The whole passing thing can be a super sore subject for a lot of us. When I started HRT and I was pretty convinced I would need AT LEAST a complete head transplant. I was conivnced that this passing thing would most likely pass me up and I would always be misgendered...forever more. That was several years ago now.
The first year was rough. Noone could see me as anything but a "sir" or "dude". Disheartening, but several of my sisters helped me to stay strong and hold to my course. They promised things would change and I always thought, "that's sweet of you...but I know you are just being kind".
After that first year, something started to happen. I was most certainly misgendered, but I began realizing that people were actually avoiding gendering me at all...like they could not tell, so they just left it alone. I also started to get gendered correctly without any prompting or work on my part...so I knew something was up. This continued on for about another 6 months and by 2nd transiversary, I was so rarely misgendered as to count it not happening. It was a fair split of people gendering me correctly or not gendering at all.
About 6 months ago, almost all misgendering stopped, about 25% skipped gendering entirely and I was being correctly gendered 75% of the time...and I was amazed. My routine is the same, a little eye makeup...but I still am stuck wearing a masculinizing uniform shirt and cap. I figured it was just people being polite, but then I started to realize that these are strangers getting it right and they are not being prompted ahead of time.
HRT can do wonders and I realized that the effects just take a while. I have gotten a fair share of "told you, patience is paying off!" from my friends who were urging perseverance. For all of that, I still think I look like I did before, am still my own worst critic and still have plenty of self doubt to contend with...but I am doing it while being seen as the woman that I am
