Jump to content
  • Welcome to the TransPulse Forums!

    We offer a safe, inclusive community for transgender and gender non-conforming folks, as well as their loved ones, to find support and information.  Join today!

Hello everyone


Josie Beth

Recommended Posts

It’s been some time since I’ve been on HRT and I am finally getting to a place where I realize I can’t go on living life as I present now. 15 years ago I was a year into HRT and had every intention of continuing. But circumstances shifted and I had to stop. I could not afford hormones and had no support system in place to provide me with information i needed to hang on. Now I’m discovering that in spite of all I have been through I can’t truly be happy unless I get back on track. I’ve been living a lie for years and afraid to be my true self. I guess emotional and physical abuse from my father had something to do with my fears, and it still does to a degree but I know deep down that I have to do this no matter what it means. I’ve tried to live a life that pleases my father for years and at every turn it has failed miserably. Getting married ended in divorce. Trying to be a man’s man always ended in devastating results, loss of jobs, people taking things away from me that affirmed masculinity. It’s as if the universe itself is saying “hey stupid, quit ignoring who you are! It’s ok to be you!”. Now I’m faced with a new hint nudging me, which is my body. The changes from my first try at HRT never really went away. I still have soft skin and my nipples hurt intermittently. I haven’t thought about a lot of things from a male perspective for a long time but now it’s beginning to be more pronounced even with the absence of taking anything. It’s as if my body is saying “you are not going to get the message are you? Well I’m going to start doing something to remind you where you’re supposed to be”. So this is also a very spiritual thing for me. It’s not going to be easy and I realize that struggles and tears are far from over but I have to follow my heart. It’s the only way I will find happiness. I’m going to be leaning heavily on the information here. I’m also in need of friends who understand and really need to network locally because it’s still dangerous to be trans especially here where I live now. Perhaps it’s becoming more dangerous just because of the way people behave if they feel their leadership supports their actions based on their opinions. I’m concerned about that but it’s not going to change my mind. Anyway, I’m going to do a lot of reading here. Please feel free to contact me if you have any pointers, especially for local resources. I’m also considering relocating just because the lgbtq community here seems to have gone stealth from my point of view. It’s not as prominent as it was even a few years ago. I could be wrong but it seems so. Since I just recently moved back to this area, I have no idea where to start but I can visit the local pflag meeting next month to talk to someone. I’m not sure if it’s wise to wait until then though. 

Link to comment

I hope so too. I’m trying to reach out locally but so far none of my emails to Glad or any other organization are getting any responses. I’m trying to find support meetings, and other resources here but not much is making itself known. The closest psych doctor for mtf in your database is in Fayetteville Arkansas. That’s a bit of a drive right now so I’m going to try harder to find something else. It’s also the only thing listed at all near me but what about other things like endocrinologists and hair removal? I’m probably going to have to relocate for more comprehensive help. This is something of a letdown because it means I will probably be off balance once again in a new place. I know the lgbtq community here where I live means well and wants to support but I’m getting the impression that a lot of people moved away for similar reasons. Hopefully they can give me some direction. 

Link to comment
  • Admin

I am in Southern California, so I just had to look up where your city is to even start to think what to say.  I do know that St. Louis has an active LGBT community center where you could probably get a referral to one of their medical providers.  Your part of the U.S. is not really known for being Trans accepting or helpful i am afraid.

Link to comment

I know right? I lived in St. Louis a few years ago but I would probably say Kansas City or Columbia are bigger trans communities or possibly more visible. I’m not too keen on staying in my current location. But I’m not too eager to move back to St. Louis either because I never got to really learn the city and most of the time I was working. Just a few years ago the trans community here was significantly larger and to my knowledge most have moved because of police treatment, (putting trans women in male general population for even minor offenses) the local general intolerance, which to my surprise was even sometimes expressed by gay men that I was aquatinted with, and of course I can’t forget the murder and dismembering of a local teen trans girl who attempted to make friends and hang out in a town south of here. So yes the fear is real. There’s always Martha’s Vineyard, a local lgbtq bar, but I’m not sure they have been as busy lately. Its almost looks vacant these days. I’m half tempted to find a city that the cost of living is similar but has a much larger lgbtq population. I’m sort of a private person and the last time I felt somewhat anonymous and mildly comfortable was in Detroit when I first attempted HRT. You just kinda get lost in a sea of people and nobody really cares much about what you do as long as you don’t hurt someone else. And there’s more people to make friends with. Here it’s kinda like a city with a small town feel and of course conservative people tend to want to “help” by sticking their noses in where they don’t belong. So I try to avoid that crowd and that’s part of the reason I avoid my own family. My father especially who punished me severely as a young teenager for even wanting to explore what he did not understand. I’m not even going to get into that here. It’s for another thread. I guess I’m going to keep looking around. 

Link to comment
  • Forum Moderator

Hi Josietg,

Welcome to TransPulse. I'm glad you came along!

 

I live in a more dangerous area too, right in the heart of the conservative area of Michigan. Hopefully people even in our area's will begin to get more enlightened soon. But we will survive!?

 

Lots of love and a big welcome hug,

Timber Wolf?

Link to comment

Thank you all for the welcome. I used to live near the UP in Wisconsin back in the 80’s so I am well aware of the general attitude towards us around there. I think had I gone to Minneapolis or Madison instead of where I did out of college I may have gotten over my fears much earlier in life. But we each have our own journeys. I don’t feel as intimidated after reading the transgender survey of 2015 though because there’s just about an equal spread of transgender people in each age group sampled. It’s encouraging to find that out.

Link to comment

Lately I’ve been going through my memories and realized that there were a couple of other signs I was trans way back, both around puberty. I used to shave my legs before I got a lot of body hair and then wear my mothers pantyhose and even tuck in secret. They were usually ones she discarded so she never knew. I also remember looking in my grandmas bathroom drawers and asking her about estrogen suppositories which she said she didn’t use any more so when she threw them away. I rescued them and began taking them in secret. The effects didn’t last very long because there were not many doses in the package but I was still subconsciously trying to be estrogen dominant. It’s probably worked in some ways to limit my male characteristics and keep me somewhat youthful over the years. I was always a small slender youth and now I’m a below average height and weight or leaning toward androgynous. I’m probably more comparable to a younger trans man than a typical male. It’s strange to look back and see now where all the obnoxiously obvious neon signs were, yet I still suppressed them. 

Link to comment
  • Admin

The severity of GD can make many of us do very risky things, such as taking other's medications at one time or another -- yeah me -- and we hopefully learned that it did no good without doing any harm to us.  A big problem with the GD can be that it hides many positive physical characteristics from us, that actually will be an asset when we begin our transitions.  Your mention of your physical shape and size will be a real asset when you feel ready to start clothes shopping.  It was not  until I had come out and was thinking of FFS that two doctors pointed out where my facial bone structure was not that masculine, so why waste my money and their time.

Link to comment

That’s something I have going for me, my facial structure is not as manly as some, however I know some things need changing, like my upper lip and maybe brow ridge. I’m not one for getting all the surgeries or injections. I’m more concerned about other things like my teeth and skin health, growing hair again, hair removal where I need that. I’m going to be excited about my first pedicure in ages. Nail salon I got my eyes on you, yes I do! 

 

The reason why I’m admitting these things is because I have to get them out, and it helps jog memories I’ve suppressed so I can tell my full story in a clinical environment. The more things I remember, the clearer it becomes in hindsight that it was in my face and I was in denial because I either didn’t know what to call it, or felt that I was just a failure even at transitioning. 

 

It’s a way of remembering all the things I did to try and express my female identity, no matter how insignificant it seemed at the time. 

 

I’m glad there’s no judgment here and I’ve got so much more to share. Some of it will probably be reserved for my therapist because it’s either embarrassing or just not discreet. 

Link to comment

I’m prompted to write about this because of the relationship thread I just read and realized I was going through my thoughts on transitioning early in my failed marriage. I was still in the army at the time and my then wife was beautiful and outgoing. I probably was not truly in love at the time and admit getting married was more due to my attempt to please my parents, like “look, I’m fitting into a gender normative role just like you want me to do”. But it didn’t last. I expressed my feelings to my then wife and she reacted with fear, denial, and slurs. I still remember her saying “our kids will end up gay and I can’t live with that!” And it hurt me in so many ways that she didn’t truly understand what I was going through and it had nothing to do with being gay. Over the next few years the marriage deteriorated, we separated twice, and I even went through my own period of depression, burning myself, alcoholism, cutting myself and trying to make things work in spite of all the signs that it was over. Once I finally accepted it was over and agreed to a divorce my family tried to force me to reconsider and I told them to get out of my business and my life. It’s like they could not see that I’d tried to do everything I could think of to salvage the marriage and my spouse was not cooperating. I tried explaining that but to no avail and so I decided to distance myself from my family for sanity’s sake. Then I tried covering up my grief with several flings because I was too afraid to look at myself and my gender identity. One of those flings turned into something more serious with a woman I thought would understand me. Four years in my honesty with her was also met with confusion, acting out, denial and flat out dishonesty. First she tried introducing others into our relationship, but she wasn’t really thinking about how it would benefit both of us, it was more like payback for my honesty and I guess a way to hurt me because I was again misidentified by her as gay. She brought a lesbian home one evening and not only was her motive dishonest with me but she was dishonest with the girl she brought home. The poor girl was so uncomfortable and she didn’t like that I was there (even though I showed no interest in her and was not thrilled with my gf pulling this stunt) so the girl ended up fleeing and my gf chased her down the street pleading with her not to go. Then she blamed me for not going along with her scheme. Later her failed pregnancy with me and resentment caused her to keep finding ways to get back at me for being honest. Eventually she had several affairs which I became aware of later but the one that hurt the most was when she told the guy I was her gay roommate and she had to get away for the weekend so I could have company. I had to work that weekend so I was not going to have company, but on my last day I came home and was alone relieved that I could sleep in the next day. She told me to expect her back that morning but failed to show up on time. I didn’t think anything of it until the guy she spent the weekend with keep calling to get a hold of her and she was not back yet. I politely asked him to wait til she returned so I could relax and he didn’t get the message. So that’s when I confronted him and it all came out, how she had lied to him about my sexuality and slept with him that weekend. When she did finally return with a smug look of retaliation on her face I told her that the cheating was not what upset me the most but her dishonesty and misunderstanding my identity was a huge issue and because she failed on both and continued to punish me it was over. She could not say anything after that and even though I asked her to leave after 90 days so she would not have difficulty finding a place she left after a week and I was alone again where I had to confront myself head on. That’s when I realized that I had to make a change and began my first attempt to really transition. It was a wonderful year where I experienced so many new feelings and discovered men, some better than others, and felt content for the first time in my life experiencing life as a woman. I wasn’t 100% passable, and just barely got to the point where I was called miss by most people when I had to abandon my transition. So many crises happened at once that I was blindsided. I lost my job, could not find another, and eventually lost my apartment. I ended up homeless in another city looking for work and miserable because I could not be me. What scared me the most was the idea that my only option would be sex work and I decided getting a disease or killed was not a good idea. So for the next 10 years I tried living as a man and have even been misidentified as gay several times and even hit on repeatedly by gay men who are not my type. But never truly understood. Some gay men have even expressed disdain for transgender women and accuse us of living a lie which has hurt a lot. I’m already down on myself but living as female for me is not a lie, it’s about as genuine as I can be. So I don’t really have any friends and gay men have been less than sympathetic to my truth. I’ve never had any relationship with any man who identified as gay and constantly have to reject their advances. I’m not interested in being with anyone who tries to define me according to their preference. I want acceptance and help to realize my dreams even if it’s only moral support. So I’m gladly single while I search for a way to begin again. The next relationship will be based on truth and acceptance instead of on lies and manipulation. 

Link to comment

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Who's Online   8 Members, 0 Anonymous, 184 Guests (See full list)

    • Abigail Genevieve
    • Carolyn Marie
    • VickySGV
    • EasyE
    • Evelyn J
    • Cavetowns_fkin_awesome
    • Voyageur
    • MaeBe
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
  • Forum Statistics

    • Total Topics
      80.6k
    • Total Posts
      768.2k
  • Member Statistics

    • Total Members
      12,021
    • Most Online
      8,356

    Tami
    Newest Member
    Tami
    Joined
  • Today's Birthdays

    1. Bebhar
      Bebhar
      (41 years old)
    2. caelensmom
      caelensmom
      (40 years old)
    3. Jani
      Jani
      (70 years old)
    4. Jessicapitts
      Jessicapitts
      (37 years old)
    5. klb046
      klb046
      (30 years old)
  • Posts

    • Abigail Genevieve
      It was hot that August day, even in Hall J.  Hall J was a freshman dormitory, and Odie had just unpacked his stuff.  He sat on the edge of his bed.  He had made it. He was here, five hundred miles away from home.  His two roommates had not arrived, and he knew no one. His whole life lay ahead of him, and he thought of the coming semester with excitement and dread.   No one knew him.  No one. Suddenly he was seized with a desire to live out the rest of his life as a woman.  With that, he realized that he had felt that way for a long time.  He had never laughed when guys made jokes about women, and often he felt shut out of certain conversations.  He was neither effeminate nor athletic, and he had graduated just fine, neither too high in his class to be considered a nerd or low enough to not get into this college, which was more selective than many. He was a regular guy.  He had dated some, he liked girls and they liked him.  He had friends, neither fewer than most nor more than most.   Drama club in high school: he had so wanted to try out for female parts but something held him back.  He remembered things from earlier in his life: this had been there, although he had suppressed it. Mom had caught him carrying his sister's clothes to his room when he was eight, shortly before the divorce, and he got thoroughly scolded.  They also made sure it never, ever happened again. He had always felt like that had contributed somehow to the divorce, but it was not discussed, either.  He was a boy and that was the end of it.   Dad was part of that.  He got Odie every other weekend from the time of the divorce and they went hunting, fishing, boating, doing manly things because Dad thought he should be a man's man. The first thing that always happened was the buzz cut.  Dad was always somewhat disappointed in Odie, it seemed, but never said why.  He was a hard man and he had contempt for sissies, although that was never directed at Odie. Mom always said she loved him no matter what, but never explained what that meant.   Odie looked through the Freshman Orientation Packed.  Campus map.  Letter from the Chancellor welcoming him.  Same from the Dean.  List of resources: health center, suicide prevention, and his heart skipped a beat: transgender support.  There was something like that here?   He tore off a small piece of paper.  With sweating hands he wrote on it "I need to be a girl." He looked at it, tore it up and put the different pieces in different trash cans, even one in a men's room toilet the men on this floor shared. He flushed it and made sure it went down.  No one had seen him; he was about the first to arrive.   He returned to his room.   He looked in the mirror.  He was five-ten, square jawed, crew cut.  Dad had seen to it that he exercised and he had muscles.  No, he said to himself, not possible. Not likely.  He had to study and he had succeeded so far by pushing this sort of thing into the back of his mind or wherever it came from.   A man was looking back at him, the hard, tough man Dad had formed him to be, and there was absolutely nothing feminine about any of it.  With that, Odie rejected all this stuff about being trans.  There had been a few of those in high school, and he had always steered clear of them.  A few minutes later he met his roommates.
    • EasyE
      yes, i agree with this ... i guess my biggest frustrations with all this are: 1) our country's insistence to legislate everything with regards to morals ... 2) the inability to have a good, thorough, honest conversation which wrestles with the nuances of these very complex issues without it denigrating to name-calling or identity politics.  agreed again... i still have a lot to learn myself ... 
    • Abigail Genevieve
      It's been bugging me that the sneakers I have been wearing are 1) men's and 2) I need canvas, because summer is coming.  WM has a blue tax on shoes, don't you know? My protocol is to go when there is no one in the ladies' area because I get looks that I don't like, and have been approached with a 'can I help you sir' in a tone than means I need to explain myself, at which point i become inarticulate.   But I found these canvas shoes.  Looking at them, to see if they would pass as male, I realized they might not, and furthermore, I don't really care.
    • Abigail Genevieve
      My wife's nurse was just here.  It is a whole lot easier to relate to her as another woman than to negotiate m/f dynamics and feel like I have to watch myself as a male around her.  It dropped a lot of the tension off, tension that I thought entirely internal to myself, but it made interactions a whole lot better.     I read your post, so I thought I would go look.   In the mirror I did not see a woman; instead I saw all these male features.  In the past that has been enough for me to flip and say 'this is all stupid ridiculous why do I do this I am never going to do this again I am going to the basement RIGHT NOW to get men's stuff and I feel like purging'.  Instead I smiled, shrugged my shoulders and came back here.  Panties fit, women's jeans fit.  My T shirt says DAD on it, something I do not want to give up, but a woman might crazily steal hubby's t-shirt and wear it.  I steal my own clothes all the time.    But she is here, this woman I liked it when I saw her yesterday. and her day will come.  I hope to see her again.
    • April Marie
      So many things become easier when you finally turn that corner and see "you" in the mirror. Shedding the guilt, the fear, the questioning becomes possible - as does self-love - when that person looking back at you, irrespective of what you're wearing, is the real you.   I am so happy for you!! Enjoy the journey and where it leads you.
    • MaeBe
      I'm sure even the most transphobic parents would, too. What does it hurt if a child socializes outside of their family in a way that allows them to understand themselves better? I have encountered a handful of kids do the binary, non-binary, back to binary route and they got to learn about themselves. In the end, there may have been some social self-harm but kids are so darned accepting these days. And really, schools aren't policing pronouns, but the laws that are coming out are making them do so--and in turn requiring a report to a parent that may cause some form of harm to the child.   If the kid wants to lie to, or keep secrets from, their parents about their gender expressions, what does it say about the parents? Perhaps a little socialization of their thoughts will give them the personal information to have those conversations with them? So when they do want to have that conversation they can do so with some self-awareness. This isn't a parent's rights issue, it's about forcing a "moral code" onto schools that they must now enforce--in a way that doesn't appreciably assist parents or provide benefit to children.   So, a child that transitioned at 5 and now in middle/high school that is by all rights female must now go into a bathroom full of dudes? What about trans men, how will the be treated in the girl's restroom? I see a lot of fantasy predator fearmongering in this kind of comment. All a trans kid wants to do in a bathroom is to handle their bodily functions in peace. Ideally there would be no gendered restrooms or, at least, a valid option for people to choose a non-gendered restroom. However, where is the actual harm happening? A trans girl in a boy's room is going experience more harm than a girl being uncomfortable about a trans girl going into and out of a stall.   How about we teach our children that trans people aren't predators who are trying to game the system to eek out some sexual deviancy via loophole? How about we treat gender in a way that doesn't enforce the idea that girls are prey and boys are  predators? How about we teach them trans kids are just kids who want to get on with their day like everyone else?
    • Adrianna Danielle
      I hope so and glad he loves and accepts me for who I am
    • EasyE
      It is sad that we can't have more open and honest dialogue on these types of topics because there is worthy debate for sure. But instead we have become a country where the only goal is to seize political power and then legislate our particular agenda and views of morality.   Remember as you read my thoughts below, that I am transgender. OK? I am pro-trans. I am trans.   But my middle school aged daughter would be extremely uncomfortable using a school bathroom also used by a biological male, as would nearly all of her friends. That side has to be considered. It's not invalidating to a trans youth's experience to take that into account and hash out what is for the common good of as many people as possible. This is reality - one person's gender expression makes others uncomfortable, in all directions. And there is disagreement on the best way to handle these types of things.   Why can't we talk about these things openly, without the inevitable name-calling that follows, and let all sides have their input and work up suitable solutions? (I bet the kids, if left alone, would work up the best solutions)... Instead, we go straight to trying to pass laws, as if we need more of those!   And why wouldn't we want parents to know if their child has decided to change their pronouns? That's a big deal and parents are right to raise that as a concern. I certainly would want to know. Not that we need to legislate this, but I would have a hard time with school administrators who try to hide this from me. They are out of line. This is my child. Whether you like my viewpoints or not, I am the parent. Not the school.    Again, I am pro-trans. I am trans. At the same point, I recognize that validating a transgender individual's gender identity doesn't trump everything else in society. And sometimes I see that creeping into these discussions. Plus, we fight a losing battle if we have to have others' validation. We are never going to get it from everybody. Ever. Not even Jesus got it and He is God himself!   This country can be very beautiful as we each exercise our freedom to be who we are and let others do the same. But my freedom ends where yours begins and vice-versa. That requires self-sacrifice. Sometimes we have to fall back out of respect for others. Sometimes we have to let the parent be the parent even if we disagree with their politics.   My cry in the wilderness is just can we please have more open, honest dialogue where both sides try take the other's views into consideration and quit automatically going the legislative route to criminalize the other side's viewpoints.   Sorry for the rant but sometimes all of this wears me out... deep sigh... 
    • RaineOnYourParade
      Bite by bite, acrobatics in abdomen
    • Abigail Genevieve
      Yesterday when I put that shirt on I saw a woman looking back out of the mirror at me.  Usually I have looked and been very frustrated because I see a man where there should be a woman.  I was expecting to see a man wearing a woman's shirt, but it was a woman wearing a woman's shirt.   On the spectrum between intersex and trans, I am more thinking I am a lot more intersex than trans, and it is only a matter of time before my wife says "you need a bra" and then "you look like a woman!" She told me whatever I want to do is fine with her, she loves me no matter what, and I am thinking that there may be a lot more for her in this than she could possibly expect. I'm not pushing it with her.
    • Petra Jane
      We have been asked to post this study.   I'm an undergraduate university student in my third year completing a BSc in Anthropology. I'm working on my dissertation, looking at languages with grammatical gender (e.g. languages like Italian and Spanish, nouns are either masculine or feminine). I'm curious if this affects/bothers people with gender identities outside the typical binary of male and female, like non-binary or transgender identities. Using this forum, I would be very grateful if anyone could answer the 5 questions I have put together in a Google form, they are open-ended questions, and you can be as brief or detailed as you want/comfortable with! All responses will also be kept anonymous. As you can probably guess, I came to online forums because finding participants in person is difficult. Talking about gender identities, I understand, can be very personal, so this online anonymised format can be safer. :) If anyone is also particularly interested in this topic, it would be awesome to message one-on-one and do the Google form survey. Having one and one interviews would also be good research! But NONE of this is compulsory, and only if anyone is interested and doesn't mind helping me out and can do so. Institution Supervising Research Study University of Kent Web Address for Study Participation https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdS9zU_dt3RR1V8-3s_0EnDl6w-jsS6-WOZO41uWeqUP0q_YQ/viewform?usp=sf_link
    • Ashley0616
    • Ashley0616
    • Ashley0616
    • Ashley0616
      @Mia MarieI found this    Here are critical resources to help transgender seniors face the challenges of growing older - LGBTQ Nation   As far as financial aid I came up empty. :( I'm sorry. I can only imagine what you are going through. 
  • Upcoming Events

Contact TransPulse

TransPulse can be contacted in the following ways:

Email: Click Here.

To report an error on this page.

Legal

Your use of this site is subject to the following rules and policies, whether you have read them or not.

Terms of Use
Privacy Policy
DMCA Policy
Community Rules

Hosting

Upstream hosting for TransPulse provided by QnEZ.

Sponsorship

Special consideration for TransPulse is kindly provided by The Breast Form Store.
×
×
  • Create New...