With my top surgery scheduled for the summer, my top dysphoria has pretty much subsided. However, with that, my bottom dysphoria has skyrocketed. My main issue isn't necessarily with the fact that there's nothing there, but the fact that I'll pretty much never have a 100% functioning cis male penis, and even if technology provides for that by the time I'm able to afford bottom surgery, there'll still be the past however many years of my life that I had to spend without the correct anatomy.
I've debated whether or not to get a packer or an stp for a while, and initially I planned on getting an ezp but the price is just too much. The only problem is, I don't know how much it'll actually help. A packer might help with minor things like aesthetics or anything involved with touching that area through the pants (whether it be kicking or groping - hey, anything could happen). On the other hand, an stp could help partially with the issue of having functioning male(-resembling) parts, but I don't know whether or not I'd actually be able to use one at a public urinal, which seems kind of pointless to me. If I wanted to pee standing up in the comfort of my own home, nothing's stopping me from doing that with my current anatomy.
Of course, I've tried neither option (other than packing with a sock occasionally, which is usually just awkward and unrealistic), and for all I know it could be the miracle cure to all my problems. But as we all know, these things don't come cheap and I really don't have the funds right now to try out as many different things as possible to see what works for me. Guys in a similar situation, what has helped you curb your bottom dysphoria?
before top surgery, i had bottom dysphoria. it wasn't bad, but i have two packers. i felt like because my chest wasn't exactly "flat" that i had to compensate in case someone questioned me, etc. now that i've had top surgery and i've been on t for almost 2 years, i don't have much bottom dysphoria. the only time i do is when i need to use a public restroom and even that comes and goes. i feel like if i had a STP, my life would be so much easier but as you said, those are expensive. tranzwear however has cheap STP and usually has them on sale ("defect" ones) or just cheap ones. in fact, i just looked and you can get an STP for about $28 which isn't bad at all if you're on a budget (it is a packer + stp so both of best worlds.) you should check there for more and see if that is in your price range. they're really good at responding to emails and sending things out quickly (i got my harness and first packer there).
That is pretty much how it went for me. I was unhappy with the downstairs situation prior to top surgery, but hadn't been considering anything beyond a hysto. After top surgery, I had nothing to distract me from how much I hated it. Started researching bottom surgery right away, started packing 24/7.
That has helped a bit for me. It at least makes things bearable. I also felt a lot better as I started making progress toward bottom surgery. It is a much longer process than top surgery IME, so every little step helps to alleviate the dysphoria a little bit. I'm sure I'll feel a lot better once I have dates for everything, but for now, I'm managing and just taking things day by day.
Quote from: invisiblemonsters on January 22, 2016, 10:46:15 PM
tranzwear however has cheap STP and usually has them on sale ("defect" ones) or just cheap ones. in fact, i just looked and you can get an STP for about $28 which isn't bad at all if you're on a budget (it is a packer + stp so both of best worlds.) you should check there for more and see if that is in your price range. they're really good at responding to emails and sending things out quickly (i got my harness and first packer there).
My only issue with getting a cheap stp is that most of them are cheap for a reason, and like I said I can't really afford to try as many different options as I'd like to. So if I get an stp and it doesn't work, even if it's only $30 or something like that, that's still $30 that could've gone toward something maybe more expensive, but also higher quality.