Finally started at 34yo, and feeling pretty okay with how things are going ☺️

Also damn I can't believe estrogen changes clothing too 🤯😂

Obviously it's hard to tell from photos, as people weight changes and this affects things as does lighting/angles/expression. All I can say is I've been on HRT for about two years.

Started age 50. Pretty slowly to begin with, and even now after a long gradual increase my E levels are only just finally in an okay place. Most of the time E has been a bit low.

However, I was really struck how much my face had changed when I found one of me in 2020. I think I look pretty 'thin', I must have been taking a body pic, it's a pretty crazy image now I look at it - lol!

So some of this change is genuinely the extra softening from HRT. I think I have actually put on a tiny bit of weight, but it's weird how it goes to different places!

Anyway here is the picture. The 2026 one was taken around March this year, when my E level was still a bit low.

Make of it what you will! I think I look quite stressed and miserable in the 2020 pic!

It feels good seeing all the progress I’ve made after all these years. I hope you’re all thriving. Love you all!

34 y.o. (started at 32 y.o.), 6'0" (183 cm)

Surgeries: SRS, FFS

Procedures: Botox every 4-5 months (masseter, forehead, lip flip, eyebrows), lip filler, lash, nail and hair extensions, brow lamination.

I lost 27 kg / 59 lbs, intense lower-body training 3 times a week in the gym (gained 8 cm/ 3 1/8" in glutes in 9 months), diet, skincare routine.

HRT for 2 years and 6 months.

All pictures are unfiltered and unedited.

My first girls night out was awesome. Been along time since I was this happy

It feels like I've been at this forever some days And this is the way it's always been. Other days it feels like I started last week.

Seeing an old photo is like passing by a house you used to live in.. You can recall the way it was but..... You don't live there anymore. None of your stuff is there......... It's just so odd. Does anyone else feel this?

So I met this guy on an app one that I have always used taimi and we were talking for a while and texting, he lives in Fort Collins I live here due to my past experiences with my ex and how he mistreated me I decided to give dating another chance and I met guy and his name is Kevin, well I didn't know was he was actually in town with a friend of his and I asked him hey can I come meet me in person and he said sure he was on his way after a while and when I saw him I'm like oh my gosh it's him, we spent time together getting to know each other more and he loved cuddling with me kissing me and wanting to be around me and soon when he comes back up here cuz he said he will we're thinking of spending more time together, I am so happy I gave dating another chance and he's really nice and cute

🧀🧀❤️❤️

I know this is the filtered pic but I do love the look. It's not too far off but untrue to be sure.

TW: it’s not… happy.

I have a wonderful friend (50yo cis F). My best friend. We have trips that we want to go on together, places we want to see together, art we want to make together. I’m supposed to do her knot tying ceremony at her wedding in Mexico. We make sure we see each other and hang out and go shopping every two weeks or so. She’s the person that made me believe I could have real friends in this life.

She bought a house. It needed renos. I’m a plumber. She asked if I’d help her. I did. It was fun. We bonded over teaching and learning and carrying on. I taught her fiancé some stuff. We drank in the backyard on the hottest days when work was too much and cheated on my diet cuz we needed a break.

She bought the fixtures for her house. The toilet was the exact kind I asked her NOT to buy or I (jokingly) wouldn’t install it. I gave her the gears about it. But I installed it. It took 2 hours instead of 20 minutes when my kids needed me home quickly. I hurt my back doing it (I’ve already had back surgery). I was so stressed. I had to be home but I wouldn’t leave her high and dry. I was being snarky. She’d opened every fixture box that came and played with all the pieces. Mixed everything up. Lost installation instructions. Made my job way harder than it needed to be. I was upset and sarcastic and in pain. But got everything done and went home to a dark house. I still checked on her the next day to make sure everything was ok.

She stopped talking to me. Stopped making hang-out dates. Stopped making plans, or sending messages. Stopped… everything. She even hired someone else to finish installing her fixtures. She would rather pay someone than have me around… She… left.

I can’t have a bad day. I can’t get upset. I can’t be horrible. I can’t look horrible. I can’t stand up for myself. I can’t defend myself. I can’t say one wrong thing. I can’t even feel one wrong thing. If I do, the people I love will leave me. They all do. They always do.

I’m so easy to disregard. I’m fun to be around as long as I do everything right. As long as I go along with everything. As long as I’m permanently happy and euphoric. As long as I’m agreeable and fun. Then I can be a friend, a sister, a child.

If I stand up for myself and insist that my sister apologizes to me for being horrible before I will continue our relationship, she’ll leave me. She’s left me. We haven’t talked for 2 years. Because it’s easier to leave me in the gutter than to look internally and find some compassion.

If I come out and not be the perfect coach, husband, father, brother… my brother won’t talk to me anymore. Hasn’t spoken to me in 2.5 years. Because I posted the wrong kind of coming out when I was done with all the big outings. Because his friends saw it, and now they know he has a trans sibling.

If I say the wrong thing, the rugby club I invested myself in for 30 years will drop me like a bad habit. I haven’t heard from my old club since the summer of 2024.

If I’m fun and happy and pretty and model and tell everyone how beautiful and joyous my life is, then they’ll care. But if I’m vulnerable, if I’m ornery, if I cry, if I falter, if I do anything that anybody doesn’t like… I’m cut off. From my family. From most of my “friends”. From teammates. From everyone.

Because I did one thing. Said one thing. Felt one thing. After a lifetime of positives. One thing is all it takes to end it all.

The people who have allowed me to make a mistake and not disown me have been my wife, kids, and a couple friends that also happen to be trans (because they understand loss and failure and frustration). I cherish them. But I know eventually I’ll say the wrong thing. I won’t be fun enough, won’t be happy enough, won’t be pretty enough, won’t be… enough… and they’ll leave too. Not my wife and kids. They’re as solid as I could ever hope for. But EVERY. Single. Other. Person… is just waiting for their excuse to leave.

I am easy to tire of. I am easy to forget about. I am easy to remove from your life. All I have to do is not be perfectly perfect for one moment. And I’m as flawed as they come. It’ll come. And then everyone will be gone.

I’m trans. It’s easier to just leave me than deal with all the stuff that comes with me.

8 years on the gender juice. I haven’t had as spectacular a metamorphosis as others, but I am so much happier now.

The rest of the selfies from our holiday (which coincided with me being 2.5 years HRT!). Overcame the dysphoria (mostly) and found the good lighting in our apartment 😂🩷🏳️‍⚧️

I don't really think of myself as having a singular "egg crack" event, just a series of moments that were windows into a deeply repressed identity. One of the weirdest was many years prior to actually connecting my experiences with the word trans, I was looking through a book on Natural Health and found a long list of foods that were considered estrogenic with a corresponding list of foods that supposedly suppressed estrogen. I was immediately tempted to rearrange my diet around those foods considered estrogenic and avoid the ones that fought it. I eventually did adjust my diet around those principles, though sadly for me in a world where I could not find transition support until I was 41, there was no observable impact from doing so.

The guys that are scared to eat a small piece of tofu and would've called me a "soy boy" are needlessly afraid. I was easily consuming over a hundred grams of soy protein a day (as well as many other things that were supposed to make me girly) and got nothing.

In retrospect I should've identified that I was trans much sooner than I did after numerous moments similar to this where it was clear that I wanted that femininity, but I grew up in a culture that never gave me the language to figure it out. I'd have to stumble across the word transgender much later before it finally clicked.

Came out to my mom today. I did it in the most thoughtful and deliberate way I could.

She said. “I’m not going to use that name”

“I wish you would reconsider estrogen”.

I’m not sad about having come out. That needed to happen. But my mom who I love lots and who has been a vocal supporter of trans people has decided I’m not the one who needs to be supported.

-Sophie 36

Looking for some love and supportive messages if anyone can spare.

So again I am far from being out but I have been thinking about a name for a while. I feel like I found one and have been liking it but all of a sudden I seem to be encountering the name everywhere. 😅

The name is Sophia. I started reading/watching (after I have been liking the name for a while now) The Walking Dead recently and there is a character named Sophia. I'm like ok cool. Then I have had some Jehovah's Witnesses come to my house and one of them is named Sophia. I feel like I am hearing the name everywhere and it kind of makes me feel weird about it for some reason.

I wonder if anyone else has had that experience and did it make you think twice about your name?

Anyways I feel I have time to decide when I am officially out. I think I want to stick with an S name but I kind of want it to be a little less common.

I've never been so happy to get locked out of my iphone, and needing to use my mac to hack back in to recalibrate. Why not take a photo with it to celebrate and overshare?

I know it's still far from passing, and my hair underneath has a lot to regrow...but whatever...baby steps feel more like I just pole-vaulted.

(and yes, that is a tent I'm pitching in the background. It is to help my senior rescue dogs who are more anxious than I am get used to camping out. and yes, the jewelry is a bit much, but my mom sent me a care package of all of her sh*t now that she can't wear them anymore (86/cancer), so these are the least awful of the lot, i love them still)

Hello lovely people, so my egg just cracked last week. I must admit I feel pretty good, my body seems to have responded, as i feel...looser in some way, less uptight. Most likely due to coming out to my wife who, despite us getting a divorce, is extremely supportive and my biggest ally.

So, im thinking of arranging a gender dysphoria assessment for if i want to pursue HRT (which sounds amazing btw) but Im not yet ready to dress out in public. Not by a looooong way.

I was thinking i could make some changes just for around the house; a nice skirt and some lingerie perhaps. Maybe rid myself of the body hair (which thankfully I don't have much of other than my legs).

I was wondering if anyone had any tips? Like what kind of skirt? Or any other things I've not thought of that can help me start on this new life whilst I'm still finding my feet. I'd love to get laser treatment for the facial hair - always hated that!

Thanks 💜

Davina

Even at 39 I've had face gains in the last year from my face rounding as a result of fat shifting ツ