Hi Ho

[Guest Leah1026]

Hi everybody. My name is Leah. I'm in my 40's and have recently finished transition. Hopefully I can help others by sharing my experiences. Not sure what else to say. :waves:

[MaryEllen]

Hi Leah,

Welcome to Laura's playground. Thank you for your offer to share experiences. I'm sure you'll get asked a lot of questions. If you have any questions of your own, feel free to ask.

MaryEllen

[Guest Rika-chama]

Hello Leah. I'm glad that you are happy and finally finished with transition Sharing your experiences would be a great idea and I bet it would help a lot of people here. Also I must say that picture of you in your avatar is very cute

Ni-paa~

[Guest silverpetals]

hi leah *waves back*

hope you enjoy it here

how's bl?

x

[Guest Leah1026]

hi leah *waves back*

hope you enjoy it here

how's bl?

To be truthful things have a been a bit slow lately. Hence I've been wandering around the net......

[Guest Leah1026]

Hello Leah. I'm glad that you are happy and finally finished with transition Sharing your experiences would be a great idea and I bet it would help a lot of people here. Also I must say that picture of you in your avatar is very cute

Thank you for the compliment. Been pretty lucky considering I didn't start transition until I was almost 42.

[Guest Joanna]

Hi Leah I'm glad that your transition was a success and also welcome to Lauras Playground!

*waves*

-Joanna

[Guest o0tg0o]

hehe yeah, a lot of us are just teens/young adults who are starting up...we definitely need more folks that have went through it all.

welcome to the forum! ^^ Hope you enjoy hanging out here!

[Guest catie]

hi leah

glad to have you here! hope you enjoy. do you wish yuo would of transitioned earlier in life?

love catie

[Guest Leah1026]

hi leah

Glad to have you here! Hope you enjoy. Do you wish you would of transitioned earlier in life?

Now I do, but it wasn't that easy for me. Even though I can now say I never felt male, it took me many years to figure out why. Many reasons:

I'm was very shy (still am to a degree).

No strict gender roles or enforcement in our home.

Lack of information (it was the 70's. No computers, DVD's or cable TV. Heck, color TV was still something new!). Didn't have internet access until around 2000.

Complicating that I grew up in a rural area of a rural state.

I had a pathological need to please others. This led to supressing more and more of myself.

I believed all the ugly stereotypes (I'm not one of them!)

Even after I had a good idea denial became a way of life.

Not to mention FEAR!

Finally at 41 my body began to break under the stress. I had headaches 3-4 days a week and occasional migraines. I couldn't sleep. I lost my appetite. Lost 15% of my body weight. I couldn't focus at home and towards the end I was basically useless. I literally felt like I was dying. I realized I couldn't run from it anymore. I had tried to do what I was supposed to do and all it got me was decades of misery. I couldn't do it anymore, not one more day! I was going to be the real me or die trying.

That's my experience. So yeah I wish I could have transtioned younger, but I wasn't ready. Once I was ready to deal with my issues, I did.