1am be complainin' hour 'round here, matey.

[MicahKj]

i'm kind of conflicted at the moment trying to figure out whether i'm more confused or nervous. what i've read about the sexes tells me that women are shorter because estrogen forces the bones to cap at a younger age. womens' bones stop growing somewhere in the early to mid teens. there is no more growing left to do for females after highschool age has passed. period. that's how it works.

which currently makes me confused as all hell because i'm 22 and afab but i swear it feels like the growing pains have come back. it's not a sore joint or bruised bone, but a familiar nauseous ache that keeps coming back at random and making rounds the full length up and down both my legs for maybe an hour or two each time.
it scares the hell out of me. the side of my family i know has a long line of ridiculous childbearing hips that i never ended up developing. in highschool i bound my hips with belts crossed so tightly, for so long at a time that it still hurts like hell when i get walking for too long and some nights, years after stopping the habit, i feel sharp stabbing pains between where the bones attach in my hips that keep me up at night. i screwed those joints over horrendously because i was terrified of growing into the thunderthighs the rest of my family has, and the impossible idea that it might not be over scares me enough that i feel like i have to do it all over again.
i don't know what in the hells is going on but it's making me anxious. i think i'm actually more afraid of the possibility of getting larger hips than i am interested in getting taller. i can live as a leprechaun but for the love of hell, not more hips. i can't do it. i was just barely, finally, starting to figure out how to convince myself how to ignore how unmasculine my bone structure is, but now there's whatever the hell this is. i guess i didn't have enough to worry about, huh?

[Anders]

I'm so sorry you're having to deal with this. :/ Idk if it helps but I'm 21 afab and I still feel growing pains(especially in my ribs and shin bones) but I don't think I've actually grown any in at least a few years. Just remember to breathe deeply and tell yourself that no matter how you look you're still just as much if a man. You can make it! :D

[JJ]

T causes muscles to strengthen which causes stress on bones and joints. Many guys experience pain to varying degrees from it. We don't grow taller. Sadly. In fact T can cause us to stop growing in some cases - it causes plate fusion in people assigned female at birth unlike

the effect on cis males.

If you are not on T then then it could be another growth spurt. The idea that women stop growing earlier and in their teens is a generalization. My daughter's other side of the family routinely grow till age 25. Both males and females with many of the females over 6 feet. She is shorter because smoking stopped her growth at just over 5'8" according to her Dr.

I was 5'5" at age 10. I still am at 71. Went from the tallest kid in my grade school from 3rd grade through 6th to one of the shorter as they grew and I didn't. My biological  father's side of the family tends to stop growth very early. He was also 5'5"

If you are on or going to be on T those hips woll change dramatically. I always had a 10 inch difference in hips and waist. Now they tend to be the same or the hips slightly smaller. So strange to have baggy seats in all my pants- even after 7 1/2 years on T.

Johnny