So I have a few questions...

I don't know the specifics about Australia's health rules or anything, but I find it quite unlikely that you'd even GET hormones (unless you self medicated and PLEASE don't do that) before you transitioned socially, so I would think hiding hormonal changes would be the least of your worries.

I won't comment on the speed of any physical changes 'cause I have no experience with them yet, but I will parrot something I've heard a lot. "It varies from person to person".

As for telling your job, again I don't know anything about Australian law, so I don't know if trans people have the same protections I am supposed to have here. I do wonder why you will HAVE to quite your job eventually...will they force you or do you just never want them to know about it?

 

Normally, you'll see changes in skin after a few weeks.
Breast development will probably start to become noticeable after 1-2 months and take 2-3 years to develop fully. From what I've been told.
But yeah, it will vary from person to person.

And when it comes to your job, you never know, it might be fine.

 

" ive watched YouTube videos of people at the 8 month mark and they look completely female."

There is a lot more to looking female than what hormones do, although they definitely seem to help! It's one of the things I'm quite excited about is just seeing what they will actually DO.

As for your job, they've never had any reason to think you're untrustworthy so far, I would like to hope most people would still see it that way.

 

Hormones will affect different people in different ways, the two major factors being speed if metabolism and age, in that order unless you are still a teenager or well in your 50's in which case age will be the most important factor: positive for the young ones not so positive for the older ones.

That being said, I can only talk for certain about my own experience: i started very low, and in the first month I only experienced my skin feeling softer, my scalp skin becoming a lot less oily, and my nipples being sore.

Iris very subtle, the whole process that is. It looks nothing us really happening, but , in my case, after three months I definitely had little breasts, swollen around the nipples, and they started to juggle and boy CE up and down while going up the stairs in a hurry.

Then, after seven months, I could fill a 36-b bra, my face looked feminine, my hips got wider and my derriere got puffier. My skin got very soft and I got told that touching me felt like touching a woman since my skin was soft and muscles went away. My shoulders started looking narrower, given the fact that I lost a ton of muscle tissue on my shoulders.

I lost one size in my shoes and became one inch shorter.

 

This varies with age.
If you start before puberty (around 10-12) then the changes will progress very much like the puberty of any other female.
If you start in your twenties, physical changes will become very evident around the 1 year mark, with breast growth being the major one. Fat redistribution will occur on your body, moving to the hips, buttocks and thighs (so long as you are eating properly).
It's possible to continue 'passing' as male if you are careful with clothing, but if you are shirtless or naked, it will be difficult to hide - though you could claim you have gynecomastia.

People will also not question your gender at all if you have strong male markers left- i.e. if you have a deep voice and a heavy/full beard. There is very little danger of being 'questioned' about your gender if you are a beardy guy with a very deep voice, no matter how big your budding breasts are and how round your bottom is.

I went full-time without hormones, but I started to 'pass' consistently after being on hormones for 3 months. However I was dressing/presenting/acting female, which meant that it was much easier to be read as female.

I've changed jobs many times since I transitioned, but in the original job, I spoke to my immediate boss first, saying that I intended to transition. She then went to HR to discuss the issue and to clarify if the business was OK with it.
They were fine with it, so then there were several months of discussion about how I wanted to do it and how the information was to be released.
When I was finally ready, I chose a date to start coming to work dressed as a woman and it was passed around the wider workplace that I was coming to work as a woman on Monday.

It's none of their business, really. You'll probably keep your job, but you can always find another job. When my parents asked about my job and what I would do if I lost it, I said "I'll find another one, even if it means briefly going back to being male, then going through the process again."

 

Hormones will affect different people in different ways, the two major factors being speed of metabolism and age, in that order, unless you are still a teenager or well into your 50's in which case age will be the most important factor: positive for the young ones, not so positive for the older ones.

That being said, I can only talk with certainty about my own experience: i started at a very low dosage, and in the first month I only experienced my skin feeling softer, my scalp becoming a lot less oily, and my nipples being sore. Also my penis shrunk a bit and there was no hardening any more, ever. That was it. I really questioned the effectiveness of the hormones I had been given at the two month mark.

It is very subtle, the whole process that is. It looks nothing is really happening, but , in my case, after three months I definitely had little breasts, kind of like a 13 year old girl, swollen around the nipples, and they started to wobble and bounce up and down while going up the stairs in a hurry. They were definitely visible through my clothes.

Then, after seven months, gradually and suddenly, I could fill a 36-b bra, my face looked feminine, my hips got wider and my derriere got puffier. My skin got very soft and I got told that touching me felt like touching a woman since my skin was soft and muscles went away.

My shoulders started looking narrower, given the fact that I lost a ton of muscle tissue on my shoulders. Grocery bags felt heavier and i got tired quicker when doing anything that required upper body strength.

I lost one size in my shoe size and became one inch shorter. The fat distribution on my body had become rather feminine and my waist got much thinner and my tummy got both soft and without muscles, but also flat.

Of course my penis shrunk to basically nothing and my testicles lost 60% of their original size. The right one which had always been smaller and higher got even higher, retreated back into my body and is no longer visible.

Unfortunately at the eight month mark, when I started looking female without even trying (people would call me "ma'am" even when I went out in jeans, sweater, tennis shoes, and baseball cap), I had to stop hrt in order not to lose my children. My body reverted back quite a bit, as you all can see from the pictures in my profile. They are from a couple of months ago and I see myself very manly in them. :-(

Once again, aside from any other factor , it varies from one person to the next.

Please, feel free to ask me any question and/or clarification.

 

Because trans women tend towards smaller breasts (without augmentation), binding them to disguise them, as a trans guy would do, is a viable option. You would be able to hide them indefinitely.
You'd still need to wear a t-shirt over the top though, obviously.

 

I am sorry but I respectfully disagree: after 7 months I could not hav possibly completely disguise them. Binding will flatten thingsout, but they will still be noticeable: you will not have the flat chest of a normal male.

 

You must be a DD then?