I originally had a big panel listing out my dosages and when I started them, but those have changed a lot since, and frankly some of them were wrong! So I cut it. There's better resources out there to learn about dosages and levels.
Panel 1: Robin leaning out from behind a panel "So! I've been on feminizing HRT for one year now. How'd that happen? How's it going?"
Panel 2: A PDF file on its Table of Contents. Caption: I found my doctor through a local LGBTQ+ group's "Trans Best" list. It's a listing of local doctors and businessess that were recommended by other local trans people as trans friendly.
Panel 3: A piece of paper that reads "she trans fr tho." Caption: I gave her a gender dysphoria diagnosis letter from my therapist, but I don't know that she needed it? We never talked about it, I just assumed it was necessary since many doctors need one.
Panel 4: 2021 Robin, with the eggiest hair you've ever seen, talking with her doctor. Caption: We talked about what I wanted from transition, and if I had any specific medication questions. I said I wanted shots, she said if I was willing to do shots, she was willing to give them to me.
Panel 5: 2021 Robin holding a prescription sheet. Caption: I had my prescription in hand!
Panel 6: A neighborhood with snow dumped all over it. Caption: Then it snowed harder than it ever has since I started living here in Memphis, shipping was held up, and I had to wait another two weeks to get the meds!
Panel 7: An irate Robin fumes, "...fucking inconvenience powder."
Panel 8: Physical Changes (Or: the part everyone's here to read about) Robin in a cheerful pose, with little notations drawn on various parts of her.
Panel 9: Skin. Robin poking her face. Caption: Softer and less oily. Minor, but nice! I didn't get much acne before, but I almost never get it now.
Panel 10: Body Hair. A hairy forearm, next to a much, much less hairy one. Caption: It's thinner and much slower growing. I'm also getting laser hair removal, but this is still wonderful.
Panel 11: A disappointed Robin rubbing her face, she mutters "Still scratchy..." Caption: It hasn't had the same effect on my facial hair, I'm sorry to say.
Panel 12: Chest. Robin gesturing vaguely at her upper torso.
Panel 13: Robin trying and failing to be nonchalant, says "It's... I mean... There's a little going on there, but it's not a huge change."
Panel 14: Robin looking down at her chest, continues "I know it's supposed to take a while. And I have lost weight these past few months, which doesn't help, but..."
Panel 15: Robin keeps looking down at her chest.
Panel 16: Robin starts nudging her chest, and says "C'mon... Do Something..."
Panel 17: Fat Placement. Robin, hands on her waist, speaks, "But! Between the weight loss and hormones, I kind of have a waist now?"
Panel 18: Past Robin lifting her shirt up slightly, and mervelling with starry eyes at her slightly curved waist. Caption: My spouse pointed it out to me one day and I was like: "Ohhhh! I do!"
Panel 19: Muscle Mass. Robin waving her wiggly, weak arms shouting "ARMS! LIKE! NOODLES!"
Panel 20: Robin huddled in a blanket. Caption: I get SO much colder now. I used to be a walking furnace, now if it gets below 70 in the house i need a blanket and long socks.
Panel 21: Hair. Robin combing her hair.
Panel 22: Pre-transition Robin examining the thinning hairline. Caption: Before hormones, my hair was falling out. It sucked. But I also though there was nothing I could do about it.
Panel 23: Current Robin holding a bottle of medication and gesturing to her hair, speaks "But actually! I totally can do something about it, and I am, and it works!"
Panel 24: Robin laying on her bed, smiling and kicking her feet, talking to herself "Yes yes yes!" Caption: When I first noticed the difference, I couldn't stop smiling for days.
Panel 25: Mood and Emotions. A joyful Robin surrounded by various hearts with faces and different emotions. (Yeah, a Super Princess Peach reference in 2022, only the best from me)
Panel 26: A smiling robin leaning back in her Gamer Chair(tm) and holding a tablet pen thoughtfully to her cheek. Caption: After a while, my mood started to shift. I generally just... happier.
Panel 27: Caption: I have bad days, sure. I'm not immune to falling into a slump. But my baseline for what "normal" feels like is so much higher than it used to be. "How are you doing?" A pretransition Robin face, with a somewhat down expression "I'm okay." a current Robin face with a little smile "I'm okay."
Panel 28: Robin looking down into the lower half of the panel where pretransition Robin sits, looking annoyed/angry. "It's certainly a combo of HRT, therapy, and being happier with myself. But I'm not... frustrated all the time anymore.
Panel 29: Robin steps in front of the previous panel, which is grayed out and paused like a VHS so I really show that I'm old. "Quick side note: There's this attitude among some transfems that testosterone makes you a zombie whose only emotion is anger, but I don't think that's the case.
Panel 30: Robin continues, "I think that's the way a lot of depressed and repressed transfems feel and it fades as they transition, so they equate the two."
Panel 31: Robin holds a vial of Estradiol to her cheek, gesturing to it as she speaks. "Tons of cis men and transmascs like the way testosterone makes them feel. And good for them! My precious estradiol makes them feel like shit! It's about what's right for you."
Panel 32: Caption: Anyway, before transition I still had other feelings, but I felt less... connected to them? I would feel happy when good things happened, but even on my best day as the old me, I never got so happy that I cried. An arrow labelled "Just married the love of my life" pointing to a pretransition Robin in a three-piece suit, smiling and looking pleased. An arrow labelled "Got a really sweet greeting card" pointing to a current Robin holding said card and wiping away tears with a big wobbly smile on her face.
Panel 33: Robin gesturing sheepishly while speaking "And yeah, a lot of that sounds like it's because I'm no longer really depressed. And... true. But I do think having my right hormones is definitely playing a part in it.
Panel 34: two big numbers, 14 and 10, Robin is pointing at the 10 while saying "You might have noticed back when I listed my medications that after a few months I moved from injections every 14 days to every 10 days."
Panel 35: Past Robin laying down, looking anxious and upset. Caption: I had noticed that every now and then I'd have a run of crummy days out of nowhere. I just felt worse and would lie around and anxiously spiral.
Panel 36: A calendar, with E vials on alternating Sundays. The Wednesdays through Saturdays before each vial are labelled "Feel Shitty" Caption: Took a look at a calendar and whaddaya know! It was always in the 3-4 days before my next injection.
Panel 37: Caption: I brought this up with my doc and she said: (Doctor, speaking) "Let's move yo to injecting every 10 days, then.
Panel 38: Robin holding the calendar, with no more red "feel shitty" zones on it, speaks "And poof! No more cycle of feeling shitty for half of every other week!
Panel 39: Robin speaking "The most important thing I've learned from a year of transitioning is thisL It's not "all or nothing.""
Panel 40: Gesturing more emphatically Robin continues: For a long time, I was stuck in this idea that reansition is does a ton of work-"
Panel 41: Closer to frame, she spreads her arms, looking worried. "That may not have the results I want-"
Panel 42: Closer, looking more serious, "And after several years-"
Panel 43: Closer, gesturing desperately, "And a LOT of money-"
Panel 44: Closer still, the panel edges are breaking, as she looks intense "If it's all gone perfectly-"
Panel 45: Almost against the screen, panel cracked and jagged, pleadingly, desperately "Then I can maybe start being happy."
Panel 46: Wide shot, Robin smiling and arms out shouts "But that's not what it is at all!"
Panel 47: Robin, relieved and happy, speaks "Almost every step I’ve taken in my transition has made me feel better now, made me happier now. Some a little, some a lot." A list of various steps in transition from the past year with little smiley faces of different levels. Come out to friends, medium smile, Start hormones, big smile, New clothes! medium smile, Name change, big smile
Panel 48: Robin gestures to herself, "And don't get me wrong, I definitely have goals for my transition. There's still a lot I want to do, and I have my worries."
Panel 49: Robin gripping her upper arm and speaking, "But that paralyzing fear of reaching some "endpoint" of transition only to realize it was a "failure" was nothing but hurtful."
Panel 50: Robin looking up toward the reader, holding up two fingers and smiling, "And I'm better of without it. All it did was keep me from discovering all that transition could do for me along the way. Here's to year two!"