Susan's Place Transgender Resources

Community Conversation => Transsexual talk => Female to male transsexual talk (FTM) => Topic started by: Contravene on March 25, 2013, 07:25:13 PM

Title: Height...
Post by: Contravene on March 25, 2013, 07:25:13 PM
I'm around 5'6" (close to 5'7" but I won't be one of those guys who rounds up).

I'm currently the shortest of my siblings who all happen to be female and ranging from an inch to five inches taller than me. I feel as if I got cheated out of reaching my full height potential because when I was a preteen and still developing, I was put on a cocktail of medications, several of which had the known side effect of stunting growth.

Despite all of this, I've never really felt short. My girlfriend is quite a bit shorter than me and I've known many cis guys who are my height so my question is: does height really matter?

Is there anyone around my height who can share their experiences? And of course, I'll still be happy to hear from anyone who isn't my height too.
Title: Re: Height...
Post by: Darrin Scott on March 25, 2013, 07:29:06 PM
I'm 5'1 and it doesn't effect my passing or anything. I don't feel so different, but wish I was taller.
Title: Re: Height...
Post by: Liminal Stranger on March 25, 2013, 07:40:02 PM
Was measured as 4'11 now in the doc's office, could have sworn it was 5 feet even just the other day. When I pass, I do so for a little kid, rarely as my age. Because apparently, every teenage boy is 7 feet tall or something.

I feel pretty cheated, too. Not only was I on a cocktail of meds know to cause growth delay too, but for the first time, my neurologist said that the tumor right near my pituitary stalk was likely secreting something all this time that interfered with my growth. I just had a spurt of something like two inches (actually, no clue but I'm taller XD) when everyone said I would stay around 4'9, so there's hope, but I feel you.. It sucks to be short.

The short cisguys I know try to grow out any facial hair they can in order to look older or just not like a girl, so it's not just us dealing with this either.
Title: Re: Height...
Post by: Darkflame on March 25, 2013, 08:11:23 PM
I'm 5'3. I wouldn't feel so bad about it if the guys in my family weren't freaking giants (my brother stands a full 12 inches taller than me :o) Get a little jelous about that, and I look a little out of place at gatherings. I hope I get at least a little bit of height from T, it would be like icing on a cake
Title: Re: Height...
Post by: ford on March 25, 2013, 08:32:33 PM
Heya. I'm 5'6". I've never really felt short, even around males. I've usually just felt really really average in terms of height, which isn't a bad place to be :). I've seen plenty of guys much shorter than me.   

Even if your siblings tower over you, I'd say you can still count yourself lucky.
Title: Re: Height...
Post by: Natkat on March 25, 2013, 09:17:52 PM
I guess its a + if your tall and want to pass than really small, yet theres alot of small guys so for passing its really not that much of an issue.
Title: Re: Height...
Post by: Blaine on March 25, 2013, 10:11:53 PM
I'm 5'8" and I haven't had any problems with it in regards to passing. As long as I can see over the kitchen counter, I'm happy. Everyone in my family is under 6'0" and I'm actually on the taller end. I'm the one they ask to get all 70 bowls from the top shelf on Thanksgiving.  ;D
Title: Re: Height...
Post by: Nygeel on March 25, 2013, 10:12:49 PM
I am the shortest in my family with my 10 year old niece getting incredibly close to my height. As a kid and in my lower teens doctors thought I was going to be very tall. I was born with large hands and feet which stayed pretty big compared to the rest of my body. The relative that's closest to me in height (of my siblings and parents) is a good 2 inches, maybe 3 taller than I am. My brothers are all in the 6 foot range. I think the shortest is maybe 5 foot 9 and the tallest is just able to fit in doorways without ducking.

It was a bummer to find out that I wasn't going to be tall. I stopped growing around age 11 and through my teens I always thought I was going to get a growth spurt or something. Never happened. Still wear a men's 9 shoe.
Title: Re: Height...
Post by: Liminal Stranger on March 25, 2013, 10:29:23 PM
Hey Contra, approximately how old are you? (No exact age if you're under 18, don't want to break the ToS.)
If you want extra height, there's a chance that all your bones haven't fused, even if you haven't grown in a while. I had a bone-age test come back as saying mine were all fused, but tell that to my body. After more than six years of being the same height, my feet grew and I gained a bit of vertical magnitude  :P

Every doctor said I wouldn't grow, period. I just did. So who knows? You could too, and if not, hey- 5'6" isn't too shabby at all. My boyfriend is something like 5'2" and nobody makes fun of him for that.
Title: Re: Height...
Post by: AdamMLP on March 25, 2013, 11:28:56 PM
I'm 5"2' and I don't think I've seen a shorter guy. I think I might have once around college but he was disabled and hunched up so it was hard to tell without looking rude and staring. I get a lot of stick for it even though most people only know me as female. For now I'm still passing though, and I hope to be on T and look male enough to counter the shortness (I honestly only know of 3 girls shorter than me) by the time I no longer look 12.

Its the other bits of my body being small that bother me most though, such as my hands on comparison to my girlfriends etc. I guess it's just a touchy subject song as there's quite an age gap.
Title: Re: Height...
Post by: Darth_Taco on March 26, 2013, 12:01:27 AM
I'm 5'5". I was actually suppose to grow really tall according to doctors and anyone else that knew me. Growing up, I was always the tallest kid in class. By the time I was 8, I was 5 feet tall. By puberty 2 years later, I was 5'5"...and that's where it all ended XP. No one knows why I stopped growing. My guess is a combination of medication and malnutrition cause by severe food allergies no one knew I had. I actually have a long torso, short arms and legs, and a large head :'P. Thankfully I'm only goofy looking to most people when I point it out XP.

As for my feelings on my height...I actually like being short. I like saying my mom has both the tallest and the shortest men in the family as her sons xD. My "little" brother is like 6'1" xD. Despite him towering over me, he's still my baby brother. He still sees me as his older sibling and looks "up" to me XP. My boyfriend is 5'10", but I'm still the one that does all the typical manly stuff like comforting and being insensitive :'P. I think these two helped me develop my sort of Napoleon complex XP. I think the best way of describing me is that I'm a big man in a little body :'D.
Title: Re: Height...
Post by: Contravene on March 26, 2013, 12:46:48 AM
Quote from: Liminal Stranger on March 25, 2013, 10:29:23 PM
Hey Contra, approximately how old are you? (No exact age if you're under 18, don't want to break the ToS.)
If you want extra height, there's a chance that all your bones haven't fused, even if you haven't grown in a while. I had a bone-age test come back as saying mine were all fused, but tell that to my body. After more than six years of being the same height, my feet grew and I gained a bit of vertical magnitude  :P

Every doctor said I wouldn't grow, period. I just did. So who knows? You could too, and if not, hey- 5'6" isn't too shabby at all. My boyfriend is something like 5'2" and nobody makes fun of him for that.

I'm 22 so I figured that I was finished growing already but I guess you never know what could happen! You sound similar to me in how medications suppressed some of your growth so maybe that has something to do with why you're growing again. I have heard that it's possible to reverse growth suppression and can sometimes reverse itself naturally which would make you start growing again later in life but I have no idea how that works.

I've never had a bone age test done so it would be interesting to see what the results may be. Come to think of it, I haven't even been measured in almost two years now.


Thanks to everyone else for the replies too!

I'm not too worried about my height as far as passing goes but still, more height could never hurt in that department. My problem is that I just seem have a huge discrepancy in my mind between what I feel like and what I really look like. I'm not even on T yet (unfortunately) but when I do think of myself after transitioning I usually picture myself as this taller, bigger guy. It bothers me to know that I might never be the man I picture myself to be in my head but I guess you have to work with what you're given. I'm content with how tall I am now but if I ever could gain some height, I would be more than happy to. (Except for through those leg stretching surgeries. My body will be going through enough with transitioning.)
Title: Re: Height...
Post by: Mr.X on March 26, 2013, 04:49:00 AM
I'm 154 cm (is that....5,1 feet or something? Or is that not the measurement you guys are using?) And I feel incredibly small. I'm from Holland, and Dutchies are amongst the tallest people of the world. The average guy is 6,1 here, so yeah....I'm incredibly small. I'm always the shortest amongst women as well. It feels like mother nature (or god if you believe in that) wanted to screw me over twice by first giving me the wrong body, and then cackling when it was made incredibly short as well.

But ah well, one can get depressed about it but that won't change a thing. I keep telling my friends and whomever asks that I'm not short, but other people are just too tall! I'll just have to move to a country where people are not so frigging tall.

So yeah, it does bother me a lot. But mainly because everybody else is so tall. When I went to South-Africa and Mexico, I felt a lot better.
Title: Re: Height...
Post by: TheoLeo on March 26, 2013, 08:46:44 PM
Yeah, I'm 5'6 and feel quite the same about my height. I mean, if I had a choice, I'd rather be closer to 5'9, but I'm not exactly complaining. It has never done anything to hinder my ability to pass. The fact that my boyfriend is only an inch taller than me might help.
Title: Re: Height...
Post by: seanstartrunning on March 26, 2013, 11:08:45 PM
I'm around 5'2" and I don't feel too small. I'm Asian, so that kind of takes the blow away from it, ah-ha~ But it's not bad at all. It doesn't take away from me passing, so I'm fine. Actually, I see a lot of guys around my height, and it surprises me sometimes.
Title: Re: Height...
Post by: anibioman on March 26, 2013, 11:19:34 PM
if you're 5'6" your fine i know a cis guys who is under 5 feet. im taller then most trans guys at 5'10" my doctor told my parents i would stop growing at 5'6" even I am self conscious about my height. i think all men are its probably one of the biggest self esteem issues with guys. my brother who is 5'8" is self conscious because he isn't taller then me. im self conscious every time my dad says my brothers catching up to me. my father gets really defensive when anyone suggests im catching up to him.
Title: Re: Height...
Post by: Kreuzfidel on March 27, 2013, 05:13:34 AM
I'm also 5'6" - I am originally from the U.S. and over there I used to have awful dysphoria about being "short" as most males in my home state were tall. 

When I moved to Australia, I have been pretty surprised at the height of the majority of males here - on average, most males are my height or just around it.

So it's definitely helped with not feeling so "short" when everyone else is pretty much the same height.  I regularly see men here who are heaps shorter than me, too.  So it's something I rarely think of now.
Title: Re: Height...
Post by: Lord of the Dance on March 27, 2013, 05:51:32 AM
I'm about 5'7" — fairly average. My dad was a giant and my mum's tiny, so I seem to have landed somewhere in the middle. I think I'm a fairly average height, it's not something that causes me too much concern — probably one of the few things about myself I'm reasonably comfortable with.
Title: Re: Height...
Post by: geek on March 27, 2013, 10:04:06 AM
im 5'4 i only feel bad about it when someone teases me about it, or im next to a giant (anyone over 6'5) ;D
Title: Re: Height...
Post by: dean1229 on March 27, 2013, 03:51:51 PM
Well guys, i think i am the tallest one here. :) I am 6 feet tall, even a little bit more than 6 feet. And yes, i am a FtM. This is my real height. I have always been the tallest one in school, no one could compare to me, haha. :D I can pass without even trying. The thing is i am not trying too hard cos i am SO embarrassed about who i really am... :(((( I feel like a real freak and someone too weird for this world.
Title: Re: Height...
Post by: mylesmt on March 28, 2013, 09:31:43 AM
Don't worry about height. I'm 5' 5" and no one says anything about my height ever. I also look taller I think just because of the way I carry myself and the fact that I'm so skinny. I know a cismale who is no taller than 5' 1" and he had children with a women that is 5' 10" and she was cool with it. Don't worry about height too much. Other things about you will help you pass or not pass.
Title: Re: Height...
Post by: sneakersjay on March 29, 2013, 09:02:44 PM
I'm short and I routinely find guys shorter than me, and older men shorter than me.  Makes me feel better.  I even joke about it.  Nothing I can do about it.
Title: Re: Height...
Post by: Tossu-sama on April 01, 2013, 05:20:47 AM
I'm 163cm or... 5'3", I suppose? Using an internet converter because I'm only familiar with the metric system. :'D

But anyway.
I don't actually mind being this short and it obviously doesn't affect my passing since the new guys at work treat me as one of the men. And there's actually one guy who's the same height as I am or a tad bit shorter/taller. :D I just like to say I'm a compact-sized man, lol.

I think I'd have some issues to deal with my height if my fiancé was taller than me. I'm a bit old-fashioned that way. ^^;
Well, actually she's taller than me when she's wearing heels but she can never surpass the height of my manly ego, mwahaha.
Title: Re: Height...
Post by: Liminal Stranger on April 01, 2013, 01:01:52 PM
For the first time in almost seven years, a doctor just said I'm most definitely still growing. O, frabjous day!
They make shoes with lifts in them if you're really uncomfortable about your height. If you plan to go on HRT, other masculine features like a beard, deep voice, and body shape changes will help, but YMMV. Also mannerisms help a lot- if you feel male in your mind, and you're secure in that, people are a lot less likely to question you and will probably feel stupid for asking if you maintain that mindset.