during puberty, hence why puberty for girls includes breast growth & why pregnancy triggers more.

Boys can grow breasts too. Trans men do naturally, but cis boys can, too, when something throws heir hormones out of balance, like testicular cancer or steroid abuse. Unwanted breast growth--gynocomastia--is actually a fairly common medical issue.

Trans girls usually don't produce much of our own estrogen during our first puberty, hence no breast growth at the time. But hormone therapy is about simulating normal female levels, and once HRT begins, breast growth begins just like it does for any other girl

The stereotype that trans woman have tiny/no breasts comes from the fact that--like all girls--trans women don't START puberty with large breasts. They grow a little at a time, and can take 5-10 years to reach maturity. I was an A cup for years before I got my growth spurt

Yes, some trans women get breast augmentation. Plenty of cis women do, too. Reasons are personal. Society places a lot of importance on women's breasts.

But trans women absolutely have natural breasts. The medication we use is exactly what they give to cis girls who have their own puberty issues, and our breasts grow the exact same way. We lactate as well, like any other woman. https://www.thehastingscenter.org/breast-feeding-transgender-women/

The main differences between trans women's breasts and cis women's is that we generally start growing them at a later age, so they tend to appear "younger" in mammograms.

Depending on the age we transition, we also might have slightly larger rib cages than cis women, which can spread the breasts apart more and reduce cleavage. That's not universal, though; plenty of cis women have broad chests, especially if they were teen athletes.

When people rant about trans women's breasts being fake because of "implants" and "chemicals," understand that they're parroting scare tactics and ignorance. Most anti-trans propaganda fixates on trans women being "fake" and this is just one extension of it.

Just remember that fixating on a woman's breasts as the feterminor of whether or not she's real, and dictating what her size and shape she should bee--is old-school misogyny. It's yet more reducing women to our bodies.
Call it out for the misogyny it is.