Susan's Place Transgender Resources

How old were you when you realized something was wrong?

How long after did you realize what it exactly was?




I just remember knowing, and always thinking that I was born into the wrong body. Maybe around 4 to 6.

I can't remember a time when I didn't feel like something was wrong, but I assumed that it was just because I wasn't a good enough person and thought that I just wasn't trying hard enough to fit in with the girls at school. It didn't occur to me that my "otherness" might not be my fault until I met another FTM when I was about 18.

I've probably felt a little bit of otherness my whole life, but it didn't get serious until I was 10 or 11, and I didn't figure out all of what it was until I was almost 13.

When I was 5 I thought my body parts were wrong and that one day I was going to magically change into a boy. Besides that, when I was 12 and puberty started.

I knew I was different at about 3 or 4 years of age. It wasn't until I was in my late 40's that I figured out that I was transgendered. I repressed it again until about 6 months ago when my distress became unbearable and finally faced up to the fact of who I really am. Now, even though my life situation is to say the least 'difficult' I am no longer afraid of it and am able to see it as a gift. 
Randi :)

It was probably between 5 and 7 years old, I remember thinking something like, "Oh well, I was born a boy so I'll just have to be a boy." It would be 30 years before I'd ever even consider that there was more to it than that.

Quote from: AndrewMarten on November 18, 2009, 01:33:42 PM
It didn't occur to me that my "otherness" might not be my fault until I met another FTM when I was about 18.

I don't think I've ever met any transgender in person, I've met a few online though.

Like many others it was early for me, maybe 5 or 6. By the time puberty hit I was very aware I was not who I thought I was. Prayed every night hoping I would change overnight...not until my early thirties did I finally decide to take the plunge, although I thought about it long before that. I'm way happier now  ;D

Growing up I thought i didnt fit in because I wasnt an attractive girly girl like I was suppose to be. Then in high school I was like well maybe i am just gay. Then once I graduated a friend of a friend approached me and asked if I was trans and I was like what? So I did research on what the term meant. And ever since then I have known. It is nice finally knowing you arent alone and some engima to society.

I was always different from the norm as a child.  I think other children were more aware of the difference than I was and that is why I was teased and bullied throughout my schooldays.   The urge to become feminine didn't kick in until I was thirteen or fourteen and it has persisted ever since.   As with a lot of us girls, I tried to suppress the urge to feminise for years.   Only in the last twelve months, after a long period of unhappiness and depression have I allowed the necessity of transition free reign.

Quote from: ccc on November 18, 2009, 02:36:28 PM
I don't think I've ever met any transgender in person, I've met a few online though.

I've met only a couple. I'm so lucky to have met my pal here at school (not the guy I met when I was in high school - he was an ->-bleeped-<-). He's a freshmen this year, and I'm a transferring junior, and we happened to end up in the same residence hall. ^^

Well I've never fit in but that's just due to social ineptitude.

Didn't believe in puberty until it happened. 12 when the boobs started growing distressed me. The period was worse.

It was about 15 when I realized I was trans.

When I was four, and my friend took a leak in my backyard. I knew something was strange then.

When I was 4 or 5. I think 5.

I don't know what it was but something in my head said, "I'm a boy."

I realized that I wanted to be a boy at around 4 or 5, but thought it was a normal thought that all girls have.  Around 12, at puberty, I realized something was definitely 'off' about me but couldn't pinpoint it.  At 17 I realized I was transgendered

I first heard about it on tv, and knew right away 'hey that sounds like me'. I kept hearing things here and there, then I decided to do some research online. Thank goodness for the internet, haha. Well after that a few friends I met online came out as trans.

I was young too. I remember every Xmas from when I was about 3 or 4 asking for a 'sex change'. To wake up Xmas morning as a boy and go on with life. Hoping that my folks would realise - I even swore sometimes they knew hey... But at this age I didn't know what Trans was. I remember being 8 and asking my family to call me Jonathan and he etc - they humoured me for a little while and did this but once again didn't know what Trans was.
Growing up all my mates were boys and I never understood at school why I couldn't just wear shorts and pants like the other boys - once again clueless and had NFI what Trans was or that it even existed. Similar incidences all throughout my life and living as a lesbian for 7 years before it clicked and I did some research, saw some vids on youtube and a couple of segments on current affairs show and I finally realised the stories of other transguys hit home when I was 25.
One book I really related to and helped me come to terms with being Trans was Both Sides Now by Dhillon Khosla - highly recommend.
Looking back there are so many like DUH! moments for me... I just never realised.
Cheers
Jay

I knew something was, well, different, for most of my life, but I only connected it with being transgender when I was 14.

I guess I'm an exception here.  :-\  I was always a tomboy, mostly happy to wear skirts as long as they were long and billowy. From 14-15 yrs old, when my womanly figure began to emerge and my parents put much more pressure on me to act feminine, I started thinking more and more that I should have been born male. I increasingly voiced these thoughts to my family. I think I heard the term "transgender" when I was about 16 or 17, researched it on the internet, and had the "AHA!!" moment.

Since I was content to be female-bodied until my parents started trying to make me act feminine, sometimes I wonder if I'm truly FtM transsexual. I have been known to "kick against the pricks," so I fear that maybe I've fooled myself into thinking I'm a ->-bleeped-<- when perhaps I'm just fed up with being treated as second-class cos I'm a 'woman.'  :embarrassed:  But I don't feel like a woman... maybe I'm androgynous, leaning towards male...  ???

Oops, sorry for going off on a tangent.

I was 3 going on 4 in a head start pilot program. They took away my tonka truck nd had me hold a doll so they could show how well the program was working. I knew then and there that I was not as other people perceived me. I thought I was a foundling alien for many years. I think that is how I got my love of Science fiction. Maybe not but oh well. I went through a lot of silence and hiding within myself  from everyone. The day my dad told me I could date was real weird. My crush on a girl in school would never do so I went along when a 'friend' set me up on a blind date. That was a Disaster. It turned out to be my uncle. Yuch!!

Heck, I thought I was a boy for all intents and purposes until I was 8 and the doctor told me I was growing breasts. Obviously, that's an overstatement, but I didn't really think much of anything was wrong until then. Just figured my folks were pretty strange for wanting a boy to wear dresses, and I refused to wear them from age 5 on.

SD

I've known I was male since I can remember. My mother was quite against my "tomboy" ways but my father was O.K. with it. He actually kind of encouraged it. At 12 I completely knew I was male and was going to live that way. My family had other thoughts about that. Even my father started encouraging feminine things. Puberty was a hellish, traumatic nightmare for me.

In my late teens I decided I was stuck in a female body, there was nothing I could do about it so I might as well try my best at being a women (which in retrospect I did a bad job). I would be "interested" in a few female things just to humor people. I thought if I faked it enough I could enjoy the role of being female and keep my male identity to myself. WRONG. Dysphoria does get worse with age.

I don't remember when I learned that ->-bleeped-<- is real and not a problem or mental illness, but I never had the balls to transition. Things got bad enough that I decided that's it and it's either transition or die. I wish that I had the knowledge and courage to do this sooner.

Quote from: GDTripp on November 18, 2009, 11:30:39 PM
I guess I'm an exception here.  :-\  I was always a tomboy, mostly happy to wear skirts as long as they were long and billowy. From 14-15 yrs old, when my womanly figure began to emerge and my parents put much more pressure on me to act feminine, I started thinking more and more that I should have been born male. I increasingly voiced these thoughts to my family. I think I heard the term "transgender" when I was about 16 or 17, researched it on the internet, and had the "AHA!!" moment.

Since I was content to be female-bodied until my parents started trying to make me act feminine, sometimes I wonder if I'm truly FtM transsexual. I have been known to "kick against the pricks," so I fear that maybe I've fooled myself into thinking I'm a ->-bleeped-<- when perhaps I'm just fed up with being treated as second-class cos I'm a 'woman.'  :embarrassed:  But I don't feel like a woman... maybe I'm androgynous, leaning towards male...  ???

Oops, sorry for going off on a tangent.

Lol its ok. Don't try to put yourself into a category. People worry so much about labeling themselves, they lose who they really are. Just be yourself, be happy with who you are. Don't try to change to fit into something society says you are. :)

Quote from: ccc on November 19, 2009, 12:18:06 PM
Lol its ok. Don't try to put yourself into a category. People worry so much about labeling themselves, they lose who they really are. Just be yourself, be happy with who you are. Don't try to change to fit into something society says you are. :)

:) Thanks for the reassurance, C³.