(no subject)

[shemale.livejournal.com]

Hi transgender!

What do you think of Harry Benjamin Syndrome? I ask because I've come across a couple of people today (like this person) who buy into it.

Personally I think the only "syndrome" they have is internalized transphobia.

Your thoughts?

Also, where would be a good place to post this for laughs?

Martial Arts Transition

[stephanie-live.livejournal.com]

 

I’m into martial arts, and I’m almost to my brown belt. At the same time, my HRT is just starting to have a real effect. Still, I’m not anticipating being out anytime soon if at all (though I’ve heard that it gets awkward, and this is probably an excellent example of that).

 

Nonetheless, I believe I’m going to have to tell my instructor sometime this year. Last night we were doing ground fighting escapes. Between that sort of thing, throws onto the carpet, and sparring, my chest gets pretty sore. Let’s face it, the estradiol makes my chest hurt, so any pressure causes pain.

 

I also have the disadvantage of loosing upper body strength, but since we do some strength training, it may show as my strength not increasing. That may be perplexing to the instructors who keep track. I haven't noticed it much yet, but everything I've seen on the net says that there is a reduction in upper body muscle/mass leading to decreased strength (which is just fine with me!). So I'm anticipating it.

 

Finally, as I develop more, it will become more noticeable even through a UnderArmour compression shirt and a do bahk (uniform). Two days out of the week are focused on throws and ground fighting, both of which require a fair amount of body contact.

 

My instructors are really cool, and one of the assistant instructors is a lesbian. So it’s not like they aren’t okay with people’s lifestyle, but a lot of people have problems with crossing gender lines.  

 

Has anyone dealt with this? When have you told your instructor? What about the class? Has there been any bad reactions?

 

I’m worried that people would start to freak out with the close contact if they knew or could tell. 

Intro and name changes

[jack0falltrades.livejournal.com]

I've lurked here for a while, but I guess it's time to make an introduction for myself...
I'm 21, androgynous, queer, pansexual, and go from feeling like the FTM label completely applies to me to feeling conspicuously out of place and that I don't belong here at all. I've always been a tomboy, I was convinced I was growing a penis when I was about 3, and am now having the persistent desire to get top surgery ( now is one of those times I feel that I belong here).
Yet I read other transmen's life stories sometimes, and feel like I can't relate at all. I know that it's not a cookie-cutter type of identity, but this lack of congruency is a little frustrating.

But here is a subject that has bugged me since I was little. My birth name is Abby, a name that I've always disliked for myself. I've read that it's actually a unisex name, but it screams "FEMININE" to me. I wanted to be named something androgynous: Sam, Chris, Taylor, Aiden... So my question to you is about name changes.
How did you go about choosing a new name for yourself? Has it changed more than once? Did you choose it based on meaning?


Another issue for me now is that on my campus the trans and queer community has literally exploded into visibility (a good thing), and trans and lgb people alike are changing their names left and right. While my name has been eating at me my whole life, I'm afraid that if I do anything about it now it will appear that I'm only following a fad. Others, assuming that I'm outside of the sphere of those changing names, have expressed their criticism of the whole ordeal. I know it's a bad reason to not do anything, but I can't help hesitating.

(no subject)

[elegancewaves.livejournal.com]

Now this probably sounds like a ridiculously stupid question but:

I'm not really in a position right now to begin undergoing full on HRT yet, because there are some really important people in my life that need to get used to the idea first, and I'm granting them that because I'm still young and they ARE supportive of my existance. But I hate the secondary male characteristics I'm still stuck with, so if I took androgen suppressants to achieve a more androgynous appearance, would it require the same steps as full on HRT?

(no subject)

[elusive-dreamer.livejournal.com]

Hello, I am new to this community and have a question to ask.

My best friend has congenital adrenal hyperplasia and was thinking of laser surgery not to long ago to treat the male-pattern hair that grows on her face. She has heard from some people that with congenital adrenal hyperplasia, laser surgery is most likely not going to keep the hair from growing back. As a last attempt for her, I was wondering if anyone here has used laser surgery and if it has worked, or if any other method has kept facial hair from regrowing back.

Thank you for your time; any info is much appreciated.

(no subject)

[cal-davis.livejournal.com]

I just wanted to post and get a little advice if you wouldn't mind.

I am very most likely f2m...very early in the whole process. For the last few months, I've been finding it increasingly difficult to consider myself female, leaning mostly toward male in my concious thought, if that makes any sense.

When I first read about what transgender and f2m were all about, the relief that washed over me, and yes, I've seen that written about, but to me, that's the perfect description on how I felt.

Today, I went out and spent money that I didn't have on a few mens shirts and a cap, aswell as a pair of reading glasses to change the image of my face. It didn't really bother me about what the cashier thought of my purchases...for all she knew, I could have been buying for a friend or family member. But I'm pretty sure she saw me holding them up against myself, but was still pretty friendly.

My question is, when you were this early in your transition, did you go out and buy the mens clothes to make you feel more comfortable in your own body, even though it was the wrong body?

I'd appreciate any feedback on this subject.

Cheers