I can safely assume that we can all find many positive things about transitioning. I read over and over about newbies here wanting to know what to expect when they start to transition. I thought it might be nice to have one post for people to read about the negative. From being a CD, to the medications to SRS to hate crimes. What ever stage you're in, I'm curious to know about the things you are finding or have found not so fun.
Well as a CD I guess the hardest part is that people misunderstand my motives. It is assumed by many that it is a sexual fetish and with these people they fail to recognise Shelley. The other misunderstanding is that I will one day transition which is a big fear for my wife and that she will lose her husband. Few seem to be able to understand the two people one body scenario.
Shelley
Quote from: Brenda32 on December 28, 2005, 09:27:32 PM
I can safely assume that we can all find many positive things about transitioning. I read over and over about newbies here wanting to know what to expect when they start to transition. I thought it might be nice to have one post for people to read about the negative. From being a CD, to the medications to SRS to hate crimes. What ever stage you're in, I'm curious to know about the things you are finding or have found not so fun.
Hello Brenda,
I think that you are going to get some feedback on your assumption that the transsexual road map, as you suggest includes CD's. While some TS's will say that they were CD first, most transsexuals will tell you that they were always transsexual, not CD, but this is just my opinion though. Also it's not correct to assume that CD's will transition. As Shelly mentioned in her post she is CD and that's it, transition for her forms no part of her desires.
For myself so far I've been lucky. So far. I guess my transition is going along about as normally as one could hope for, nothing ugly or bad compared to some. I'm hoping that it will continue that way. I guess that the only problem I have encountered is that my daughter is still not willing to see "Stephanie".
Steph
Hi Brenda,
I always thought of myself as a CD all through my life. I knew deep down that I was a female and never shook that thought. I told my wife, a long time ago, that I was a CD and that I never really wanted surgery. I thought that I could live with the fact that dressing every once in a while would be all right in my case. Well, it turns out that I was wrong. I have always been depressed and at one point in my life I just hit the wall. I had to admit to myself that I really was a woman and that I really can't change that. I tried very hard.
I started dressing full time, after I had gone to a therapist, and I had got an orchiectomy and thought that would be enough. I was wrong again. It wasn't about the clothes or the fact that testerone was not running through my body as much as it was, it was the fact that I am a woman and should look like a female in the mirror naked. I didn't care much what others saw, just what I saw. Yes, my wife and I had long talks, a whole other story. I told my wife that I really needed to have surgery. We talked about how we could pay for this and I had it all thought up all ready. I don't just jump into something without some kind of a plan. I had my surgery and I'm very happy.
Some where along this time frame I became Sheila in the true sense. When I felt that I am who I am, then my life really kind of fell into place. I'm more clear with the world and I'm very happy with everything. That doesn't mean that I'm still happy about getting up and going to work some mornings or I never have a bad day, it just means that life is more beautiful and I don't feel like leaving any time soon.
Sheila
QuoteWhat ever stage you're in, I'm curious to know about the things you are finding or have found not so fun.
Brenda, when I just read your post and thought about it for a couple of seconds it was like having a temendous wieght drop to the bottom of me and roll around for awhile. From the time I was able to determine there was a world about me I was confused. I was raised and treated like a boy and it confused me, didn't make any sense. About the time I started Kindergarden I had determined that apparently parents made the decision on how thier children would be raised and that they determined if a child was boy or girl. I didn't want any part of that, but quickly found out at home, school or anywhere that if I acted like a boy, fought like a boy and could be quicker and stronger then other boys I was treated as a companion. I had friends, enemies and connections, but when I submitted to surpressing feelings of anger and the need to control all things concerning me my friends would be disgraced by my actions, my enemies were more forward toward me and I had little or no control of anything, so I simply took the option of being a boy though my actual insticts and behavior would often come through enough to cause problems. My childhood was in the 50's, I lived with my mother and we moved place to place constantly, creating the need of new friends etc. and on each move, there was the cylcle of establishing myself again to the point that my inconsistancies would be overlooked.
In high school it got much rougher and I learned to be as rough or rougher then any. I was eventually kicked out of school in my senior year after having gone to live with my father who was a very stable loving man. There is to much to say about what all got me kicked out of school other then it concerned dress codes. My skirt was not in violation of the code that skirts had to be worn below the knee and I would in no way cut my hair anywhere above the shoulders or remove the earrings that werent allowed in any form on male students. I ended up in a california youth authority psychiatric ward so they could study why I was so "anti-social" and went through months of daily therapy and got to enjoy a lot of what amounted to a lot of abuse I don't like to think about as they began to get the idea.
Eventually though they put some people on me that had a little understanding of the situation and I was freed in a matter of months after that and was recommended toward transition. I was very happy about that at first and I tried, but I did so in a circle of subculture that was well know about town and the culture was constantly abused and terrorized.
Things happed that I was not emotionally prepared for, friends were beaten and killed and while I suffered in little of the worst of such things I became afraid and eventually left town with my girlfriend from high school and moved to the northern part of california where her father lived and he got a contractor friend of his to put me to work and train me.
A few years later I was still bitter and afraid of what had happened during the transition period and I went to work in a new line where I eventually became in my own way probably worse then the worst, even to the point of enjoying it, but time takes it's toll. I eventually began to hate myself for what I was doing and why and had to quit and start yet again at another simular occupation where I did not have to be personally involved unless I actually wanted to or to train others in correct proceedure. I began to balance myself better until the old feelings came back and since I was no longer in fear of what anyone could do I began ro return to my old condition at the time of transition. What I didn't know or didn't believe could happen. I wasn't fired or like that, but I began to be ordered into assignments that strongly resembled what I had left before and I couldn't handle having to do so. I left my job rather then to continue what I could no longer believe in or do.
I was then unable to obtain any work within my skills other then the construction skills I had been taught and so I had to return to Steel Framing for a couple of years till I found my present job and moved back to california to take it and complete the transition.
I haven't had it hard actually since moving to Sacramento and working for Kaiser, but problems developed very quickly with my second wife who i married after the first was killed in a late night auto accident.
My woman could understand none of it, especially because of my past reputation and what she had been familiar with for more then two decades of being married to me. She never could really handle the matter and while we seem to have made some breakthroughs in working it all out, it appears there is little hope of ever regaining the relationship we once had to each other. I have been living full time for nearly 10 years now and after overcoming difficulties with doctors over medical problems that discourage the use of HRT finally got to start hormones a little less then 3 years ago. Since then I have had a stroke which the doctors say was possibly caused by estrogen and refused to let me continue on it. My psychiatrist interviened and created a compromise situation by setting up an orchiectomy for me and maintaining that having that done I could continue on low dose estrogen and still develop, she was/is firmly convinced that I could be dangerous to myself and others if I were to feel I could not go on.
Things have been going as well as can be expected since then, but I ask you Brenda, how many positive things can I look at in all of this other then I am becomeing what I always believed myself to be, ..... there is a lot of past history to forget in the process though.
For most who go the full route it is much the same. Both Good and Bad have to be faced in a real world, much of which is totally against you yet you just have to dig in and see it through and try not to let the losses overcome you. I will eventually lose my woman, leaveing me with nothing or nobody who has been involved in my life to the extent she has and so aside from the transsexual problem understands much about me that nobody else could or would want to. That in itself is hard. I presently earn almost half what I did before I couldn't resist any longer. I have lost my house, my cars, most of my former activities and gone bankrupt over the financial shortage and like I said, will most likely lose the person who has in the past been closer to me then anyone else on earth.
I don't get bitter about it all, It's just life and I knew such things might likely happen, I just believed I would overcome it all better then I have and I am grateful that so much of the past, before this new beginning is becoming dimmer and not ripping me apart all the time.
Like I said, I am grateful for the good things during transition, my feeling about myself, the things I have learned and aquirement of most of what I have always wanted, but aside from that, I can see so little to be positive about other then I will find my way through Hell to get where and what I want, even if it takes my last breath to complete it before my dying day. That is just the way it is for lifelong transsexuals and others have gone through so much worse and have found happiness in the end. I can only look to thier example and work to follow them.
Terri
The constant fear of "what if something happens and I cannot continue HRT. How do I deal with this situation?"
... I can't.
No you can't if that is the important goal. In a little over a year now I have experienced several seeminly unsirmountable conditions and episodes that have threatened both my ability and life as pertains to remaining on estrogens. It is only my incredible good fortune and the help of people that could and would help me that has kept me on track during times when I could see no perpose to continue living as it was at times simply agonizing me to deeply to see any value or point in life. Right now I am on a balancing wing, with the nuero surgeons saying estrogen is far to dangerous for me in my present condtion and my main psychiatrist and MD knowing HRT and surgery are my only reason to live. I go on though with the help of those who believe in me and want to see me achieve my goal.
It is a self understanding of life and knowing what is worth living for and what is not. One can only make that decision and they will go on as there is no other alternative and still have anything resembling a life.
Great things only happen if one is able to focus on what is important to them and will accept nothing else to live for. LIfe goes on and so must those who want to live.
Terri
This is a little thing really but says something about life in transition. I'm a musician, primarily guitar, and people tell me I'm pretty good. I'd like to be in a band but haven't found one yet and so I go to a local bar and jam once a week. From the outset, people have accepted me as a woman (this is all post FFS) and have even had a few guys hit on me which I deflect because I am pre-op. I have known from the beginning that should people learn that I am a pre-op ts, my welcome there would probably end. Further, it's a rough place with a number of younger guys who I am sure wouldn't think twice about kicking the crap out of me if they knew. It doesn't help that I usually have to go alone so I always go with mixed feelings between anticipation and worry.
So it happened this week. A woman I know casually recognized me and came up and talked to me. I now wonder how long it will be before word gets out. I'm not even sure it's safe to go again. One problem is that my playing has caused quite a stir (stupid sexism frankly) even though I am not a show-off and tend to hug the back of the stage, out of the spotlight. I haven't decided what to do yet but I think the gig is up (excuse the pun) and that make me sad because I just like to play.
The thing that bothers me most is that quite a few women have said they like seeing a woman on stage since rock music is so heavily dominated by men. I have always been a woman at heart and playing has been my outlet for my dysphoric feelings all these years. So I don't want people to now write off my playing ability to the fact that I once lived as a man. I just want to be accepted as a woman who plays well.
Not ugly, just a fact of being ts.
Dawn
Terri,
In your first post to this thread you said - Things have been going as well as can be expected since then, but I ask you Brenda, how many positive things can I look at in all of this other then I am becoming what I always believed myself to be, ..... there is a lot of past history to forget in the process though.
Yet your last post seems to answer this question. When times are tough we HAVE to find the positive. Sometimes we have lots of positive to out weigh the negative and other times we have to dig deep to find the good in something. Either way there is ALWAYS a positive side to hang on too. Be it large or small, it's always there.
No matter how rich, poor, short, tall, attractive, ugly, manly, feminine, etc. you may be. There is ALWAYS someone in this world who is richer, poorer, taller, more or less attractive, more or less manly or feminine looking. ALWAYS.
No matter how bad things my be or seem to be for you, there will ALWAYS be someone who has it better and someone who has it worse than you do.
If you won the lottery tomorrow, would that change anything? It may relieve some financial stress, but you would still be dealing with the doctors who are fighting you and it wouldn't buy friends. Winning the lottery would be a VERY positive thing, but it wouldn't get you closer to you goal.
Point is that whether things are good or bad, they could ALWAYS be better or worse, so just roll with whatever comes your way and work through it the best you can (as it seems you've done).
Things are easier said than done I know, but I hope this in some way helps.
Brenda
Good Evening Brenda. I don't think you really got my point about positive but I like your thoughts and your feelings.
As to the positive things I see in Transition, anything I feel and experience that feels good or meaningful to is due simply to the fact that I have been able to continue the process even through events which would have bared almost anyone else from using estrogens due to the nature of the risks with my conditions. In fact, a genetic Woman with even a family history of heart or stroke problems would not be perscribed estrogen for menstral problems, much less a genetic male taking them for transitional only purposes, and most doctors will tell you that with chronic Hep C, to wish in one hand and crap in the other and see which hand fills up faster. I am highly fortunate to work where I work and have the relationship and support of hundreds of medical specialist who can understand terms of life necessity vs. calculated risk.
As to the life of transition, aside from the mental and emotional freedom it gives me, believe in this. It SUCKS. Generally as long as my forward motion isn't restricted though, little of what happens takes me to deep though. If HRT had been taken from me, I would have concidered that a terrible thing, but I would have gone on to SRS regardless. To HELL with fancy gowns and makeup or most rediculously, "hour glass" figure corsets and such crap which doesn't make me any more then I am. I simply want to BE what I am as totally as possible and the fact that I'll never be a Barbie or be able to get whistled at on the streets doesn't bother me at all, much less an inch.
I have lost nothing in the consiquence of transition that I was able to fully enjoy or properly communicate with anyway so I can adjust to the seeming loses, but I can never adjust to the loss of myself and what I hold of value in my heart.
Any others can have or not have things better or worse, all I want out of life is what is mine and belongs to me. Anyone else, take care of thier own, I'll help them when I can and feel bad when I can't, but when it comes to appreciating life, I'm staying at the front of the line.
Terri