Hey all, as I’ve been thinking about who I want to be and how I want to transition, I’ve gotten to wondering about people’s transition timelines in general. If it’s something you’re comfortable talking about, how long did it take you from realizing your trans to taking steps to transition? When did you start using different pronouns, when did you come out to people, how long did it take you to know you wanted HRT and then to start it?
I realized I wasn’t cis a few months ago, and have been growing my hair out and experimenting with clothing. I know I want to get permanent facial hair removal, and am interested in HRT but have reservations, and would value hearing others experiences about how long it took them to know what they wanted. I’m a very hesitant and self-doubtful person in general, and I guess just feel a bit lost in how to go about self discovery here.
Editing to say thank you very much all for sharing, seeing how different everyone’s experiences can be is honestly really comforting.
I guess I’ve been having thoughts of “if I was a girl…” or “if I was trans…” for as long as I can remember. Definitely had a few times of “please let me wake up as a girl tomorrow” when I was 12/13 or so, but I got quite good a suppressing that. The “if…” thoughts were fine, of course, since I clearly wasn’t trans or a girl…
Fast forward to about six weeks before my 40th birthday; following quite a few trans women online and starting to question my gender. But since I’m perfectly happy being cis, that’s fine, no problem. I’ll be an Ally.
Two weeks or so pass, start looking at egg_irl. A day or two later, everything comes crashing down and it’s panic time. That lasts a few days and now I know: I’m a trans girl, and I want to transition. Came out to my family, started growing my hair, painting my nails, buying neutral-to-fem clothes etc. Stopped wearing obviously masc-coded stuff pretty much right away (even when going out). Made appointments for laser and HRT consultation.
About six weeks later, research indicates the doctor is probably going to make me wait 6 months to a year for HRT, so I order DIY. That arrives two weeks later (yesterday), and here we are.
Not using new pronouns or name yet, but I feel that might happen fairly soon.