Very. When I was little nobody seemed to care how "off" I was, but high school and university were intensely unpleasant. And having to tell people who think you are a girl that you're actually a guy, when really you are a girl... bleh. At least I got to hear all kinds of interesting permutations of my name as people misheard it cause it didn't match to my appearance. My favourite was Camilla - only one letter the same - though Nora was the most common.
It was more than just appearance too: I still have leftover anxiety issues with phones 'cause my voice never dropped properly - it cracked and stuff... and then went back to how it was before, so I got gendered female all the time on the phone which was stressful at the time. And in school my well-meaning friends tried to show me how blokes are supposed to sit, walk, gesture, etc., but it never stuck.
I'm 6' tall with an extremely fragile-looking frame, thin shoulders, ordinary hip:waist ratio for a woman, marginal boobs, cute butt, disproportionately more leg than torso, no hair on back/chest, long neck, high cheekbones, full lips, big green eyes, dead pale skin, and dark blonde hair. I tend to get described as ethereal and slender, or frail and skinny, depending on whether the person likes me or not. I stopped being able to pass as a guy 5 months into HRT (I started at 26).
I wonder sometimes if transsexualism affects more than just the brain. So many of us seem to have randomly feminine features of one kind or another. Or maybe the more masculine trans girls just have a higher suicide rate.
