Hello

[Georgette]

Hello to all.
My name is Georgette.

I am a Post-Op MtF TS.  Started transition and HRT in 1975.  Name change in 1976.  Started full time and work in MAY 1977.  SRS / GCS in SEP 1977, at U of VA Charlottesville, surgeon was Dr Edgerton [sic].  Stopped HRT around 1985.

My partner/SO (also a MtF) and I lived together from 1976-2014 when she died.
We bought a house in 1983 in the suburbs of WASH DC, and left what little of the LGBT community that existed at that time, and just grew old as two woman.

Since that time I have come back to the LGBT community.  Regular at 3 TG support groups, and one TS/TG/CD/FAB social group.  And many very different websites.

I have been searching for any other TS that transitioned in the 1970s, with very limited success.

[V M]

Hi Georgette 

Welcome to Susan's Place    Glad to have you here, join on in the fun

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Hugs

V M

[Raell]

Hi, Georgette!

Transitioning in the 1970s must have been tricky..very little public knowledge at that time.

Sounds like you've had a happy life!

[Georgette]

Thank You V M for the welcome.

Raell
Yes it was frustrating at times.  No Internet or personal computers yet.  Had to go to libraries and sex shops for books.

I am 66 and retired.
My Partner, 15 years older, and I met at a small meet.  After talking found we were into looking for the same.  We started to go out to clubs, very good for presenting ones female self.

We eventually connected with a small group of other TS, some had SRS some others like us looking.  We had our own small support network.  The doctors (HRT, Pyschs, doctors doing SRS in US) and lawyers.

[JeanetteLW]

Hi and welcome Georgette,

   I'm 64 and just at the beginning of this journey. there are others here that are our age some with longer experience like yourself and others with little, like me.

I hope you like it here.

   Jeanette

[Georgette]

Thank You Jeanette

Since coming back have found many in their 40s-70s just starting out.  I also have met quite a few FtM TS, had not heard of any back in the 70s.  And quite a few teens trying to cope with all this.

I can't give others much help, as most everything has changed since the 70s.

I do hope to find any from in the 70s.  All I meet now are from the 90s-present.  I knew we were uncommon but it seems like survivors are very few.

Georgette

[JeanetteLW]

I do hope to find any from in the 70s.  All I meet now are from the 90s-present.  I knew we were uncommon but it seems like survivors are very few.

Georgette

   Perhaps  they grew comfortable in their own skins and outgrew the need for forums like this. That would be good to see though us new starers do have need of the experience of those that have gone before. Then there is the possibility of the technology back then was not in place for such forums as you surely know. It is now common place for the younger generations to utilize the internet for support needs.

  Jeanette

[Dena]

Welcome to Susan's Place. Unfortunately I was busy off the site yesterday and didn't see your welcome. I ran into another post today so I traced you back to here. I am 65 and had my surgery in 1982. It was the end of about an 8 year quest for treatment. In the end my transition was successful however I had to go the long way around and spent a pile of money getting there. I was on the other side of the country in Arizona and California with my transition taking place in California. Feel free to ask questions on this thread or when you reach 15 posts, you may PM me.

[Georgette]

Thank You Dena and Jeanette

Part of this is because I get into arguments with some on-line about the standards of care we did back in 1970s.  Yet none of them can post what others that they knew from back then.

I have met two on the East coast.  One was from 1979, the other was from early 80s.  We do have some common experiences.

On FB I have chatted a little with one from 1976, age 21, she also had hers at U of VA.
One other on FB is a woman in her 80s, she had hers some 42 years ago.

I am on 5 on-line sites, and 4 local TG groups.
I'm sure that most successful people are just living their lives.
That is what my Partner and I were doing from 1983-2014.

[Dena]

The rules I transitioned under were very similar to todays standards and because our senior members were involved in producing that standards that evolved into what is used today, it isn't much of a surprise. Todays RLE standards are somewhat relaxed today in order to deal with the non binary and we had to have at least half of our electrolysis done before surgery.

This wasn't true of other programs and programs that took place before mine. I heard stories of them needing to learn how to become a hair dresser so they would always have a profession to fall back on and not being permitted to wear pants. They might even have to pass a beauty inspection before being able to move on in treatment.

In my case, I moved into society and I am sure I was outed more than once by my voice (didn't realize it at the time). I was brought to this site because of the death of my roommate who was from the same group and the desire to research voice surgery. I knew about it from the news but it seemed pretty risky at the time. The site exposed me to the latest but I didn't see them coming with the ball and chain and they nailed me before I could get away.

[Georgette]

I had heard of some of that for the NHS programs in UK.  Apparently their gatekeepers were a little extreme.

I think the WPATH standards came in after 1979.

I already had a career, and my surgeons were aware of their acceptance of my transition.  That was necessary to complete my RLE.

Would have had a problem with the no pants, as I was in computer maintenance, so no skirts/dresses.

I did have to meet with the surgical team before, with their pysch tests and I guess their acceptance of my passibility.

I did have my electrolysis already done.  And HRT for over a year by that time.