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@Dooks-Fatberg
Go down (half) a gauge. Fuckit man, life's too short to be struggling on thinking you "should" be able to be comfortable with phatter strings. There's no shame in it. If that guitar needs lighter strings to be comfortable for you, do it!
I spent ages trying to train my hands to be happy with 11s because I bought into some macho message board bullshit about the big sound and SRV using 13s or whatever. I just played worse and ended up with sore fingers.
I've been playing 25 years and my hands are relatively slim. No matter how much I practice they're not going to get bigger or that much stronger that i'll be happy bending 11s or 12s around on a Strat. It's just not going to happen. I like a bit of fight back but i don't want to be struggling.
Anyway, I like the twangier sound of lighter strings. I found 11s and 12s on a strat made it sound kind of dull. 9.5s sound like the obvious answer to me.