transition in 6 short years

I had srs last December by Dr Bowers and I had my second hair grafting in March. I'm using this blog to contrast what I thought I'd do when I started and what I have done and what is left.

I put off transition until I had a crisis 6 years ago. I knew I was transsexual since the 1970 Newsweek article came out. It hit me like bricks. I'd never cross dressed and I was looking at going to medical school. I felt there was a dicotomy here; medical school or transtition. I had no money and I was married and I wanted a 'normal life'. I had no desire to be the guest at a freak show. I went to medical school

Things went well much of the time. I traveled to Europe and Mexico often and had a share of an airplane. I had hobbies and I covered my internal gender with guy things and even a mustache as I watched my male pattern baldness get worse and my waistline increase. I figured it would get better, but the GID got worse. I reached a crisis of near sucicidal proportions and started transition after a year of low dose hormones.

I backed into transition. First I thought I'd take low dose and this might take the rough edges off of living as a male. I envisioned being divorced and homeless after my practice failed and perhaps doing prostitution on the street. But GID is a power force, I entered the storm and moved into an apartment. The divorce came actually 5 years after the separation.

In those first few months on estrogen and spironlactone I read everything I could fine on transition. I still have a bookshelf full of this and I read every one of them. I was first looking for the answer to one question "Why me?" I also set about making plans. I expect to get electrolysis done for about 10,000 dollars and orchectomy and I was not sure about anything else other than the cost of hormones, lab and a phychiologist.

When I started seeing a psychiologist 6 months into transition I was not sure that I needed one but I had enough anxiety about what I was doing to see one anyway. And I considered that if I were to transition, seeing one sooner rather than later would be a good idea.

Expected cost of transition at that point: At tops $20,000 and 2 years.

I bought clothes and DIY hormones and dressed at home and wore male clothes at work. I did let my hair grow and I got ear rings. With studded ones and 25% of the hair off my face word spread that I was transsexual. It was all over my little town. I had planned to go full time 2 years later. After word spread I went full time a month later. The cat was out of the bag and there was no point in being uncomfortable in male clothes. In the first place they never fit. I'm 5' 6" and was one of those kids 120 lbs graduating from high school. As everyone got bigger the men's sizes got hugh.

During this year of being out I logged onto the facial feminzing surgery site and finally decided that I was not passing as well as I thought and that how I look is critical to succeeding in my work. I scheduled facial surgery and had it done the next winter when business is always slow. I also decided to get 'south pole' electrolysis and to have surgery all done in the USA. This run my cost up some more. Then I added breast augmentation and abdominal liposuction with fat grafts to the buttocks. Last winter (2008) I had srs done in Colorado.

My total cost so far is 110,000 dollars. I expect to spend another 10K on additional hair grafts and I still need a minor touch up to my waist and face lift.

My conclusion: Either I'm not good at cost estimates (usually I am good at it) or else that transition reprograms the computer and moves the goal posts in such a way that it is very hard to estimate what will be needed or desired or how much it will cost. I think the old joke about the cost of living is "whatever you have".

If I could get my chromosome changed I probably would have it done. However, at 58 years old I'll pass on the uterus transplant!