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i feel like i'm in that book "orlando"

Started by michael, February 28, 2009, 12:26:53 AM

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michael

hi everyone! i don't post very often here, but i read posts a lot.  sometimes y'all answer questions so well i am quiet and don't talk.

i've been looking for anything that might relate to my experience of growing up...? i feel like i had puberty happen all over again around 25 and that i've lived the life of two people!

i was a boyish kid, and after puberty a moderately curvy girl with round cheeks and small-to-medium breasts that swelled up during the right time of the month, etc etc. i was curvey and a little vixen-y looking in college. until my senior year.

in my mid 20's my body became flatter, my boobs got smaller, i got hair on my neck and throat and chest. i had the sexual urges that young boys get, a crush on half the people crossing the street and other insatiable things. i was much more active and worked out a lot, if i didn't i got restless and angry. it seemed like my shoulders got wider and my hips dissappeared. SOMEthing must've happened because i had to get rid of most of my clothes around age 25. i still have a bit of female build but nothing like before.

i'm 31 now and my face is leaner, my jaw more pronounced, and my boobs look even smaller (like some deformity that's atrophying). i used to work out a lot to have any kind of muscle tone, and totally slacked off after some life stress and depression...but surprisingly i still have very sinewy, dlineated muscle on my arms. not built, but not soft either. i have smellier boy sweat, oily hair, and acne problems. i am on an antidepressant, which might cause some of these things.  i can pass as male quite easily, except that i look like i'm 16 and once i start talking it ruins the whole thing.

i'm wondering if anyone else here has experienced this?  i have considered finding a gender therapist but don't know how i'd feel about really transitioning. so far it has all been nature's doing. but i also don't want this change to happen backwards, i think i'd totally lose all sanity.

i feel very strange sometimes, like this life isn't connected to the other and i'm a different person. you know that book orlando by virginia woolf? it's like that. that's the best description i can think of.

i start wondering if i'll ever be an adult and i start feeling a fraud if someone thinks i'm a spunky young teenage boy. which i don't mind "being" i just don't want anyone to think i'm a big fraud. (ok...i could go on there but that's probably a whole 'nother post!  :-X)

ok, this has bled out into a longer thing than i meant but has anyone had these changes happen without taking hormones?
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Ender

I can't say that I have personally experienced this.  My body became flatter & boobs smaller in my late teens, but that was due to dropping about 20 pounds and beginning weightlifting. 

You mentioned you experienced an increase in hair on your neck, throat, and chest; oilier hair and acne; and 'boy' sweat.  I'm not sure of what type of anti-depressant you're on (I'm no doc and have no idea what their side effects are) nor when you began having issues with depression, but: have you ever presented a doctor with these problems?  As in a medical doctor, who could run some tests, and not a therapist?  The changes you describe seem rather dramatic; they actually seem to fit rather well with the symptoms of PCOS (polycystic ovary syndrome, which results in an excess of androgens in female-bodied people, often causing some degree of masculinization--check it out on WebMD). 

I can understand if you didn't go to a doc and happily accepted these changes (I know I would've).  But for your health, it's something you should have checked out; I'm not saying this is what it is (again, don't know--not a doctor), but in the case of PCOS, it puts you at a higher risk for such nasty things as insulin resistance and diabetes.  I know I, too, would worry that the docs would assume I was complaining about the masculinization and therefore prescribe me estrogen or something to combat it, but...  even if they write you a prescription for female hormones, they aren't going to force you to take them.  That decision is up to you.

Just because your body has started to head in the direction of teenage boyhood on its own, it doesn't mean you are required to complete the transformation.  However, you said you'd lose all sanity if you went back to the way you were before (ie, curvy woman).  I guess the biggest question is: do you want to be seen as a man, a woman, or somewhere in between (an entirely valid option, btw)?  Testosterone therapy, as I'm sure you are aware, will cause your voice to deepen; you'll drop that 'spunky teenage' look and mature into a man.  Even if you're not sure about transitioning, talking to a qualified gender therapist about it wouldn't hurt; they can help you sort out your thoughts and feelings and, if you decide that transitioning isn't for you, no harm done.  If you decide it is for you, well, they're the people you need to be talking to anyways.

Oh, and I definitely identify with 'feeling like a fraud.'  Every time in the past several years someone assumed I was a young boy, I would have that feeling.  I would be afraid to speak because I knew that, as soon as I did, they would take their assumption back.  And I'd rather just have them think I was a young boy; better than the alternative.  I also had the feeling that I would never grow up because I could not accept being thought of as an adult woman.  Anyways, best wishes to you as you sort things out.
"Be it life or death, we crave only reality"  -Thoreau
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placeholdername

I'm not sure seeing a gender therapist necessarily goes with wanting/needing to transition.  You can see a gender therapist if you have issue about your gender that you want help with, regardless of what you want to do about those issues.
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michael

Quote from: Vesper on February 28, 2009, 04:12:08 PM
I'm not sure seeing a gender therapist necessarily goes with wanting/needing to transition.  You can see a gender therapist if you have issue about your gender that you want help with, regardless of what you want to do about those issues.

that's been a big question on my mind lately! thanks for answering it. seems obvious i guess but regarding any kind of counseling or therapy i get very nervous and imagine it as a huge, fast paced caricatured version of what it is supposed to be.

Eryk, i'll look into PCOS. i don't skip periods or have a slow metabolism, and i did recently get some tests done as a ...prerequisite? to getting my medications re-prescribed. thyroid, blood sugar, etc etc. i might be in the clear there but who knows. and yeah i'm always happy someone thinks i'm male, but feel a bit guilty if they start thinking i'm "very accomplished for my age" or something...when i'm really a bit behind and slacking in life, IMO! does that make any sense? small things i guess.

Kiera, thanks for the quote! it's actually been awhile since i read the book but it's good, very memorable. i understand what you're saying. i do feel like an island or like i'm on another planet but hoping hanging around here will help a bit. need to do some things in my own town too, i've been neglecting making friends.
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