Well, it has been quite awhile since I posted in this area, but as of a couple of hours ago, I am now 5 months on HRT and I wanted to celebrate that a bit. It's funny when I think back on my early posts how I used to complain about things taking so long to get started. Lately I've felt like I've been strapped to a rocket!
So I am now full-time and apparently very passable. Haven't had many problems in that area. I've been told that the first time I walked into the center here in Orlando that those who didn't know me from Susan's couldn't figure out if I was FTM, MTF or an ally. I'll take that every time! My skin is now soft, my emotions all over the place, fat distribution is doing its thing (hips, but and boobs!) and I get weird cravings for high-fat foods. I have started to notice the beginnings of significant loss in strength, but I generally feel good physically.
I'm sure I will notice other things as I continue on, but I have now entered a new phase of my transition. The first is that I now no longer feel comfortable being identified with "him" at all anymore, so I have filled out my paperwork for legal name change and will be filing that shortly. The second is that mental challenges have come to the fore. I see myself more and more as female physically and in the mirror, but integrating my female mental self with masculine mental attributes and ridding myself of some aspects of my masculine socialization are the current conundrum. I am slowly working through this and integrating myself into a whole person. Until that happens, I do occasionally feel out of sorts, but these things take time.
Anyway, I guess this is a "Yay me" thread, but so be it. A close friend once told me that one of the challenges of our unique second puberty is that it isn't marked by societal milestones like our first puberty. We have to make them ourselves. The first pill or shot etc. So I have come here to celebrate this one with all of you. The people I know who will understand.
