I've felt this way since I was 4. When I realized why I felt that way, and that I wasn't the only one, I gave myself two years. Two years to figure out exactly what I wanted, where I wanted to go with my life, and how I needed to go about that. It's been more than two years, I'm dead set and nothing can change my mind. But I've got to make sure I do it right, I'm not in a position to save the money, but I can afford T, and I have an appointment with a doctor who prescribes hormones on informed consent.
As far as surgeriy, I'm willing to sacrifice waiting time and money, in exchange for quality. I have a friend who went the illegal route, he says the thing he regrets is being wreckless and jumping for surgery in a foreign country. His results weren't bad, but they could have been better, and he really got lucky.
I've had over two years to figure everything, what therapist, which hormones and how to get them, which surgeries, which surgeons, and what order.
I've got my therapist, I've got an appointment with Dr. Gary Smith for hormones (recommended by my doctor and my therapist) which I want to be on before Ukraine next summer, I want top surgery and sculpting before I graduate from from a surgeon in Florida, and either after I have work or if I can get a grandparent loan I want to get the full phalloplasty by Perovic in Belgrade. If I can find a local or US surgeon who performs the same type of hysterectomy as Perovic I'll probably have that done sooner, but otherwise I'm willing to wait, for the sake of optimum quality. I have yet to find surgeons better than these two (for what I want) so I'm set on them specifically. If I rushed into Surgery right now, I know I'd regret giving up the possibility of better quality. I'm trying to be happy in my body, and that requires surgery that I can be pleased with and not have to worry about if "it could have been better".