I guess to start, it is so wonderful to have such a wonderful resource such as this website and forum and am excited to finally register as a user and share exciting news! For many years I have read so many threads and already feel as if I already know many active users here.
Two weeks ago I started on HRT at the age of 37 1/2 and its like my brain, heart and body have had a huge weight and fog lifted on the personal end, but the "friends & family" weight is still present outside my loving and supportive wife.
As with most of you, cross dresser at an early age, done the "purge thing" a number of times with much regret and kept the real self bottled up for too long. Only until I knew I had the right financial and life resources did I want to really make the huge change. For the past few years I have had enough extended times to live 100% and always hated going back, but no longer...
Right now, I am not living full time and am not out to all family just yet but just to a few friends for now. After 3 months, I expect to make bigger changes. So far, even just having some of my favorite stores (Torrid, Ulta, Lane Bryant, etc) with my new name on store cards is as far as I have when it comes to formal ID!
For now my endo has me on low dose estradiol for 30 days, 50% increase for another 30 days and 100% increase after that and my next round of blood work. I plan to make the full transition come my natural birth day in December this year.
I guess just a quick "how does it feel" after my first full two weeks:
- Trying to sort out placebo versus real affects.
Nipples are definitely more puffy.
Skin in places is smoother.
This past week it seemed like I did not need to shave as quickly.
I just seem nicer and more talkative to people.
Keeping this intro brief, but things I have been kicking around in my head lately include:
Thinking about a career change out of tech/strategy into something else to just avoid the same "yes, that was me before" sort of dialogue 1000 times.
Balancing act of keeping things/feelings private instead of sharing everything so I am not just thinking about transition and related things 110% of the time. I would like to get it down to 75% of the time eventually. 
Trying to think what to keep from old life/new life in order to make room for new life related interests/hobbies,etc
Looking forward to getting active on other discussions, charting some of my progress in this thread and becoming part of this online community over the next most likely critical months in my journey.
