[Gardenwitch]

Hi GArdenwitch and welcome

You are asking the golden question: how does PM work?
And the answer is: nobody really knows yet.

What you described is what I call the "turbo restart effect", which is what happens when you start taking PM after some time off it. There is a mix of factors at play. It is entirely possible that PM causes an increase in blood stream in your chest, and that translates is a slight enlargement and weight increase, that gives you the idea that your breasts are growing again. This is not necessary permanent growth, and it's something that people experience even before budding. Another factor at play is wishful thinking: your brain is more focused on that area not because it's growing, but because you want to feel it. A few weeks on PM usually don't bring any large permanent change

... unless ...

my theory is that breast tissue is a bit like a Christmas tree. The body adds and removes fat an proteins from the breasts area when needed, and when it has something to attach them too. This  something is breast tissue. The more of it you grow, the more your body will be able to fill it with fat and proteins, giving you breasts. Even the most permanent of breasts lose size when the person lose weight. This is to say that using any sort of estrogens will add to the amount of breast tissue you have, particualrly after budding, so even with a tiny bit of PM you are adding to the potential of having larger breasts when your T levels will naturally decrease with age. At present time the change is too slow to be noticed, but if you gain weight or if your hormonal levels change (age, stress, diet....) your boobs will fill up more the more breast tissue you have.

How much you want to give yourself the potential for boobs is entirely up to you, obviously.
What I can say is that, judging by the pictures, you are barely into the "chubby guy" stage of moobs. They feel like boobs to you but for the onlookers they don't look feminine enough to even imagine that there is something "weird" going on. I have much chubbier moobs after years of slowly toying with PM, and nobody said a word when I went to the beach and the pool last Summer.

Thanks for the thoughtful response, I’d been checking out your old posts as I’ve gone through this process as your goals looked most similar to mine. By which I mean, being able to have a bit more feminine shape while crossdressing but still be able to live life as a normal dude. It’s a relief to hear that they look bigger to me than an outside observer, lol. It’s really wild to think that once buds have formed, even a tiny dose will add to breast tissue so it sounds like, my assumptions were correct, I’ll have to use PM very sparingly if I want to stay where I am now.