How did you find Susan's?

[Dee Marshall]

I'll start.

Way back when, when I was just beginning to suspect that I was trans, I heard that spearmint tea could relieve dysphoria. Considering that I a) didn't believe that I was trans or really had dysphoria, and b) heard this from a person with a severe mental illness, I took it with a grain of salt. When I googled it Google brought me to a thread here. A few months later, just before I decided to see a therapist, I started lurking. Then I joined.

I remember one of my early posts. I was such a newbie that I didn't know if I should properly be called a trans man or a trans woman! I obviously hadn't accepted myself.

Dee
(Woman, full stop.)

:

April 22, 2015, the day of my first face to face pass in gender neutral clothes and no makeup. It may be months to the next one, but I'm good with that!

Being transgender is just a phase. It hardly ever starts before conception and always ends promptly at death.

They say the light at the end of the tunnel is an oncoming train. I say, climb aboard!

Think outside the voice box!

[Laurie]

Many google searches looking for various trans related things led me here over several years time. I wasn't until I needed a little support in telling my GP I was trans that I joined.

[Bari Jo]

Yup, I was researching too.  My threads were on hair removal usually.  Then I become addicted to reading others introductions and the question if am I trans.  It took a lot to process that it was time for me to accept, but based on all these others with similar stories, it helped so much.  I BTW, didn't have a therapist, too much denial and suppressing back then..  Susan's was my only therapy at that time, and am very glad it was there.

Bari Jo

[Devlyn]

Googling. I probably first saw the site around 2006, rediscovered it around 2008, re-rediscovered it in 2010 and joined at that time.

Hugs, Devlyn

[DawnOday]

Dumb luck. I was having a breakdown because I have always hidden my secret. Here is the hard part. All these years I've felt I was a pervert because that was the general consensus. Then I found I was not alone and the more I looked into it the more the pieces started to fit together. I have relatively minor genital defects that one would not perceive as anything but normal, But adding it all up, I get a pretty good idea why I am the way I am. If I hadn't visited Susans I would not have a lot of these answers and I would still be monitoring crossdresser sites. Thanks to Dena and HughE. I went to counseling. I learned my medical conditions of heart disease, deformed heart valves, Cardiomyopathy, Congestive heart failure, diabetes. Where we determined I was transgender and not just a crossdresser. More importantly this allowed me to come out and inform everyone I care about. I hold no more secrets. The weight of the world is off my shoulders. For the first time in my life, I was stress free. Now 14 months later I have learned even more. There are people like me at my support group sessions. Then to see 1700 gender variant people at Gender Odyssey. That was such a revelation. I now have a sense of belonging whether here on Susan's or walking the streets of Capital Hill with it's rainbow crosswalks and it's accommodating businesses. I just wish I had twenty year old legs. I won't die as a woman but I will die female.

Without Susan's I would not be where I am today. Happy, with a personality under development, No more stresses I love my wife more than ever. Now if I can just find a friendly hair dresser. Susans has meant so much to me. That is why I donate. If Susan decides to buy a lipstick with my donation so be it.  She deserves it.  Without Susan's I'd be lost.

[Megan.]

First came across the site in around 2004 and lurked a bit. Occasionally came across it over the following ten years in fits of 'what the heck am I' Googling sessions. Finally joined in 2014,  the rest is (my posts)  history.

Sent from my MI 5s using Tapatalk

[Dani]

I knew of the site from an internet search back about 13 or 14 years ago. I registered in 2008.

[Devlyn]

First came across the site in around 2004 and lurked a bit. Occasionally came across it over the following ten years in fits of 'what the heck am I' Googling sessions. Finally joined in 2014,  the rest is (my posts)  history.

Sent from my MI 5s using Tapatalk

The Lurk is strong in this one. 

Hugs, Devlyn

[Alex81]

Another vote for Google. Even trying to shuffle the search results around, even found it on Bing and yahoo searches.

[Tiame]

I was doing some hard core research on stuff. And always seemed to be pointed back to this forum.. So made an account. Been lurking on and off for over a year

[Ryuichi13]

A friend in my local trans adult group told me about it.  I lurked for all of a day, and then joined and started posting right away.

This site has helped me find realise that much of what I've been experiencing, mentally, physically and emotionally is normal.  Thank you for existing!

Ryuichi 

Sent from my SM-G930P using Tapatalk

[Roll]

Random google searches brought the site up, but the definitive one for me was the online therapist list. So when my first forays didn't pan out, I made my initial post looking for additional guidance and then promptly became an addict.

[Kylo]

It was just at the top of Google and is a forum that isn't "dead" like most of them are these days. I needed information about the transition process in UK ahead of time and some searches brought posts in this place up.

[Sinead]

I've recently joined... Just googled it really, interestingly, the first thing I did was speak to my gp/doctor, after googling plenty of trans related topics... I thought joining a forum would be really helpful, which it is, so I made an account and the rest is history... Still not 100% on my female name though... I'm starting to like the name 'Sinead' a lot

[Lucy Ross]

Posted for a while at crossdressers.com, when I thought I was just a CD.  They do have a TS subforum, the people there seemed to be a bit terse, let's say.  The crowd here couldn't be more supportive.  Found Susan's via Google.  There are other forums, but this place answers any question I can think of.

[KathyLauren]

When I started taking the likelihood that I was trans seriously, I knew I needed to find a discussion forum.  I am comfortable with that format, having spent a lot of time (probably too much) in various forums on various subjects.  I can handle the pace of conversation better in the forum format than I can in a real-time environment like chat.  So I Googled for "transgender forum", and this is what came up.

[MaryT]

I had browsed transgender forums for years before joining Susan's Place.  At that time, I was looking for a way of having an orchiectomy or simple castration, and possibly a penectomy, without having to go through the psychiatrist route, and I found "informed consent" posts on Susan's Place.  After my first post I found that communicating with other trans people was very therapeutic.

It wasn't a cure-all, though, and a few weeks ago I became very depressed and in a moment of distress I closed my account.   I "found" Susan's Place again yesterday and signed up again with the same user name. (That's why there are now forums with "two" MaryTs, a "dead" one and a "live" one.)

I am no longer looking for "informed consent" or more shady ways of having my privates removed, and have even dared to dream of SRS, even though I am 61.  For better or worse, Susan's Place reawakened that dream.  I am in Britain and it turns out that the NHS does regard SRS as cost effective for older people.  I am not in therapy yet.  I am already occasionally "mistaken" for a woman and my plan is to gradually feminise myself more so that the neighbours don't notice anything sudden.  When it is obvious that I am trying to pass as a woman, I will ask my GP for a referral.  The plan sounds crazy now that I have written it down, but there it is.  Susan's Place gave me hope, and that is something to live for.

[MaryT]

The Lurk is strong in this one. 

Hugs, Devlyn

What am I lurking for, if not for you-ou?

Sorry.

[Dena]

When it is obvious that I am trying to pass as a woman, I will ask my GP for a referral.  The plan sounds crazy now that I have written it down, but there it is.  Susan's Place gave me hope, and that is something to live for.

I would suggest that you talk to your GP now. It will start the clock running and the wait time seems to be about 2 years. In 2 years you should have plenty of time to get the neighbors ready and your image refined.

[Sno]

In the way back days when I didn't know what dysphoria was, I did know that there was something odd about how I relate to the world, and how the world reacts. I'd even contemplated talking with a good friend about it (little did I know that it would be a coming out if I had). That didn't transpire, but research kept on bringing Susan's front and centre, and the rest as they say is history.

Rowan