Quote from: DawnOday on September 03, 2016, 05:10:08 PM
Let's just say the smile has not gone from my face in 19 days so far. For once I am at peace with myself and everyone around me.

That's what it its all about!!! So good to hear Dawn!!!... Onward we go!!!!

Do you believe transition will give you happiness?

I came out and started to transition late in life. Since I came out I have been misgendered more times than I can count.

Do I believe transition will give me happiness?

Absolutely.  I don't believe it. I know it.   There are zero regrets.  I wouldn't change a single day since I started to transition. Living as a woman? - yes. Not hiding from anyone any more? - yes.  Being a proud, out and loud member of the most wonderful transgender community - yes.  Coming home to a place where I actually belong? - yes.
Yes. Yes.  And yes.

well, for me honestly , transition has given me my life back. I know now how desperately I needed estrogen.

As a fully transitioned woman, it absolutely made me happier.  Changing my sex hormone balance from T dominant to E dominant was the key.  I lived my entire life from puberty to my transition in a constant state of mental dissonance.  Dysphoria was like a DC bias voltage on an AC signal that was my everyday mental ups and downs.  When it was gone, my sense of happiness and well-being were permanently improved.  Of course being able to experience life as my true gender is lovely, too. 

Quote from: Clara Kay on September 05, 2016, 03:36:59 PM
As a fully transitioned woman, it absolutely made me happier.  Changing my sex hormone balance from T dominant to E dominant was the key.  I lived my entire life from puberty to my transition in a constant state of mental dissonance.  Dysphoria was like a DC bias voltage on an AC signal that was my everyday mental ups and downs.  When it was gone, my sense of happiness and well-being were permanently improved.  Of course being able to experience life as my true gender is lovely, too.

Well, that D.C. bias does help, with of all things, crossover distortion; you have to overcome that depletion region somehow. 

I agree, the lack of T and the plethora of E have made a world's worth of difference in how I feel about myself and the world.  Now I am at the point where I kind of do not care what people know or think they know and my goal is to completely remove any doubt as to what they think they know.

I'm finding for myself the  longer I've been on HRT the better I feel. It's like a whole new life.

I spent yesterday working on photo albums. It was something that I've been meaning to do for a long time.

My photo albums started at 1990 and go to present. 1990 is when I started transition. I really enjoyed looking back on my life over these past 26 years. I finished working on the photo albums it struck me that life for me really started in 1990. Everything before that - the memories are there, but it was like one long bad dream. I don't like to look at photos, talk about and remember things from before.

It seems almost strange to even ask if I'm happier. The thought of going back is one of the most terrifying things I can imagine. And it's not that my life is one long day at Disneyland. It really isn't. I have plenty of bad days and lots of challenges and the messiness that is life.

I'm transitioning in slow motion. I'm not there so I don't know how it'll end. I started about 4 years ago by coming out to my then wife (now partner). Long hair. Lot's of androgynous looks. Then therapist #1, she was good. Then Therapist #2, she's better. Came out to my GP Doc. Now have an appointment for HRT next week. Maybe electrolysis or laser next year. Need to come out to my 21 yo son next. At my age it's possible I won't last long enough to make the finish line. But my guiding principle is as I make each step, I ask am I happier than the last one... So far definitely yes.

Happiness is the road, transition is just me walking it.

Hey Lauren, you bring up a really good point that it is not a race and there really is no finish line.  In the beginning, there are more than a few really big milestones, but one is never really finished with 'the process'.  Life is about transition...and that is not just for trans.  CIS folk transition from one phase to the next as well as they age.  Their path just looks a little different and often they are completely unaware that it is actually happening.

The main thing, be happy with where you are...even knowing that there is further to go.  We have no idea where life will take us, regardless of our chromosomes or hormones or whatever.  Being happy with who one is, well if more people could find that sweet spot or nudge a little closer to 'happy', this world would be a pretty chill place indeed!

In the end, being in motion towards being true to one's self is really what any of us are really striving for.  There is no timetable or map to where that point is.  The fun is in how we navigate to that which we desire and what we learn about ourselves and others that is the 'good stuff'!

I was a late transitioner - for 45 years of my life I knew that something was way off but I never knew what it was. And then I figured it out.

I never saw transitioning as being the holy grail that would fix everything in my life - I saw it as a necessity to remove a very large monkey from my back that was impeding everything else in my life. And so now the monkey is gone.

As a not unexpected consequence some old problems are now gone, and some new problems have replaced them. The difference? The new problems represent normal, every day things that everyone has to deal with. The old problems were related to my dysphoria. I have arrived at "normal", and I can now proceed with my life.

This includes a lot of happiness where before there was none.

Quote from: Eva Marie on September 09, 2016, 10:00:41 AM
I was a late transitioner - for 45 years of my life I knew that something was way off but I never knew what it was. And then I figured it out.

I never saw transitioning as being the holy grail that would fix everything in my life - I saw it as a necessity to remove a very large monkey from my back that was impeding everything else in my life. And so now the monkey is gone.

As a not unexpected consequence some old problems are now gone, and some new problems have replaced them. The difference? The new problems represent normal, every day things that everyone has to deal with. The old problems were related to my dysphoria. I have arrived at "normal", and I can now proceed with my life.

This includes a lot of happiness where before there was none.

Amen

Quote from: stephaniec on September 09, 2016, 10:36:42 AM
Amen

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