(reply to mm) Here's a big TMI response from a 32 year old: Am I able to transition completely now? I would say the potential is very good, which seems to be supported in the very fast progress I am showing again. Though there is just much more to consider and work around now. Having been so ill from MS, I've only started bringing in a little income. The odds will be against me having lost all support, comfortable work opportunities that would work with my transition, and a neurological illness that could easily take everything away from me again. I transition in my own way, what makes me happy and comfortable, and I have no plan to stop working toward progress. Though I know to make it in the world, I'm going to have to find a way and good people willing to support me, especially in terms of work, being someone that has a devastating illness in the spine and is outside the norm in a way so many people aren't comfortable with. I was ignorant of Hormone Therapy until age 25, I had always had the strange behavior, or one might say compulsion, to follow an effeminate gender role; up until maybe age eight, I just naturally kept gravitating that way while going to a Catholic school none the less, and boy was I always punished and ignorant enough not to understand why thus continuing to do the same thing. After that, a period of jealousy and uneasiness with the cards I had been delt. The story goes on. Went to college, no violence, learned about hormones, and trying them was addiction waiting to happen. I added a lifelong gravitation toward societies' opposite gender role for me to a new-found physical change that I just acted on without a second thought and immediately felt right about. At this point, I'd say I'm able to transition, I'm relaxed to the point of just aiming toward what promotes my well-being at whatever rate and outcome, and transitioning in some sense or manner has always been part of my life even when projecting myself as male to fend off harrassment (I only wish transitioning was even considered when I was young as opposed to punishment). As Popeye said, "I am what I am", and I'm moving with my goals and change. Though it will/would be so much sweeter to have the resources to push beyond rate of transition, afford the basic things I would come to require (such as facial hair removal), and have it simply feel odd trying to keep up as male. Wheww. I hope I didn't harm your eyes and curiosity.
