Height...

[Contravene]

I'm around 5'6" (close to 5'7" but I won't be one of those guys who rounds up).

I'm currently the shortest of my siblings who all happen to be female and ranging from an inch to five inches taller than me. I feel as if I got cheated out of reaching my full height potential because when I was a preteen and still developing, I was put on a cocktail of medications, several of which had the known side effect of stunting growth.

Despite all of this, I've never really felt short. My girlfriend is quite a bit shorter than me and I've known many cis guys who are my height so my question is: does height really matter?

Is there anyone around my height who can share their experiences? And of course, I'll still be happy to hear from anyone who isn't my height too.

[Darrin Scott]

I'm 5'1 and it doesn't effect my passing or anything. I don't feel so different, but wish I was taller.

[Liminal Stranger]

Was measured as 4'11 now in the doc's office, could have sworn it was 5 feet even just the other day. When I pass, I do so for a little kid, rarely as my age. Because apparently, every teenage boy is 7 feet tall or something.

I feel pretty cheated, too. Not only was I on a cocktail of meds know to cause growth delay too, but for the first time, my neurologist said that the tumor right near my pituitary stalk was likely secreting something all this time that interfered with my growth. I just had a spurt of something like two inches (actually, no clue but I'm taller XD) when everyone said I would stay around 4'9, so there's hope, but I feel you.. It sucks to be short.

The short cisguys I know try to grow out any facial hair they can in order to look older or just not like a girl, so it's not just us dealing with this either.

[Darkflame]

I'm 5'3. I wouldn't feel so bad about it if the guys in my family weren't freaking giants (my brother stands a full 12 inches taller than me ) Get a little jelous about that, and I look a little out of place at gatherings. I hope I get at least a little bit of height from T, it would be like icing on a cake

[ford]

Heya. I'm 5'6". I've never really felt short, even around males. I've usually just felt really really average in terms of height, which isn't a bad place to be . I've seen plenty of guys much shorter than me.   

Even if your siblings tower over you, I'd say you can still count yourself lucky.

[Natkat]

I guess its a + if your tall and want to pass than really small, yet theres alot of small guys so for passing its really not that much of an issue.

[Blaine]

I'm 5'8" and I haven't had any problems with it in regards to passing. As long as I can see over the kitchen counter, I'm happy. Everyone in my family is under 6'0" and I'm actually on the taller end. I'm the one they ask to get all 70 bowls from the top shelf on Thanksgiving. 

[Nygeel]

I am the shortest in my family with my 10 year old niece getting incredibly close to my height. As a kid and in my lower teens doctors thought I was going to be very tall. I was born with large hands and feet which stayed pretty big compared to the rest of my body. The relative that's closest to me in height (of my siblings and parents) is a good 2 inches, maybe 3 taller than I am. My brothers are all in the 6 foot range. I think the shortest is maybe 5 foot 9 and the tallest is just able to fit in doorways without ducking.

It was a bummer to find out that I wasn't going to be tall. I stopped growing around age 11 and through my teens I always thought I was going to get a growth spurt or something. Never happened. Still wear a men's 9 shoe.

[Liminal Stranger]

Hey Contra, approximately how old are you? (No exact age if you're under 18, don't want to break the ToS.)
If you want extra height, there's a chance that all your bones haven't fused, even if you haven't grown in a while. I had a bone-age test come back as saying mine were all fused, but tell that to my body. After more than six years of being the same height, my feet grew and I gained a bit of vertical magnitude 

Every doctor said I wouldn't grow, period. I just did. So who knows? You could too, and if not, hey- 5'6" isn't too shabby at all. My boyfriend is something like 5'2" and nobody makes fun of him for that.

[AdamMLP]

I'm 5"2' and I don't think I've seen a shorter guy. I think I might have once around college but he was disabled and hunched up so it was hard to tell without looking rude and staring. I get a lot of stick for it even though most people only know me as female. For now I'm still passing though, and I hope to be on T and look male enough to counter the shortness (I honestly only know of 3 girls shorter than me) by the time I no longer look 12.

Its the other bits of my body being small that bother me most though, such as my hands on comparison to my girlfriends etc. I guess it's just a touchy subject song as there's quite an age gap.

[Darth_Taco]

I'm 5'5". I was actually suppose to grow really tall according to doctors and anyone else that knew me. Growing up, I was always the tallest kid in class. By the time I was 8, I was 5 feet tall. By puberty 2 years later, I was 5'5"...and that's where it all ended XP. No one knows why I stopped growing. My guess is a combination of medication and malnutrition cause by severe food allergies no one knew I had. I actually have a long torso, short arms and legs, and a large head :'P. Thankfully I'm only goofy looking to most people when I point it out XP.

As for my feelings on my height...I actually like being short. I like saying my mom has both the tallest and the shortest men in the family as her sons xD. My "little" brother is like 6'1" xD. Despite him towering over me, he's still my baby brother. He still sees me as his older sibling and looks "up" to me XP. My boyfriend is 5'10", but I'm still the one that does all the typical manly stuff like comforting and being insensitive :'P. I think these two helped me develop my sort of Napoleon complex XP. I think the best way of describing me is that I'm a big man in a little body :'D.

[Contravene]

Hey Contra, approximately how old are you? (No exact age if you're under 18, don't want to break the ToS.)
If you want extra height, there's a chance that all your bones haven't fused, even if you haven't grown in a while. I had a bone-age test come back as saying mine were all fused, but tell that to my body. After more than six years of being the same height, my feet grew and I gained a bit of vertical magnitude 

Every doctor said I wouldn't grow, period. I just did. So who knows? You could too, and if not, hey- 5'6" isn't too shabby at all. My boyfriend is something like 5'2" and nobody makes fun of him for that.

I'm 22 so I figured that I was finished growing already but I guess you never know what could happen! You sound similar to me in how medications suppressed some of your growth so maybe that has something to do with why you're growing again. I have heard that it's possible to reverse growth suppression and can sometimes reverse itself naturally which would make you start growing again later in life but I have no idea how that works.

I've never had a bone age test done so it would be interesting to see what the results may be. Come to think of it, I haven't even been measured in almost two years now.


Thanks to everyone else for the replies too!

I'm not too worried about my height as far as passing goes but still, more height could never hurt in that department. My problem is that I just seem have a huge discrepancy in my mind between what I feel like and what I really look like. I'm not even on T yet (unfortunately) but when I do think of myself after transitioning I usually picture myself as this taller, bigger guy. It bothers me to know that I might never be the man I picture myself to be in my head but I guess you have to work with what you're given. I'm content with how tall I am now but if I ever could gain some height, I would be more than happy to. (Except for through those leg stretching surgeries. My body will be going through enough with transitioning.)

[Mr.X]

I'm 154 cm (is that....5,1 feet or something? Or is that not the measurement you guys are using?) And I feel incredibly small. I'm from Holland, and Dutchies are amongst the tallest people of the world. The average guy is 6,1 here, so yeah....I'm incredibly small. I'm always the shortest amongst women as well. It feels like mother nature (or god if you believe in that) wanted to screw me over twice by first giving me the wrong body, and then cackling when it was made incredibly short as well.

But ah well, one can get depressed about it but that won't change a thing. I keep telling my friends and whomever asks that I'm not short, but other people are just too tall! I'll just have to move to a country where people are not so frigging tall.

So yeah, it does bother me a lot. But mainly because everybody else is so tall. When I went to South-Africa and Mexico, I felt a lot better.

[TheoLeo]

Yeah, I'm 5'6 and feel quite the same about my height. I mean, if I had a choice, I'd rather be closer to 5'9, but I'm not exactly complaining. It has never done anything to hinder my ability to pass. The fact that my boyfriend is only an inch taller than me might help.

[seanstartrunning]

I'm around 5'2" and I don't feel too small. I'm Asian, so that kind of takes the blow away from it, ah-ha~ But it's not bad at all. It doesn't take away from me passing, so I'm fine. Actually, I see a lot of guys around my height, and it surprises me sometimes.

[anibioman]

if you're 5'6" your fine i know a cis guys who is under 5 feet. im taller then most trans guys at 5'10" my doctor told my parents i would stop growing at 5'6" even I am self conscious about my height. i think all men are its probably one of the biggest self esteem issues with guys. my brother who is 5'8" is self conscious because he isn't taller then me. im self conscious every time my dad says my brothers catching up to me. my father gets really defensive when anyone suggests im catching up to him.

[Kreuzfidel]

I'm also 5'6" - I am originally from the U.S. and over there I used to have awful dysphoria about being "short" as most males in my home state were tall. 

When I moved to Australia, I have been pretty surprised at the height of the majority of males here - on average, most males are my height or just around it.

So it's definitely helped with not feeling so "short" when everyone else is pretty much the same height.  I regularly see men here who are heaps shorter than me, too.  So it's something I rarely think of now.

[Lord of the Dance]

I'm about 5'7" — fairly average. My dad was a giant and my mum's tiny, so I seem to have landed somewhere in the middle. I think I'm a fairly average height, it's not something that causes me too much concern — probably one of the few things about myself I'm reasonably comfortable with.

[geek]

im 5'4 i only feel bad about it when someone teases me about it, or im next to a giant (anyone over 6'5)

[dean1229]

Well guys, i think i am the tallest one here. I am 6 feet tall, even a little bit more than 6 feet. And yes, i am a FtM. This is my real height. I have always been the tallest one in school, no one could compare to me, haha. I can pass without even trying. The thing is i am not trying too hard cos i am SO embarrassed about who i really am... ((( I feel like a real freak and someone too weird for this world.