Hi Lisa,
I completely understand your reluctance with Facebook, especially if you need to separate work from your personal life. My way of dealing with things, by making everything public, is not for everyone and it's probably only worked for me because of the wonderful support that I have got from my partner, family, friends and work colleagues. Here's a brief look at my timeline:
When I started my journey on the second week of January this year I had only told my partner & GP, but because I was doing so badly at work, facing the first stages of dismissal, I was forced to tell my line manager, but I made it clear to her that she must not tell ANYONE. This bought me some time by forcing her to put me through the occupational health route.
March, I made contact by email with two trans colleagues, who were both enormously encouraging. As time went on I found the secrecy was suffocating me because the person inside was screaming to come out but I could do nothing because of the way I looked, so I decided to chip away my old self a little at a time and started to drop hints on what was to come. I removed my photo from Facebook and replaced it with a group of Transformers, which became Chromia, with TRANS FORMER in very large letters a few days later.
April, I allowed my line manager to involve HR and changed the lock screen of my work laptop to Chromia, so everyone in the office would see.
May, I had met Charlotte who had just returned from GRS, and spoke to her for 3 hours. She persuaded my to take part in Pride in London as she said it would boost my confidence and told me that the support friends makes a big difference, so shortly afterwards I then told some of my friends and work colleagues I was transitioning. This was really the point where everything started to open up.
June, I took part in Pride in London march and was introduced to some senior company managers and representatives from the company's LGBT+ community.
July, some of us who went on the London march were interviewed by a media company connected to Pride and some of my comments appeared on the company's global blog. I also joined the company's LGBT+ portal and was invited to take part in shaping the company's trans HR policy.
18th July, I told my work colleagues in a team meeting, but as they had pretty much worked things out for themselves it came as no surprise. The area manager only said one word, 'cool!'.
1st August, I officially told my 155 Facebook friends and changed my displayed name and gender. The support was overwhelming. A week later I replaced Chromia with my Holly avatar against the trans flag and 2 weeks later removed my old name completely. My work lock screen also changed to my avatar.
I suppose what I tried to do was get everyone used to the idea of something happening, rather than just a sudden announcement. Many still hadn't worked out what was changing right up to the last minute but at least they were all prepared for 'something'. When they did know many told me that they weren't supprised, even though they had never thought of me that way in the past, so my 'preparation plan' seems to have worked and I've gained 5 new friends.
Thanks for the insight about the injections. In the letter both me and my GP received from Dr Timmings there was no mention as to how to prepare or administer these injections, so I'll take these details with me when I see my GP next week.
Holly x
