So its really happening!  I just started lasering by beard off, had my first therapy session, and am about the get referred to an Endocrinologist.  Im soooo scared and so excited!

The biggest thing, surprisingly, that is bothering me is losing my strength.  I was about 215lbs, mostly muscle, at 5'9 which made me look like a small refrigerator.  This was because I was on the verge of going professional as an MMA fighter.  I got used to intimidating people.  This did nothing to help my dysphoria but also had its advantages.  People would subconsciously automatically agree with me almost like an authority figure.  Now, I've lost about 50 of those "lbs" and I see that this effect is starting to wear off. 

Its terrifying for me as I start to loose my male privilege but SOOOO worth it.

Now I have a weird effect where when I wear male clothes I look like a pipsqueak but when I try on that summer dress I look like I can pick up a station wagon.  As I have noticed from the many before and after photos on these boards, I am assuming most of this muscle will go away.  Still, even with the muscle I am really starting to enjoy "girl me" even though I don't necessarily pass right now.

Do any of you that have transitioned miss your strength sometimes?  Male privilege?   Being able to open that flippin pickle jar without help or hot water?

I have equivalent pliers as in the pic

Very useful too!

To be totally honest, no I don't miss anything that he had. I'm totally socially and mentally transitioned and have no regrets at all, except not doing it earlier of course.

It make take a while, and may never happen for everyone, but for me he died and disappeared, I hardly remember what he was able to do. I miss none of him.

I did think today as I walked around doing my weekly shop how pleasant it was, It was a beaut 27C day, I had on a mini skirt, bar legs and cute shoes, and a tight top and looked good but casual and it was totally natural.

I'm so happy it is difficult to express.

Hugs and remember to enjoy the journey. It isn't all a struggle, it can be a heap of fun.

Cindy

This reminds me when I started HRT I lost most of my arm muscles in 3 weeks and I was working in a warehouse loading shipping containers with 25kg sacks.

Congrats ongetting things going. I've always had trouble with the pickle jar so thats one thing I know i wont miss

Oh crap, I am the family jar opener. I guess I had better invest in some pliers or something!

I don't miss it, not even a little bit. Most guys are more than happy to help me out with tasks that require strength and that's fine with me. There are some things that I think are wrong with the world regarding male vs female, but i'm happy to take the good with the bad. The bad gives me experience, and that's valuable.

I've always been very tall but alway small in the muscle department. Just learn to work smarter not harder.
Instead of pliers to open jars keep a rubber/latex/nitrile glove in your utility drawer. Put the glove on the lid and it adds a lot of grip which is where we lose force opening jars. Just doing that I've been able to open jars that muscle bound knuckle heads were ready to break open since I was 10.

So keep the pliers in the garage/tool box and keep the girl in you smarter than those boys ever could be

Male privilege? We never were entitled to have it anyways. We have had it, now it is time to give it away - that is the way I look at it. This is the males' world and I have had my share, just enough before it broke me . I had an interesting conversation with my boss yesterday about male privilege and glass ceilings, but I am going to write about this in my blog, not here.
As for the strenght, yes it was convenient. I was never big, but I was very fit and there was strenght in my muscles. When I was 18 I was doing 20+ pull-ups and was lifting 36 kg dumbbells singlehandedly 10-15 times. Majority of the boys from my grade were far behind
I was able to sprint run with a guy of my weight on my shoulders and to run and exercise in steel plate mail armor, including 8kg of chainmail under it. I could string up and draw any longbow or composite bow. If I decided to resist - 5 men would not hold me down . I was elbowing heavy boxing sacks and sending them flying in the air. Will I miss that? Hell, yes, but most of that was enduced by testosterone and foolish pride (caused by the same T) and feeling that I can be like them and be better than them.  I was wrong – I can never be like them, although I have bested many of them in their disciplines.  Now, I just need someone to love, care about and nurture, not to crush and show off...  We have been trained in the ways and skills of men and this cannot be taken away from us by the HRT – our memories will remain, but the way we were looking at this, the perspective – they will change.  It was a unique experience, denied to most of women and probably unwanted by them too... but it did help us to become what we are, to shape up into human beings – perhaps we even benefitted from it. We might never know what would have become of us if... if we had that XX chromosome set or if had sufficient exposure to T during our pre-natal stage and thus our brains would have been totally rewired into male pattern. But that never happened...
So we are what we are, the quintessence of qualities, emotions, skills and knowledge – men  and women, cis and trans. Our goal is to live this life happy and bring happiness to others and this is all what matters. 
Some prefer the role of protectors, others desire to be protected. Some have innate desire to care and nurture, and others need that care and support. 
And some... some are good at doing both 

Despite being tall I never had a lot of muscle mass so I didn't lose a lot of strength, but I did lose some, I notice it's not as easy for me to lift some stuff at work as it used to be (I'd already been on HRT for 2 months when I started at my current job) also I bought a kombucha drink when I was out doing some errands a couple weeks ago, and I couldn't get the cap off the bottle and I had to get the guy at customer service at the store to do it for me. I really can't say I miss it though, I always hated the baggage and expectations that came along with having been born male. I was always weaker than most guys anyways, if anything I find it a relief that I don't have to live up to the expectation of male strength anymore.
As for male privlage, I'm not sure if I ever really had it, or at least not very much, I was always really feminine. Not being listened to or taken seriously is something I've dealt with for most of my life, I'd been sexually harassed by guys pre-transition, though most of that was in high school, and I was always nervous walking by myself at night in case I was attacked for being gay. Basically I had all the disadvantages of being male without most of the advantages. Transition has been a huge improvement for me, just getting along in the world as a woman is easier and more natural for me than it was pretending to be a boy and trying to navigate a world of expectations I didn't understand.   

Yeah, I always considered myself a feminist and hated the whole idea of male privilege.  Still, I never realized how different people are treated just because of their gender.  Its nuts!  Maybe I need to move to Sweden, the capitol of gender equality. 

Just noticing all the little things that I would have never noticed otherwise is awesome!  Even as a young little girl trying to play football with the other boys, fantasizing about doing girly things and not being bothered; I never realized just how amazing this path could be. 

Get ready for what I think is becoming a transgender cliche'.....WHY DIDN'T I DO THIS SOONER!?!? 

The male privilege not so much, the strength yeah I miss it abit. It's just practical and you know I don't want to rely on men because I don't want to rely on others anymore than I have to anyway, Independence is cool, begin a weak sexist stereotype is not.

Quote from: dr girlfriend on October 05, 2013, 02:00:20 AM
Do any of you that have transitioned miss your strength sometimes?  Male privilege?   Being able to open that flippin pickle jar without help or hot water?

I'm still strong. I just can't pick up the back of a car anymore.

Male privilege? Umm. I don't know that I ever had any to lose but if I did, I certainly don't notice it. In my mind though, I keep an ego-shell that says that I'm super-badassed and when I project that out into the world, the rest of the world takes note and falls into line.

Quote from: dr girlfriend on October 06, 2013, 01:47:45 AM
Maybe I need to move to Sweden, the capitol of gender equality. 

Hardly! They have discriminatory employment laws and only stopped sterilising trans people last year!

I don't think I really got much male privilege. I was quite a camp boy mostly. I am glad to be rid of the male expectations, which I didn't really see as much of a privilege.

I wasn't that strong. Now I am positively weak :-) I like it. It makes me laugh when I can't open a jar or something. :-)

Akira x

Quote from: Akira21 ♡♡♡ on October 07, 2013, 11:28:12 AM
It makes me laugh when I can't open a jar or something. :-)

Me too It is usually one of those "I am really doing this!" moments .