🚀 go-pugleaf

When I started on hormones I did a complicated pattern with estrogen, 
progesterone and anti-androgens. I started to show changes in a couple of 
weeks. People could see that I looked different, but couldn't quite figure 
out how. Some wondered what I was doing to have such nice skin. A few weeks 
after that I stopped wearing tight t shirts. During this time and for a few 
months afterward I exhibited a lot of adolescent female behavior, since this 
was in effect a second puberty. I enjoyed it at the time, though in 
retrospect it was a little embarrasing. My chest filled out (38A), my hips 
got rounder, my skin got softer, and some receded hair came back. My male 
parts shrunk, which made it much easier to tuck them up out of the way. 
Dressing like an extra from Flashdance was fashionable at the time, and 
suited me well.

A couple of years and one shaved adam's apple later, one morning I got up, 
took one look in the mirror and said "Tina, it's time." I had visited 
England the year before and had lots of contacts from the London TVTS group. 
Mr. P had just retired, but the TVTS folks thought highly of his colleague, 
Mr. D. I made the arrangements, and checked in to Royal Masonic Hospital in 
Ravenscourt Park in the middle of July, 1986. Private patients got a good 
deal: I was in a women's ward from the start. After an eternity on a waiting 
list, NHS patients went to Charing Cross Hospital, and were in men's wards 
prior to their surgery. Ugh. Nothing was very painful, though taking the 
catheter out was a frightening experience. I felt like my insides were 
falling out the first time I stood up, but the urge to have a real shower 
and wash my hair was much too strong after a week in 30 degree Celsius heat. 
My short-term memory was shot to hell for a couple of weeks, which the 
nurses told me was a common side-effect of the anesthetic.

Any updates from English alt.transgendered people?

When I started changing I hoped to have my surgery by my 25th birthday, and 
made it by 3 weeks. What happened after that looked a lot like post-partum 
depression -- after working so hard for so long, what was I to do next? I 
finished my degree, came out as emphatically lesbian, and have messed with 
computers ever since. If anybody asked me what I got for my birthday that 
year, I looked them right in the eye and told them. :-)

One of the funniest parts of this was how I scraped together the money for 
the surgery. I went to my bank, told them how much I wanted to borrow, told 
them what for, and without batting an eyelash they asked if I had a 
co-signer. My mum and dad were pleased to do so, and I consider myself very 
lucky to have their support.

./Tina

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