Woah, you’re gorgeous! Keep on being yourself <3

Yes, that’s exactly what I felt too: peace. I’d been living with feelings of “something’s missing/wrong” and “if only” that got stronger and stronger until I finally figured it out, then… silence. Just regular old me.

I was always curious what it “feels like” to be a girl, but then I realized that (presumably) everyone is “just me”, going through their lives. And since I was apparently a girl (without knowing it at first), that means I already know what it feels like: it’s how I feel.

I still struggle at times to honestly accept myself as a woman. Sure, I want to be one, and (most of) the people around me accept me as one, but there’s still that little voice that says “you’re faking it.” And quelling that voice is, for me, the hardest part of transitioning.

Hi there! My egg cracked at 39, and I was also extremely worried about how things would turn out. But I also knew that I had no real choice: it was transition or bust.

Think about how you’d feel growing old as a man. Is a little less upheaval worth giving up your dream?

Some of the things I worried would happen if I transitioned did happen: turns out I’m not too bothered. Most of the things didn’t happen. A lot of really awesome things that I didn’t think of did happen.

Ahaha, oh yes. We learned about castrati in music lessons, and all I could think was “that sounds awesome”

It’s a beautiful feeling when everything is nicely encapsulated.

Ah, that’s a good one! Two of mine that spring to mind:

• My “fetish” for shaving off all my body hair. I had no idea why I was doing it, just that it felt really good.
• When I first went to school, all the girls had pierced ears. So of course I asked if I could get mine pierced too, and was told no. That led to decades of being massively anti-piercings, because, it turns out, if I couldn’t have them then no one could. When my egg cracked and I realized I was just jealous and didn’t have to follow the instructions my parents gave my six-year-old self, I immediately went out and got earrings.

EDIT: how could I forget? When I was about 11 I was convinced that I was going to grow boobs and could get transferred to the girls’ school instead. No dysphoria here, totally cis behavior.

I found I didn’t have the bandwidth to feel (or perhaps notice?) dysphoria about certain things until I’d taken care of the “higher priority” stuff first.

Hi Domi! Welcome to the club <3

That’s wonderful! I hope you continue to find joy in your transition, and congratulations on your engagement <3

Fuck 'em. If they want their daughter in their life, they can learn who you are.

It sucks, but not as much as forcing yourself to be around people who want you to be someone you’re not.

Totally. The amount of shit I can just shrug off with a “that sucks, oh well” now that would have had me spiraling before is incredible.

It kind of feels like I had life on hard mode up till now.

“Of course I’d love to transition and be a woman, it’s just that I’m not trans.”

That was also my logic for a looong time.

This is a bit of a cop-out answer, but the effects of HRT vary hugely based on the person. The “relief” you are feeling might be placebo, might be due to biochemical dysphoria, or a bit of both.

When I was on injections, I definitely felt a bit crappy at the end of the week, and a lot better about 30 minutes after my dose.

When I was getting my dose for patches worked out, I felt what I can only describe as “testosterone anxiety”, which persisted as I slowly bumped up my dose over a couple of weeks and eventually went away when I got up to three patches. (Now I’m on spiro and back down to two, and things are fine). This was a different feeling to injections wearing off.

Now the only thing I notice is that I get four days of being really tired and bitchy pretty consistently every 25 days or so. I’m not going to speculate what that is, but since I’m on a very stable dose of two patches every two days, I don’t think it’s due to dosage.

Yay! It sure does feel good.

Enjoy your new female metabolism :)

As others have said, you’re not going to notice anything right away. Why not start taking it regularly and let it cook while you focus on other things? A month or so down the road you’ll probably realize you feel better than you ever have and don’t want to stop.

That’s fascinating, thank you!

Yay! Spiro sucks.

Buying nail polish to do furniture repairs because it would be a shame to let the rest go to waste…

/just cis things

Haha, yes that’s exactly right!

Nice!