Transgendered

In short, I've always felt more feminine than masculine and after researching for months on the Internet; thinking about it for years; reading about transgendered people, about hormone replacement therapy, sex-reassignment surgery, the APA guidelines and requirements, all that stuff, I decided to see what I would look like as a girl. I'm strongly considering at least a consultation for HRT; I know what it can and can't do, so it was useful for me to see where I am now in terms of what I might want to look like, and what HRT could possibly do for me. I've always had a naturally wide shoulder frame, which can't be helped, but I need to lose about 15 pounds in upper body muscle and gain a bit of hip, which HRT should be able to help with, but I'm not sure to what degree. I suppose it's a case-by-case basis. HRT helps with breasts and nipple/areola, body fat redistribution, skin tone/thickness, decreased libido and a few other things. I still need to find a local MTF physician who works with transgendered people to at least talk to him about medical advantages/disadvantages, cost, etc... before I go much further.

Anyhow, I haven't really told any family or friends that I've been considering this, but I wanted some opinions, so I'll throw up a few pictures of my first time cross-dressing. I'll be growing my hair out, and I need some practice with makeup, and again, to lose some upper body muscle, but I think I could pass as a girl; I get mistaken for a girl sometimes when I'm not cross-dressing. At the moment, SRS is out of the question.

What do you think? Any comments are welcome, especially if you have any experience with MTF transgender.

I think you look really good I don't have any experience with this personally or through any family members or friends; I have a suspicion that you might have to go through some fairly intense counselling before you're considered for HRT, though (in some places I think you have to live as the other gender for at least 12 months before being considered for HRT, someone please correct me if i'm wrong; i'm not sure if i'm thinking of the actual gender reassignment surgery instead). There is a group that you will probably benefit from joining;LGBTQ

Yeah, HRT is nothing you can just get a prescription for. A lot of people end up self-medicating, since it can be so hard to get approval, which I want to avoid. The APA has sort of ridiculously stringent guidelines for receiving HRT. I'm not sure if the real life test is 12 months, the SRS experience/test might be; I think HRT is a bit shorter, but I could be wrong.

Thanks! I applied to LGBTQ...I started typing LFG...I just can't get rid of old WoW habits!

Also this group.

+1

You look extremely feminine and very pretty, if you hadn't said you were male, I wouldn't have been able to tell!

I have a couple friends who have gone through/are going through gender identity issues. You are lucky to be living in the age of Google; there are about a billion trans support groups out there, at least a few of which are probably in your area. I don't know too much first hand, but I am pretty sure there's a lot of counseling involved every step of the way, which is probably a good thing (provided you trust your counselor). Definitely get a lot of input before you decide on taking any medical steps; this is a big change to go through. I hope your family and friends are supportive, but if you find you are having problems, remember that you are certainly not alone and don't be afraid to ask for help.

Also, I think you make a very pretty girl. :-) Good luck!

yup

Yep!

Seekbliss, you look great as a girl.

this.

Thank you all for the positive comments! Luckily for me, Richmond has the Fan Free Clinic, which offers TG support and counseling, all free, from medical professional volunteers, so I'm going to check that out. I suppose the hardest part will just be telling friends and family about it...mostly family. I guess it's basically like coming out.

+ yup.

To add to what others have said on this board, make sure that before you undergo surgery that you take into account the cost and the time it will take to heal. You'll have to pay the entire bill completely out of pocket. Also understand (as I'm sure you do) that HRT is no panacea. I've seen it work wonders with some and have frustratingly minimal results with others, even if they took it for an extended period of time.

In college I dated a woman who has since transitioned to a man. I've seen him (I almost said "her". Old habits die hard) go through a tremendous amount of work to begin life as a male. This involved changing his name from a feminine one to a masculine one, then having to change the name on credit card forms, tax information, car titles, car insurance, medical insurance forms, legal documents, and many other identifying documents with his old name on still on it.

I hope your family and parents are supportive. His, unfortunately, were not. That's what caused me the most anguish---seeing the reactions of his family. They have never accepted him as a man and still refer to him by his old name. He's gotten to the point that he considers his partner and a few close friends family and has pretty much had to write off everyone else.

I'm not trying to dissuade you from the process, but merely to inform you that this is going to be a very complex, very time-consuming, very expensive, potentially very emotionally draining experience from start to finish.

I wish you the best of luck.

i scrolled down without reading and thought "Wow! She's cute!".

I think you deserve a lot of credit beyond physical appearance too. Deciding that this is something you want to pursue and actually pursuing it requires a lot of determination and well, for the lack of a better word.....balls.

Even with all the ignorant discrimination that we see on a day to day basis when it comes to this, you're still intent on doing what you want to do. That speaks volumes over what you look like.

I honestly hope the best for you, and hope that you reach what ever goal you decide on pursuing.

Yeah, a friend of mine was actually written off by her entire family (who were very tradition-minded Asians) for becoming a woman. She is such an amazing person that she managed to pay for college entirely on her own and now has an extremely awesome job at a non-trivial tech company. Nonetheless, it was very difficult for her to sacrifice her family life for the sake of becoming on the outside who she is on the inside. Here's hoping you have an easier time of things.

You look amazing, and I wish you the best of luck.

Cute! You make a very attractive woman!

I live in Polk Gulch in SF which is transgender central. I see plenty of "less than attractive" girls make better women than the "hot" ones. I have also seen some of the less attractive ones be much happier, content and just plain fun people.

Go with your heart is the point. That said, you make a hot woman so you may very well be in a win win situation. Take your time, pre-op/post-op/hormones/ladyboy - doesn't matter which way you go as long as you feel comfortable.

^^^ This. The only picture where I could kind of tell was the profile shot, and I think that's only because your hair is still shortish.

Best of luck to you.

Thanks again for all the nice comments!

It'll probably be a few months before I try and transition to living as a girl; I would like to let my hair grow a bit more and to do some more intensive running to drop muscle. Plus, I can only afford to buy a few items of 'extra' clothing at a time.

You're off to a fantastic start. I wish you all the best in your journey to become who you truly are.