(Pre Op here)
I've dated IRL through meeting people in the world and have gotten dates through online sites because I wanted to see what it was like. Overall, it's pretty easy and while you'll certainly have a few interactions that aren't all that positive pre-op, you're likely to be more successful if you're open, willing to be easy going, and not a total crazy person/b***h.
I've had great success with many lovers, girlfriends and boyfriends so it's possible but I'm going to caution that I'm really sure of myself in my looks, know who and what I am, and don't have a chip on my shoulder the size of a large boulder so I'm going to say flatly that the success that you find will be very much dependent on you having yourself all sorted out. If you're a nutter, lack any sort of self confidence, or haven't made peace with yourself pre-op (and I'd recommend doing that pre-op whether you want to date or not before you go through with SRS), you're probably going to have a tough time.
My last bit of advise is to say that what I know and feel about myself came from fearlessly throwing myself, as scared as I was, out into the world time and time again. I'd get a bruising from some encounter or another and I'd just pick myself right back up again and throw down with something or someone new. It was through those experiences that I gained the confidence to be who and what I wanted to be. We create ourselves but, like pottery, you can shape and mould and form as much as you want but if you don't fire it in the kiln of the real world of real people, you won't know if you got it right. To take the metaphor a little further, you will certainly have times where you'll break once you get in the fire but that's just the time to take what you learned and start over.
Be brave, be open, be kind, and desire to be as easygoing as the wind, cupcakes.
That's my 2ยข.
P.S. - Work on making yourself more awesome by doing things that you've always wanted to do but have been afraid of trying. That'll help things too because, we can't define ourselves wholly through our romantic interactions.
