Is there a medical exam you can have to see if you need HRT?

[Charlie Nicki]

No TV 'till your homework's done! 


No funny posts until you eat your vegetables!   

Lol!! 

I chose Meryl Streep and Sally Field. Two beautiful, skilled, funny, confident women.  At 70 years old, Sally is still a vision of youth that others would die for.

And you absolutely nailed it. Judging by your profile pic, you look gorgeous and can totally see the influence of these great women in your look.

[Charlie Nicki]

So on my last session, my therapist suggested I think about ways to get more in touch with my feminine side without doing anything drastic. He said small things like checking out female clothes or shaving my body hair or trimming my beard...Whatever I could think of that would take me out of this restrictive male stereotype image that I have in my mind.

So fast forward to this past Saturday, I was in the bathroom trimming my beard when I randomly decided to remove all of it! I shaved my beard and all of my body hair. It felt liberating and...weird lol. Like I've had a beard for the past 5 years so my face looks strange without it.

Anyways, I felt so good about myself and so free that the thoughts have really diminished...I feel more at peace and haven't thought about it much. This has happened since I started therapy but now that I remove my beard it gave me more peace. I don't feel more feminine or more womanly at all, I still look like a guy, just a different one. But still I can't explain why I feel more at peace and calmed. Maybe it's because I'm doing something about my dysphoria so it isn't bottled up inside? Or maybe this is enough for now? Like I don't need to transition? Has this happened to you? Like having this sense of being OK and calm for a while? I just want to know if this will be temporary or if it's actually a sign that I don't need to go that far.

[Dena]

Often you will see a reduction in dysphoria when you are making progress in the transition. The reverse is true where dysphoria will increase when your transition stalls out.

As for shaving, that is still somewhat strange. The only thing I need to shave is my legs as my facial hair has been gone for years. My legs could go about 2 weeks between shaves and longer if I wear long pants however I still like to shave them every week because the feel of cloth on bare skin feels so much nicer than cloth on hairy legs. I suspect you are feeling much the same way after removing your beard.

[Charlie Nicki]

Often you will see a reduction in dysphoria when you are making progress in the transition. The reverse is true where dysphoria will increase when your transition stalls out.

Ohh good to know. So I can tell the therapy does make sense even if I've had only 2 sessions so far. I definitely feel more at peace than 2 or 3 weeks ago, the thoughts were driving me crazy.

As for shaving, that is still somewhat strange. The only thing I need to shave is my legs as my facial hair has been gone for years. My legs could go about 2 weeks between shaves and longer if I wear long pants however I still like to shave them every week because the feel of cloth on bare skin feels so much nicer than cloth on hairy legs. I suspect you are feeling much the same way after removing your beard.

Yeah I also realized I've had to face people who gave their unsolicited opinion about my look all day long  and that got me thinking this is also a good exercise to see how I would deal with that if I make drastic changes (I'm guessing my therapist wanted that as well), people are always going to have an opinion, and will voice it out loud even if you didn't ask them. So annoying.