I started hormones three years ago.
I've been through so many changes mentally and physically that there is no one simple answer for this.
Currently though, I've been going through the difficulty of realizing that I can never really be accepted as or inside accept myself as a woman simply because I never had all the experiences I would have had. Every rite of passage, and then of course the physiological fact of no ovaries and every time women talk about anything to do with periods, their ovaries, anything.. it's completely debilitating to any concept of viewing myself as a woman. I do feel like I've related in the gender of female since I was very young and all of my experiences have been from a female mind, but the body is still a testosterone invention. Remember, I've skipped a lot here, the entire first five years of mental and physical transformation, so there is a lot of time that was very joyous and wonderful as I began to transform. Now though, I view myself as a dyke lesbian and I realize of course that it was my gender identity inside me my whole life. I go for bottom surgery on Sept. 24. I know that in my mind I can never fully feel like genetic women or adopt any of the feelings of those rites of passage or experiences that I might have cherished, shared etc. These things are hard, because in meeting and talking with women, you have to face the difference all the time, in the chatter, being separate, not really included. Depending on your friends, yes, women will 'accept' you, if you're lucky, even to a degree that feels very welcoming and warm. But there is always a slight separation equal to that of say being in a foreign land and speaking the language without all the nuances of a native tongue. The feel is just there. And it can never change. So, a little long here, but the point is, that now, as I go toward my bottom surgery, I'm beginning to feel like I may present and represent myself as naturally as I can which is basically a butch lesbian sort of semi- butch not hardcore, let's say 'tomboy', who is a woman that almost seems she wants to be a man. You know that that means, when you see a lesbian woman who is on the side leaning toward a male appearance, bub obvs has boobs an no penis, well, this girl ends up being in fact, in truth, a genetic male, pretending to be a female, pretending to be a male.. Using pretend as a bit of a tongue in cheek expression. I'm not 'pretending' anything at all ever. I am about as real as anyone gets at any moment in my life and I own the ground I stand on. It is where I am the most myself, at that moment, and my feelings, expression, gender or otherwise are as true to me as I can possibly be. One thing I will not do is pretend or lie or try to fit in as a transsexual woman of any ilk that society, yes, trans society, dictates to me. I am my own woman, a hybrid, one with body mods, an installed vagina (to come), small boobs for which I will be installing gummy bears, and a semi-dyke look that feels good to me. Who knows? One day I may wear dresses and be a full on lipstick lez. I have yet to go do FFS. I may change more and more into some state of being that I don't even know right now. The whole point of this for me is I want to be and express that being with as much integrity as I possibly can. Sure, it would have been nice to be born GG. I cried lots over it. I always will. But it would have been nice to have a loving family too, and I didn't have that. It would have been nice to have had a lot of things, but this here is what I've got. It's all I've got. And I'm doing the best damned job I can. With heart. With spirit breath. I believe that that is what makes me real on any level and nobody can take that away. So there. This is totally off the cuff, I'm not editing, I'm not changing it. I may read it later and go, oh that's not quite correct, it doesn't really reflect exactly right. But I am changing all the time. So...what difference does it make. This is me now here this moment. M.