On lockdown

I've been in Coronavirus lockdown now for 28 days. I know this because I decided to let my beard grow while I'm here and I've been taking a photo of it every day to see how It progresses. I've always said that on a good day I can manage a bad goatee, and guess what? I now have a bad goatee! Take a look at that bad boy:

On the plus side no-one is misgendering me while I have this, and it's been interesting to see how people react. There is no question that I am passing 100%, even if the goatee is on the weak side. My M2F friend actually screamed in surprise when she saw it which made me laugh. My next objective is to see how long I stay in lockdown and let it grow, then when this is over venture to a local barber to get it tidied up. I need to formally change my name in the next couple of months anyway, and then its time to replace my driving licence and my passport so I'm guessing I will keep it at least as long as the timescale for that to get all my official ID photos updated.

Hello World!

It feels like I've been transitioning for ages. This is because I have. Like every other trans person I've known I'm trans since I can first remember. It took a long time to realise that there were other transpeople out there, and then the people I first became aware of were all M2F. I thought I was unique and alone. It took longer to realise there were other F2Ms, and that it was also possible for us to transition. There are much fewer of us, and I don't really know any others (say hi if you happen to find this blog!). It took even longer to ask for help; I was in my late 30s when I finally did. Every step was hard to take. Seeing a psychiatrist who dealt with dysophoria and openly talking about it for the first time was hard, but alsostrangely affirming. There was little doubt about the diagnosis. My GP at the time refused to prescribe anything to help (they said they would pray for me instead, as I needed the type of help they couldn't give). I complained to the local Health Authority and was switched to another GP who was prepared to help. That was my first full on encounter with transphobia. Unpleasant.