I tried taking hormones, but they didn't seem to do much good, and they often caused me to burb what felt like dust.
If you are really comitted to having real breasts, you should absolutely go with the process. I switched from herbal to actual about 2 years ago and the results have been quite satisfactory. Because of my age and previous medical history (heart attack and stroke), we agreed to take it slow and steady at first. 2mg estrodial and 100 mg spiro.
When my heart doctor saw me, I listed the new meds and he was delighted. He said "we usually don't give that to men because they hate the side effects, but now that I know you are on it I can take you off your other meds, and this is safer! Stopped my losartan and bystolic, and haven't had problems at all.
After about 6 months, we upped the doses and things are going wonderfully.
i am actually healthier and happier than I have ever been.
Don't waste time and money on so-called "Herbal Estrogen". I tried it for almost a year and about all I got was a bigger belly and man-boobs. When I finally bit the bullet and went to a proper gender dysphoria specialist, with a therapist's letter, we talked for about 15 minutes and he did a basic exam. He pointed out that I already had feminine traits - that would not have been from the herbals (bone structure, mannerisms, posture, speaking,...). Yeah, I knew that - used to get beat up for it as a kid.
Even though I got the hormones, they still wanted me to do a check with their therapist, and that interview ended with him giving me a high five, and writing the letters for gender marker change on social security, and driver's license. I did have to get another letter for the Passport.
Of course, by then, I had been living 128 hrs/week as Debbie and was working as "Rexxie".
18 monts later I'm a 38-D (easiest to buy) or 40-C (hard to find but fits a little better).