Cramps

It’s a common misconception in the community that trans women experience period cramps. Period cramps are caused by hormones called prostaglandins being secreted and causing contractions of the uterus (to initiate the sloughing off of the uterine lining) … since trans women don’t have a uterus nor do they have ovaries the uterine lining where prostaglandins are produced to cause period cramps, we can safely rule out trans women experiencing the kinds of period cramps cis women and other people with the requisite hardware experience.

Instead it’s more likely that you are experiencing female gut pain, which can be triggered by estrogen:

https://www.sciencenews.org/article/female-gut-pain-estrogen-ibs-bacteria

(actual link to study: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adz1398)

This is consistent with reports I’ve heard from trans women that they seem to feel the discomfort, pain, and cramping in their gut. It’s also fairly consistent with your description of other symptoms like the “when you’re hungry” sensations (that’s probably intestinal peristalsis) and the kind of nausea feelings as well as the bloating which is probably caused by gas. +1 for @dkppunk@piefed.social’s suggestion of simethicone (is the US a common brand name for this is GasX), this can really help with the bloating / gas pains.

If it’s female gut pain, a possible solution might be to reduce simple sugars (switch to a lower sugar dark chocolate, or significantly reduce chocolate intake) and increase prebiotics like fiber in your diet (I like to eat more whole foods, leave skin on potatoes, eat whole wheat, and I even will make a drink of ground up chia and flax seeds for an extra fiber boost). A probiotic in addition to the prebiotic might also help, but that’s just a guess. Probably a balanced diet with plenty of vegetables and without many simple sugars (sodas, fruit juices, candy, etc.) would be sufficient. That’s the current guess as to how to help anyway. Might be worth trying and seeing if it helps?

As an aside, there’s nothing about chocolate that inherently helps with PMS symptoms, the limited studies I’ve read on it indicate that it’s mostly the stress of shifting hormones that causes cravings for high fat, high sugar foods. (I know, chocolate is still special in my mind for those moments and will continue to be, just wanted to be clear that it’s probably not serving a purpose beyond fulfilling stress-induced food cravings.)

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Skincare

Use a loofah in the shower and maybe introduce an exfoliant - I have a glycolic acid shower gel I really like and is fairly effective. For face washes I like ones with salicylic acid (I don’t use those every day, maybe once a week? depends on your skin).

I would recommend a routine where you shower before bed, you exfoliate in the shower, and then you put a good lotion on right out of the shower to trap that moisture. I like to look for body lotions with ceramides, in the US CeraVe is a popular brand (and I like the cruelty-free alternative ceramedx).

I would also add a cosmetic sunscreen to your daily routine - put it on in the morning before you go about your day, and if you go outside, re-apply every few hours (esp. before you run or bicycle - you might actually use a sunscreen that will work even if you sweat for those occasions - Bondi Sands has great sunscreen for this purpose).

Sunscreen is the number one way to reduce aging and protect your skin. I know most people’s experiences with sunscreens are that they are greasy and unpleasant - but I promise there are amazing cosmetic sunscreens that sit nicely on the skin and can look & feel nice. There are also nicer body sunscreens out there - I love Lab Muffin’s youtube videos for sunscreen recommendations (and honestly all of her content is great if you want to learn more about cosmetics).

Also the recommendation I hear is to wash / replace your pillowcase once a week, mostly to reduce the amount of dirt, bacteria, and dust that ends up on your face while you’re sleeping.

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Clothing

The general recommendation is to look at what other women around you are wearing. Usually skirts and dresses will communicate a more formal or traditional vibe, and this will draw a lot more attention to you. If you pass well this attention might be fine, but with masculine traits you might get more stigma and hate.

Despite that reality, I spent my early transition always in a dress or skirt because I had little other way to communicate “woman”.

Ironically, once my body and face started to be seen as female, I found it easier to dress more like other women (tbh it’s a lot of t-shirts and jeans, blouses and slacks, etc.).

Learning to dress for a masculine body was also a whole skill. I learned that my torso was long, so high-waisted jeans looked more natural and less weird on me. I learned that anything that showed off my back or shoulders was a liability, as well as anything boxy or with puffy shoulders - in general I learned to wear a black wrap over most outfits to diminish my arms and shoulders, while wearing v-necks and jewelry that drew attention away from my neck and shoulders and drew the eyes towards my breasts.

I also learned to wear skirts that weren’t fitted and puffed out so they covered my belly and hid how small my hips & butt were - A-line skirts, ruffled skirts, etc. were preferable to something like pencil skirts.

I would read up on how to dress for inverted pyramid / strawberry shaped bodies (broad shoulders with thin waist, which is a common masculine build lots of trans women have), or apple shaped bodies (if more wide in the belly). Some trans women have more “banana” / rectangular shaped bodies, so that might be worth looking into as well if that’s more descriptive of your body.

Also, if it’s not obvious, women’s clothes fit differently, so when I mention t-shirt and jeans I mean women’s t-shirt and jeans. They emphasize different parts of the body. I found it nice to have my favorite t-shirts in various sizes - it’s nice to wear a really tight-fitting t-shirt to show off my boobs while having a wrap to cover up and provide some comfort.

I could talk endlessly about clothes, but overall I would say the biggest advice is to wear what’s normal for your age and demographic - what are women like you wearing? Notice and try it out. You can also checkout /r/OUTFITS and other such spaces to get inspiration (though these days I feel those spaces have been ruined by onlyfans promotions, you can still find plenty of good posts).