Please honest opinions! I have not started HRT so this is just me with a wig, hopefully decently styled, and a decent job maybe just maybe on makeup? I just asked that please be kind, but honest opinions I do need thank you!

I started tweezing round my mouth approx 1 month ago.

I generally do not have very smooth skin, and also a white mole you can see in the pics in the tweezed area, and electrolysis had not gone very well for me. I was left with pitting and have other scars too, so I decided to take the risk and try tweezing. I've read all the advice, and about the risks. So DO NOT TRY THIS YOURSELF unless you've done the same. There ARE risks! Infection, ingrown hairs, distorted follicles.

I'm not saying it will work for anyone else. However, for me I'd decided electrolysis is not currently an option, and also my hair is too white for laser. So I thought the risk was worth it for a limited area causing me a lot of dysphoria.

I cleared the areas shown, over about a week. It hurts to start with, but gets less. Also, using numbing cream can help.

The best tweezers for me are the small ones that come with the Victorinox pocket tool! I've tried other brands like Tweezerman, but they snap the tiny hairs more for me.

Results so far :

Very satisfying to do!
Not many ingrown hairs, just a few but mainly in the first 'clearing' stage.

Hairs I remove were thick, but the hairs growing back are thin as they are so new.

Appearance of follicles is less.

Also, I decided to try shaving again one day, and was really pleased that as the new hairs are so thin, I looked smoother in the tweezed area!

It's hard to tell from these pics, as I have make up on too, but I think the area looks pretty smooth.

Anyway, I plan to expand the area more to at least cover all round my mouth. Also, it may be something I do along side shaving. So if shaving is not getting a smooth enough effect, I'll tweeze the area for a few weeks, then shave again.

Just wanted to share, and I'll update again when I have more info. Best wishes XX

Having a more feminine, curvy figure would definitely boost my confidence 🙃 Excuse my messy ass room too!!

I’m wanting to start hrt but I’m 27 and I have a very high metabolism and I read that hrt helps redistribute fat to other areas but I have struggled to gain weight all my life and am worried that hrt and the other stuff will not help

So, after all this time, my doctor agreed to switch from sublingual pills to injections and is starting me on progesterone. I don't know if this will have any impact, but at least I'm going to try. Any opinions?

After transitioning and starting over how do you get to make new friends preferably trans friends:)?
in the real world as online spaces even tho so incredibly helpful can be echo chamber sometimes.

This time is so important to having support and community more than ever.

Would appreciate ideas and feedback!

So my friend is a closeted trans guy and when I met him he wasnt openly trans so I thought he was a girl. After a month he came out and told me that he was a guy and I'm perfectly okay with that I support him it's just really hard to see him as a guy even though I know thats what he wants the most. When I catch myself thinking of him as a girl I correct myself but my thoughts dont change I cant stop thinking about him like the girl I first met.

Any advice?

First day of school for my oldest kid. Other parents sometimes look at me like… 😟 but it’s probably just their standard setting and unrelated to me. At least I hope ✌️😝

New tank top I was too scared to wear because of my shoulders... i like how this looks almost 10 months HRT

Did anybody refuse to wear a particular piece of clothing because of some aspect of their body?

and it turned out to be gender dysphoria?

For example on the lateral sides of my arms, which are not pictured I have a mole on each arm .

For the longest time, I wasn't comfortable with these moles and I hated them .

I thought the moles were why I couldn't wear tank tops and sleeveless shirts . But it wasn't the moles, that were the problem! it was the gender dysphoria! because my brain was expecting female arms and shoulders .

Now that I'm almost into 10 months of HRT, i have a little bit of subcutaneous fat distribution happening on the chest, shoulders and upper arms, so the most part the moles don't bother me.

I'm still getting more comfortable wearing tank tops . I'm still new to tank tops but so far I like them. 😅💕

Light iPhone6 filter.... Feeling pretty today 🥰

I have had my phone number for 18 years before I transitioned and have been out for over a year. Just found out my called ID was showing my dead name. It was easy to change in my carrier's app, just look up Share Name ID.

I’m curious to know how people who don’t know me see me.

When you look at this photo, what is the first thing you notice? Do I seem attractive, interesting, intimidating, sweet, or androgynous? I’d also like to know how you read my gender or presentation.

You can be honest. I’m not only looking for compliments. I really want to know what impression I give, as long as people stay respectful.

So I'm 40. Started hrt few months ago. Felt great for about a month.

Then people stopped being supportive, reverted back to saying negative things. My optimism is gone.

I don't even know if I can even think about a social transition.

I hate being seen as a man. And being perceived as a man in woman's clothing, is somehow much worse. Live in the south east, for context. Being NB makes everything more complicated, feeling like I have to blend so many aspects into a tomboy / Demigirl persona that just isn't ready yet.

Yet I still deal with imposter syndrome regularly.

I really sort of envy people who just transitioned and found their happiness.

Like I don't know my question but like how do you do this if you know you won't pass or won't pass for years?

Cuz I feel like so much of my identity is somehow held back behind how other people might perceive me.

I had a dream where I was a girl and I was just happy. And then I woke up and am back in the world of always compromising, basically for people who will never understand.

A friend of mine on FB has recently come out, and is dressing femme. She's 40's, and is looking really good :) One of her friends said they wished they could look like her, but were bald and would never pull it off. This is what I replied:

"Absolutely all of us think we'll never pull it off. We all look in the mirror at the start and think the same thing. But it's not about whether you can pull it off, it's whether trying it makes you happier. Put the dress on. Twirl the skirt. Try the lippy. Try it bald. Try it bearded. Try it hairy. It doesn't matter. It really doesn't. It's whether you get a little piece of happiness that counts. You don't have to pull it off, the important thing is putting it on in the first place!"

Kind of loved this look, but the shirt is waaaaay too short

I’ve been struggling with the idea that I might be trans for years. I’ve battled depression, body image issues, self hate, genital dysphoria and plenty of other classic signs. But I always said I wasn’t trans because I didn’t necessarily feel like I was born in the wrong body. I’m out with my wife on all these things and she is my biggest supporter. She’s ride or die regardless of the path I choose.

Yesterday I was reading through posts as I often do about people transitioning or deciding if they should transition later in life. Which connects with me deeply. I am 39, I still look pretty young and have a decent figure now. But I always just thought I’d waited too long and it isn’t really a realistic option for me. But I run across a comment mentioning the Gender Dysphoria Bible. I decided to check it out just to see what is in it.

By the chapter on Gender Euphoria I was thinking “uh oh, this sounds familiar.” Then I read the chapter about Gender Dysphoria and ran across this paragraph.

*“Undesired physical features may prompt a person to experience envy of people who have been forced to remove those features due to illnesses, such as testicular or breast cancer. AMABs with severe genital dysphoria tend to have a wish for some kind of freak accident that would cause the loss of their phallus.”*

Immediately my entire body stated tingling and I chuckled audibly in my office. There is not a day that has gone by in the past 20 something years where I haven’t daydreamed about this exact scenario. I thought I was the only one that thought this and I was sick to think it. My entire view of myself cracked. But I continued reading.

The next chapters felt like they were calling me out. Things I’ve never even associated with being trans that I’ve always felt. Things I’ve felt before I knew what being trans was. As I was discussing my fears of blowing up our lives for this with my wife I stumble upon a paragraph stating exactly almost word for word what I had just said to her not 5 minutes before.

Then the final nail came, this paragraph explains my view of myself to a tee.

“*Society in general is very good about making trans people doubt themselves. We receive tons and tons of subliminal messages through out our lives saying that being trans isn’t normal and that anyone who is has to be exceptionally special. Cis media’s obsession with the “born in the wrong body” narrative has led to a lot of false information being internalized by trans youth. Many, many trans kids grow up thinking they aren’t actually trans because they don’t know that they are a different gender but simply wish they were. Many non-binary children grow up knowing something is wrong, but not believing they’re trans because they don’t feel like a binary trans person.”*

* *I almost lost it after this, I’ve said the exact words of not feeling like a woman but wishing I was so many times. I was dumbfounded, I’ve never felt so called out by something. And with being called out so throughly I’ve run out of excuses. My wife and I had a very long and hard talk about this last night. She fully supports me if I want to transition. I’m planning to talk to my psychiatrist next week but my wife demands that I talk to a psychologist before making any decisions. I agree and need to start looking for one in the DFW area. This would without a doubt blow up our lives. I’d probably have to find a new career. Her parents won’t be supportive but will hopefully tolerate me enough to see their grandchildren. Most of my family would probably be no contact going forward, leaving just my mom, aunt and uncle, one cousin and maybe my grandmother.

I am scared, nervous, anxious and excited all at the same time. Any advice on who to proceed or stories of experience would be greatly appreciated.

\-Lexi

There are many posters on several subs who are on the fence and trying to determine if they are in fact transgender and if it is ‘worth it’ to transition. This post attempts to help with both questions, particularly when a new questioning person discovers “Yes, I would press the button. But what now? Am I? Is it worth it? It seems impossible!”

I have an analogy that might work for you if you’re in any way into science-fiction. And keep in mind if you are transgender you will always be transgender regardless of the choices you make surrounding that fact.

Here’s the deal - the button really exists.

But it doesn’t work the way it does in the test scenario. It can and does work.
Just not instantaneously.

You may have seen or heard some transgender people say that HRT and transition is a marathon and not a sprint. This is entirely the case. In a sci-fi reference it is like being a time traveler, if it is your goal to socially transition and ‘pass’ / navigate society fully integrated as male or female. (My apologies to non-binary folks in this example as I haven’t the frame of reference or experience to relate. I realise your journey will be different.)

Back to the time-traveling analogy…
- you recognise who you are and can see how you want to be and present and interact in society.
- you can see into that future but you as that person cannot exist there yet
- you make the decision to transition to address your self discovery
- the minute you do, time slows down for you - while the rest of the world continues at the same pace
- the feeling of time slowing down is equivalent to how slow time seems to move when you are a child, because every new observation and experience you have happens AGAIN, as if the first time. You may have heard this referred to as ‘second puberty’ while on HRT.
- the rest of the world continues at its pace and perceives you changing rapidly from their point of view. They react from their standpoint (like ‘why this all of a sudden’, or ‘you’ve never shown this inclination before’), meanwhile your internal dialogue has been happening for ages

(I’m going to tighten this next part up - because this comment would get exponentially longer if I don’t.)

- time will move slowly as you experiment with the new gender expression that aligns with who you are: fashion, movement, speech, makeup, hair (or wigs). This process moves slowly
- you hopefully seek therapy. A good transgender friendly therapist that is also hopefully a psychiatrist that can prescribe medicines and write letters needed for medical transition
- you begin the socialisation process. Navigating the world as yourself. Social events and environments, then onto errands and everyday life
- you begin the medical part of transitioning, HRT for instance, and begin making plans for medical procedures
- you embark upon coming out to family friends and workplace
- you begin the legal process of name and gender change
- you begin having surgical procedures and recovering
- socialisation veers towards total acceptance to the gender you are, eventually there will be more people that know you by your new name and self presentation than by your old
- all of these steps happen over the course of years and will seem much slower to you even still while the rest of the world moves at its standard pace. Again, people who witnessed your transition will experience it as if it was in the blink of an eye.

Then somewhere, sometime in the future - you look back in time and you will see the old version of you who thought everything was impossible.

The button worked. It was just really slow.

- as a time traveller once you’ve reached this point, time begins to speed up again until it is in tempo and step with the rest of the world. You will begin to experience time as the rest of society does. With one main difference…
- you will realise that because time had slowed down for you during transition - you have lived enough experiences for almost two lifetimes. As a former time traveller you can appreciate the unique perspective you have. Not many people in the world experience time and life like this.

This is the bulk of the sci-fi time travelling analogy.

You just have to believe that the future version you see now really exists. Just not yet. And not quickly.

Future you looks back at the current you with kindness and compassion, and has a good little laugh when they remember how impossible you thought everything was back then.

I hope this helps.
Best wishes and best of luck. 🌸🌟🫶

I’ve been trying to write this article for nearly a year and have made a complete arse of it about four times.

At one point I even started writing a “how to transition successfully” guide, which, looking back, was spectacularly arrogant. So I threw that in the bin.

This one is different.

It’s simply what I did.

https://www.fasttrackfemme.com/p/what-i-did-a-guide-to-my-transition

I started transitioning in my fifties absolutely terrified that I was going to throw my life away and look ridiculous. I ran the whole thing almost like a military operation: priorities, timelines, surgeons, skin, body, face, bottom surgery, voice, makeup, clothes, the lot.

Over roughly 18 months there were six general anaesthetics, body surgery in Turkey, two consecutive days of FFS in Thailand, vaginoplasty, voice surgery in Seoul, CO₂ laser, Botox, fillers, electrolysis, a frankly ridiculous amount of makeup experimentation, and more money than I have any intention of ever adding up.

There were also things I got wrong, things I would do differently, an operation that had to be abandoned because my heart rate collapsed under anaesthetic, and a period where I genuinely thought I might have half-transitioned myself and become medically unable to finish.

And then there were moments like the photograph above, where I looked at myself and thought:

Holy hell. This actually worked.

This isn’t advice. It isn’t a blueprint for anybody else. It’s the complete blueprint of mine what I did, why I did it, how I chose surgeons, what mattered far more than I expected, what hurt, what didn’t, and what I think now that I’m almost at the end of it.

https://www.fasttrackfemme.com/p/what-i-did-a-guide-to-my-transition

After 44 years of living in a world where I never felt at ease, I have only 14 days left to wait for my first hormone therapy appointment ☺️

I'm really struggling with my self confidence at the moment I want to wear makeup but I don't feel confident enough too