Quote from: Lori on May 14, 2009, 09:15:31 AM
Yes, 4 months had an amazing effect. I wished we could see ourselves the way others saw us.
The thing is - most of the change happened before HRT. The HRT was administered to try to stabilise my rare intersex condition - I was losing weight rapidly, as you can see. As in, a pound a day rapidly, with no change to diet or exercise pattern. The blood test results were highly anomalous, but the administration of external estrogen had the desired effect of lowering my natural levels by 40%.
4 years and 1 month ago, I was transsexual all right - I'd picked the name "Zoe" at age 10, in 1968. But I had no plans to transition, I was too utterly terrified.
The diagnosis in 1985 at a fertility clinic was "mildly intersexed male", with probably PAI syndrome. That was based on a simple physical exam and some blood tests.
After the changes in the photos, I had MRI scans, ultrasounds, gene tests, blood tests. It was decided by the medical team in August that I was more accurately classified as a severely intersexed female.
This caused some considerable legal problems - genital reconstruction could not count as sex reassignment surgery for the purposes of the law, as I was already female. It also meant the SOC had to be treated as a general guideline rather than a recipe.
The thing is though - that I had no changes in the first 3 months that others haven't got over 2-3 years of HRT. Younger transitioners get them even more quickly, perhaps 1-2 years. I was 47 in May 2005, and the changes since January 2006 have been glacial, now my metabolism has been almost normalised. But even now, things are still improving, over two years after genital reconstruction.
I went fulltime in late July 2005, with HRT shortly thereafter, and saw a psych for the first time a month after the last photo was taken. I was lucky, and had full authorisation for any surgical or hormonal treatment I felt the need for in February 2006. By then, it was obvious I required some surgery to remove dysfunctional glands, and to re-plumb the urethra if nothing else. Things were a bit of a mess by then. I opted for the additional expense of looking genitally normal for the first time in my life. Fortunately, Dr Suporn is extremely competent, and managed to give an excellent result by just making relatively minor changes in his standard procedure.
Life since July 2005 has not always been easy - but the sheer relief of not having to pretend to be male, just because I looked male, well, it's indescribable to anyone who hasn't transitioned.
It's not as good as you think it will be: it's far, far better.
