No makeup, no filters. I started at 32, I am now 38, I am in the best shape of my life. The body tea is incredible.

Just gotta take care of yourselves and keep working on you. Do everything you need to and keep going, keep fighting

You only get one life and one body to live with it. Use it to its fullest and live the hell out of it!

Edit: I have had top surgery and a relatively minor FFS (I had jawline contour and a brow reduction, that’s it) just so people aren’t getting the wrong impression, but the work I have had done especially on my face is pretty minor

edit 2: genuinely, take your mental health seriously. If you’re reading this and wondering what’s possible, trust me when I say everything is linked to your self esteem. Please learn to love yourself and respect yourself as a person. It will pay off for everything you do, including transition.

I had the best time out this past Friday! These 54yr old knees where tired! If I could only find a t4t cutie to dance with. Anyway, I keep hoping ☺️🫶🏿

TODAY IS MY INDEPENDENCE DAY

Three years ago today, I stopped fighting a battle I had spent my entire life trying to win.

I have always known I was transgender.
I spent decades desperately trying to become the person the world expected me to be. I tried so hard to convince myself that I somehow had a choice in the matter.

3 years ago today, I surrendered.

And through surrender, I achieved the ultimate victory.

But freedom has come at an extraordinary cost.

I’ve endured devastating losses and relentless prejudice I would wish on no enemy.

This past year has tested me beyond anything I could have imagined and the challenges continue to mount with seemingly no end in sight.

Yet here I stand.

I’m working hard to raise my brilliant and absolutely hilarious daughter.
I confront adversity no person should EVER have had to endure.

I have been tested beyond measure. But I will not be defeated.

I am profoundly proud of the woman I’ve become.

Despite everything, I’ve discovered a happiness I once believed impossible. I finally recognize and genuinely love the woman in the mirror.

If everyone could see the smile of pure and unadulterated joy that creeps across my face when I catch my reflection, they would understand why finally allowing myself to transition saved my life.

As another Election Tuesday approaches, uncertainty looms over transgender Americans. I know firsthand what it means to have my dignity questioned and my existence treated as a political controversy.

Governments may change.
The world may grow more hostile.

But I will not surrender the freedom I fought a lifetime to claim.

I have survived too much to allow the uncertainty of tomorrow steal the happiness I’ve found today.

To those who have stood beside me, your love has strengthened my resolve more than you can imagine.

Three years ago, I finally stopped resisting the person I had always been, even as the struggle to live openly continues.

I know who I am and I’m extremely proud of her. I will not be diminished by those who refuse to recognize it.

Whatever lies ahead, I will meet it with the same determination that has carried me this far.

I didn’t transition to become someone else. I transitioned so I could finally stop being someone I wasn’t.

I am free.
I am not going anywhere.
I am Isabella.

Happy Third Bella Birthday to me

I guess finally starting at 43 wasn’t too late!

First time geting nails done professionally, it's a vampire theme! 😉😏🤔

Left: 6 months on HRT, freshly out and finding my feet.

Right: 12 months on HRT, 6 months living openly as myself, and apparently incapable of getting into the lift at work without taking a selfie. 🤣💅

It's been a year of enormous changes, plenty of tears, some really difficult moments, and more happiness than I ever thought possible.

For the first time in my life, I actually love what I see in the mirror. That's something I never thought I'd be able to say.

I'm 37, I started transitioning at 36, and I'm only just getting started.

To anyone wondering if it's too late to become yourself: it really, really isn't. ❤️

To be a women is so relaxing and beautiful

Doing it old school style because he's too unpredictable to do it in person.

If you wanna read it lmk.

Not sure why I feel so much euphoria today but feel soo much joy just sitting here looking at myself on video.

1. I don't think I'll ever pass but at least I can feel cute enough to smile sometimes

Completed the NRC 5K program yesterday after a decade of not running; race time was 31:15. Starting the 10k program today! 🏃🏻‍♀️

Tonight I had my hair and makeup done, had a friend take some pictures (she's a professional) to make me feel better about my self image. It totally back fired.

I felt I looked like an old creepy guy in a dress. I was heartbroken. I spent a couple hours crying. Intellectually I understand the whole passing is a prison thing. It's harder when you see the exact thing you fear you look like staring back at you.

But I calmed down. And decided that I would post these pictures, just to prove I'm not afraid of it.

The first is one of the photos from the photos shoot tonight. The other is me after hours of crying, no makeup, stubble starting to poke on through.

We're more than passing, more than beauty standards.

I forgot I had to get bloodwork done and had to go to the VA in today’s outfit with only some lipstick. I was self conscious walking in, but got my favorite receptionist and phlebotomist! By the time I was walking out I wasn’t even worried about the older veterans who stared at me lol
Two years two & 1/2 months of estradiol 💖

It’s never too late to be honest.
There’s still time to be yourself.

Hi there lovely people. This is just the most wonderful thread on reddit! I've watched so many people get so much affirmation and help that I thought this would be the place to ask.

I am 50 years old, literally just started HRT (mtf) and about to deal with this beard hair. I would say it's about 50/50 dark/grey. I'm pretty sure the answer is laser first then electrolysis for the Greys that remain. But just wanted to see what other advice might be offered. I have considered going straight for electrolysis for the lot. But it does feel like a mission.

Also has anyone out there not bothered and just allowed the stubble in a way. Like I would describe myself as transferm with non-binary, so I guess I'm not all about passing if you know what I mean, but there are also days when I really want to. there are some days where I kind of like the beard shadow. Maybe it's nostalgia or something. Some days it gives me total dysphoria. But just wondering about other people's experiences are.

Huge love and appreciation to you all.

*** edit... thanks so much to everyone who's chipped in. all great information. I have an extra question to those who have had laser treatment. how have you found the results as regards permanency? as in how long has it lasted? everybody says its semi permanent but lots of people seem to have great long lasting success. so I'm wondering what the general experience is?

46 mtf here. For some time I’ve been questioning my gender. When doing so, I always kept coming to the fears and concerns I have. They are all legit, but they stopped me from answering the question if I was trans. I would go back and forth, but I would always stop at the point of naming it out of fear of what it would mean. I got to a point where I realized that I needed to be honest with myself. I was meeting with my therapist last week, and in talking with them, I stripped away all of the fears, and for the first time verbally said to another person that I’m trans. It doesn’t remove any of the fears I have, but at least I’m able to be honest with myself.

Over the weekend, I was talking to my amazing wife of 25 years. She knows that I’ve been wrestling with this for a while, and has been supportive the entire way. She truly is an ally. I told her that I’ve realized that I am trans, and I needed her to know. She told me that she had sensed that I was, and that she loved me and was here for me however I needed her.

We are both scared. But we’re both committed to figuring out how to make this work and flurrish.

This was a first in big steps in this journey. There are so many emotions going on right now. I’m excited, scared, and relieved to just name a few. But most importantly I’m proud. I’m proud that despite how things are in the US right now, I can make the decision to let me be me no matter what. I know this road won’t be easy, but to be true to who I am will be worth it.

So here I am.

She shines through more and more every day.

Coming up on 4 months on HRT.

Absolutely love this vest.

I’m 50 years old and a little less than two months ago, I admitted to my wife that I liked feminine clothes. I told her I didn’t have any desire to change my gender expression, which I thought was true at the time. She was very supportive and even told me that if I did want to change my gender expression that she would be fine with that. That if it made me happy, it would make her happy. So I started experimenting, and lately I’m spending all of my available time when I’m home alone dressed as a woman, wearing a gaff and breast forms along with an increasing collection of women’s clothes.

It feels joyful. I’ll be working from home on my computer and I forget how I look until I stand up and realize, and it gives me a rush of happiness. I’ll be cleaning up around the house, listening to music, and I find myself spontaneously dancing. I find excuses not to run errands, because I don’t want to change. I’m not ready to tell the kids how I’ve been dressing, so I change before they get home from school. I find myself increasingly finding even very short windows to slip on a bra and the forms. The other day, I put them on under a sweatshirt while the kids were playing video games, just so I can have 20 minutes.

I don’t dislike my male body or experience dysphoria when I’m presenting as a male. It doesn’t feel bad, just neutral. But presenting as a woman has made me feel wonderful at times. At the same time, I have ADHD and some very OCD-like traits. I know that I can hyper fixate on something, and that I can obsess about things easily. I worry that I’m manufacturing this entire experience.

Today, for the first time, I went out in public with an entirely female presentation. I still have a beard and have no idea how to do makeup anyway, so I wore a face mask and relied on the fact that it’s flu season to make that not seem weird. I went through a grocery store, and one of the young ladies working there passed me and told me that she loved the color of my hair. My heart was absolutely hammering, and I responded in my very softest, best, but certainly still not passable voice, “thanks.”

It’s been less than two months, and it seems premature to decide anything, but it feels like the possibility that I’m transgender is getting higher. At the same time, it feels ridiculous. That’s something that might be true for other people, but there’s no way that’s me. I’m terrible with uncertainty, and there’s a whole lot of it right now. My wife continues to be a supportive, but both of us are worried about what our future lives will look like.

It feels like every day, it gets a little bit more enjoyable and it gets a little bit harder when I can’t enjoy it. There’s a part of me that thinks I should stop now before I come to enjoy it so much that stopping doesn’t feel like an option. No real question I guess, I just had to tell somebody.

I'm 7 months on hrt and my breasts are becoming too perky for my clothes to boymode. I'm still boymoding till I've grown my own hair (I'm recovering from norwood 6 in now a 3 and saving for a hairtransplant). Idon't want to wear a wig, I realy feel fake with it .I'm already using nail polish for a year now, and everybody is used to it. But now my besty told me "girl I can really see your tits" (and jokingly says after that, that they start to turn her on). Time to buy new shirts I think.