Well, I think the OP is asking about whether or not to attempt transition. The simple answer is that everybody is different, and no one can tell you for sure. Even doctors who treat for GID and write letters for surgery say they don't really know until after the surgery has taken place and they find out whether the patient adjusts well to the final result.
But if you are considering transition, odds are you have some things that you need to explore. Following the standards of care is wise in most cases, and it helps to have some financial and social resources in place before starting. Electrolysis and anti androgens might be a good first step, then hormone therapy followed by living in the new gender. If you have doubts about genital surgery, then I suggest you try some sort of cosmetic surgery to the face or chest first. I don't know anyone who has had that kind of surgery, then gone ahead and gotten genital surgery, and regretted the genital surgery.
As far as starting at age 22, that's when I started. I wish I had started sooner, but I'm glad I didn't wait any longer to start my life. Hormones aren't magic. They don't change adult bone structure or voice, and everyone's response is different. I think a young start helps some, especially with a more rapid change. But I've seen people who transitioned in their 40s and who put me to shame as far as passability. If you are in a vulnerable place right now because your family won't help and you don't have financial independence, it would be better to wait than to put your life in danger by attempting transition in what could rapidly become a homelessness situation.
Regarding the linguistic disagreements over whether a non-op person is or is not "a transexual," back in the day when I was going through transition, being a transexual was considered a phase. It meant "actively in the process of transitioning." Once the person stopped transitioning, they were simply a man or a woman or a hermaphrodite or an androgyne or what have you, at least in a legal or medical sense. It wasn't an identity like it seems to be now for some people. And for those who stop transitioning part way, and who might be hermaphrodite in a legal or medical sense, the only way to know for sure whether they are male or female is to ask them. The MTF non-op person who says she is female is no less female than the MTF post-op person who says she is female, and no more female than the legally/medically male non-transitioner who says she's a female. True gender is self-expressed. The legally imposed and medically recognised statuses do not define who or what we are.
Like everyone else, I have my own hangups and pet peeves about the way that the language is used. I hate to see the word "transgender" used as a noun instead of an adjective, and the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association Associated Press Stylebook Supplement on LGBT Terminology supports that it is an adjective, and not a noun. So I flinch every time I see someone called "a transgender" instead of "a transgender person." I similarly don't like to see anyone called "a black" or "a gay." I like to get the word "person" in there whenever possible. And when it comes to the word "transexual," that's still just a medical diagnosis to me, and I avoid using it to say what a person is or is not, but that's just me.
